JobieHughes.com > About Jobie

Reading List

Since Jobie could easily list over a hundred of his favorite novels here, he tried including only those that, in one way or another, have had the most impact on his own development as a writer. By no means is this list complete. In an attempt to add order to chaos, he positioned his most revered titles at the top. The rest of the books, however, fell into place in no discernible pattern.

Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms The Sun Also Rises For Whom the Bell Tolls The Old Man and the Sea A Moveable Feast In Our Time The Garden of Eden	Cormac McCarthy The Road No Country for Old Men Suttree Blood Meridian All the Pretty Horses The Crossing Cities of the Plain Child of God	Richard Russo The Risk Pool Nobody's Fool Straight Man Empire Falls Bridge of Sighs That Old Cape Magic Elsewhere: A Memoir
Frederick Exley A Fan's Notes Pages from a Cold Island Last Notes from Home	F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby Tender is the Night	Jack Kerouac On the Road The Dharma Bums Big Sur
John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath Of Mice and Men East of Eden Cannery Row Travels with Charley in Search of America The Winter of Our Discontent	John Irving The World According to Garp The Hotel New Hampshire The Water Method Man A Son of the Circus Last Night in Twisted River My Movie Year The Imaginary Girlfriend	Charles Bukowski Women Factotum Hollywood Ham on Rye Post Office
William Gay Twilight Provinces of Night	Jonathan Franzen The Corrections Freedom	John Fante Ask the Dust The Brotherhood of the Grape
Vladamir Nabokov Lolita	William Kennedy Ironweed	D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterly's Lover
J. M. Coetzee Disgrace	Philip Roth Portnoy's Complaint	Susanna Clarke Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Graham Greene The Quiet American	Kingsley Amis Lucky Jim	Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being

For aspiring writers still learning craft, Hughes recommends the following books:

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
On Writing by Stephen King
Reading like a Writer by Francine Prose
The First Five Pages… by Noah Lukeman

For writers who've finished a book and are unsure of the next step, check out this guide:

How to Write a Great Query Letter by Noah Lukeman
Available as a free PDF download at Noah Lukeman's website, found HERE!

Every book here comes highly recommended, but remember, this list is far from comprehensive. Jobie recommends finding authors you admire (especially those who inspire you) and then reading their entire canon of work. If you can, start with their first published novel and go from there, reading each book in the order in which it was written. If you take your time and pay attention, you'll eventually discern the small and subtle ways in which each writer slowly developed (and often improved) his or her craft over the course of a long career (or even a short one).

“At Dawn is the brave, rare sort of novel that finds extraordinary meaning in ordinary lives. The characters are beautifully complex, honorable and compassionate, and yet, like so many of us, deeply flawed and emotionally scarred. The writing is clean and sharp and vivid, and in reading Jobie Hughes I’m reminded of the tremendous power of simple honesty in storytelling. This is a fine book by a fine writer.”

James Brown
Author of The Los Angeles Diaries and This River

“Hughes' debut novel, At Dawn, follows a former All-American wrestler, and is there any better metaphor for contemporary American life? We're all wrestling, tussling with the economy, no jobs, doing the best we can. Hughes doesn't flinch from the tough existential questions. He embraces them.”

Joshua Mohr
Author of Damascus

“Hughes combines coming-of-age tale, portrait of the artist as a young man, and father-son saga in a well-crafted novel...[with] pathos, wit, and insight into the relationships that define our lives.”

Publishers Weekly
Review

Jobie Hughes Writer

Reading List