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Cassandra Clare is the author of the Eldest Curses series, the Dark Artifices trilogy, the Mortal Instruments series and the Infernal Devices trilogy. She is the coauthor of The Bane Chronicles with Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson; Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy with Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson and Robin Wasserman; and Ghosts of the Shadow Market with Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link and Robin Wasserman. Her books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, have been translated into more than 35 languages and made into a feature film and TV show. Clare lives in western Massachusetts. Her new book, Chain of Gold (Book 1 of The Last Hours), was just published by McElderry Books/S&S.
On your nightstand now:
The Weird Tales of Tanith Lee by Tanith Lee. She has always been one of my favorite writers. While I was growing up, I collected all her books. She was also a prolific writer of short stories. Since they were published in the days before the Internet, they weren't always so easy to find. Now, posthumously, they are being reissued. This book is a collection of all the short stores that she ever published in Weird Tales magazine.
My mom lent me a book called Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly. It's the story of three women whose lives intersect at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. It's a brutal story, but as someone who always searches for meaning in what happened to my family in the Holocaust, it feels necessary.
I also just started The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin, which has a fascinating historical setting in 1836 Istanbul.
Favorite book when you were a child:
It would be a tie between The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper and The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. Both of them are epic fantasies. The Dark Is Rising takes place in our world--albeit a version full of hidden magic--while The Chronicles of Prydain take place in the magical, invented land of Prydain. These books cemented my love for fantasy!
Your top five authors:
Jane Austen taught me about writing humor and realistic characters. Dorothy L. Sayers drove my love for clever, twisty mystery. The Sherlock Holmes books by Arthur Conan Doyle taught me to adore troubled main characters with dark secrets. Kazuo Ishiguro taught me that the most delicate observations are often the most true and striking. Gabriel García Márquez taught me that being human is magical.
Book you've faked reading:
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls because I absolutely refuse to read books where bad things happen to animals, especially dogs.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. It's twisty, it's turny, it's fantastic. It's my answer to people who say children's books are too simplistic.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I bought The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert for the cover, and then I was glad I did because it turned out to be terrific!
Book you hid from your parents:
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. It's an incredibly disturbing book, but I think my parents would have taken it away from me because it is also a terribly written book. When I was 11, I found it fascinating!
Book that changed your life:
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny taught me that you can mash up different genres and come up with something completely new, like the way he mashed up noir detective fiction and high fantasy.
Favorite line from a book:
"Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to." --Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Five books you'll never part with:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (all 12!), The Wandering Unicorn by Manuel Mujica Láinez, Kindred by Octavia Butler.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Princess Bride by William Goldman. It's an exceptionally clever and entertaining read--both extremely funny and also terrifying in places. I wish I could read it again for the first time and be amazed by its originality and beauty.