Any aspiring storyteller must realize and adhere to the following rule: If you want to write stories, you must read a lot and write a lot.
On an abstract level, this seems like simple common sense. To be good at something, you must do it. Practice makes perfect, and you lose it if you don’t use it. You learn a trade both by doing it and seeing how others do it. You make mistakes and learn from them. You see how others operate, learn from their experience, but you don’t always agree with their methods. If you were the one calling the shots, you would do it this way instead.
This is certainly true of storytelling. The problem hits the young author early on. If learning to write means reading the works of others, then what should we read? There are so many books out there, and a lot of them are boring, stupid, poorly-written, or otherwise not worth our time. We want to read good stories, so we can learn how good storytellers do their jobs.
Keep in mind that learning isn’t solely comprised of seeing something done right. Some of our greatest lessons come from the royal botch jobs. We see something disgusting, trite or offensive, and we know, deep inside, that we could do better.
This is why the lesson of reading is twofold. You learn how to do it right, and how to avoid doing it wrong. To that end, I offer this list of books. For those of you who seek reading material, so that you can learn the trade (or if you’re just looking for something to read), take a look at my selection. Some I genuinely enjoyed, and others I list only because they taught me something about storytelling. I won’t say which are which, because my tastes in books are bound to be different from yours.
Books are organized alphabetically by author’s last name, and under each author books are listed in the order I read them. I make no comment about the book’s content or quality (except to note if a listed book is nonfiction). I will update this list as I read new books that I consider worthy to be added to my catalogue of recommended reading.
As for where to get the actual books, I suggest using Google, or browsing Barnes and Noble or Amazon. Or hop down to your local library and get on friendly terms with your librarian.
One final note. If you want to recommend a book or two to me, then please do. Send me an email with the author and title, and if I haven’t already read the book you’re suggesting, then I’ll look it up and give it a try. If I like it (either for the reasons of “this is a good story” or “this taught me something”) then I’ll post it in my recommended reading list.
There are two exceptions. Please do not recommend to me anything by J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer, for reasons of let’s just not go there.