If On A Winter's Night A Traveler

A reader begins a book only to discover that the same sixteen pages are printed over and over—so begins a journey across the beginning of novels and through continents. This is a book that breaks rules and taught me how to read it page by page—and I love that feeling.

Though first published in 1979, Calvino’s novel is remarkably timely with respect to the impact of data science and artificial intelligence on literature, as well as the “author’s position with regard to Trends of Contemporary Thought and Problems That Demand a Solution.”

Some might not consider this detective fiction, but… show more.

This was the first Calvino book I read, and I fell fully in love with his complex, humorous, and frankly bizarre style of storytelling. I loved the way he created character and atmosphere and how books served at the heart of the plot. That I had a hard time keeping up with some of the intricacies of the overlapping storylines only added to its appeal.

You know why this maddening, captivating book is on this list. Where else would you find it? Where could your chapter-by-fragmentary-chapter search have brought you but to this repository of titles?

Perhaps you will discover a deeper meaning waiting for you in these linked disconnections. You offer Ludmilla a glass of wine. The story awaits.

This book is a gift to anyone with writer’s block.

It’s a book full of first chapters and leaves you constantly thinking, “what happens next?!” which is the perfect prompt to make you write stories of your own. Plus, who wants to be a lonely traveler on a winter’s night?

So chilly and dark out. Stay in bed.

After experiencing hypnotherapy, I had the idea of employing a similar technique in my novel; in other words of addressing the reader directly and including them in the narrative (e.g. ‘You fly up into the air…’). It reminded me of choose-your-own-adventure books I enjoyed as a kid. I then wondered whether other authors had used a similar technique, which is how I discovered Italo Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller. It’s twisty, it’s turny, it’s mischievous, and unique.