Your favorite books

I'm trying to find some good (preferably quick, I'm a sophomore in high school reading Les Mis, so naturally time isn't readily available...) books to read. Any suggestions?


I prefer horror novels (ill devour anything by Stephen king as quickly as possible) but I'm trying to expand my interests and read different genres.

Have you read any of Shirley Jackson's fiction? (King is a huge fan, as he makes clear in one of his books about writing). The Haunting of Hill House is obviously the place to start (which was made, really well, into the movie The Haunting back in the 60s), but We Have Always Lived in the Castle is my favorite.

In regards to modern horror authors, I'm not a huge fan of everything Clive Barker has done, but I think Sacrament, which is sorta a gay horror piece, is brilliant (I seem to be alone in that sentiment among Barker fans, so...).

More gay fiction wise, I'm a huge fan of Alan Hollinghurst and have loved all of his books, but The Swimming Pool Library is probably the best place to start. It was pretty seminal when it came out for being so non apologetic, and still literary and frank (when Hollinghurst finally won the Booker for The Line of Beauty, The Guardian's claimed "Graphic gay sex wins Booker").

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorites.

Also, The Things They Carried by Tom O'Brien is a fantastic read. July, July by O'Brien is good too. Both deal with the Vietnam war.

Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles starts off really strong. The Vampire Lestat is my favorite. Once she gets into the other characters, though, she starts to lose it.

I teach middle school, so understand these are suggestions for people around your age (though books I've read recently)

Les Miserables is actually my favorite book of all time, so enjoy it!

Try The Fault in Our Stars by John Green -- it's a recent book and VERY well written. It's not at all the type of book I would normally read, but it was fantastic.

Also, Every Day by David Levithan is very good. It's strange, kind of sci-fi (ish) but very accessible and enjoyable (though I'm not sure what I thought of the end!).

I would recommend absolutely anything by William Goldman (The Princess Bride, or if you're into big books, Boys and Girls Together).

If you like fantasy, try The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I devoured that one - can't wait to read the next one which is sitting on my shelf.

For horror, try The Passage by Justin Cronin. It's a strange book, to be sure, but it also was a fairly quick read despite its size.

Good luck!

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Tales of the City, at least the first four, are a lot of fun.

I'd echo Jasonf's suggestions, particularly Princess Bride (which is far better than the movie).

The Great Gatsby is classic, and an easy read I think.

Jungle, how far into Rice's Vampire books did you get? I lost it at the fifth--but the first two in particular are really good.

I am into non-fiction books at which there are just far too many to name. I became obsessed with the Spanish civil war period thanks to Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, so that is definitely a favorite. I also devoured In Cold Blood and just about anything by Joan Didion.

But I do like Chuck Palahniuk's fiction (although I think Taz mentioned in another thread that Pygmy is way too much work to put into as a reader), The Sun Also Rises, The Thin Man, A Clockwork Orange, Salinger's Nine Stories, The Catcher in the Rye, of course, and Paul Auster's New York Trilogy.

I love Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

I've read most of Williams plays. Also, most of Albee's.

My favorite biography is The Real Wizard of OZ, about LF Baum.
You can find it here.

Another one of my favorites is American Psycho. Very graphic, but a good character study.

I've always been tempted to read Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty books but I'm just too chicken.

I have always loved Anne Rice's A Cry To Heaven. A historical novel which bears a real similarity to her Vampire Chronicles. It is also not quite as convoluted.

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I can't make good horror recommendations, but you did say you're willing to expand your interests with other genres. My absolute favorite book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, so I would recommend that one first. Otherwise I'd recommend any Julia Alvarez book (In the Time of the Butterflies was my favorite of hers) or Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter. And I know it's required reading for a lot of middle schoolers, but I didn't read Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango street until a year ago (at 25), and would definitely recommend that if you haven't read it.

If you're more interested in short stories, Cisneros also wrote Woman Hollering Creek or you could look for a collection of Elizabeth Spencer's short stories (which would include The Light in the Piazza).

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My favorite book of all time: Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Updated On: 10/14/12 at 09:59 AM

I agree Jason! I teach sophomore English and we read and look at everything! The classics are wonderful, but new classics are being written every year.
read,read, read!!!

The Portrait of a Lady is the best James to read, though as much as I love his work, the endless sentences and writing structure can be rough going at first, and I'd suggest starting with something like The Turn of the Screw--especially for someone who likes King.

AfterEight your choices impress me, especially since you show such little interest in deeper drama when it comes to plays. Poe is a good suggestion, too. But as others have said in this thread, you can get as much out of most modern books--and I think King has proven his worth.

JungleRed, I think I gave up shortly afer Memnoch The Devil (I think that's the fifth one?), though I was so obsessed with them early on that I bought nearly all--including the Witching series. Maybe I'll pick up Blood and Gold.