Before you start in on this list, take note that they have nothing to do with anime. I will not post manga on my list, which is not to say that manga is bad, just not literary enough to make this list. All of the books here have a literary value AS WELL AS being entertaining. I myself am a very picky reader and not too many books make the list unless they are fantasy, even though a lot of these are not. Just a warning . This list will also grow as I remember and find more books to add to it.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelly
Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
Treasure Island - Robert Lewis Stevenson
Homeland* - R.A. Salvatore
Heroes Die* - Matthew Woodring Stover
The Cantebury Tales - Geoffery Chaucer
The Story of My Misfortunes - Peter Abelard
The Lord of The Rings* - J.R.R. Tolkein
Dragons of Autumn Twilight* - Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman
The Sword of Shannara* - Terry Brooks
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Shining - Steven King
Paradise Lost - John Milton (Epic Poetry)
Beowulf - Uncredited Author (This was originally an epic poem from the 8th century. Read it.)
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, The Tempest, and Taming Of The Shrew - Shakespeare
Wizard's First Rule* Terry Goodkind



NOTE: The "*" indicates that the book has a sequel (in some cases, a prequel) as well, so if you liked it, you can keep reading.

Hm, so far I've only read Lord of the Rings, Paradise Lost and Beowulf from your list. I might've read Dragons of Autumn Twilight as well, but I'm not quite sure...
Wanna include something from Shakespeare in the list? He has written some good stuff in my opinion (also I just love the old english it's written in )

2 things:
1) You've actually read Paradise Lost?!?!? I don't meet too many people who have actually read it, but a lot of people have heard about it and know what it's about.

2)I don't know how I forgot to put Shakespeare in that list There are a couple of plays I will put in there now.

You know I have a book Autographed by Margret Weis herself!!

She sent it to me when I was in Iraq.

I so love Margret Weis.

Her Sovereign Stone Trilogy is one of my favorites. I wont even mention the main storyline books of Dragonlance I'm sure you all know those.

Also R.A. Salvatore's The Dark Elf trilogy is the shit! I thought he was a little dry at first when I first start reading the main storyline of the Forgotten Realms series. But when I got into the Dark Elf trilogy I haven't stopped reading them since. Im stil waiting on the next book for that. I hate it when I catch up to the authors!

Yes thats right I do read books!! lol

Souchiro wrote:
I hate it when I catch up to the authors!

I know what you mean Sou. I've been waiting for The Orc King to be released forever and I don't even have it yet I don't have a lot of time recently to read, though, and I've been trying to finish the last Harry Potter and The Cleric Quintet anyway. Hopefully I get it for Christmas

Well I've tried to find more series to get into. But I just love the main storyline Dragonlance and the main storyline Forgotten Realms.

I need to go purchase the latest 2 books from the main storyline of Dragonlance.

Is the new Forgotten Realms out? I'm about to look at wizards website. If so I'm about to be a reading SOB.

The newest Salvatore book is The Orc King and it came out a few months ago. I think August or something like that. It's the first book after the Hunter's Blades Trilogy, which was the newest complete trilogy he did (Thousand Orcs, Lone Drow, and Two Swords)

Yeah I saw that on the website.

Looks like its in hardcover only. And with money so tight I dont wanna drop 25 bucks on a book I'll only read once.

I may break down and get it. Hopefully when that breakdown occurs its in paperback.

I'd prefer to have it in hardcover, personally. I dunno what it is, but there's just something about reading a hardcover book that makes me happy . As for waiting for paperback, I hope you can last a year, since that's how long it usually takes for a paperback version of a book to be released if it's not published that way first

You should read Artemis Fowl (all 5 books), they are unbelievably good books. There is also a graphical novel recently released of the first book (which I got signed by the author when I met him at the anime convention).

You also left out 'The Hobbit', which I'm guessing you read as you've read 'Lord of the Rings'.

yea, I did leave out The Hobbit but I did read it. I actually liked that better than LOTR, but left it out because it was a prequel.

I really liked The Hobbit but I found the LOTR trilogy to be a bit too boring. I stopped reading it in the middle of The Two Towers.

Artemis Fowl books I liked but I think I stopped reading them on the book that had a cyan cover. I think I was waiting for the release of the newer one and during the wait I just forgot about Artemis Fowl.

Hardcover usually takes 2 years I think. Well for popular series it's usually 2 years wait before soft cover comes out.

Yes I reply to posts in backwards order.

I love your book selection Verdeloth! I have not read about half of the books you have listed, but, might I make a recommendation?

Anyone read The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind? I have only read the series up to Chainfire so far T.T

Yes, that's a series that needs to be on the list! Thanks aLchemyst. I'll add it.

Yo add Shakespeare's Macbeth to the reading list.

Macbeth was awesome.

He was Scarface before there was a Scarface.