i would like to create a reading list. i’ve spent a great deal of my life reading genre fiction–especially science fiction and fantasy. i’m slowly breaking out of that rut (or groove), and have had some wonderful experiences reading more literary works including chaim potok’s the chosen, kazuo ishiguro’s remains of the day, bulgakov’s the master and margarita, maugham’s the razor’s edge, camus’ the stranger. most of these books were recommended to me by friends (the last one i read because the cure’s song “killing an arab” is based on it). i thought that perhaps you folks out ther could help me put together a long-term reading list.

here’s what i’m looking for: i’m reading partly as a human being who gets happy and hurt and scared, who has ridden the roller coaster of love, who contemplates death and life and the goodness or meaninglessness of it all. i’m also reading as a wannabe artist and writer, looking for cues from The Great Ones. i’m reading less for sheer entertainment value–i have a lot of fun with pulp science fiction and fantasy, murder mysteries, popular thrillers full of heroic lawyers on the run, sex maniacs, sadistic spies, etc., etc. to put it in movie terms, i can track down the schwartzeneggar and jackie chan and lord of the rings movies on my own–i want to hear about the shawshank redemptions, the schindler’s lists, the dr. strangeloves–the kurosawas, the hitchcocks, the kubricks of the literary genre.

that said, i’d like to put together a pretty eclectic list. i’m hoping for a mix of old and new classics, domestic and foreign authors, popular books which everyone loves, out of print and hard to find books which only you seem to know about, books which cause my hope in humanity to soar and those which dash them down to the hard ground. i’m not adverse to genre fiction either–i plan to inclulde at least one book by philip k. dick and some newbery award winners as well. you mormons out there, i’d love to hear about gems of mormon literature as well. they don’t all have to be nobel laureates–i’m just hoping for fiction with some level of depth which has moved you and which you have been able to return to again and again, making fresh discoveries each time.

preliminary entries include faulkner’s the sound and the fury, something by hemmingway (perhaps the old man and the sea), something by rushdie, something by nabokov, and maybe moby dick and kerouac’s on the road.

so please send me your suggestions (you can email me at john@mindonfire.com or simply add a comment to this post), along with a comment or two about why you’re including each work. if i get enough responses, i will cull through all of them and haphazardly throw together a reading list, and then publish it on this site for all to view.

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