Recommended Reading/old
From /lit/ Wiki
Fiction
American
Australian
(includes some non-fiction as well)
British & Irish
Chinese
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Guide to Journey to the West translations
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Guide to Romance of the Three Kingdoms translations
French
Italian
Japanese
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100 Works of Japanese Literature
Norse
German
Russian
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Russian lit
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Maksim Gorky - Mother
Spanish
Mexican
General
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Theater/Drama part 1
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Theater/Drama part 2
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Novellas
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Classics
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100 Novellas
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Short Story Collections
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Female writers
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A collection of 'must read' lists.
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Essential Doorstoppers (Unfinished)
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Dystopia & Utopia (Unfinished)
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Essential Poetry Guide
Genre-Oriented Fiction
Science Fiction
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Sci Fi 1
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Sci Fi 3
Horror
Classic Horror
- Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
- Bram Stoker - Dracula
- Henry James - The Turn of the Screw
- Robert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Washington Irving - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Edgar Allen Poe - The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
- Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow
- Matthew Lewis - The Monk
- Charles Maturin - Melmoth the Wanderer
- Ambrose Bierce - Ghost, and Other Stories
20th Century Horror
- Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House
- Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
- Clive Barker - Books of Blood
- Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes
- Stephen King - It, Pet Sematary
- Thomas Harris - The Silence of the Lambs
- Dan Simmons - Song of Kali
- Algernon Blackwood - Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood
- M.R. James - Casting the Runes, and Other Ghost Stories
- Mervyn Peake - Boy in Darkness
- William Hodgson - The House on the Borderland
- H. P. Lovecraft - The Dunwich Horror
New Horror
- Laird Barron - Occultation
- Joe R. Lansdale - The Best of Joe R. Lansdale
- Will Elliot - The Pilo Family Circus
- Edward Lee - Bullet Through Your Face
- Tim Curran - The Devil Next Door
- Dave Brockie - Whargoul
- Joe Hill - Heart-Shaped Box
- China Mieville - King Rat
Fantasy
Epic Fantasy:
- Joe Abercrombie - The blade itself
- R.Scott Bakker - The darkness that comes before
- Steven Erikson - Gardens of the moon
- J.V.Jones - A Cavern of black Ice
- Robert Jordan - The eye of the world
- Paul Kearney - Hawkwood's voyage
- George R.R. Martin - A game of thrones
- K.J.Parker - Devices and desires
- Melanie Rawn - Dragon Prince
- Brian Ruckley - Winterbirth
- J.R.R. Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring
- Tad WIlliams - The Dragonbone chair
- Terry Goodkind - Wizard's first rule
- David Zindell - The lightsone
- Daniel Abraham - A shadow in summer
- Chris Wooding - The braided path
- S.L.Farrell - A magic of Twilight
- Greg Keyes - The Briar King
- Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of The Wind
Urban Fantasy
- Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere, American Gods, The Anansi Boys
- Graham Joyce - The tooth fairy
- R.A.Macavoy - Tea with the black dragon
- Jonathan Carroll - The land of laughs
Swords and sorcery
- R.E.Howard - Conan
- Fritz Leiber - The first book of Lankhmar
- Michael Moorcock - Elric of Melnibone
- Michael Shea - The incomplete nifft
- Jack Vance - Tales of the dying earth
- Karl Edward Wagner - Gods in Darkness
- C.L.Moore - Jirel of Joiry
Entry Level
- Terry Brooks - First King of Shamhara
- Susan Cooper - The dark is rising
- David Eddings - Pawn of prophecy
- David Eddings - The Diamond Throne
- Raymond E.Feist - Magician
- Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman - Dragons of Autumn Twilight
- Margaret Weiss, Tracy Hickman - Dragon Wing
- Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman - Rose of the Prophet
- Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, - Time of the twins
- C.S.Lewis The Lion, - The witch and the wardrobe.
- R.A.Salvatore - Homeland
- Philip Pullman - His dark materials
Coming of age
- Glen Cook The - swordbearer
- Robin Hobb - Assassin's apprentice
- J.V.Jones - The Baker's boy
- Rebecca Bradley - Lady in gil
Historic Fantasy
- David Gemell - Troy
- Guy Gavriel Kay - The lions of Al-rassan
- J.Gregory Keyes - Newton's cannon
- R.A.MacAvoy - Damiano
- T.H.White - The once and future king
- Gene Wolfe - Latro in the mist
- George R.R - Martin Fevre dream
- John M.Ford - The dragon waiting
- Mary Gentle - A secret History
Mystery
- Steven Brust - The book of Jhereg
- Jim Butcher - Storm Front
- Glen Cook - Sweet silver blues
- Barry Hughart - Bridge of birds
- Matthew Hughes - Majestrum
Comic Fantasy
- Terry Pratchet - Carpe Jugulum
- Christopher Moore - Lamb
- Peter David - Sir Apropos of nothing
- Mary Gentle - Grunts
- William Goldman - The princess bride
Weird
- H.P.Lovecraft - At the mountains of madness
- William Hope Hodgson - The house in the borderland
- Clark Ashton Smith - The emperor of dreams
- Jeff Vandermeer - City of saints and madmen
- China Miéville - Perdido street station
Mythic
- Roger Zelazny - Creatures of light and darkness
- Mickey Zucker Reichert - The last of the Renshai
- Jonh Myers Myers - Silverlock
- Steven Brust - To reign in hell
- Poul Anderson - The broken sword
- Michael Scott Rogan - The anvil of ice
Alternate world
- Stephen R. Donaldson - The chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the unbeliever, The mirror in her dreams
- Julian May - The many-coloured land
- Stephen R. Lawhead - The paradise war
- Poul Anderson - Three heards and three lions
- Roger Zelazny - The great book of Amber
Old School
- George MacDonal - Phantastes
- E.R.Eddison - The worm Ouroboros
- Lord Dunsany - The king of elfland's daughter
- Ernest Bramah - The wallet of Kail Lung
- David Lindsay - A voyage to Arcturus
- Charles G. Finney - The circus of Dr.Lao
- Mikhail Bulgakov - The master and Margarita
- Mervyn Peake - Titus groan
Miscellaneous
- Paul Edwin Zimmer - The lost prince
- David Gemell - Legend
- C.S.Friedman - Black Sun Rising
- K.J.Parker - Shadow
- Kate Elliot - King's dragon
- Michael A.Stackpole - Talion revenant
- Matthew Woodring Stover - Heroes die
- Gene Wolfe - The shadow of the torturer
- Tim Powers - The Anubis gates
- John Marco - The Jackal of Nar
- Andrzej Sapkowski - Blood of elves
- Ken Grimwood - Replay
- Glen Cook - Chronicles of the black company
- Patricia A. Mckillip - The riddle-master of Hed
- Sean Ruselss - The initiate brother
- Brent Weeks - The way of shadows
- Jeniffer Fallon - The immortal prince
- John Crowley - Little, big
- Catherynne M. Valente - In the night garden
- M. John Harrison - Viriconium
- Jack Vance - Lyonesse
- Frank Herbert and Brian Herbert: the Dune series
- Dave Duncan: King's Blades series
- David Eddings: Belgariad trilogy
- Piers Anthony: Incarnations of Immortality
Non-Fiction
Philosophy
Classical
Pre-socratics:
- Various - Early Greek Philosophy
- Kenneth Sylvan Guthre - The Pythagorean Sourcebook and library
- Charles H.Kahn - The art and thought of Heraclitus
- Parmenides of Elea - Fragments
- David Gallop - Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments
- John Dillon, Tania Gergel - The Greek sophists
- Empedocles - The extant Fragments
- Various links
On Socrates:
- I.F.Stone - The trial of Socrates
- Aristophanes - The clouds
- Charles H.Kahn - Plato and the Socratic dialogue
- Karl R. Popper - The open society and its enemies
- Gail Fine - Plato on knowledge and forms.
By plato:
(Note made by Isabelle: later translations are usually more accessible. I AM not a fan of Jowett. Since she composed this list I thought it necessary to add this)
- Early Works:
- Apology
- Crito
- Euthyphro (holiness, the Euthyphro dilemma)
- Ion
- Laches (courage)
- Protagoras (the teachability of virtue)
- Gorgias (rethoric vs. philosophy)
- Meno (virtue, Meno's paradox)
- Middle Works
- Parmenides - Forms
- Phaedo (the death of socrates, the afterlife)
- Phaedrus (love and rethoric)
- Republic (politics, the state and the soul)
- Symposium (true love, the 'Ladder of Love')
- Theaetetus (knowledge)
- Later Works
- Critias (Atlantis=
- Sophist (more on Forms)
- Timaeus (the purpose of the universe)
On Aristotle
- David M.Balme - Aristotle on Nature and Living Things: Philosophical and Historical Studies
- Cristopher Shields - Aristotle
- David Furley - From Aristotle to Augustine
By Aristotle
(Another note by Isabelle: Oxford translations are best)
- The Nicomachean Ethics (virtue ethics, leads into Politics)
- Rethoric
- Metaphysics
- Poetics
- Politics
Cynicism
- Farrand Sayre - Diogenes of Sinope: A study of Greek cynicism
- R. Bracht Branham, Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé -The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy
Epicureanism
- James Warren - The Cambridge's companion to Epicureanism
- Eugene O'connor - The essential Epicurus
- Lucretius - The nature of things
Stoicism
(Isabella specified Penguin Classics)
- Seneca - Letters from a stoic
- Epictetus - Discourses and selected writings
- Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Skepticism
- Norman Maccoll - The Greek Sceptics: From Pyrrho to Sextus
- Sextus Empiricus - Outlines of Pyrrhonism
- Richard T. Wallis - Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
- John Gregory - The neoplatonists
- Plotinus - The enneads
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Christian and Medieval
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Modern
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Modern Part 2
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Scientific Revolution
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German Idealism
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Existentialism
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Analytic
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Analytic Part 2
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Postmodernism
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Feminism/Queer Theory