Recommended Reading/sub

An overview of literature and genre fiction recommended by /lit/.

Literature

By country

Japan
Essential works
The Tale of Genji (11th century) by Murasaki Shikibu	Kokoro (1914) by Natsume Soseki	Rashomon (1915) by Akutagawa	Naomi (1924) by Junichiro Tanizaki	Snow Country (1947) by Yasunari Kawabata
Further recommendations
Classical Literature (until 1600's)	The Gossamer Years (974) by Mother of Michitsuna
	The Pillow Book (1002) by Sei Shonagon
	The Tales of Ise by Anonymous
	Hojoki (1212) by Kamo no Chomei
	Essays in Idleness (1330) by Yoshida Kenko
	The Tale of Heike (1371) by Anonymous
Edo Period (1603-1868)	The Life of an Amorous Woman (1686) by Saikaku Ihara
	Hagakure: the Book of the Samurai (1716) by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
	Four Major Plays (~1720) by Chikamatsu Monzaemon
	Chushingura (1748) by Takedo Izumo, Miyoshi Shoraku, Namiki Senryuu
	Tales of Moonlight and Rain (1776) by Ueda Akinari
Modern Literature (1868-1945)	Ukigumo (1887) by Futabatei Shimei
	Pagoda, Skull and Samurai (1889) by Koda Rohan
	In the Shade of Spring Leaves (1892-6) by Higuchi Ichiyo
	Japanese Gothic Tales (1900) by Izumi Kyoka
	The Broken Commandment (1906) by Toson Shimazaki
	The Quilt and Other Stories (1907) by Katai Tayama
	The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa (1924) by Kenji Miyazawa
	Botchan (1906) by Natsume Soseki
	I Am a Cat (1905) by Natsume Soseki
	The Wild Geese (1913) by Mori Ogai
	The Paper Door and Other Stories (1927) by Shiga Naoya
	During the Rain & Flowers in the Shade (1930) by Kafu Nagai
	Musashi (1935) by Eiji Yoshikawa
	The Makioka Sisters (1943) by Junichiro Tanizaki
	Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1940) by Edogawa Ranpo
Post War (1946-present)	The Counterfeiter and Other Stories by Yasushi Inou
	Palm-of-the-Hand Stories by Yasunari Kawabata
	The Master of Go (1954) by Yasunari Kawabata
	The Setting Sun (1947) by Osamu Dazai
	Fires on the Plain (1951) by Shohei Ooka
	The Waiting Years (1957) by Fumiko Enchi
	Confessions of a Mask (1948) by Yukio Mishima
	The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956) by Yukio Mishima
	Spring Snow (1963) by Yukio Mishima
	Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids (1958) by Kenzaburo Oe
	A Personal Matter (1964) by Kenzaburo Oe
	Black Rain (1966) by Masuji Ibuse
	The Box Man (1973) by Kobo Abe
	The Woman in the Dunes (1962) by Kobo Abe
	Silence (1966) by Shusaku Endo
	The Samurai (1980) by Shusaku Endo
	The Twilight Years (1972) by Sawako Ariyoshi
	Almost Transparent Blue (1976) by Ryu Murakami
	Kitchen (1988) by Banana Yoshimoto
	Norwegian Wood (1987) by Haruki Murakami
	The Elephant Vanishes (1991) by Haruki Murakami
	The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995) by Haruki Murakami
	The Housekeeper and the Professor (2003) by Yoko Ogawa
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Norway
Essential works
A Doll's House (1879) by Henrik Ibsen	The Wild Duck (1884) by Henrik Ibsen	Hunger (1890) by Knut Hamsun	Growth of the Soil (1917) by Knut Hamsun	The Wreath (1920) by Sigrid Undset
Further recommendations
Medieval	Heimskringla (13th century) by Snorri Sturluson
Classic	Brand (1866) by Henrik Ibsen
	Hedda Gabler (1891) by Henrik Ibsen
	Pan (1894) by Knut Hamsun
Contemporary	Beatles (1984) by Lars Saabye Christensen
	Naïve. Super (1996) by Erlend Loe
	Out Stealing Horses (2003) by Per Petterson

Russia
Essential works
A Hero of Our time (1841) by Mikhail Lermontov	War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy	The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoevsky	The Plays of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov	The Master and Margarita (1967) by Mikhail Bulgakov
Further recommendations
19th Century	Dead Souls (1842) by Nikolai Gogol
	Diary of a Madman and Other Stories (1842) by Nikolai Gogol
	Oblomov (1859) by Ivan Goncharov
	Sketches From a Hunter's Album (1852) by Ivan Turgenev
	Fathers and Sons (1862) by Ivan Turgenev
	The Golovlyov Family (1876) by Mikhail Saltykov
	Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy
	Anna Karenina (1877) by Leo Tolstoy
	Notes From Underground (1864) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
	The Idiot (1869) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
	Crime and Punishment (1866) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
	Demons (1872) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
	Woe from Wit (1823) by Aleksandr Griboyedov
	The Collected Stories by Anton Chekhov
	The Collected Stories by Alexander Pushkin
	Lady McBeth of Mtsensk and Other Stories (1865) by Nikolai Leskov
20th Century	Life and Fate (1959) by Vasily Grossman
	Heart of a Dog (1925) by Mikhail Bulgakov
	Doctor Zhivago (1957) by Boris Pasternak
	Quiet Flows the Don (1934) by Mikhail Sholokhov
	The Collected Stories by Ivan Bunin
	We (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin
	Petersburg (1913) by Andrei Bely
	The Foundation Pit (1930) by Andrey Platonov
	Envy (1927) by Yuri Olesha
	A School for Fools (1960s) by Sasha Sokolov
	Invitation to a Beheading (1936) by Vladimir Nabokob
	The Complete Works by Isaac Babel
	Kolyma Tales (1954-73) by Varlam Shalamov
	Today I Wrote Nothing by Daniil Kharms
	Roadside Picnic (1971) by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

By format

Short story collections
Classic
A Parisian Affair and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant	First Love and Other Stories by Ivan Turgenev	The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy	Three Tales by Gustav Flaubert	Dead Men Tell No Tales by Emile Zola
Further classic collections
The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe
The Kruezter Sonata and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy
The Queen of Spades and Other Stories by Alexander Pushkin
Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, 1892–1895 by Anton Chekhov
The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896–1904 by Anton Chekhov
Carmen and Other Stories by Prosper Merimee
Modern
Elephant by Raymond Carver	Dubliners by James Joyce	Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges	Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway	South of No North by Charles Bukowski
Further modern collections
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
In the Heart of the Country by William Gass
Selected Short Stories of William Faulkner
The Return by Andrei Platonov
The Collected Short Stories by Roald Dahl
Contemporary
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace	The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami	Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolaño	The Dog of the Marriage by Amy Hempel	Life After God by Douglas Coupland
Further contemporary collections
How We are Hungry by Dave Eggers
Drown by Junot Diaz
Break it Down by Lydia Davis
No One Belongs Here More than You by Miranda July
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Genre fiction

By genre

Fantasy

Epic fantasy
Essential works
The Hobbit (1937) by J. R. R. Tolkien	The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955) by J. R. R. Tolkien	The Black Company (1984—) by Glen Cook	The Wheel of Time (1990—) by Robert Jordan	A Song of Ice and Fire (1996—) by George R. R. Martin
Malazan Book (1999–2011) by Steven Erikson	The First Law (2006—) by Joe Abercrombie	Mistborn (2006–2008) by Brandon Sanderson	The Kingkiller Chronicle (2007—) by Patrick Rothfuss
Additional works
The Silmarillion (1977) by J. R. R. Tolkien
Shannara (1977—) by Terry Brooks
The Swordbearer (1982) by Glen Cook
The Belgariad (1982–1984) by David Eddings
The Deed of Paksenarrion (1992) by Elizabeth Moon
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