6 Great Novels by Young Authors

It turns out college students aren't just going to keggers, doing bong rips, and hooking up. Occasionally they find time to write an all-time classic novel in between going to keggers, doing bong rips, and hooking up. In honor of National Novel Writing Month, USA Today published a list of 10 novels from college-age writers that everyone should read at some point in their life. Here are six of them:

• A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle: He kickstarted his career in science fiction and fantasy when he wrote this novel—which the New York Times called "sparkling"—at 19.
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt: She wrote this college campus murder mystery while still attending college before going on to become a Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestseller.
• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: While many of us had to read The Great Gatsby in high school, Fitzgerald started work on this first novel while in college. It would later help him win back his future wife, Zelda.
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: She started the first draft of her enduring novel at 19 years old, though it wouldn't be published for another 16 years.
• The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace: Written as part of his undergraduate theses, this novel earned him a Whiting Writers' Award for promising young writers.
• Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini: He started working on the first book in this fantasy series—Eragon—fresh out of high school. It was published when he was just 19.

Read the full list here. (More novel stories.)