Image by The USO, via Flickr Commons I first discovered Stephen King at age 11, indirectly through a babysitter who would plop me down in front of daytime soaps and disappear. Bored with One Life to Live, I read the stacks of mass-market paperbacks my absentee guardian left around—romances, mysteries, thrillers, and yes, horror. It all seemed of a piece. King’s novels sure looked like those other lurid, pulpy books, and at least his early works mostly fit a certain formula, making them perfectly adaptable to Hollywood films. Yet for many years now, as he’s ranged from horror to broader subjects, King’s cultural stock has risen far above his genre peers. He’s become a “serious” writer and even, with his 2000 book On Writing—part memoir, part “textbook”—something of a writer’s writer, moving from the supermarket rack to the pages of The Paris Review. Few contemporary writers have challenged the somewhat arbitrary division between literary and so-called genre fiction so much as Stephen King, whose status provokes word wars like this recent debate at the Los Angeles Review of Books. 

Whatever adjectives critics throw at him, King plows ahead, turning out book after book, refining his craft, happily sharing his insights, and reading whatever he likes. As evidence of his disregard for academic canons, we have his reading list for writers, which he attached as an appendix to On Writing. made to measure curtains medwayBest-selling genre writers like Nelson DeMille, Thomas Harris, and needs-no-introduction J.K. Rowling sit comfortably next to lit-class staples like Dickens, Faulkner, and Conrad. jasper aloe curtainsKing recommends contemporary realist writers like Richard Bausch, John Irving, and Annie Proulx alongside the occasional postmodernist or “difficult” writer like Don DeLillo or Cormac McCarthy. duck egg curtains b&q

He includes several non-fiction books as well. King prefaces the list with a disclaimer: “I’m not Oprah and this isn’t my book club. These are the ones that worked for me, that’s all.” Below, we’ve excerpted twenty good reads he recommends for budding writers. dunelm mill blackout curtain linersThese are books, King writes, that directly inspired him: “In some way or other, I suspect each book in the list had an influence on the books I wrote.” curtains takaniniTo the writer, he says, “a good many of these might show you some new ways of  doing your work.” harrison grommet curtain panelsAnd for the reader? walmart traverse curtain rods

“They’re apt to entertain you. They certainly entertained me.” 10. Richard Bausch, In the Night Season 12. Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky 13. T. Coraghessan Boyle, The Tortilla Curtain 17. Michael Chabon, Werewolves in Their Youth 28. Roddy Doyle, The Woman Who Walked into Doors 31. Alex Garland, The Beach 42. Peter Hoeg, Smilla’s Sense of Snow 49. Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club 53. Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible 54. Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air 58. Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories 62. Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes 66. Ian McEwan, The Cement Garden 67. Larry McMurtry, Dead Man’s Walk 70. Joyce Carol Oates, Zombie 71. Tim O’Brien, In the Lake of the Woods 73. Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient 84. Richard Russo, Mohawk 86. Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy 93. Anne Tyler, A Patchwork Planet Like much of King’s own work, many of these books suggest a spectrum, not a chasm, between the literary and the commercial, and many of their writers have found success with screen adaptations and Barnes & Noble displays as well as widespread critical acclaim.

For the full range of King’s selections, see the entire list of 96 books at Aerogramme Writers’ Studio. Stephen King Turns Short Story into a Free Webcomic Stephen King Writes A Letter to His 16-Year-Old Self: “Stay Away from Recreational Drugs” Stephen King Reads from His Upcoming Sequel to The Shining Stanley Kubrick’s Annotated Copy of Stephen King’s The Shining Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagnessYour browser can't find the document corresponding to the URL you typed in.Photograph: Courtesy Simon & SchusterLA reading list: The Love of the Last Tycoon by F. Scott FitzgeraldFitzgerald's last and unfinished novel (published posthumously), Tycoon perfectly represents the high Hollywood life of the 1930s. Its main character, film exec Monroe Stahr, is said to be modeled loosely on real life film exec Irving Thalberg, the "boy wonder" of motion pictures. Buy The Love of the Last Tycoon on Amazon Download The Love of the Last Tycoon for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy PenguinLA reading list: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler"While we cannot live in the hardboiled Los Angeles of The Big Sleep (and the other Philip Marlowe novels), we can visit that now distant LA through Chandler's words."

—The Last Bookstore Buy The Big Sleep on Amazon Download The Big Sleep for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy AmazonLA reading list: Post Office by Charles BukowskiBukowski, one of contemporary literature's most infamous perverts, alcoholics and ne'er-do-wells, has always painted Los Angeles as a dirty, rotten city with a sweet streak of hope. He gathered his research for Post Office at the Los Angeles Terminal Annex on North Alameda Street downtown, which was the central mail processing facility for LA from 1940 to 1989. Buy Post Office on Amazon Download Post Office for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy PenguinLA reading list: The Day of the Locust by Nathanael WestWest's savage novel illustrates a darker side of the Hollywood dream during the Great Depression, and is widely considered one of the best English-language novels of the 20th century. Buy The Day of the Locust on AmazonPhotograph: Courtesy Joan DidionLA reading list: Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion"Los Angeles will never look quite the same after you have seen it through [protagonist] Maria Wyeth's cool and sorrowful eyes.

—Small World Books Buy Play it as it Lays on AmazonPhotograph: Courtesy AmazonLA reading list: Oil! by Upton SinclairSinclair's writing often blurs the line between fiction and muckraking (case in point, The Jungle exposed such a rotten underbelly of the meatpacking industry in Chicago at the turn of the century, it was one of the deciding factors in the passage of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906). it's written in the context of the Harding administration's Teapot Dome Scandal, which took place up in Kern County. It's a wonderful social and political satire, and no, you don't get to cross it off your list for seeing There Will Be Blood. on Amazon Download Oil! for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy AmazonLA reading list: Bright Shiny Morning by James FreyJames Frey lied to Oprah. He also wrote an amazing book of vignettes about life in LA, including one awesome homage to the city's freeways which makes perfect, poetic sense to Angelenos (and no sense at all to everyone else). Buy Bright Shiny Morning on Amazon Download Bright Shiny Morning for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy AmazonLA reading list: Tortilla Curtain by T.C. BoyleBoyle, winner of the PEN/Faulkner award and Professor of English at USC, chose Topanga Canyon as the setting for this tragicomedy of errors about the colliding worlds of two very different couples. 

Buy Tortilla Curtain on AmazonPhotograph: Courtesy Harper CollinsLA reading list: Ask the Dust by John Fante"We're haunted by the unforgiving hardness of the Downtown LA streets, the longing beauty, the poetic simplicity of the words, the images. We have a quote from the book painted on the floor of our store: 'Los Angeles give me some of you. Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town, I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town.'"—Skylight Books Buy Ask the Dust on Amazon Download Ask the Dust for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy John BuntinLA reading list: LA Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City by John BuntinBuntin tells the story of two men—notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and one of LA's most famous police chiefs, William H. Parker—duking it out for control of a Los Angeles filled with crooked cops, corrupt politicians, gangsters and girls girls girls. Books don't often have taglines, but this one is pretty good: Other cities have histories.

Los Angeles has legends. Buy LA Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City on Amazon Download LA Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy AmazonLA reading list: Less Than Zero by Brett Easton EllisLess Than Zero was Ellis' first novel, published when he was 21 and still in school. Set in Los Angeles in the early '80s, the zeitgeist novel portrays a lost generation who've experienced sex, drugs, power and disaffection at too early an age, leaving them wholly passive and devoid of emotion or hope. Pretty heavy (and well-done) stuff for a college kid. Buy Less Than Zero on Amazon Download Less Than Zero for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy AmazonLA reading list: The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar"This journey from the glittering houses on the hills to the immigrant neighborhoods is a page-turning portrait of contemporary Los Angeles."—Small World Books Buy The Barbarian Nurseries on Amazon Download The Barbarian Nurseries for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy Hachette Book GroupLA reading list: White Oleander by Janet FitchThis beautiful, powerful novel tells of a mother in prison and a daughter who must persevere through a series of Los Angeles foster homes.

Fitch, a third-generation LA native, is incredibly active in the city's literary community and is a faculty member in the Master of Professional Writing Program at USC. Buy White Oleander on AmazonPhotograph: Courtesy AmazonLA reading list: House of Leaves by Mark Z. DanielewskiThis terrifying cult classic—complete with colored and backwards words, vertical footnotes and multiple appendices—has had Danielewski compared to a mix of Stephen King, Vladimir Nabakov and David Foster Wallace (from whom he takes an obvious amount of influence). Don't read it in sight of a long hallway. Buy House of Leaves on AmazonPhotograph: Courtesy FantagraphicsLA reading list: Love & Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez"Arguably the best comics series ever, and it happens to take place in and around Los Angeles."—Secret Headquarters Buy Love & Rockets on AmazonPhotograph: Courtesy Charles FlemingLA reading list: Secret Stairs by Charles FlemingFleming introduced the secret stairs of Los Angeles to the city's masses, which makes him a hero to some and a spot-blowing loudmouth to others.

Regardless of which camp you fall in, his hand-drawn maps, detailed instructions and in-depth research make this book a must for anyone interested in exploring this forgotten bit of LA archictecture (yes, even those of you who've known about the stairs for decades). Buy Secret Stairs on Amazon Download Secret Stairs for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy AmazonLA reading list: Ape and Essence by Aldous HuxleyHuxley's pessimism about the human race is a little overwhelming: If you've recently read Brave New World, give yourself a break before diving into Ape and Essence. Do read it though: Huxley's dystopian, not-so-distant future Los Angeles—in which large-scale warfare and mutually assured destruction has essentially reduced humans to suicidal apes—is a lot more engrossing than it sounds. Buy Ape and Essence on Amazon Download Ape and Essence for your Kindle devicePhotograph: Courtesy AmazonLA reading list: City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles by Mike Davis"We've read over a hundred books having to do with our extraordinary surroundings.