What narrative can I learn? (Literary Cannon)

[DudeistBelieve]

So!

I am an English major, and recently have been really getting my ass handed to me as far as class goings and what I actually. In truth, i'm rather annoyed with my current standing with school because although I've learned a lot about how to write, I have not learned much as far as storytelling elements. And quite frankly, thats what I'm must interested in. In fact, I feel almost that I've learned more just reading TV Tropes all night then I have 2 semesters at University all night when it comes to telling stories.

Coming up I'll have a whole summer off, and an whole semester where I'm not doing any English-related courses. I'd liked to fill that gap by reading the greatest works of literature that I can. by that I mean any obvious ones that you can list off the top of your head (Catcher In The Rye, Moby Dick for examples). I'll even go ahead the step and say each serious one suggested, I will read and review here on The Escapist forums. Just list away, I seriously doubt you'll hit something I've read before and even then I'll read and review it again anyway.

One more thing, not that I have a personal bias, but I only want fiction from the plain text medium. No manga, American graphic novels or such.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Okay then, I'll pop the two obvious ones. Animal Farm and 1984. I'm still reading 1984, so I can't comment too much apart from it is engrossing.

Animal Farm has got to be one of the most fascinating books I've read. Once you understand the satirical elements, it becomes incredibly fun to nitpick the references and real life counterparts of every character.

One thing I do find about Orwell's writing is that he can be a bit pretentious at times. He wrote a paper on how english writing had become sloppy, so his work is incredibly precise with its diction. Makes it very clear to read, but it makes it tougher on people with limited vocabularies.

 

[SleepyOtter]

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky Is a pretty intellectual read. Not saying it's a classic, and seeing how you're a English major and I'm still in high school you probably shouldn't take my advice.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I'd also recommend Waiting for Godot. Weird story, but very entertaining. Once you read it, you'll notice that it is parodied a lot. It is a play, but hey, if literature forces us to read Shakespeare, than this counts a literature as well.

 

[emeraldrafael]

You cant go wrong with Stephen King, mainly cause he does a decent job at wide ranges of story.

I'd also suggest The Outsiders.

 

[ZombieGenesis]

A heavy recommendation for "Journey to the West" as transcribed by Wu Cheng'En.
It reads a little crooked given its a story verrsion of old legends, but you can see so many things that have been directly inspired by it, and it's awesome bragging rights for olde' style reading material.

And also, FREAKING NINJA MONKEYS WITH MAGIC POWERS.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

You cant go wrong with Stephen King, mainly cause he does a decent job at wide ranges of story.

I'd also suggest The Outsiders.

Outsiders, I haven't read that in a while. Really good book. Movie not so much.

Hmm, what else? Starship Troopers is a must to watch the birth of the military science fiction genre.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky Is a pretty intellectual read. Not saying it's a classic, and seeing how you're a English major and I'm still in high school you probably shouldn't take my advice.

Nonsense. I walked into this school thinking I knew everything, and got my ass handed to me. If I'm to continue, I've got to be broad as I can be.

You cant go wrong with Stephen King, mainly cause he does a decent job at wide ranges of story.

I'd also suggest The Outsiders.

If I'm sampling Stephen King, I'm gonna choose The Stand. I saw the miniseries when I was a young teen and it's stayed with me.

I'm also gonna add to my own list, Ayn Rand's The Fountain Head and Atlas Shrugged

 

[emeraldrafael]

You cant go wrong with Stephen King, mainly cause he does a decent job at wide ranges of story.

I'd also suggest The Outsiders.

If I'm sampling Stephen King, I'm gonna choose The Stand. I saw the miniseries when I was a young teen and it's stayed with me.

I'm also gonna add to my own list, Ayn Rand's The Fountain Head and Atlas Shrugged

Cool, cool. I wont tell you what to read, but the Stand is definitely a good one. I'd also read IT.

If you want to see him in his joint authoring, he did The Talisman and Black House with a guy Named Peter Straub. The Twinner concept is something interesting.

His dark tower series are a great way of showing how he can combine the Wild West, magic, and the modern world.

And of course the books Desperation and The Regulators. Those two are great, because they're Twinner books, and if you want to make an analysis of two books being similar yet different at the same time, they're great peices. I know I did a paper on them last semester for my english class at my university and the teacher said it was one of the most well written he'd had seen.

 

[LilGherkin]

Don Quixote is always a fun read.

 

[thelastgentleman]

The Divine Comedy by Dante

Lolita by Nabokov

Things Fall Apart by Achebe

 

[Baneat]

If you haven't read these, check out "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams and "Contact" by Carl Sagan for well written Sci-fi.

Past the third book hitchhiker becomes a narrative mess, like, really. I had no clue what was going on, and couldn't thread anything. The first two were perfectly clear space adventures.

Go for Dune if you have 1000 hours to burn on the largest books ever.

 

[PasDeChat]

The Foundation series by Issac Assimov, Alas Poor Babylon by Philip K. Dick. The Bell Jar by Slyvia Plath (though I hate it, it gives perspective). A Portrait of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. Any of H.P. Lovecraft's Short stories. The Dune Saga and Hellstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (if you feel like mixing it up with a non fiction book). Beowulf untranslated and translated. Some American classics Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Grapes of Wrath. Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (read them in reverse order listed, he's a strange strange man).

 

[PasDeChat]

Oh and my favorite books of all time Nightfall and Other Stories by Issac Assimov and Hard Landing by Algis Budrys (anything by Budrys is freaking awesome though if you like that style, not quite scifi cannon but it damn well ought to be).

 

[Dimitriov]

For an English major your grammar is horrific: perhaps you need sleep. However, ignoring that and focusing on literature to broaden your scope, I would suggest War and Peace.

Obviously it's a Russian novel, both in setting and style, but it is to my mind one of the greatest books for the way it humanizes every single character and brings them to life. I was constantly delighted by the way Tolstoy details mannerisms and the small habits and foibles of people.

It is a bit of a slog to read though. Actually that may be what it's best known for.

Also Dune by Frank Herbert is fantastic.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

I'd thoroughly recommend Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Great Expectations By Charles Dickens and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.

They're all great reads.

 

[thylasos]

Anna Karenina is probably a better start on Tolstoy than War & Peace, in my opinion, being a Russian novel with more of an indvidualist message, and thus requiring somewhat less acclimatisation to Russian history and art-culture to fully understand it.

Other than that, The Stranger (Also translated as Outsider / Foreigner, by Albert Camus, which is one of my favourite novels, with an existentialist bent, with the additional bonus of it being fairly short.

 

[Freechoice]

If you really must read to learn, I suggest reading the Giving Tree. If you want to learn narrative fundamentals, you want to read something simplistic. It's child's play to read and understand a Shel Silverstein book. While the aforementioned titles may be very entertaining, they will bog you down with their own context and you will end up devoting half your time to understanding the content and the other half to understanding the MO.

Ultimately, what will make you a better writer is experience and what you want is to develop your own style. Repetition and critique will eventually net you the ability to write well. I find that people that read fiction to better themselves as writers often end up failing because they incorporate things that are not their own. Really, if you want to learn something to make you a better writer, go with pure information and stuff you happen upon in your own life. It'll be much easier to mold and more organic.

 

[Aetera]

Anything by Oscar Wilde is gold. If you want to learn how to write, he's one of the wittiest men to ever live. I really enjoyed The Picture of Dorian Gray in particular. If you want to read a play, The Importance of Being Earnest is also brilliant.

For good horror, I recommend H.P. Lovecraft.

Oh, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is also fantastic. It's one of my favorite books.

NEVER READ ANYTHING BY JAMES JOYCE IF YOU VALUE YOUR SANITY. I'm a Lit major, and I hate him with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.