I'm making an honest attempt to be better read. This means going over many of the classics that I skipped whilst in High School and college compisition.

My hope in this is that it will improve my writing capabilities. Who knows? So...any suggestions? Right now I'm reading Fahrenheit 451 but should be done with it relatively soon. My next goal is...*gulp*...War and Peace.

well, coming from a low high school kid,I do enjoy reading...altough i've been doing less and less of it...hmm

Well, Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's "Brave New World" are most reads..and not becuase of the sociological aspects that put them in high school lsits, but beacuse they are good ones...

Hmm.. there's Patrick Süskind's "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer", which I'm about to finish..DAMN, can these guy use adjectives correctly...i mean you can actually smell French cities in the eighteenth century..plus it's a great crime story...

Oh, and there's Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Trilogy...if these don't make you laugh outloud at least a couple of times..then..well, your dumb and you don't get INTELLIGENT jokes...and yes, you won't be a complete human being until you read these trilogy of four

hmm.. those are the only ones i can think of as of rigt now...i'll post later if i remember more

The obvious candidate for fiction is Tolkein. I realise we are dealing with Vampires, but Tolkein set the standard against which all fantasy fiction is judged.

Then get a little more light hearted, Evelyn Waugh's "The Loved One" is hysterical!!

The Bronte sisters are generally dullsville, but Wuthering Heights is strangely refreshing in the morass of tedious old nonsense. Avoid "Emma".

Try your hand with a little science fiction. You need to be careful here, a lot of it is entertaining (well, if you happen to be me) but is it really "good"? Read some Greg Bear, Eon and Eternity are well worth it. Then move on to Iain M Banks. I would strongly recommend "Feersum Endjinn". The way he writes accents is incredible, and I had to read that book about 4 times to properly understand just what exactly was going on. His books about the "Culture" are also well worth looking at.

Of course, Iain M Banks doesn't just write science fiction. As Iain Banks (no 'M'), The Crow Road and The Wasp Factory are worth a go.

You might want to try some Shakespeare... or maybe that's just me. Merchant of Venice starts off pretty dull, but the second half is good. Macbeth is violence and blood from start to finish. Henry V is full of inspirational speeches. Romeo and Juliet is... well... if you like gushy tragic romance...

You could consider "Moab is my washpot", Stephen Fry's autobiography. He does like words and finding interesting ways to use them.

Read "Shogun", by James Clavell, [i:e2aae13f86]Wakarimasu ka?[/i:e2aae13f86]. Rip-roaring swashbuckling, but Japanese style. Great attention paid to the description of a foreign culture, you almost feel that you could fit into that collection of Samurai, Daimyo's and (of course) peasants by the end of it.

Is that enough for now?

Are you looking for classics or just good books?

I agree totally with Thorpie on Perfume and Hitchhikers and Julius was on the money with Shakespear and the Bronte sisters.

Ashamedly, I'm reading Bridget Jones Diary atm; pure bubble gum for the brain!

Have you read Porter... err.. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley? It's very dark. What about Catch 22 by Joseph L. Heller? I loved Orlando by Virginia Woolf, she's very wordy and funny to boot. It's about a young man who lives for 400 years and he's not even kindred! Heh. [img:088fcd76de]http://www.stupid-boy.com/smilies/otn/funny/readpb.gif[/img:088fcd76de]

(I just got hold of Catch 22 about 20 mins ago, bats, and now you mention it... interesting...)

Well, the BBC just released a top 100 books of all time which is pretty good, heavily influenced by pop culture of course (pretty much most books mentioned above are on it somewhere)

My personal advice for books you might like;

The Dark Tower epic; the only story that challenges Tolkiens "War of the Ring" saga; ts by Stephen King.

Albert Camus - The Outsider; a semi philosophical book basically about why a man doesnt feel guilty over the death of his mother.

Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment - A "classic". Concerns a Russian dude who kills someone, and (once again) ponders his lack of guilt.

Homer - Iliad/Odyssey - Siege of Troy, and Odysseus trip home respectively. You know the stories, but the Rieu translations (apparently) keep the original greek magic in the text.

Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe series - Hey, Richard Sharpe is the hardest fucking bastard in the world. He kicks hella ass :D

Frederick Forsythe - Day of the Jackal - Yeah, well we all think we know what a bad ass assassin is like; but you dont know fuck all till you read this. A bit socio political nonsense, but good nonetheless. Very good.

Arthur C Clarke - Childhoods End - A classic sci fi. Good read.

Alan Stilltoe - The lonliness of the long distance Runner - An interesting insight into the British borstal sysyem. Only read it because Iron Maiden have a song based on it... Still, very good - though i wouldnt advise to non brits, really, the dialogue might seem almost foreign for people without at least SOME experience of cockneys.

Terry Pratchett - I strongly advise the City Watch set - Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Fifth Elephant and Night Watch. Fucking hilarious. Vimes is an all time character.

Well, most my book collection lives in Norfolk now, so i cant recall much else. But if you read anything, ever again, let it be Stephen Kings Dark Tower. Its immensely awesome (4 of 7 parts released so far: The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Wastelands, Wizard and Glass)...

Ok, I did NOT mention Tolkien, cause that's....pssht, you don't really know how to read till you at LEAST read "The Hobbit"...I mean, it's like 300 pages and the language is very simple, yet it kicks ass! Of course, you eventually HAVE to read Lord of the Rings..all 1000+ pages, you just HAVE to...

now there's another one, "The Silmarillion", which I've tried twice to read but haven't been succesful, i just can't get over it...i'll have to wait maybea little more...or maybe it's just that JRR died before actually publishing it and it was Christopher Tolkien who "edited" it..hmm

But, as a previous Stephen King reader, I can tell you Dark Tower may be good, but it does NOT rival, in ANY WAY, the War of the Ring...I mean in ANY way...if you're gonna read Stephen King (there are much better authors out there, I now know) read "Firestarter" or "The Dark Half"...both kicked ass way back when I read 'em..errm.. like 2 years ago, but hey, I was 16, much more crazy than I am now, so those may not be good recommendations...

Wow, thx guys. Some good suggestions there. I've actually read a fairly good bit of Stephen King, haven't read the Dark Tower series yet however. I have already read Tolkien, so that's not a big issue.

I'm mainly looking for classics. But of course they have to be somewhat entertaining and readable. I'm trying to culture myself, not bore myself to tears. I mean this is supposed to be pleasure, not punishment. :)

But come to think of it Eury, your suggestion of the Illiad is a good one. When I was in Catholic High School AP English (I'm a good entrance exam test taker, but when it comes to carrying workloads...), I read the Oddysey (sp??), unfortunately in typical James fashion I didn't start reading it until about 3 or 4 days before the test on it so I basically whirled through it at a thousand miles per hour not catching too much.

Well, I have to disagree....

Silmarillion is my fave war of the ring book. Though I still love LotR and hobbit.

Its a matter of preference, and I overlook an authors style. Essentially, The war of the ring is the "perfect" fantasy story. Its very systematic.

The Dark Tower, however, is an altogether different type of story.

And IMO Dark Half is GOOD, and Carrie is OK, but they are no way his best books. Other than DT, The Stand, It, Insomnia, and many of his short stories are way better than those two.

Though its all opinion; but my case stands - the DT is a must read; for it IS comprable to the War of the Rings - cause I just did it :D

The thing with the Silmarillion is that Tolkein was um.. indulging... himself. It's a much heavier read, but a truly epic one. Just take your time with it. Once you get past the first couple of sections it settles down into a more storytelling style and gives massive background to the War of the Ring, as portrayed in LOTR.

If your looking for the classics you should have read in high school I have to mention the greatest book I read in my four years; "A Canticle For Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller Jr.

It's a great story divided into three parts, each one being set 600 years after the previous. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Stephen King? I never really thought of him as a good writer, sure he's written a lot of books and many of those are now movies but for me he's missing [i:aa81d5ed9e]something[/i:aa81d5ed9e]. I liked Dean Koonz better - try 'Lightning' - that was a cool story :)

ooh ooh!! "Night Chills" by Dean Koontz!!
Man, talk about power! It may be a little..ok, very...boring at the beginning, but then it really speeds up and drops the technical stuff...it is kinda porno, though, but hey, that's a plus, no? ;)

"neverwhere" and "stardust" by neil gaiman. both thoroughly interesting reads...

Ann Rice, Patricia Cornwell, Ian Kellerman, Harlan Coben.

All excelent books.

Best book ive ever read is "Tell No One" by Coben. Amasing writing with a intense plot and a ending that is undeniably epic.

" In the mouth of madness " by John Carpenter is by far one of the best stories I've read, even for those who are not into demon related stories or horror alike, this one is really a good read ( or movie for those who dont wanna read )