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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
Ray bradbury The Illustrated Man, S is for Space, and October Country...he is one of the masters of the short-story form (along with Somerset Maugham). His novels include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Halloween Tree, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Alistair MacLean -- if you like gripping adventure/thrillers written in high literate style check out Ice Station Zebra, The Black Shrike, The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, Fear is the Key, and a host of others.
Edgar Allan Poe - The Cask of Amontillado, The Telltale Heart, and many others will leave you spellbound. ...he uses a wonderfully elevated style of language to relate them. And don't miss his poetry either, works such as The Raven and Annabel Lee are a must, Joseph Conrad (well, okay, Shakespeare, too,) Lord Jim, The Heart of Darkness, Typhoon, many others.
H.G. Wells' two-volume The Outline of History.
Herman Hesse -- Demian, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf Whew! You scared me there Whittman, until you mentioned Herman Hesse, I thought that you might be me. Whew. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Whew! You scared me there Whittman, until you mentioned Herman Hesse, I thought that you might be me. Whew.Well, then, would it be milO'N or WO'Num?  
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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milO'N or WO'Num
I dunno which is skeerier.
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 8
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 8 |
i don't have a list just "what worked for me" - just read! Read anything that strikes your fancy!
Do you have a favorite topic or genre? Read the diferent authors who write in that area, the different styles and words will show you words at play.
One thing which helped me was books on tape and CD. I would read a word and have an idea of its usage but no clue how to pronounce it!?!
I will share a guilty pleasure, the tape of "Christmas Carol narrated by Patrick Stewart - it is great fun and reminds us not to forget Dickens for words!
Best of luck in your journey
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Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
I grew up on a staple diet of Enid Blytons
Me too - can't explain why they were not popular in the USA, if that's the case. But not everything travels westward well, the British Teletubbies series which is as wierd to an adult as a Dali watch, did well here in the UK but, although it was tried, I saw little evidence of it in the US. Don't know how well The Magic Roundabout worked over there.
To some extent I find the modern 'comic' fantasy writers such as Terry Pratchett, Robert Asprin, Tom Holt, have the same pick-me-up appeal as Enid Blyton.
Incidentally, if you like those guys you MUST try a new writer on the block who calls himself Jasper Fforde (first book is called The Eyre Affair and MUST be read first). To me he seems at least as good as early Tom Holt. Here's one critic's take on it:
"Jasper Fforde tells what happens when bad people visit good literature. Sometimes they change the story or, in the case of Jane Eyre, kidnap Jane and hold her for ransom, leaving Mister Rochester bereft. It is the job of Thursday Next, an operative in the Literary Detective Division of the Special Operations Network in London, to stop literary crimes even if it means she must step into a story to set things right. With the help of her Uncle Mycroft's Prose Portal, through which one can enter the pages of a book, Thursday is able to pursue the villain who holds Jane hostage. Fforde creates a whimsical world with some delightful inventions—bookworms that devour a book and then discuss it, a sarcasm early detection device, translating carbon paper, and lots of literary allusions and puns. This is book lovers' brain candy. (Mary B., Reader's Services)"
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Joined: Mar 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Unieduck, one thing is apparent from this thread, what chadahic says a couple of posts up is dead right. Just grab a book and read it. I've never read a book that I didn't learn something from - even the cheapest pulp, and I've read my share of that!
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I'll add my agrrement to chadahic and dxd about readin whatever catches your fancy - even reading bad writing can be usful, to show you what to avoid!
As for recommendations, no-one has mentioned William Golding, I think. Lord of the Flies, of course, but also The paper man; The Inheritors; and The Spire in particular.
If you would like a run down on British History (and a fair bit of American history, for that matter) which is also written in excellent and approachable English, try Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking people - Wordwind - I would recommend this one for you, too!
If you want very good grammar and punctutation (although of a very old fashioned style) let me point you at Charles Dickens, William M. Thackeray and Anthony Trollope - his Barchester novels in particular.
And good luck!!
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Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
On the other hand Unieduck, history written by fiction writers of insight and genius might be better fare than those written by plodding historians.
The Fall Of Rome ~ R.A. Lafferty
An amazing book. When you finish this book you'll set it down and say, "Wow!".
Brilliant.
Okla Hannali ~ R.A. Lafferty
Although masquerading as a wonderful novel, after you finish reading it you will have more insight into the nature of the conflict between the white settlers and the southeastern american indians during the time of the Trail Of Tears than the many scholars who have written many dull, dry, lifeless books about those times. A careful read will bring you much fun.
The Portugal Story Three Centuries of Exploration and Discovery ~ John Dos Passos
One of the greatest fiction writers of the twentieth century abstracts pivotal events relevant to the evolution of western culture and charges the reader to a clear understanding of when, where, and why. Portugal is the focus but the nature of human behavior is the book.
These books should be available at any library of medium-to-large size.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,549 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,549 Likes: 1 |
Also any of Dorothy Sayers detective stories - Murder Must Advertise could be a good one as it introduces a more muscular Wimsey than one usually pictures, but my favourite is The Nine Tailors. up toward the top of this thread
Just dug out Murder Must Advertise to re-read (the first time was thirty-plus years ago) and once again found it to be a delight, sparkling and witty. As Advertised, of course. And right off found lovely words like
gibus – opera hat, and
captious – likely to find fault, and
dislimned – melted away, from the edges in – the crowd of gossiping goofing-off workers dislimned immediately when the Boss entered the room (used twice, no less)
As well as a couple of words meant to look laboriously and pompously esoteric: "Chrononthologos,” and “Aldoborontophoscophornio” (that’s on p 37 of my old Avon paperback edition, ca. 1968)
And there’s a step-by-step description of a highly mundane event presented with such tongue-in-cheek solemnity as to be hilarious. Haven’t laughed so much at a not-comedy-on-the-face-of-it book since The Mysterious Mickey Finn by Elliott Paul. PS. If you like mysteries and you haven’t discovered Elliott Paul you’re in for a rare treat! At least the first three – Mickey Finn, Mayhem in B-flat, and Hugger-Mugger in the Louvre :-)
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,549 Likes: 1 |
history written by fiction writers of insight and genius
In that category might fall The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey pseud. Elizabeth Mackintosh, about the Mystery of Richard III, or, The Princes in the Tower. One of the best of all time, imho.
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