|
|
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 3
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 3 |
Hi all,
Thank you for your advice on how to write better from my October post. Many of you said to read, read, and read so I can get a sense of style from other authors. What do you recommend for a starter like me? eg. authors, type of books so I can improve my word knowledge and usage and be at your level. Thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 122
member
|
|
member
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 122 |
be at my level?? some language regression would be recommended 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I notice nine people ;have read this post, but none have replied. I think the problem is that there is so much available, it is very hard to say where to start. Here is a sample of one reading list on Internet. There must be many more to look at, for ones about improving writing style. http://www.umehon.maine.edu/thesis/reading.htm
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Well I wouldn't be too concerned about choosing books strictly on the basis of their ability to increase my vocabulary or improve my writing style. Rather, I would focus on books that are a joy to read and allow the natural process of learning that follows delight.
Here are some of my favorite books, in no particular order:
Catch-22 by Jospeh Heller.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. A bit weighty in places (I recommend skimming as necessary) but you can't beat a good murder mystery in a medievel monastery that has a labyrinthine library.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Ostensibly a children's book but worthy of an adult's attention as well. It's set in Nazi-occupied Denmark -- very exciting and hard to put down. And on that subject...
The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck. Also about a Nazi-occupied country, this time Norway. A little darker than Lowry's book, this novella can be read in one or two sittings.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer. A creative writing teacher in college once told me that good writing is like a window: you notice the view through the window rather than the pane of glass itself. This is a sort of Hemingway-influenced notion of good writing, and Krakauer's style is in this vein. His book Into the Wild is also impossible to put down. Speaking of Hemingway I just read for the first time...
For Whom the Bell Tolls and loved it.
Another novel set in war, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque is another classic that you'll actually enjoy reading despite Mark Twain's comment on "classics." ("A classic is a book everyone wants to have read but nobody wants to read.")
The poetry of John Donne, such as "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", which can be found in any number of books is moving, clever, beautiful, inspiring, you name it...
William Faulker can be brilliant but also a bit of a chore at times. As I Lay Dying is probably a better starting point than The Sound and the Fury, although I survived having the latter thrust upon me in tenth grade and eventually learned to love it.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is hilarious and and sad and all-around wonderful, even if it kind of loses steam towards the end.
Just about any of the short stories by Edgar Allen Poe are great. I read all of those, and all the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories I could get my hands on in high school.
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving was so good that I started reading it on a Friday night and finished it in time to return the book to its owner Saturday morning at breakfast in the college cafeteria.
The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy is a great read too, and not nearly as corny as The Prince of Tides, although this too I read in about two or three sittings. (One must have his guilty pleasures.)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of my favorite books, and the movie is excellent too.
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger stays popular for a good reason.
Many of Kurt Vonnegut's books also remain popular. I like Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle best but you can hardly go wrong with one of his books.
Reading drama alone is a bit like singing harmony alone, but it can be a pleasure to read a play and then watch it on VHS or DVD, or better yet see live if that is an option. For example, there's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams.
Edward Gorey's macabre quasi-children's books are a great pleasure to read both for their wordplay and engrossing pen-and-ink illustrtations.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Edward Gorey's macabre quasi-children's books
WARNING: Any child that isn't quasi before reading any Edward Gorey bools is liable to become quasi pretty quick while reading them.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I've read many on Alex's list and think he'sprovided a lot of variety there of works that are excellent.
I'll add Truman Capote (short stories; novellas) and Carson McCullers (The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, specifically) to Alex's list.
Also: The dictionary. It's a great read. Column at a time; page at a time; making sure to look at definitions (all of 'em) of familiar words with sometimes surprising definitions you wouldn't have expected.
It's also good to read good writing in areas outside of pure literature. I like finding books on various topics in science at the library, picking out a stack of 'em, and often finding something that is actually well-written. It's not usually inspiring for style, but the information is good to pack away to retrieve at a later date when writing.
Biographies of your favorite writers will help, too, if you can find those that have been well-written.
One area that I've been personally disappointed in is history. I have never read a history book that kept my interest because of the convergence of so many facts and dates and names and places and events and cross-references.... I'd love to find one writer of history who could keep my interest long enough to make it past the first chapter. But I know I wouldn't look at historical novels either.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Barbara Tuchman comes to mind first. That lady was SOME writer!
Bruce Catton. Justin? Foote, also on the Late Unpleasantness.
I can't think of the author, but the guy who wrote Theodore Rex did a GREAT job.
Churchill's voluminous histories.
There's a lot of good stuff out there.
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,533 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,533 Likes: 1 |
One area that I've been personally disappointed in is history. I have never read a history book that kept my interest
Have you tried any of David McCullough's work? As I read Truman it felt more like a novel than a history. The first half, anyway; I must acknowledge that the later parts weren't quite as intriguing. It certainly wasn't any deficiency on the part of the writer, though.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
Barbara Tuchman, absolutely; particularly The Guns of August and A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century (The Black Death, the Hundred Year's War, the Crusades).
>Justin? Foote, also on the Late Unpleasantness.
would that be Shelby Foote's The Civil War? if you're at all interested in the CW, this is the ne plus ultra; the Ken Burn's PBS series was marjorly influenced by this.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
One area that I've been personally disappointed in is history.
Similarly for me. I do like David Landes' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, though.
k
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,316
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
342
guests, and
3
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
