Below is the Read Before you Die list from E. L. Doctorow. Doctorow wrote The March; Ragtime; Billy Bathgate; World's Fair; and a whole host of other books. The msot recent book is about hoarders in New York. I havent read it yet though I heard, like everything else he's written, it's grand.
I had the chance to take his Craft of Fiction class my final year at grad school, and it was brilliant. His biggest thing was for us to push the envelope of writing, to not be afraid of the classics, to make us read, and to get us actively reading and writing.
We read a book a week. I didn't love every book we read, or every book on the list, but I have learned to appreciate them for what they are doing. Does this mean I want to go back and read Moby Dick again? Not really. But do I realize now that Melville was stalling for time and experimenting with form, to again buy time? Yes, that I do.
Something else interesting Professor Doctorow said: when asked what craft book he would recommend to writers, he said that, "I have not read a craft of fiction book that does not make me want to vomit. Tell them to go read. Chekov. Especially Chekov."
Essentially, if you want to write, you have to read. If you want to write good stuff, you have to read good stuff. And in the interest of reading, you have to read books to know the good from the bad. Classics are not be frightened of. Each of these books was once new, was once cutting edge, or panned. And so the cycle continues.
I am one of the few people who absolutely HATES the Twilight series. I can't find anything redemptive about the writing. The characters are flat and annoying, and Bella, really? get a life. She lives to suffer, to serve, to be ruled. Her entire self worth is dependent upon her being in a relationship with a guy - Edward primarily, who really is semi stalkerish, obsessive, and more than a little scary with a few issues. Myers has some intriguing stories. yes I had to go and wikipedia the entire story to see how it ended, but, the drivel of it all drove me nuts. I know that I am not in the popular opinion here, so take it with a grain of salt.
So in the interest of sharing, here's Doctorow's list. Keep in mind the list is for writers. But still, it's a worthy list.
E.L. Doctorows Read Before You Die List - read them several times if at all possible.
martin ing - london
sea wolf- london
people of the abyss - london (great book.)
tom jones - fielding
tristan shandie - im not sure
bleak house - dickens
tale of two cities - dickens
david copperfield - dickens
two more dickens for good measure
chester tower series - trollop
lord jim - conrad
tess dubervilles - hardy
far from the madding crowd - hardy
the rainbow - lawrence
sons and lovers - lawrence
sentimental education - flaubert
madame bovary - flaubert
red and black - stendahl
les miserables - hugo
49 - hugo
hunchback of notre dame - hugo
dead souls
anna karenina
war and peace
death...sonata
ALL of chekov
crime and punishment - doestevsky
diary of a madman - doestevsky
brothers karamazov - doestevsky
house of the 7 gables - hawethorne
scarlet letter - hawthorn
short stories - hawthorn
tai pei - melville
moby dick - melville
billy budd - melville
prince and the pauper - twain
ct yankee in king arthurs court - twain
life in the city - twain
washington square - henry james
daisy miller - henry james (avoid later work as a writer. he can trap you in his voice. only his early work, until you have established your own voice.)
american tragedy - dreiser (came 28 yrs after his first book sister carrie)
middle march - george elliott
daniel - george elliott
mrs dalloway - virginia woolf
to the lighthouse - virginia woolf
frankenstein - mary shelley
house of mirth - edith wharton
age of innocence - edith wharton
pride and prejudice - jane austen (doctorow said this was probably the most perfect book ever written)
emma - jane austen
that's the list he gave us to read after our class.
the books we read in class: moby dick;
sister carrie;
tom sawyer;
mrs dalloway;
journey to the end of the night by celine (very cool book with a very unreliable narrator)
lots and lots of Poe,
metamorphosis by kafka;
the trial by kafka;
marquis of O and other short stories - by kleist;
dantes inferno;
the emigrants by sebald;
I'm missing about five books. we read a book a week.
He also said to be reading what is being written now. Always be reading.
To add my own to that list:
jhumpa lahiri
bharti mukherjee
jonathan safran foer
of course! e.l. doctorow
sherman alexie
chuck wachtel - of course!
of course Doctorow's work - the March; Ragtime; Book of Daniel.. anything he writes is brilliant. and I mean BRILLIANT WITH A CAPTIAL B. (doctorow was also all about pushing the envelope. making you work as a reader. these aren't pop fiction books. this is a course in literary fiction. so intellectual writing. it will require some work on your half. he raved about woolf because there you see someone who got bored with plot and just eliminiated it from her books. and then you see what happens... He pushes the envelope in his books. beautiful, brilliant writer. i need to read more of him.)
Sherman Alexie - The Lone Ranger and tonto fistfight in Heaven; anything else by sherman alexie. he is beautiful. he was one of the first native americans to write about life as a native american. as a real one, not as a romaticized thing. but really. his work from the lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven is the basis of the movie Smoke Signals.
Bharti Mukherjee - The Middle Man and other stories ; Desirable Daughters... anything else you can get of her.. love her voice.
Willa Cather
Katherine Anne Porter
Jhumpa Lahari
Chuck Wachtel - I love this man. He is a prof and writer from my grad program. He taught me more about life and writing than he will ever know. His work is hard to find, but it is worth it. I love the Gates; and Because We Are Here; and What Happens to Me.. I love his voice, and I love him.
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World blew my mind
Ray Bradbury - I always love him. and as a writer I love him more as he ages. I just re read farneheit 451 and was still blown away by it. Ilove his short stories from One More of the road; I love From the Dust Returned. and of course Something Wicked This Way Comes.. and if you can find the short story There Will Come Soft Rains. you will not be disappointed. i think it's in the Martian Chronicles. Unlike some writers - dean koontz for example - they recycle their work. They get comfortable. Ray is in his upper 80s, still writing, new stuff, and it is beautiful. Definitely definitely DEFINITELY read One More For The Road. GORGEOUS. It is beautiful, tragic, funny. It's gorgeous. (Not Science Fiction if you're worried.) When he dies, I will go into mourning.
Terry Pratchett - he's lighter, but still a fun writer. when he dies, i will also go into semi mourning - he has alzheimers, a very rare and mild case of it (if there is a mild form of it..)
I also LOVED Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi - not fiction. but still amazing and beautiful and tragic and upsetting and just amazing. i highly recommend it. blew my mind.
Always read some Shakespeare.
Milton. If you have the patience and a good dictionary, read Paradise Lost, and then read Paradise Regained. it's told from Satan's point of view - from being kicked ot of heaven throgh the fall of Adam. it is beautiful, complex and challenging. If I hadn't had the prof I had in college to read it, i wouldn't have made it through. But it is to this day, one of my favorite stories, and it is just beautiful. When you think about this man who wrote this, he had to find words to describe some things that didn't exist yet. Legend goes, he wrote it 20 lines at a time; he would think about the 20 lines he wanted to write, take a nap, then wake up and recite them to his daughter, and that would be it. He was blind so he was unable to write. Just brilliant..
I love Beuwolf.
I loved The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Collins was a contemporary of Dickens. They were actually good friends. I don't know why we aren't told about this book more often.
I love the Brontes - I just re- read Wuthering Heights again and still fell in love with it. I also love the pbs verion this year... sigh..Heathcliff....
CS Lewis and Tolkien, though the latter can be rather complex especially with all the names sounding alike. (I had to rename them in my head and notes so I could keep them all straight.)
I love Barrie - Peter Pan, and Farewell Miss Julie Logan (which is going to be VERY hard to find here in the States. Good luck. It's worth the read.)
Dracula by stoker is a great book..
Brideshead Revisted by evelyn waugh.
Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen
Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell Series (The Beekeeper’s Apprentice; A Monstrous Regiment of Women; A Letter of Mary; The Moor; O Jerusalem; The Game; Locked Rooms)
Sherlock Holmes - Doyle. good, quick short stories. Still fun.
The idea is to become aware of good writing, and develop a taste for good, literary writing, and be able to tell the difference between what is popular and what is good. Don't be afraid to go against the grain. It's like eating McDonalds. Every once in a while is fine. But you need to eat something a little more complex and hearty with more nutrients to truly survive. The same for reading especially reading to write.
if you have any suggestions, feel free to add them to the list. I'm always looking for a good read.
No comments:
Post a Comment