Great Reading

Writegal · Dec 18, 2005

I want to make a list of 100 great novels to read in 2006.

I think it's time to stop reading the writing instruction books I've been studying for years, and to do only two things to improve my literary fortune.

Read great stories.

Write every day.

Please, give me your nominations for best novels (especially those that break the rules).

I'd like to contribute:

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Little Big Man - Thomas Berger
The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time - Mark Haddon

Cheers!

scarletpeaches · Dec 18, 2005

The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
Through A Glass Darkly, Karleen Koen

I have a list of about thirty favourite books I send to people who ask for recommendations. I add about one a year, although I read more than one fantastic book a year - I just tend to add my favourite read.

Avalon · Dec 18, 2005

You're going to read 100 novels in 2006? WOW! That's a lot of reading, considering that some of the great ones are enormous.

I guess three of the best books I've read in the last couple of years, considering that I read an awful lot in my genre, are the following (these are books that taught me something big about writing):

American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin (though it pains me to say it)

Also, because I can't stop my fingers, the entire Miles Vorkosigan series.

JA Konrath · Dec 18, 2005

Reading is great. And you can learn a lot from classics.

But a lot of things published in the past, even award-winning things, wouldn't get published today.

If you want to get published, read new books by new authors. That will show you what is currently being bought.

New books by previously published authors aren't a good indicator---the authors might be writing in the same style as when first published, years ago, which may no longer be relevant in today's market to anyone other than that author.
If you want to read to learn, by all means read the greats. But also include some contemporary newbies.

Jamesaritchie · Dec 18, 2005

Writegal said:
I want to make a list of 100 great novels to read in 2006.

I think it's time to stop reading the writing instruction books I've been studying for years, and to do only two things to improve my literary fortune.

Read great stories.

Write every day.

Please, give me your nominations for best novels (especially those that break the rules).

I'd like to contribute:

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Little Big Man - Thomas Berger
The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time - Mark Haddon

Cheers!

You might look through this list: http://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/index.html

I've read someting over half the novels on the list, and there are so many wonderful novels here that I hate to nominate any specific ones. My goal is to read everything on this site. Just tons of wonderful reading.

blacbird · Dec 18, 2005

I'm glad to see somebody else touting Little Big Man (the novel from which the famous movie with Dustin Hoffman was made); truly an excellent piece of fiction.

My additions:

The Ox-Bow Incident, by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
The Man Who Laughs, by Victor Hugo
Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain

caw.

scarletpeaches · Dec 18, 2005

100 novels in a year? That's nothing. I average about 150. Of all sorts.

scribbler1382 · Dec 18, 2005

scarletpeaches said:
100 novels in a year? That's nothing. I average about 150. Of all sorts.

Cripes! If I'm lucky I get 50 in per year. Anymore than that and I wouldn't get out of them what I do now. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking I should slow down and try to make more out of what I read. I'm too old to race.

AdamH · Dec 18, 2005

These are my three favourites from last year that I read:

The Life of Pi - Yann Martel
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Spin - Robert Charles Wilson

(If you don't mind, writegal, I'll borrow a couple suggestions for me to read next year.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time is a great choice, BTW. Would've been in my top three if it weren't already suggested.)

kathompson · Dec 18, 2005

Forever by Pete Hamill

DamaNegra · Dec 18, 2005

They say 'Memorias de mis putas tristes' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is also very good. I'd post the title in english but I don't know the exact translation so I don't want to be misleading.

KTC · Dec 19, 2005

My Top 10. (Keep in mind that my top 10 changes daily!)

1. Franny & Zooey (JD SALINGER)
2. Too Loud a Solitude (BOHUMIL HRABAL)
3. The Bell Jar (SYLVIA PLATH)
4. Wonder Boys (MICHAEL CHABON)
5. Of Mice And Men (JOHN STEINBECK)
6. Great Expectations (CHARLES DICKENS)
7. Bartleby, the Scrivener (HERMAN MELVILLE)
8. Old School (TOBIAS WOLFF)
9. Dharma Bums (JACK KEROUAC)
10. The Great Gatsby (F. SCOTT FITZGERALD)

danielmc · Dec 19, 2005

I'm not so sure about the advice above pertaining to reading only new novels by new authors. Bit blinkered. Whats wrong with reading for pleasure as well as studying the craft? Write what's comfortable, not whats in fashion.Read interviews with modern authors, and they will, en masse, point you to the classics in as far as influence, style, inspiration.

Personally i like to alternate between modern and classic, hence the variation in time periods! This is the best of what i've read in 2005 from the top of my head as i sit in the office on my lunch break).

1. Hemingway, all of it.
2. Dosotoyevsky, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot. (working through his other works methodically!)
3. Easton Ellis, American Psycho (IMHO, The greatest novel of the modern era)
4. Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.
5. Pahlaniuk, everything.
6. Heller, Catch 22.
7. Candide, Voltaire.
8. Welsh, Porno, Trainspotting.
9. Herodotus, Histories (Havent finished it but its great to dive into now and then)
10. Ondaatje, The English Patient.

As for the rest of my life, well the first book that got me as a nipper was Papillion by Henri Charriere, then Wuthering Heights and Tess of the Durbevilles as a teenager, and, doffing my cap to the lover of all things modern, the first 500 pages of The Stand are invaluable for any wannabve writer. Setting, atmosphere, pace, character, it does everything to perfection.

henriette · Dec 19, 2005

ooo i second "the bell jar". i read it only last summer as a full fledged adult, not as a brooding teen, and found it transcendental. plath's skill at painting a perfect picture with few words is astounding.

i'd also recommend "sentimental education" by gustave flaubert. the pacing, plot, POV etc. is crafted so carefully and beautifully. his masterpiece "madame bovary" is also one of my faves, but "sentimental education" is less emotional and therefore it is easier to pick out the technical things while reading it.

ChaosTitan · Dec 19, 2005

My recommendations are pretty varied, but they all have something in common: unforgettable authorial voices.

"Watership Down," Richard Adams -- Epic, original storytelling. Great characters, beautifully rendered descriptions of rural England. Always the first novel I recommend when someone asks for a good book to read.
"The Story Girl/The Golden Road," LM Montgomery -- While most fans of LM will recommend the Anne series first, I fell in love with these companion novels. Again, lovely atmosphere and lots of humor.

"The Outsiders," SE Hinton -- One of the best examples of first-person narration (IMO), the author creates a realistic world and an unforgettable narrative voice.

"Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister," Gregory Maguire -- Brilliant retelling of a classic fairy tale (and "Wicked" is high on my list of next-to-read).

"The Neverending Story," Michael Ende -- Forget what you saw in the movie. The book is ten times more layered. I wish there were more fantasy novels like this one.

"LA Confidential," James Ellroy -- This novel began Ellroy's signature, sparse writing style (I hear because he had to cut several thousand words from the already plus-sized manuscript), but that doesn't detract. It only adds to the mood of the novel, and it keeps such a fat tome (that spans eight years) from dragging. Another fine example (along with "The Stand") of how to juggle more than a hundred characters, without confusing the reader.

-Kelly

Jamesaritchie · Dec 19, 2005

danielmc said:
I'm not so sure about the advice above pertaining to reading only new novels by new authors. Bit blinkered. Whats wrong with reading for pleasure as well as studying the craft? Write what's comfortable, not whats in fashion.Read interviews with modern authors, and they will, en masse, point you to the classics in as far as influence, style, inspiration.

.

Yes, I think reading the classics is invaluable. There's no way of knowing whether or not those novels would still get published today, but it doesn't matter. That isn't the point. Those writers would certainly still get published today. The style or some of them might have to be updated, but the story and characters and insights they wrote about, and how they spoke about the human condition, are just as meaningful to writers today as they ever were.

It's good to read what's currently selling so you know what sort of style today's publishers and readers want, but where story, character, etc., are concerned, the classics are wonderful teachers.

And most of the writers who make the bestseller list today have read many of them.

I don't think it's possible to be the best writer you can be without reading at least a decent assortment of classic novels.

At the very least, a writer should read all the classics within the genre he wants to write in. And the more and wider you read, the better you become as a writer.

jules · Dec 19, 2005

In case you're still short of suggestions, try this list of the top 100 novels as voted for by BBC TV viewers. It includes a fairly even mix of classics and modern novels.

aka eraser · Dec 19, 2005

Little, Big - John Crowley
The Ginger Man and The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B - J.P. Donleavy
The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski

KelseyF · Dec 19, 2005

If you haven't already...

My Sister's Keeper by Jodie Picoult.

And there is a book being published in March 2006 called The Madonnas of Leningrad. I'm reading the advanced reader's copy right now and it's fantastic. So once that comes around, I'm highly recommending it to everyone.

pepperlandgirl · Dec 19, 2005

Lonesome Dove and Anything for Billy by Larry McMurty.

WriterInChains · Dec 20, 2005

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
Anything by Chuck Palahniuk or Craig Clevenger

Writegal · Dec 20, 2005

Thanks everyone, for your comments and great book suggestions! And, of course, feel free to make your own list from the comments here.

Keep them coming, I'm learning a lot.

I'm not interested in whether they are 'classics' or new, I'm interested in good storytelling skills--something that stuck with you (because a lot of bestsellers these days don't have an aftertaste at all, for me).

Cheers!

scarletpeaches · Dec 21, 2005

Okay, you asked for it - here's the list I email to people when they say, "You're a bookworm, Nichola; can you recommend anything?"

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

The Twits - Roald Dahl

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

Child of the Phoenix - Barbara Erskine

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

White Oleander - Janet Fitch

Cross Stitch - Diana Gabaldon

The Forsyte Saga Volume 1 (The Man of Property, In Chancery, To Let) - John Galsworthy

The End of the Affair - Graham Greene

Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris

Through a Glass Darkly - Karleen Koen

I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb

She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough

Peyton Place - Grace Metalious

Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce

Interview With the Vampire - Ann Rice

The Stranger Beside Me - Anne Rule

The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

Tully - Paullina Simons

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

Knowledge of Angels - Jill Paton Walsh

A Taste of Blood Wine - Freda Warrington

Forever Amber - Kathleen Winsor

Jamesaritchie · Dec 21, 2005

Books

scarletpeaches said:
Okay, you asked for it - here's the list I email to people when they say, "You're a bookworm, Nichola; can you recommend anything?"

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Twits - Roald Dahl
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Child of the Phoenix - Barbara Erskine
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
White Oleander - Janet Fitch
Cross Stitch - Diana Gabaldon
The Forsyte Saga Volume 1 (The Man of Property, In Chancery, To Let) - John Galsworthy
The End of the Affair - Graham Greene
Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris
Through a Glass Darkly - Karleen Koen
I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb
She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough
Peyton Place - Grace Metalious
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce
Interview With the Vampire - Ann Rice
The Stranger Beside Me - Anne Rule
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Tully - Paullina Simons
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Knowledge of Angels - Jill Paton Walsh
A Taste of Blood Wine - Freda Warrington

Forever Amber - Kathleen Winsor

Now that is a list of quality reading.

loquax · Dec 21, 2005

I must say, "The Twits" is a FINE choice indeed.

Great Reading

Writegal

scarletpeaches

Avalon

Linda J. Daly

JA Konrath

Jamesaritchie

blacbird

scarletpeaches

scribbler1382

Write For You, Edit For The Reader

AdamH

Pumped Up Kicks

kathompson

DamaNegra

Mexican on the loose!

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

danielmc

henriette

ChaosTitan

Around

Jamesaritchie

jules

Bored fanatic

aka eraser

Fish Whisperer

KelseyF

pepperlandgirl

American Aquarium Drinker

WriterInChains

Feed my eyes

Writegal

scarletpeaches

Jamesaritchie

loquax

I verb nouns adverbly