Goals for an Aspiring Writer: "Required Reading"

Some books that have stuck in my brainpan since I read them:

Skellig by David Almond
I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan
The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard

All of the others I would have mentioned have already been suggested.

Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card -- Naturally, this only works if you focus on story and not on the man behind the book.

Empire from the Ashes by David Weber -- This is a collection of one of his stronger trilogies. Many fans are begging him to return to this universe. Even asked at the National Book festival two years ago... Got no answer.

Blade Dancer by S L Viehl -- This is a personal favorite. It's a stand alone from her Star Doc series, but has some very well built characters.

I admit, I'd throw out The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, but suppose those are already read and not necessary.

If you're interested in reading Mark Twain shorts, I highly recommend his collection: The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg & Other Stories. It has Twain at his snarky best in the eponymous tale. And one more classic: Kim, by Rudyard Kipling. I've enjoyed everything I've read by him, but most people seem to like that one if they like Kipling at all. Just in case you don't already know, Kipling is famous for The Jungle Books and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, but Kim is more of an adult book, even though the protag starts as a child.

The library is your friend.

CBJason said:

Can you get Kindle books from the library? (I'm asking for a Kindle for Christmas to assist with my reading efforts?)

I guess it would depend on the library. Will check it out and share here once I find out...

Click to expand...

See if your library subscribes to Overdrive and/or CloudLibrary.

And note that a lot of public domain books are free for the Kindle.

And Amazon's Prime Reading may work for you too.