Reading List (fiction)

[Snowman37]

I am a writer who does not read. There, I have said it. I am working on some 30+ stories, and I really don't read books. I love to watch movies, and I follow some science-fiction TV shows. I try to follow the news on a daily basis. If I'm going to establish myself as a big time novelist, I need to actually be reading books! So... would ya'll be interested in helping me put together a reading list? I have some books available to me on my bookshelf, so I will start there. However, it would be nice to create a list of recommended books for when I finish those.

What would you recommend? I'm open to almost any story so long as it's not morally questionable.

[Ghuyuran]

Some of the best books are morally questionable.

[sithkittie]

What subjects are you interested? What kind of movies do you like/stories do you write? You could work your way through the classics, but if you don't like to read (do you not like to or do you just not do it?) they might get boring or frustrating. I'm partial to Shakespeare - my favorites are Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. A Tale of Two Cities is really good. I also recommend Steinbeck. Grapes of Wrath is intense and depressing, but good.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is also really, really good, as well as 1984 by George Orwell. Alexandre Dumas is fun, I think. Three Musketeers and Man in the Iron Mask are easier than The Count of Monte Cristo, but that one is really good.

For less "classics," I'm a sucker for anything by Terry Pratchett. His novels are easy to read and funny. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is also really good. It's written really differently, so even if you're not interested in Native American lit it might be an interesting read just for the writing style. If you are interested in NA lit, Sherman Alexie is another interesting author.

Hope some of those catch your interest. :)

[Alexander III]

Well you must have a good understanding of ancient literature and more modern literature to be able to write in a way that you build up on the past and propel everything forwards. Also I would suggest to read lot's of poetry, as the greatest prose owes much to poetry (think Flaubert, Proust, Wilde, Faulkner).

As for a reading list you need to be more specific with what you are looking for....

[kelby_lake]

If you like your sci-fi, try some dystopian novels like 1984.

[YesNo]

I am a writer who does not read. There, I have said it.
I don't think a writer needs to read books in order to write well. It takes a lot of time to read which distracts from the task of writing and what is read tends to bias the creativity. If you know English well and enjoy writing, you should write. Don't get distracted!

There I've said it.

However, I'm not a professional writer, so you can ignore that advice. :) But I think in any profession you read only what helps you do the task at hand and focuses your attention on it. The task is important, not a survey of the literature.

The stories that I find memorable at the moment come from the Bhagavatam (since I've recently read it) and The Journey to the West which is a very old collection of stories from China about a Buddhist monk who is escorted by a strange set of animal protectors on his journey to India. You may not find these interesting, but they are non-Western classics that you might not have heard about.

[Rores28]

First you need to forget about your disclaimer regarding morally questionable books. I realize that there wide spectrum of opinion on what is morally questionable but given that you've voiced this concern I'd have to think your threshold is relatively low.

Also you've realized you need to read in order to write which is good. While I'm sure your ability to create and turn out interesting stories is probably fine I'd wager the quality of your prose is pretty low.

Therefore my suggestion would be to first get a taste of particularly good and or dense prose.

The Great Gatsby
Blood Meridian
Melville - he has plenty of short stories
David Foster Wallace - Oblivion collection of short stories
Dickens

I would try and read that stuff first and then go the opposite and see what more stripped down prose looks like.

The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
Breakfast of Champions and/or Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

I think this will begin to help you form a method of being adequately descriptive without sounding pretentious.

And of course as others have said read poetry.

If you like sci-fi
1984 - Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury
Brave New World - Huxley

If you have some aversion to reading books it may help to first start with graphic novels which sorta bridge the gap between movie and novel.

I'd recommend

Watchmen - Alan Moore
Y: The Last Man - Brian K. Vaughn
The Nightly News - Jonathan Hickman
Transhuman - Jonathan Hickman
Sin City - Frank Miller
We3 - Grant Morrison
The Filth - Grant Morrison
Maus I&II - Art Spiegleman

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I have to agree with the others. What do you like? Until we know what genres you're looking for, people are pretty much just going to give you their personal favorites, which is fine, but if we find out more about you, the feedback will be much better.

Also, what would you define as "morally questionable"?

[Rores28]

I definitely disagree with what others have said. First, I have yet to see any writer recommend to other would be writers not read and simply write, in fact quite the opposite is true. Second I don't care what your genre preferences or moral sensitivities are. As a writer and a person you grow most from exposing yourself to things outside of your familiarity and outside of you comfort zone. Maybe you'll find out when confronted with well composed and cogent arguments/narratives your moral sensibilities with have changed. If the recommendations catered to those things you already found familiar and palatable it would only serve to further pigeon-hole you in your present conceptions. As a writer you should actively make an effort to read things that you may not like, and things that may be explicitly opposed to your current "belief system."

As to reading actually stymieing creativity... really? This seems to be born of some conceit that your writing would otherwise spring forth ex nihilo, but of course you've already seen movies and TV shows, and undoubtedly must have read at least a few books in your lifetime. So then the question becomes.. Is your creativity more hindered by a smaller set of inspirational content or a larger one?

In the words of B Franklin
When you're finished changing you're finished.

[Babak Movahed]

I think you should consider making this list yourself, it would be more beneficial to your writing process. But for the record good luck not writing a bunch of conventions in your work.