Recommendations from the Dojo

In which I ask writers what I should read.

In the latest WriterDojo episode (Season 5 Episode 11 to be exact), Steve Diamond and Larry Correia touched on the idea of reading outside your genre.

Image by Polina Zimmerman

Well… they were relentlessly mocking someone who recommended the exact opposite of that, but, you know. They eventually moved on to explain why reading outside of your genre is important.

That commentary got me thinking. What am I missing? So I did what any reasonable person would do: I turned to the denizens of the WriterDojo group on Facebook to help me out. I asked them:

If I had the time to read one romance, one western, one hard boiled detective, one true crime, one biography, one history, or one... wherever... what would you recommend?

A good four dozen people jumped in to comment and leave some amazing recommendations and insight. I’m going to dive into the author and book recommendations that came from all these folks. Some I’ve read, and some I haven’t. Given that Facebook is… not the place I would chose to keep a list like this, I decided to pull it into a blog post and add some links.

So, without further ado: let’s check out…

The WriterDojo Recommended Reading List!

Among the comments were a couple of quotes about the suggested reading that I wanted to highlight. Devon, Jesse, and Desiree make a great point about reading to expand your overall understanding of literature that were very worthwhile:

Devon E. - "Read something that you have always assumed was bad because it was populist junk about a silly subject.. Don't put them down until you can explain their popularity in some way that doesn't involve readers being stupid or having no taste."

Jesse S. - "... the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer (along with Shakespeare,) are almost incalculably influential on anything written in English."

Desiree J. - "Ditto on KJV and BCP. And fluency with these books will up your game for writing formal, ceremonial language...

Worth calling out because those are not the usual sort of recommendations you would see, I think. Definitely worth considering when you look at expanding your reading into something new, though.

Do you have an essential author or book you think should be added to this list?
Leave a comment and let me know!

General Reference

• King James Bible

• The Book of Common Prayer

• The Riverside Shakespeare

Alternate History

• Harry Turtledove

  • The Guns of the South

  • Worldwar series

Biography

• Stephen Ambrose - Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors

• Frederick Douglass

  • The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

  • My Bondage and My Freedom

  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

• Benjamin Franklin - The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

• S.C. Gwynne - Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson

• Louis L'Amour - Education of a Wandering Man: A Memoir

• Samuel W. Mitcham - Bust Hell Wide Open: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest

• Edmund Morris - Theodore Roosevelt series

• Gary Paulsen - Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod

Dark Fantasy

• Joe Abercrombie - The First Law Trilogy

• Christopher Buehlman - The Blacktongue Thief

• Glen Cook - Chronicles of the Black Company

• Tim Powers - pretty much anything, really

Hard boiled/Noir

• Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep

• Dashiell Hammett

  • The Continental Op

  • The Maltese Falcon

  • Red Harvest

• Robert B. Parker

  • The Godwulf Manuscript

  • The Spenser series

• Richard Stark - Firebreak

Historical fiction:

• Graham Greene - The Quiet American

• Gary Jennings - Spangle

• Michael Shaara - The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War

History

• Peter Ackroyd - Foundation: The History of England, Volume I

• Stephen E. Ambrose - Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869

• Warren H. Carroll - The Building of Christendom, 324-1100: A History of Christendom (Volume 2)

• Bernard B. Fall

  • Street Without Joy

  • Hell In A Very Small Place

• Samuel Pepys - The Diary of Samuel Pepys

• Michael Grant

• The Great Courses

• Dan Jones

• Tom Holland - Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

• Jean Larteguy - The Centurions

• Loeb Classical Library

• David McCullough - The Wright Brothers

• Steven Pressfield - Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

• Jane Smiley - The Sagas of the Icelanders

• Michael Watson - Hunting in the Shadows: Borneo and South Vietnam 1964-1968

Horror:

• Peter Watts - The Firefall series

LitRPG:

• Pirate Aba - The Wandering Inn series

• Shirtaloon/Travis Deverell - He Who Fights With Monsters series

• Matt Dinniman - Dungeon Crawler Carl series

Mystery/Thriller:

• Michael Chrichton

• Agatha Christie

• Tom Clancy

• Tony Hillerman - the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series

• John D. Macdonald

  • the Travis McGee series

  • The Deep Blue Goodbye

  • The Green Ripper

• Jo Nesbo - MacBeth

• Ellis Peters - The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael

• J. D. Robb - the In Death series

• Dorothy L. Sayers

• Scott Turow - Presumed Innocent

Romance:

• Jane Austen

  • Pride and Prejudice

  • Persuasion

• Renee Collins - Until We Meet Again

• Elizabeth Gaskell - North and South

• Georgette Heyer

  • Venetia

  • Lady of Quality

  • Faro's Daughter

  • The Masqueraders

  • Sylvester: or the Wicked Uncle

  • The Grand Sophy

• Laura Kinsale

  • The Shadow and the Star

  • The Prince of Midnight

  • Flowers from the Storm

• Lynn Kurland - Stardust of Yesterday

• Tiffany Roberts

• Katie Shepherd - Bear With Me Now

Space Opera

• Lois McMaster Bujold - the Vorkosigan saga

True Crime

• Forensics Files (TV show)

• David Grann - Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Western

• James Warner Bellah - Ordeal at Blood River

• Louis L'Amour

  • Sacketts series

  • Hondo

  • Last of the Breed

• Elmore Leonard - The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard

Did I miss something? Join the conversation and let me know!