Guest Post—My New Favorite Author

By guest blogger Elisabeth Puga (my middle daughter, who wrote for a non-profit for some time before the demands of raising five kids took all her time.)

When my book-loving friend said that he was rereading Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl, I knew this youngish American author, N.D. Wilson, was worth a try. According to ndwilson.com, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl is “a visual, poetic exploration of the narrative nature of the world and the personality of the Poet behind it all.” I find Wilson’s poetic style and his ability to paint the common as uncommon are what I enjoy most about his writing. Here’s a quote from the book:

“Do not resent your place in the story. Do not imagine yourself elsewhere. Do not close your eyes and picture a world without thorns, without shadows, without hawks. Change this world. Use your body like a tool meant to be used up, discarded, and replaced. Better every life you touch. We will reach the final chapter. When we have eyes that can stare into the sun, eyes that only squint for the Shenikah, then we will see laughing children pulling cobras by their tails, and hawks and rabbits playing tag.”

― N.D. Wilson, Notes From The Tilt-A- Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World

In addition to apologetics, Wilson also writes young-adult fiction, children’s literature (he is a father of five), screenplays, short fiction, and prose. Wilson’s fiction is “characterized by its creative allusions to classic literature” according to Wikipedia, including the King Arthur stories, fairy tales from Robert Kirk and Sir Walter Scott, Treasure Island, The Odyssey, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, King Solomon’s Mines, and Beowulf.

Since I typically read multiple books at once, I was absorbing his non-fiction and fiction, the Ashtown Burials series, and 100 Cupboards trilogy simultaneously. It was intriguing to see the same themes, such as the purpose of life and idea of beauty, appear in both works but using vastly different approaches.

I’m curious if you have ever read works by an author in different genres. Who was that author, and was your reading experience richer because of it?