what should we read, were we enlightened as you

My favorite book, I'd have to say is The Giver by Lois Lowry. The author did such a great job using description. I don't know how to explain it any further with out giving spoilers but it's definatly my favorite.

Also, when you said "new authors" it made me think of some friends of mine. They are writing a series called The Forbidden Bloods Series. It's about two twin girls that found out they're a witch and a vampire and now they have to go to a school specially for vampires, witches, shapeshifters, and werewolves. They've recently published the first book on createspace called Silent Screams and it's by Grace Charlton and Evelyn Burdette. I bought it and thought it was pretty awesome. If you want to know more let me know and I'll get you the links to their sites and stuff.

I just read Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. It's around 20,000 words, super short, has a pretty dress on the cover, and is probably one of the most emotionally draining books I've ever read. Holy HECK is it powerful. The subject matter isn't good to talk about with that little "all ages" sun dancing at the top of this forum. If you're curious, look it up. There are plenty of places online with a blurb.

Anyway, it's just crushing. The writing's stellar, of course, but the subject matter and what happens just sucker punch you. Nothing is graphic, but it's there, it's raw, and it's horrible.

Such a powerful book.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is my annual read. Yes, I do read that book every year. It has everything I like in it: mysteries, gods, riddles, cons, love, a cat, etc. It contains mature elements, but I think it's a perfectly agreeable read for a high schooler (and up).

Right now I'm reading The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. I have not made it very far into the novel, but I can already see why Gaiman loves him: Writing and wit came to this man so naturally!

To victory!

Atlanta Nights by Travis Tea. Absolutely the worst book I have ever read. It even beat out Double Exposure (not that one, the other one), Naked Came the Manatee, and just about anything by Robin Cook. However, since it was fully intended to be that way, it actually demonstrates a level of creative genius to which we should all aspire during the month of November... and it serves as an important lesson regarding proper writing techniques and the ins and outs of the publishing industry. Like The Eye of Argon, this book needs to go down on the reading list of anyone who is an aspiring writer. Way down on the list. Near the bottom.

Adjectives on the typewriter
He moves his words like a prize fighter
The frenzied pace of the mind inside the cell
-Cake

there's always at least one apple in the bunch

j. med ward - while I applaud your tenacity at slogging through some of those - I mistakenly read the manatee one waiting for all these newspaper and other funny people to make the story funny - I want to have people share books that they thought were awesome

ahhhh. awesomely good. my mistake. I see.

well, if you've been rolled chaotic good or chaotic evil, like J - I was looking for books that you'd recommend to me and other people to read because you liked them.

while there is room on the shelf for awesomely bad or examples of what not to do - I want a different sort of entertainment.

mike

A really great quick picture book to read is Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus by Mo Williams. He illustrated it as well which is the best part. Why, then, am I suggesting it to a group of writers? Besides the fact that it's about a super funny OCD pigeon...the story behind the story is just as good. Mo Williams was having trouble coming up with something to write for his next book. He drew a picture of a smart ass pigeon who mocked his inabiltiy to be creative. After days with no successful writing seeds, he found the pigeon's voice in his head constantly speaking to him. The lightbulb went off, he stopped fighting the unorthodox idea stocking him and the pigeon books were born (he has several now)

I use the pigeon to spur me on when creativity becomes too elusive and to remind me that good ideas can be right in front of you if you only adjust your vision just a bit. Not to mention the pigeon is hilarious and such a sweetheart!

writermama3

WriterMama3

Uh...if I fully answered this, we'd be here till the TGIO party -_-

But for a good book I've read recently, I would heartily recommend Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, and the sequels as well. She has an easy, whimsical style; I found myself tearing through her books with incredible speed (and for a hardcore bookworm like me, that's saying something). Basically, she takes the magical land where fairy tales come from and kind of turns things on their head. In Howl's Moving Castle, the main character is the eldest daughter, who is certain that nothing interesting will ever happen to her because it's always the youngest daughters who meet handsome princes and go on exciting adventures. That, of course, is before she gets a curse put on her and ends up living in the hovering castle of the dangerous wizard Howl.

It's a highly enjoyable read, and all the characters are great (not a cliched one of the bunch). I long to be able to write like her.

All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They're not supposed to be.
- Patricia T. O'Conner

I'm actually a faithful Absolute Write member, from the forums where that what one might be able to call a "book" in some situations was spawned. Atlanta Nights is wonderfully horrid. A very bad read all around.

Oh, but see I still recommended Atlanta Nights as reading material (not the others - they were bad without the benefit of even serving as a good bad example). So even though it might only be called a book in the technical sense that it's a bunch of pages between two covers, when read in the context of its original publication (attempt), it's rather quite hillarious. At times, I laughed so hard I cried. Of course, there were others where I cried so hard I laughed. And at least one chapter gave me a headache. However, I do see your point, sir, and perhaps the gist of the lesson could be learned simply by skimming that one as opposed to a thorough read. I doubt you'd miss much.

Alas, as for other reading material, I doubt I have a whole lot to add to this conversation. I've been limited recently to the Civil Engineering Reference Manual and numerous titels by Sandra Boynton - Fifteen Animals! is a classic, but I'm still partial to Hippos Go Berserk. I think next on my personal reading list is going to be Pride and Prejudice and Zombies but it might be a while before I get to that one. I'll let you know how it turns out though.

*returns to lurking*

Adjectives on the typewriter
He moves his words like a prize fighter
The frenzied pace of the mind inside the cell
-Cake

I jumped on the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao bandwagon this summer. And Edwidge Danticat won a MacArthur Fellowship for a reason - anything of hers is awesome. Other than that, I've only been reading scriptwriting books the past few months, so I've got nothing.

Oh wait! I read Cat's Cradle. As a longtime KV fan, I recommend it. Of course.

Ah, you misunderstand. Atlanta Nights is thoroughly enjoyable and I, too, find it hilarious. The comment might have been confusing, but it was intended to sing the praises of a scathing lesson in the form of a book.

what else?

anyone read non-U.S. authors? preferably with english translations - but you can shout out if you read Coehlo in Portuguese if that's what gives you positive strokes.

Who knows some amazing Asian or African authors?
Danticat is from Haiti, I think but grew up in NY.
Anyone else the rest of us should make note of - pick up to read during a reward for hitting a 1000-word milestone - or read after the final second of November is passed?

even if you're not reading them now - but have enjoyed them in the past.

thank you in advance
mike

A month or so ago, I found online a book called Shahname, which is a book about Persian legends about the ancient kings and heroes like Rustem and Kai Khosrau. It's translated into English, in such beautiful words that it makes you float around happily for hours afterward (or at least I did). You can easily find it online (legally) for free; just google "shahname", and you're bound to find it. If you like myths that you're probably not very familiar with, you'll love this. I happen to love Middle Eastern culture, so this was right up my alley.

And my favorite non-English author is Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentinian author who wrote a bunch of weird, abstract, but incredibly cool short stories. My favorite is "The Library of Babel," which basically uses a labyrinthine library as a metaphor for the universe. Now is that cool, or what?

All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They're not supposed to be.
- Patricia T. O'Conner

I must recommend The Great Good Thing, which I read last year in nibbles as my computer was loading up at write-ins. (BIG nibbles, okay?)

It's a charming self-referential children's book, in which the characters have to cope with not being read for years. The main character, Princess Sylvie, who knows her lines by heart, finds that she can step off the margin of her book, and into a Reader's dreams. An interesting way to think about characters behind the scenes.

Scorpio

good reads:

anything by audre lorde (Caribbean-American) writer and poet.

anything by bell hooks ("Talking Back" is my favorite)

"wolf alice" by angela carter (frighteningly WONDERFUL short story)

sandra cisneros (particuarly her poetry)

elie weisel's "Night" (get the audiobook...it is 4 discs and beautifully narrated)

isabelle allende's "House of Spirits"

2008 NPR article "Foreign Authors You May Not Know"...looks interesting:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/daydreaming/2008/10/great_foreign_authors_you_m...

Skokie Public LIbrary's list of Adult Fiction books by Hispanic authors:
http://www.skokielibrary.info/s_read/rd_find/rd_lists/HispanicAuthors.as...

Jefferson County Libarary for Asian fiction and non-fiction:
http://jefferson.lib.co.us/pdf/Asianlist.pdf

Virginia Public Library's list of contemporary British Authors and Novelists:
http://www.virginia.lib.mn.us/british_novelists.PDF

Library List of books by foreign authors:
http://fc.sad57.k12.me.us/~marcia_pitcher/Classes/senior/foreignlist.pdf

GoodReads.com Popular Foreign-Author books (list of 404 books!)
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/foreign-authors

Amazon.com's 100 Greatest Books of World Literature:
http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Books-World-Literature-part/lm/R2LKMX1FD1...

"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive." ~Audre Lorde

I somehow forgot about my Hellboy marathon this summer - all of the comics are great, but you do need to read them in order.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. A book by a woman whose father was a historian. It concerns a very authentic historic inquiry into the history of Dracula which takes place in Transylvania, Istanbul and other exotic locales. WARNING: it is nearly unput-downable, so may not be recommended for this month.

The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker. It's about a woman who remembers all of her various reincarnations. Creates a very descriptive and lush environment.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Marquez is a master of magical realism. The book is set in South America and follows a love story over a lifetime. The writing is descriptive and beautiful. Another book to get lost in.

I like these three because they create a world that is both internally and externally compelling and consuming.