My Son The Author

t_obermory

I've been thinking... :rotfl:

Has he read any of the classics? You could try Dickens and there's Guilliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Lord of the Flies by William Golding. If you type Classics into Amazon books it'll come up with a massive list.

If he wants to try different styles of writing there's Virginia Woolf and her stream of consciousness, not my cup of tea but interesting in terms of stylistic differences.

Poetry's wonderful too, I'd go for a general anthology initially the Nations Favourites... are nice collections. Or if he looks up specific authors on the net you can usually access their works online.

For free resources try Google books you can get a lot of free texts on there.

Again hope that helps!

top_drawer_2

What about the millenium collection? all classics, my school library had it given so maybe his school might too?

Fen1

Could you try contacting a few universities and ask for their undergrad reading lists?

As well as getting the actual 'books', he'll also get texts on literary criticism which might help him along. A-level standard lit-crits, such as the York series, are easily available.

Savvy_Sue

I have a couple of prodigious readers - we moved schools when DS2 was 9, and one of their first bits of homework was 'my favourite book': as his teacher said at parents' evening a few weeks later "I haven't had many 9 year olds mentioning Lord of the Rings ..."

Anyway, that one enjoys text books as well as literature - Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics for example at 14. The library would be good for finding 'readable' books about Maths: Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh, for example. Then there are things like Longitude - how sailors solved the problem of knowing where they were. He might really enjoy those sort of historical accounts where there's a real problem, he might even want to try solving it alongside them. At the moment I'm on book two of the Millenium series by Stieg Larsson - which includes someone is trying to solve Fermat's Last Theorem without reading the solution, just for the challenge! - and I know DS2 (now 20) will enjoy that, but parts of the subject matter are perhaps too adult for your son right now (prostitution, drugs and sex trafficking).

HG Wells and Wyndham, yes, biggest problem DS2 had with things like that was people asking if he was enjoying reading these big fat books with small print. Well yes of course he was enjoying it, he wouldn't do it otherwise, would he!

Does he like Sherlock Holmes? What about John Buchan? They're very dated, but they might appeal, there's a very strict 'code' of how one behaves which might appeal.

And Terry Brooks - he's done several series of books, and some are quite Tolkien ish. Excellent author.

elfen

I'll give you mine for first and second year

First year:
Anita and Me - Meera Syal
Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Next (second year)
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Jude The Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Lady Audley's Secret - Mary Elizabeth Bradoon
The Portrait of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde
The Country Wife - Wycherly
The Awakening - Kate Chopin
Catherine - William Makepeace Thackarey
Silas Marner and Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

The plays I've got are:
Complete Works of Shakespeare
She Stoops to Conquer and other comedies
Six Great Modern Plays

Other books I'd reccomend are:
The Hobbit - Tolkien (in fact, any Tolkien book unless he's read them all)
The Green Mile - Stephen King
The Dark Tower (seven book series) - Stephen King (not horror)
Any Terry Pratchett book
As many of the classics as you can find (try Amazon, most are on there for £2)

I've been reading since I was 2, so I'm used to shocking people with my reading material (The best ones were reading a Finnish comic on the plane - had it translated by a friend so referred to that mainly, and that I read books in French and German when I can find simpler ones - try Asterix and for some reason, the book of 8MM).

Think the best thing I've read is the Kalevala (basically Finnish folk tales) but they can be found online if you want to download and print off to book size (it's about 3-400 pages long though!) I still want to read the Iliad, but haven't got round to it. I've read more books than I can remember at first sight - think I got through all the primary ones at 7, so I was left to read what I wanted when I wanted. (And my dad is another avid reader)

[Deleted User]

Oops sorry about that Jamie post earlier.., he must have got at the pc while i was washing up lol.

Thanks so much for the book lists. Some interesting recommendations there.., I'll have a word with him and see what interests him. He's talking about H P Lovecraft at the moment, I don't know him so I'm gonna do some more research tonight.

He tends to like science fiction.., or as u can tell by the fact that he has read Dante.., sort of lurid horror (not blood and guts lurid altho that doesn't affect him like it would me lol.., but the gothic writing style I suppose u'd call it, a heavier more wordy writing style suits him down to the ground). I intend to introduce him to some of the classics if he'll let me as its all different styles. He read the complete works of Shakespeare a couple of years ago lol.., and enjoyed it. The Iliad might appeal as well. Things like John Wyndham is a good one, simply because its a golden oldie style sci fi., but fairly plainly written.

DVardysShadow

deannatrois wrote: »

Oops sorry about that Jamie post earlier.., he must have got at the pc while i was washing up lol.

Hey, don't apologise. He got hold of the keyboard and used it to good effect. Let him loose. You are beginning to get a glimpse of where he can go on his own.

[Deleted User]

this is Jamie again im kinda new to forums i have had to learn alot and i hope i show respect, have to admit my spelling is terrible alot of the stuf i write is insired by HP Lovecraft I like his style of gothic writing i love his cthulhu novels and i want to get into the pen and paper game based of cthulhu all my life i have dealed with people calling me a retard and having to put up with chavs and the like just skim my facebook page (its Meh) so its nice to have some smart people compliment my work anyway i hope you are doing well with whatever money saving stuff you are doing

JoJoB

Hi Jamie, if you like sci-fi you might be inspired by Philip K !!!!!!'s writing - very strong on various notions of reality, which might appeal as a Lovecraft devotee. Vonnegut is also worth exploring!

[Deleted User]

Cripes I have to password this pc lol

Oh dear he makes me so proud lol.