Recommended Reading/old

For possible reading recommendation charts for authors, check the Recommended Reading Charts (by Author) page.

Great Short Story Authors and Collections

 * Hawthorne - Twice Told Tales
 * Edgar Allan Poe - Collected Works
 * Mark Twain - Collected Short Stories
 * Herman Melville - Billy Budd and the Piazza Tales
 * Stephen Crane - Maggie and other Stories
 * F. Scott Fitzgerald - Flappers and Philosophers
 * Ernest Hemingway - Collected Short Works
 * Sherwood Anderson - Death in the Woods and other Stories
 * Raymond Carver - Where I'm Calling From
 * John Cheever - The Stories of John Cheever
 * H. P. Lovecraft - H.P. Lovecraft: Tales (Library of America)

Poets and Poetry Collections

 * Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass
 * Emily Dickinson - The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
 * T.S. Eliot - The Waste Land and other Poems
 * Wallace Stevens - Harmonium
 * Robinson Jeffers - Selected Poems
 * Robert Frost - Collected Poems
 * Hart Crane - The Bridge
 * Williams Carlos Williams - Collected Poems Vol.1 & 2
 * John Ashbery - Collected Poems
 * Allen Ginsberg - Howl and Other Poems
 * Charles Baudelaire - Les Fleurs du mal (English: The Flowers of Evil )

Plays and Playwrights

 * Eugene O'Neill - Complete Plays (Library of America)
 * Arthur Miller - Death of a Salesman
 * Thornton Wilder - Our Town
 * Tennessee Williams - Plays 1937 - 1955 (Library of America)
 * Lorraine Hansberry - A Raisin in the Sun
 * Edward Albee - The Collected Plays of Edward Albee
 * Sam Shepard - Buried Child
 * August Wilson - Fences
 * Tony Kushner - Angels in America

Others

 * Feminore Cooper - The Last of the Mohicans
 * Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter
 * Herman Melville - Moby-Dick
 * Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 * Henry James - The American
 * Henry James - The Turn of the Screw and other short novels
 * Stephen Crane - The Red Badge of Courage
 * Kate Chopin - The Awakening
 * Jack London - The Call of the Wild
 * Gertrude Stein - Three Lives
 * Edith Wharton - The Age of Innocence
 * Theodore Dreiser - An American Tragedy
 * Willa Cather - My Ántonia
 * Francis Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
 * Sinclair Lewis - Main Street
 * Sinclair Lewis - Babbitt
 * Paul Auster - The New York Trilogy
 * Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises
 * Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bells Toll
 * William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
 * William Faulkner - Absalom, Absalom!
 * Henry Miller - Tropic of Cancer
 * John O'Hara - Appointment in Samarra
 * Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
 * John Steinbeck - East of Eden
 * John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
 * Nathanael West - The Day of the Locust
 * Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep
 * Richard Wright - Native Son
 * Robert Penn Warren - All the King's Men
 * Ray Bradbury - Farenheit 451
 * J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
 * Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
 * William Gaddis - The Recognitions
 * Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
 * Jack Kerouac - On the Road
 * William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch
 * John Updike - Rabbit,Run
 * Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
 * Joseph Heller - Catch-22
 * John Barth - The Sot-Weed Factor
 * Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
 * Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
 * Saul Bellow - Herzog
 * Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five
 * Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49
 * Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow
 * Thomas Pynchon - V.
 * William Gibson - Pattern Recognition
 * Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
 * Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon
 * Philip Roth - Portnoy's Complaint
 * Philip Roth - American Pastoral
 * Cormac McCarthy - The Road
 * John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
 * Don Delillo - Libra
 * Don Delillo - Underworld
 * David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest



Slave Narratives

 * Olaudah Equiano - The Interesting Narrative
 * Solomon Northrup - Twelve Years a Slave
 * Harriet Jacobs - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
 * - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
 * - Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Reconstruction Era

 * W.E.B. Du Bois - The Souls of Black Folk
 * - The Collected Poetry of Pawl Laurence Dunbar
 * Booker T.Washington - Up From Slavery

Harlem Renaissance

 * Langston Hughes - Not Without Laughter
 * Jean Toomer - Cane
 * George S. Schugler - Black No More
 * Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God
 * Claude McKay - Home to Harlem
 * Mella Larsen - Quicksand and Passing
 * - The Walls of Jericho
 * - The Blacker and the Berry

Civil Rights Era

 * James Baldwin - Go Tell it on the Mountain
 * Richard Wright - Native Son
 * Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
 * - The Autobiography of Malcolm X
 * Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
 * Gwendolyn Brooks - Selected Poems
 * Chester Himes - If he Hollers Let Him Go
 * Lorraine Hansberry - A Raisin in the Sun

Contemporary

 * Charles Mingus - Beneath the Underdog
 * Alice Walker - The Color Purple
 * Toni Morrison - Beloved
 * Walter Mosley - Killing Johnny Fry
 * Alex haley - Roots
 * Amiri Baraka - Somebody Blew Up America
 * Terry McMillan - Waiting to Exhale
 * Gloria Naylor - Linden Hills
 * Ismael Reed - Mumbo Jumbo
 * - Kindre D
 * Edward P. Jones - The Known World

Australian
(includes some non-fiction as well)

Classic Horror

 * Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
 * Bram Stoker - Dracula
 * Henry James - The Turn of the Screw
 * Robert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
 * Washington Irving - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
 * Edgar Allen Poe - The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
 * Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow
 * Matthew Lewis - The Monk
 * Charles Maturin - Melmoth the Wanderer
 * Ambrose Bierce - Ghost, and Other Stories

20th Century Horror

 * Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House
 * Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
 * Clive Barker - Books of Blood
 * Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes
 * Stephen King - It, Pet Sematary
 * Thomas Harris - The Silence of the Lambs
 * Dan Simmons - Song of Kali
 * Algernon Blackwood - Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood
 * M.R. James - Casting the Runes, and Other Ghost Stories
 * Mervyn Peake - Boy in Darkness
 * William Hodgson - The House on the Borderland
 * H. P. Lovecraft - The Dunwich Horror
 * Peter Straub - Shadowland

New Horror

 * Laird Barron - Occultation
 * Joe R. Lansdale - The Best of Joe R. Lansdale
 * Will Elliot - The Pilo Family Circus
 * Edward Lee - Bullet Through Your Face
 * Tim Curran - The Devil Next Door
 * Dave Brockie - Whargoul
 * Joe Hill - Heart-Shaped Box
 * China Mieville - King Rat
 * Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves

Fantasy


Epic Fantasy: Urban Fantasy Swords and Sorcery Entry Level Coming of Age Historic Fantasy Mystery Comic Fantasy Weird Mythic Alternate World Old School Miscellaneous
 * J.R.R. Tolkien   -  The Fellowship of the Ring
 * George R.R. Martin -   A Game of Thrones
 * Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself 
 * R.Scott Bakker   -  The Darkness that Comes Before 
 * Steven Erikson -  Gardens of the Moon
 * J.V.Jones   -  A Cavern of Black Ice
 * Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time
 * Paul Kearney   -  Hawkwood's Voyage
 * K.J.Parker   -  Devices and Desires
 * Melanie Rawn -   Dragon Prince
 * Brian Ruckley   -  Winterbirth
 * Tad WIlliams   -  The Dragonbone Chair
 * David Zindell   -  The Lightsone
 * Daniel Abraham -   A Shadow in Summer
 * Chris Wooding   -  The Braided Path
 * S.L.Farrell   -  A Magic of Twilight
 * Greg Keyes   -  The Briar King
 * Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of The Wind
 * Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora
 * Neil Gaiman   -  Neverwhere, American Gods, The Anansi Boys
 * Graham Joyce -  The Tooth Fairy
 * R.A.Macavoy   -  Tea with the Black Dragon
 * Jonathan Carroll -   The Land of Laughs
 * R.E.Howard -  Conan
 * Fritz Leiber   -  The First Book of Lankhmar
 * Michael Moorcock -   Elric of Melnibone
 * Michael Shea   -  The Incomplete Nifft
 * Jack Vance   -  Tales of the Dying Earth
 * Karl Edward Wagner -  Gods in Darkness
 * C.L.Moore -  Jirel of Joiry
 * Terry Brooks   -  First King of Shamhara
 * Susan Cooper   -  The Dark is Rising
 * David Eddings   -  Pawn of Prophecy
 * David Eddings   -  The Diamond Throne
 * Raymond E.Feist -   Magician 
 * Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman   -  Dragons of Autumn Twilight
 * Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman   -  Dragon Wing
 * Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman   -  Rose of the Prophet
 * Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman -  Time of the Twins
 * C.S.Lewis - The Lion', 'The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
 * R.A.Salvatore -  Homeland
 * Philip Pullman -  His Dark Materials
 * Glen Cook - The Swordbearer
 * Robin Hobb -  Assassin's Apprentice
 * J.V.Jones -  The Baker's Boy
 * Rebecca Bradley -  Lady in Gil
 * David Gemell -  Troy
 * Guy Gavriel Kay -  The Lions of Al-Rassan
 * J.Gregory Keyes -  Newton's Cannon
 * R.A.MacAvoy -  Damiano
 * T.H.White -  The Once and Future king
 * Gene Wolfe -  Latro in the Mist
 * George R.R. Martin - Fevre Dream
 * John M.Ford -  The Dragon Waiting
 * Mary Gentle -  A Secret History
 * Steven Brust -  The Book of Jhereg
 * Jim Butcher -  Storm Front
 * Glen Cook -  Sweet Silver Blues
 * Barry Hughart -  Bridge of Birds
 * Matthew Hughes -  Majestrum
 * Terry Pratchett -  Carpe Jugulum
 * Christopher Moore -  Lamb
 * Peter David -  Sir Apropos of Nothing
 * Mary Gentle -  Grunts
 * William Goldman -  The Princess Bride
 * H.P.Lovecraft -  At the Mountains of Madness
 * William Hope Hodgson -  The House in the Borderland
 * Clark Ashton Smith -  The Emperor of Dreams
 * Jeff Vandermeer -  City of Saints and Madmen
 * China Miéville -  Perdido Street Station
 * Roger Zelazny -  Creatures of Light and Darkness
 * Mickey Zucker Reichert -  The Last of the Renshai
 * Jonh Myers Myers -  Silverlock
 * Steven Brust -  To Reign in Hell
 * Poul Anderson -  The Broken Sword
 * Michael Scott Rogan -  The Anvil of Ice
 * Stephen R. Donaldson -  The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, The Mirror in her Dreams
 * Julian May -  The Many-Coloured Land
 * Stephen R. Lawhead -  The Paradise War
 * Poul Anderson -  Three Heards and Three Lions
 * Roger Zelazny -  The Great Book of Amber
 * George MacDonal -  Phantastes
 * E.R.Eddison -  The Worm Ouroboros
 * Lord Dunsany -  The King of Elfland's Daughter
 * Ernest Bramah -  The Wallet of Kail Lung
 * David Lindsay -  A Voyage to Arcturus
 * Charles G. Finney -  The Circus of Dr.Lao
 * Mikhail Bulgakov -   The Master and Margarita
 * Mervyn Peake -  Titus Groan
 * Paul Edwin Zimmer -  The Lost Prince
 * David Gemell -  Legend
 * C.S.Friedman -  Black Sun Rising
 * K.J.Parker -  Shadow
 * Kate Elliot -  King's Dragon
 * Michael A.Stackpole -  Talion Revenant
 * Matthew Woodring Stover -  Heroes Die
 * Gene Wolfe -  The Shadow of the Torturer
 * Tim Powers -  The Anubis Gates
 * John Marco -  The Jackal of Nar
 * Andrzej Sapkowski -  Blood of Elves
 * Ken Grimwood -  Replay
 * Glen Cook -  Chronicles of the Black Company
 * Patricia A. Mckillip -  The Riddle-Master of Hed
 * Sean Ruselss -  The Initiate Brother
 * Brent Weeks -  The Way of Shadows
 * Jeniffer Fallon -  The Immortal Prince
 * John Crowley -  Little, Big
 * Catherynne M. Valente -  In the Night Garden
 * M. John Harrison -  Viriconium
 * Jack Vance -  Lyonesse
 * Frank & Brian Herbert - The Dune Series
 * Dave Duncan - King's Blades Series
 * David Eddings - Belgariad Trilogy
 * Piers Anthony - Incarnations of Immortality

1275260005616.jpgical
Pre-socratics: On Socrates: By plato:
 * Various - Early Greek Philosophy
 * Kenneth Sylvan Guthre - The Pythagorean Sourcebook and library
 * Charles H.Kahn - The art and thought of Heraclitus
 * Parmenides of Elea - Fragments
 * David Gallop - Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments
 * John Dillon, Tania Gergel - The Greek sophists
 * Empedocles - The extant Fragments
 * Various links
 * http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/presocratics
 * http://www.heraclitusfragments.com
 * http://history.hanover.edu/texts/presoc/
 * I.F.Stone - The trial of Socrates
 * Aristophanes - The clouds
 * Charles H.Kahn - Plato and the Socratic dialogue
 * Karl R. Popper - The open society and its enemies
 * Gail Fine - Plato on knowledge and forms.

(Note made by Isabelle: later translations are usually more accessible. I AM not a fan of Jowett. Since she composed this list I thought it necessary to add this) On Aristotle By Aristotle
 * Early Works:
 * Apology
 * Crito
 * Euthyphro (holiness, the Euthyphro dilemma)
 * Ion
 * Laches (courage)
 * Protagoras (the teachability of virtue)
 * Gorgias (rethoric vs. philosophy)
 * Meno (virtue, Meno's paradox)
 * Middle Works
 * Parmenides - Forms
 * Phaedo (the death of socrates, the afterlife)
 * Phaedrus (love and rethoric)
 * Republic (politics, the state and the soul)
 * Symposium (true love, the 'Ladder of Love')
 * Theaetetus (knowledge)
 * Later Works
 * Critias (Atlantis=
 * Sophist (more on Forms)
 * Timaeus (the purpose of the universe)
 * David M.Balme - Aristotle on Nature and Living Things: Philosophical and Historical Studies
 * Cristopher Shields - Aristotle
 * David Furley - From Aristotle to Augustine

(Another note by Isabelle: Oxford translations are best) Cynicism Epicureanism  Stoicism
 * The Nicomachean Ethics (virtue ethics, leads into Politics)
 * Rethoric
 * Metaphysics
 * Poetics
 * Politics
 * Farrand Sayre - Diogenes of Sinope: A study of Greek cynicism
 * R. Bracht Branham, Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé -The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy 
 * James Warren - The Cambridge's companion to Epicureanism
 * Eugene O'connor - The essential Epicurus
 * Lucretius - The nature of things
 * Lucretius - The nature of things

(Isabella specified Penguin Classics) Skepticism
 * Seneca - Letters from a stoic
 * Epictetus - Discourses and selected writings
 * Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
 * Norman Maccoll - The Greek Sceptics: From Pyrrho to Sextus
 * Sextus Empiricus - Outlines of Pyrrhonism
 * Richard T. Wallis - Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
 * John Gregory - The neoplatonists
 * Plotinus - The enneads