| Reading List The following represents some of the books I have enjoyed and think are important to read. Obviously they are a small part of the books I have enjoyed over the years. They do, however, represent some of the authors that I consider to be most important to read for anyone who is an aspiring writer and/or avid reader. Enjoy! Contemporary Authors I love to relax with a "good read" (Let's pretend I'm browsing in a bookstore), and before I list any particular novels, I'd like to offer a list of contemporary authors for whom I could recommend just about any book they've written. These authors have written a succession of wonderful stories in an appropriate well-crafted style (for their genre), with appropriate character development (for their genre) and with appropriate length (most of the time -- a couple do get wordy at times, but hey, no one's perfect). For information on what I mean by appropriate, see The Four Elements of Any Novel and How the Four Elements are Related. You will of course, recognize most if not all of the names on the list, but just because they're popular doesn't mean they're not any good. (It's funny, but readers are pretty good at intuitively picking who's good and who's not). These are the contemporary authors whose hardcovers I buy the first week they come out: Frederick Busch, Ethan Canin, Michael Chabon, Tom Clancy, Pat Conroy, Michael Crichton, Nelson DeMille, John Grisham, Carl Hiaasen, John Irving, Joseph Kanon, Jonathan Kellerman, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Christopher Moore, Richard North Patterson, David Payne, J.K. Rowling, Scott Turow, and Tom Wolfe. No ranking there, just an alphabetical list. I've read the entire collection of each of the above author's published work. Great authors, great reads. Great at their craft. Contemporary authors who recently passed away, whose work I'd still recommend since they were once in the above list: William Coughlin and James Michener. And though she's not contemporary, since she still reads like one, I can't imagine any list of mine not including Agatha Christie. The Classics As far as non-contemporary authors for whom I'd like to see a resurgence in popularity goes, it takes a bit more thought due to the volume of wonderful literature in the past. First, let's run through the obvious and some of my favorites such as: Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises), Steinbeck (Cannery Row, East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath), Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov), Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations), Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Shakespeare (Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet), Thomas Wolfe (Look Homeward, Angel), Mitchell (Gone with the Wind), Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby), Austen (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility) , or even the more recent classics like Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five), Ellison (The Invisible Man), Heller (Catch-22), Salinger (Catcher in the Rye), Knowles (A Separate Peace), Cheever (Bullet Park), Nabokov (Lolita), Golding (Lord of the Flies), Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird). I'm fully aware that none of these recommendations go out on a limb, but that's why they're regarded as classics. If you haven't read them, do so. Of course, no list would be complete without including works by other obvious literary greats such as: Cervantes, Montaigne, Milton, Tolstoy, Dante, Chaucer, Nietzsche, Kafka, Chekhov, Wilde, The Bronte Sisters, Flaubert, Proust, Balzac or Hugo. Despite writing – in some cases – centuries ago, I often find these author’s characterizations more compelling, original and real than much of what is being written today. For the record, I think Don Quixote is the best novel of all time, while the complete works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Balzac and Proust are unrivaled. Who's left then? There are so many that I haven't recommended and deserve it (Check out the Penguin Classics!), but for brevity's sake, I'll mention two incredible writers whose entire body of work I hope people take the time to read not only one book, but their entire collections: Saul Bellow and Wallace Stegner. Sure, they're well-known and respected in the literary world -- both won Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards -- but when was the last time you read either of them? Or heard their names mentioned in casual conversation? Or even in a conversation about good books that people have read recently? Start with The Victim and Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow or The Spectator Bird and Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Excellent books, excellent reads, excellent authors. Or how about a few classics from half a century ago that people sadly seemed to have forgotten: What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg or John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra? Or James Agee's A Death in the Family. Again, three wonderful novels. I love classic literature, whether it's a "new" classic or an "old" classic. The writing in the all the novels I've mentioned speak volumes for the craft. Books I Would Recommend Now, suppose a stranger approached me in a bookstore and asked for a recommendation for a novel he should read. Aside from any classic or any novel by one of the contemporary authors I listed, what one novel would I recommend? (Though the stranger wouldn't be disappointed with any number of novels I could offer from those lists, the point of this list is to introduce incredible books by lesser-known contemporary authors.) For a man, I'd recommend Gates of Fire, by Stephen Pressfield. For a woman, I'd recommend Handyman, by Linda Nichols. But what if those two books aren't in the store? (Well, order them!) But pretend you're in a rush. What else would I recommend? Okay, a list of ten books, in alphabetical order by author, this time for either man or woman. The Night Inspector by Frederick Busch I can still remember plots, characters, writing styles, and settings from each and every one of those novels, though I haven't read some of them in years. For me, that's the ultimate sign of a good book. Non-Fiction I tend to read history and biography, though other titles occasionally slip in. When I'm looking for non-fiction, I want a fascinating subject about which I can learn something new, and I want it told in a way that keeps the pages turning. (With Dave Barry, I just want to laugh). In alphabetical order by author, among the books I'd recommend are: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald The Autobiography of Ben Franklin by Ben Franklin Churchill by Martin Gilbert A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr Out of Darkness Into the Light by Gerald Jampolsky The First World War by John Keegan Bird by Bird by Annie Lamott Truman by David McCullough The Rule of Lawyers by Walter Olson Common Sense by Thomas Paine Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes Market Wizards by Jack Schwager Trade your Way to Financial Freedom by Van Tharp Krakatoa by Simon Winchester
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