Making up a list of books

[Video Drone]

I need to collect about 30 books to load into my Pocket PC, so I'm looking for titles. I'm not really sure what to read, so I would like some recommendations, anything you think is a good book, except I have some filters:

No "technical" literature, e.g., NLP (Freud) or The Art of War and such;
no Russian authors, I had enough. But I am interested in any Spanish authors anyone knows;
nothing highly wordy, that is, Charles Dickens, or Lord of the Rings. The level of Jack London's The Sea Wolf is just fine;
no Stephen King.

Currently on my list:

Cat's Craddle by Kurt Vonnegut, wanted to read that long time ago;
Eragon series, I have no idea what that is but it seems to be really popular;
Naked Lunch by... what that guy's name was? Ah, yes, William Burrough. I wanted to see the movie, and people told me I need to read the book first;
Something by Jack Ketchum, depends on what will I be able to find;

Yeah, that's it, I think... so if you have stuff to recommend... anything, I'll take it.

[Derringer]

hope this link works: http://www.literarycritic.com/bloom.htm

Joseph Heller: Catch 22
Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin
J.D Salinger: The Catcher in the Ryeand
John Steinback: Of Mice and Men, and Cannery Row

[Dori]

Quo Vadis by Henryk Siekiewicz (won the Nobel Prize in 1905 I think).
Candide by Voltaire.
Imperium by Robert Harris.

[Video Drone]

hope this link works: http://www.literarycritic.com/bloom.htm

Joseph Heller: Catch 22
Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin
J.D Salinger: The Catcher in the Ryeand
John Steinback: Of Mice and Men, and Cannery Row
No links, no links. Especially critics. I hate critics. I want my list to be random, not just great classic works, I could find that myself...

Yeah, I think I'll take Catch-22. I keep hearing of it on this forum, and I have never heard of it before, I guess our school doesn't like it.

Blind Assassin looks interesting, might add that.

Catcher and Mice and Men - read those, school assigned.
Quo Vadis by Henryk Siekiewicz (won the Nobel Prize in 1905 I think).
Candide by Voltaire.
Imperium by Robert Harris.
I'll have trouble finding Quo Vadis, I'm afraid, that phrase refers to so many things. :(
EDIT: nope, it's there...

Candide... sounds like a novel about internal relations (not sure how to say this in English), I don't like those much. :crash:

Imperium sounds great though, I'd love to read about Rome.

I'm judging by Wikipedia because I need to have some idea what direction the book is going, so if I misread something, tell me...

Thanks, guys.

[the silent x]

robin mckinley - Blue Sword (also read The hero and the Crown.)
the dark is rising series
clive cussler - all books with dirk pitt are good, although it really is a book fo r the guys out there
michael crichton - all of his books are phenomenal
brian Jacues - (if you are looking for a more lower reading level)
C.S. lewis - (books are phenomenal)

[motherhubbard]

I just finished Breakfast at Tiffany’s , House of Flowers, a Diamond Guitar, and A Christmas Memory all by Truman Capote. I thought they were wonderful reads. I would especially recommend Tiffany’s and Christmas Memory (I cried). My eyes and ears were just delighted at his writing - it was an absolute pleasure and I’m going to the library Friday to get more.

[Video Drone]

robin mckinley - Blue Sword (also read The hero and the Crown.)
the dark is rising series
clive cussler - all books with dirk pitt are good, although it really is a book fo r the guys out there
michael crichton - all of his books are phenomenal
brian Jacues - (if you are looking for a more lower reading level)
C.S. lewis - (books are phenomenal)
Blue Sword could work, though I'm really picky on fantasy.
The Dark is Rising seems to be high fantasy... probably not.
I am not sure what you mean by books for guys, but what I read about them it seems I may like them as well, I actually like that stuff.
I read Crichton before and I don't think he is my thing, and too much of his works are made into movies, most of which I have seen.
Speaking of Lewis, I tried to read Chronicles of Narnia and I found them too pompous combined with too childish and too epic.


I just finished Breakfast at Tiffany’s...It seems to be romance kind of thing, I'm really not on good terms with that, I think I won't read through this. Perhaps I'm just not the right age yet.

Again, thanks, everyone, and please don't take anything too personally - we all have different tastes on books. :)

[crisaor]

On spanish authors, you can try some of these:

Fictions, by Jorge Luis Borges
The Aleph, by Jorge Luis Borges
The Book of Sand, by Jorge Luis Borges
Diary of the War of the Pig, by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Fantastic Stories, by Adolfo Bioy Casares
The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Abel Sánchez, by Miguel de Unamuno
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel García Márquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez

[aabbcc]

M. Selimović - The Death and the Dervish
M. Yourcenar - Memoirs of Hadrian
S. Rushdie - The Satanic Verses (if nothing else, for the controversy over it :D)

I am not very into Spanish literature, but I adored P. Calderon de la Barca's Life is a dream.

[motherhubbard]

[QUOTE=Video Drone;414823]
It seems to be romance kind of thing, I'm really not on good terms with that, I think I won't read through this. Perhaps I'm just not the right age yet.

QUOTE]

I thought it might be a romance, but it wasn't. I don't know what it was, really. Mostly I loved the writing. I think Capote could write about a dog doing his business and I would enjoy reading it.

[manolia]

Do you like reading funny stuff? If yes i'd recommend Douglas Adams "The hitchiker guide to the galaxy" or Pratchett's "Men at arms" or "Guards guards" or "The colour of magic tha light fantastic".

[toni]

Smoke and Mirrors - Neil Gaiman
Stardust - Neil Gaiman

[Scharphedin2]

I'll send you one recommendation... I enjoyed reading this thread, but I actually have no idea how you would go about loading books into your PC... Are you just storing a list of titles? Or, are you talking about the actual texts? And, if the latter, are you actually reading the books on a "pocket PC?"

In any case, Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind is a very entertaining and good book set in Barcelona during Franco's regime back in the '30s. It is a story that is centered around the idea of a "cemetery of forgotten books"! The protagonist goes there with his father in the first chapter of the book, and is allowed to take one book away with him. The book he selects has a very peculiar story, which is then the topic of much of the rest of the novel. And, also, strange things begin to happen in the life of the boy...

I picked up the book originally because I fell in love with the title, the idea of the cemetery of forgotten books which was explained in the caption on the back, and then the hardbound edition was designed to look like a very old "forgotten book," and is illustrated with beautiful full page b&w photograps depicting various street scenes and architecture from Barcelona. Later on I discovered that the book was something of a big bestseller, so I suppose a lot of other people enjoyed the book as much as me.

[Video Drone]

I'm mostly storing titles... ever heard of eBooks? Some things I can get in .txt some things I can't (copyrighted and all, but I don't even take that with old books). I just look for the .txt's. You can dig them up in various places. Plain text, nothing else, that is the only thing I can load into a Pocket PC with my reading program. Then, yeah, I read them on there. Best way to read and they don't take up space and you can pretty much find anything that's out there. I would prefer to have the real books but that is so expensive and our family is always moving from place to place we just don't know where to store them all.

To crisaor and Anastasija - a lot of those authors are actually Argentinian or even Colombian, not Spanish...? I'll look into them, tho.

[Dori]

I'll have trouble finding Quo Vadis, I'm afraid, that phrase refers to so many things. :(
EDIT: nope, it's there...

Candide... sounds like a novel about internal relations (not sure how to say this in English), I don't like those much. :crash:

Imperium sounds great though, I'd love to read about Rome.

I'm judging by Wikipedia because I need to have some idea what direction the book is going, so if I misread something, tell me...

Thanks, guys.

Quo Vadis is a powerful historical novel set in Rome. The characters in Quo Vadis speak using thy, thou, dost, etc. I find this particularly unique among novels set in Rome.

In short, Imperium was excellent.

Candide is quite short and an exquisite read. But if you're not up to it, don't think that I'm forcing it onto you. Essentially, it's a satire ridiculing Leibniz's philosophy that we 'live in the best of all possible worlds."

[crisaor]

To crisaor and Anastasija - a lot of those authors are actually Argentinian or even Colombian, not Spanish...? I'll look into them, tho.
Sorry about that, I figured you just meant literature originally written in spanish, not precisely authors born in Spain.

Let me know what you think if you read any of those.

[Video Drone]

Well, I'll collect a list of books that I intend to read if I can find them:

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
Cat's Craddle by Kurt Vonnegut
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Off Season by Jack Ketchum (sceptical, I read that a lot of his stuff is more disgusting than anything else, but I'll see)

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Dastak Nah Do / Don't knock by Altaf Fatimah (dunno what this is, but Pensive mentioned it way too many times, though I probably wouldn't find this in English because it's Urdu)
White Noise by Don DeLillo
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller [currently reading]
Quo Vadis by Henryk Siekiewicz
Candide by Voltaire
Imperium by Robert Harris
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Blue Sword / The hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (skeptical... but I need some fantasy)
The Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler (the first book in the series, so I'll see if this kind of thing is my thing)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (I'll give this one a chance)
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
The Book of Sand by Jorge Luis Borges
Abel Sánchez by Miguel de Unamuno (I took one book for a few of the authors there, crisaor)
The Death and the Dervish by M. Selimović (the others seemed like something I don't want to read at the moment)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (I really wanted to read this long time ago, so thanks for reminding me, manolia)
Stardust by Neil Gaiman (the other is a short story collection so I would rather not touch it yet)
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (sounded pretty interesting, and set in Spain, too)
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

Considering that I'll probably not find half of these... let alone get them all in English... The list is rather small so far. Thanks to everyone who gave me guidelines on what to look for.

[Stieg]

Off Season was definitely a shocker back in the day. Does have gratuitious violence no worse than say the bloodier gorier er Barker. I loved it because through it all Jack Ketchum pulls off some great suspense and a strong finish despite the lurid subject manner.

However, The Girl Next Door, The Lost, and the short story collection Peaceable Kingdom might be more advisable. TGND is the most heart rendering depictions of abuse ever written, WOW, powerful novel. The Lost is great novel taking place during the Sixties involving an unsolved double homocide of two young girls and a cop whom can't rest til he convicts the young drug-dealing punk and his two underlings. Peaceable Kingdom displays Ketchum fantastic writing range in the short story format.

[Stieg]

Video Drone,

From Jack Ketchum's homepage,

The Girl Next Door Chapter 1 (http://jackketchum.net/girlnextdoor.html)

(this piece already choked me up)

The Lost Chapter 1 (http://jackketchum.net/lost.html)

Red Chapter 1 (http://jackketchum.net/red.html)

Yes, I love Ketchum but also realize he isn't for everyone.

[Video Drone]

While I don't mind violence or even worse things I still don't like it when it's the center of the book as though the author writes all the bad stuff just because he sells that not because he needs it according to the story... So if it is about maniac serial killers it is most definitely not my thing. I need a strong plot and sense in a book. Describing disgusting things is not what I'm looking for here. Do his books have sense and a point and are they centered around something else rather than violence and survival and whatever?

I'll see those excerpts but they won't help if that is what I think it is.

[Stieg]

Well Jack Ketchum writes viseral psychological thrillers that can be consider horror too. One person tongue-firmly-in-cheek once referred to him as The Last Writer On The Left a reference to Wes Craven's 70s shocker The Last House On The Left.

But that doesn't particularly give him any justice, really skewers his literary output and decidedly pidgeon holes him.

Yes, there is a bigger design and scheme working in his books.

The Girl Next Door deals with a very taboo subject and that is teenage rape and sexual abuse with tragic consequences. Inspired by a true crime.

Off Season is a dark yet quite over-the-top morality play about the disenfranchised and hungry mouths. Was once condemned for it's "pornographic violence".

The Lost is a compelling character study, the antagonist has every qualities that makes him absolutely repulsive and irredeemable yet under Ketchum's pen he is also quite moving and sympathetic. Complex. This novel was also inspired by a true crime.

Red is an indictment on the animal abuse epidemic in America. The book explores the legal side of this issue through the protagonist's pursuit for justice for the killing of his animal companion.

Peaceable Kingdom what can I say, Ketchum kicks proverbial major you know what in short story lit!

[Video Drone]

Eh, problem is, I can't find him anywhere. I keep getting subtitles of movies made after him. And I don't think he would be in a public library, would he?

[Stieg]

Eh, problem is, I can't find him anywhere. I keep getting subtitles of movies made after him. And I don't think he would be in a public library, would he?

I once managed to find a battered copy of his James M Cain homage thriller Hide and Seek at the local library a couple of ice ages ago. He is difficult to find because of his work is published by independent press with low runs.

Leisure Horror is currently offering six mmpb titles between $6.99-7.99, those being The Girl Next Door, Peaceable Kingdom, The Lost, Red, Off Season, and the weaker sequel Offspring. The seventh title, She Wakes (the author only dip into the supernatural besides short stories set in Greece), sadly went out-of-print quite recently.

As far as the remainder of this year, Leisure aren't planning on putting any more Ketchum titles in mmpb print. Hopefully, 2008 will hold more surprises for Ketchum readers.

www.dorchesterpub.com

[aeroport]

It's the first time in quite a while that I've read contemporary fiction, but I've encountered some pretty decent stuff this summer:
When She Was Good and Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (and also his short novel Goodbye, Columbus) are all pretty good. Portnoy is chock-full of explicit sexual matter, but really good all the same. When She Was Good has by far the most suspense to it, and probably the most interesting subject (essentially the encroaching madness of a girl who attempts to be the "moral" figure in what she considers a rather immoral family).
I'm about halfway through Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, which is pretty interesting so far, in spite of the fact that there is no definite plot goal that I can discern yet. It appears at the moment simply to concern a young man coming back from college to spend a month at home in Beverly Hills for Christmas vacation. Rich kids doing cocaine. And the guy begins to slowly freak out about things; paranoid about monsters in the woods and burglars, crying explicably, etc. It's increasingly eerie as I go on, which has me pretty excited. I'd recommend it. It's not a terribly long read either.
Joyce's Dubliners has some pretty good stories in it as well.

[Video Drone]

To Stieg - so rare... people should put him out on the net in a case like this. It's sad when something goes out of print or is hard to buy... Sometimes, things totally disappear. Things shouldn't disappear.

To Jamesian
Roth's stuff - not my thing.
Less Than Zero sounds interesting, though.
And speaking of Dubliners, I have already mentioned that I'm not looking for short stories at the moment.

[Bookmark]

If you're looking for random try Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber. I loved it.

And Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

[Stieg]

To Stieg - so rare... people should put him out on the net in a case like this. It's sad when something goes out of print or is hard to buy... Sometimes, things totally disappear. Things shouldn't disappear.

Absolutely, I recommend him whenever the opportunity is given.

Here is a author whom doesn't play it safe and not simply writing entertaining by-the-number tropes which have always flooded the genre. Some writers have the talent for that and others don't yet Ketchum steps around it altogether. Definitely deserves greater recognition but then again is he known for his unflinching style.

The last few paragraphs of chapter 2 in The Girl Next Door are italicized and is one of the biggest punches in the gut I have ever experienced in any book I have ever read. My adam's apple felt like it swelled to the size of a grapefruit.

I almost want to post those paragraphs here but feel they're better experienced in the proper context.

The Sylvia Likens story on wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Likens), One may choose to read this or read the Ketchum novel first.

Ketchum wrote a 400 page novel titled The Mantis Syndrome which was in the vein of the "body horror" of early David Cronenberg or writer Michael Crichton. But the publishers refused to publish the work and only then after heavy editing that cut the book down to a mere 166 pages and retitled Ladies Night. Much of the substance and story went with the 234 pages into the wastebasket. Still a great book though not his best and maybe not recommended for those with smaller interests in reading horror novel. But shows how the commercial trade often cannibalizes itself.

[aabbcc]

To crisaor and Anastasija - a lot of those authors are actually Argentinian or even Colombian, not Spanish...? I'll look into them, tho.
Calderón de la Barca, whose Life is a dream I suggested, is indeed Spanish - 17th century author, from siglo de oro in Spanish literature. It is a play written in verse, perhaps the best known of his works, I honestly adored it.

¡Ay mísero de mí, y ay infelice!
Apurar, cielos, pretendo,
ya que me tratáis así,
qué delito cometí
contra vosotros naciendo.
Aunque si nací, ya entiendo
qué delito he cometido;
bastante causa ha tenido
vuestra justicia y rigor,
pues el delito mayor
del hombre es haber nacido. (...)

Or...
¿Qué es la vida? Un frenesí.
¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,
una sombra, una ficción,
y el mayor bien es pequeño;
que toda la vida es sueño,
y los sueños, sueños son. (...)

I loved it, loved it, though I never particularly felt interested in Spanish literature. :) This is however a huge exception, I even re-read it in original (never in my life I studied Spanish, but relying on Italian worked :D) how much I loved it.

[Video Drone]

Indeed, Spanish is a beautiful language, I didn't like Pan's Labyrinth much but I really loved the Spanish in it. :D

I know that author is Spanish, that's why I said "a lot of those".
But shows how the commercial trade often cannibalizes itself.Grr, I hate censors, I don't care what they censor and why they censor I just hate them. :flare:

[Stieg]

Grr, I hate censors, I don't care what they censor and why they censor I just hate them. :flare:

I agree, nothing like personally witnessing an artist having their eyes gouged out, tongues severed, and hands lopped off no matter their medium or canvas by the mad butchering censors.

[kiz_paws]

Hey Stieg, thank you for your thorough input regarding the must-reads of Ketchum. I will see if I can find a copy of The Girl Next Door at the library and also, I am curious of this book entitled Red. May I ask if the subject matter of Red is overwhelming? (as in: I am a true animal lover and if this book has too many 'details' than I'd rather not read it, if you know what I mean).

Thanking you in advance, Stieg, Kizzo :)

[Dark Star]

My standard recommendation is anything by George R.R. Martin.

[xaqxit]

I'm not sure if you want more than one book by the same author, but since Vonnegut books are short and fast reads for most readers, I would highly recommend Mother Night and Slaughterhouse-Five, both of which I enjoyed considerably more than Cat's Cradle, which was still a fine book in my opinion. So if you haven't read those, try to search for those.

The following three books are all quite different from one another, so they should give you some variety:

I also enjoyed Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, so see if you like that. The Wikipedia page seems like it contains some minor spoilers so here's what you need to know (from wikipedia)
The novel is about a low-key unemployed man, Toru Okada, whose cat disappears. A chain of events follow that prove that his seemingly mundane monotonous life is much more complicated than it appears. Also examined is the Manchukuo episode of World War II and its place in Japanese history.
Don't worry about the "examination of Japanese History" it's not a dense work of historical fiction, and bits like that are woven in nicely. There are a lot of short subplots and background stories that appear throughout the novel so it's both varied and fast-paced. The style of writing is very casual.

One short, yet interesting novel that I like a lot is Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. If you like conspiracy-theory-ish things you'll probably enjoy it.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a very easy read, but is a nice "soft" sci-fi classic, that isn't that technical, and kind of touching (though just a tad bit too sentimental and still lacking some substance to be a favorite of mine).

[Stieg]

Hey Stieg, thank you for your thorough input regarding the must-reads of Ketchum. I will see if I can find a copy of The Girl Next Door at the library and also, I am curious of this book entitled Red. May I ask if the subject matter of Red is overwhelming? (as in: I am a true animal lover and if this book has too many 'details' than I'd rather not read it, if you know what I mean).

Thanking you in advance, Stieg, Kizzo :)

Your welcome Kizzo! :D

Red isn't overwhelming but makes great use of imagery to communicate the emotional loss experienced by the protagonist, whom happens to be an old Korean war vet and widower. And there is an interesting sidestory dealing with his surviving family members especially his own troubled son. Ketchum is a big cat-lover himself. Excellent book and once again, Ketchum knows how to finish a book. He always manages to finish strong sans any "deus ex machina" that's what makes reading his work quite harmonious and this book really makes one think about humanity's role in the natural world. I think you'll love it.

The Girl Next Door, Ketchum gets in deep in the trenches presents a shocking psychological articulation of the relationship between abuser and abused. IMHO, everyone should read this book.

[Stieg]

My standard recommendation is anything by George R.R. Martin.

Curious, how is A Feast of Crows? Many of my friends that love fantasy and D&D think he is the greatest thing since apple pie. One of which has refused to read this entry waiting upon the next book because it is basically one book split into two.

[Video Drone]

My standard recommendation is anything by George R.R. Martin.Is he the one who wrote The Song of Fire and Ice? I kind of left that book until later because it had too much superstition and I hate superstition in fantasy...


I'm not sure if you want more than one book by the same author, but since Vonnegut books are short and fast reads for most readers, I would highly recommend Mother Night and Slaughterhouse-Five, both of which I enjoyed considerably more than Cat's Cradle, which was still a fine book in my opinion. So if you haven't read those, try to search for those.Yes, I wanted one book from each author for now. I have already read Slaughterhouse Five so 1 more Vonnegut book would be enough so far.

Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.[/QUOTE]
They all sound great, I'll add them to my list.

[Mortis Anarchy]

I need to collect about 30 books to load into my Pocket PC, so I'm looking for titles. I'm not really sure what to read, so I would like some recommendations, anything you think is a good book, except I have some filters:

No "technical" literature, e.g., NLP (Freud) or The Art of War and such;
no Russian authors, I had enough. But I am interested in any Spanish authors anyone knows;
nothing highly wordy, that is, Charles Dickens, or Lord of the Rings. The level of Jack London's The Sea Wolf is just fine;
no Stephen King.

Currently on my list:

Cat's Craddle by Kurt Vonnegut, wanted to read that long time ago;
Eragon series, I have no idea what that is but it seems to be really popular;
Naked Lunch by... what that guy's name was? Ah, yes, William Burrough. I wanted to see the movie, and people told me I need to read the book first;
Something by Jack Ketchum, depends on what will I be able to find;

Yeah, that's it, I think... so if you have stuff to recommend... anything, I'll take it.


Well, I have several book lists...they contain quite a few (More than 30) on them. If you want it(them) you can send me a PM...not that I'm hoarding the list!:lol: I just don't want to put it up 'cause its rather long.

[PeterL]

You might want to consider the works of Lord Dunsany, Booth Tarkington, and H. P. Lovecraft. All of their writings are out of copyright, so they are available for free download.

[Stieg]

Great horror short story collections:

The Collected Strange Stories by Robert Aickman (Tartarus Press, 2 volumes, OOP)

The Empty House And Other Ghost Stories by Algernon Blackwood

The Listener and Other Stories by Algernon Blackwood

The Complete John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood

The Lost Valley by Algernon Blackwood

Pan's Garden by Algernon Blackwood

Incredible Adventures by Algernon Blackwood

Books of Blood by Clive Barker

The Howling Man by Charles Beaumont (OOP)

The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Final Reckonings (OOP)

The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Bitter Ends (OOP)

The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Last Rites (OOP)

Alone With The Horrors by Ramsey Campbell

Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M R James

The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Ghost Stories by M R James

Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum

Night Shift by Stephen King

High Cotton by Joe R Lansdale (author of great novels such as The Bottoms, The Nightrunners, and The Drive-In)

Best Ghost Stories by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu

Ghost Stories and Mysteries by Joseph Sheridan Lefanu (OOP)

At The Mountains of Madness and Other Novels by H P Lovecraft (Arkham House)

The Dunwich Horror and Others by H P Lovecraft (Arkham House)

Dagon and Other Macabre Tales by H P Lovecraft (Arkham House)

Miscellaneous Writings by H P Lovecraft (Arkham House)

Tales of Horror and The Supernatural by Arthur Machen (Tartarus Press)

Ritual & Other Stories by Arthur Machen (Tartarus Press, this and the previous volumes contain the complete collection of Machen shorts)

Richard Matheson: Collected Stories (1-3)

Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

There are many other great authors of the short horror prose but getting their work collected can be difficult or expensive and these are a great place to start for non-afiscionados.