Stephen King’s Reading List Part II

Last month we shared Stephen King’s Reading List for Writers, a collection of 96 books recommended by King in his acclaimed guide, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

When a tenth anniversary edition of On Writing was published in 2010, King included a new reading list. It was published in the afterword with the following introductory note:

At the end of the original edition of On Writing, I listed about a hundred books which entertained and taught me.  The publisher’s suggested I update the list for this new edition, so here are eight-plus more – the best things I’ve read between 2001 and 2009.  As I said in the 2000 edition of the book… you could do worse.

1. Peter Abrahams, End of Story
2. Peter Abrahams, The Tutor
3. Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
4. Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn
5. Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
6. Mischa Berlinski, Fieldwork
7. Benjamin Black [pseudo.], Christine Falls
8. Peter Blauner, The Last Good Day
9. Roberto Bolaño, 2666
10. David Carr, The Night of the Gun
11. John Casey, Spartina
12. Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
13. Lee Child, The Jack Reacher novels, starting with Killing Floor
14. Michael Connelly, The Narrows
    
15. Mark Costello, Big If
16. Michael Cunningham, The Hours
17. Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves
18. Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
19. Richard Dooling, White Man’s Grave
20. David Downing, Zoo Station
21. Andre Dubus, The Garden of Last Days
22. Leif Enger, Peace Like a River
23. Frederick Exley, A Fan’s Notes
24. Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End
25. Jonathan Franzen, Strong Motion
26. Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
27. Neil Gaiman, American Gods
28. Meg Gardiner, Crosscut
29. Meg Gardiner, The Dirty Secrets Club
30. William Gay, The Long Home
31. Robert Goddard, Painting the Darkness
32. Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants
33. Steven Hall, The Raw Shark Texts
34. Mark Helprin, A Soldier of the Great War
35. Charlie Huston, The Hank Thompson Trilogy
    
36. Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke
37. Garrison Keillor (ed), Good Poems
38. Sue Monk Kid, The Secret Life of Bees
39. Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City
40. Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
41. John le Carré, Absolute Friends
42. Dennis Lehane, The Given Day
43. Elmore Leonard, Up in Honey’s Room
    
44. Jonathan Letham, The Fortress of Solitude
45. Laura Lippman, What the Dead Know
46. Bentley Little, Dispatch
47. Bernard Malamud, The Fixer
    
48. Yann Martel, Life of Pi
49. Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
50. Ian McEwan, Atonement
51. James Meek, The People’s Act of Love
52. Audrey Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry
53. Patrick O’Brian, The Aubrey/Maturin Novels
54. Stewart O’Nan, The Good Wife
55. Joyce Carol Oates, We Were the Mulvaneys
56. George Pelecanos, Hard Revolution
57. George Pelecanos, The Turnaround
58. Tom Perrotta, The Abstinence Teacher
59. Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes
60. DBC Pierre, Vernon Little God
61. Annie Proulx, Fine Just the Way It Is
62. Michael Robotham, Shatter
63. Philip Roth, American Pastoral
64. Philip Roth, The Plot Against America
65. Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children
66. Richard Russo, Bridge of Sighs
67. Richard Russo, Empire Falls
68. Dan Simmons, Drood
69. Dan Simmons, The Terror
70. Curtis Sittenfeld, American Wife
71. Tom Rob Smith, Child 44
72. Scott Snyder, Voodoo Heart
73. Neil Stephenson, Quicksilver
74. Donna Tartt, The Little Friend
75. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace 
76. Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Station
77. Robert Warren Penn, All the King’s Men
78. Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger
79. Mark Winegardner, Crooked River Burning
80. Mark Winegardner, The Godfather Review
81. David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
82. Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

For more books to add to your reading list, here’s what Ernest Hemingway recommends.

Follow @A_WritersStudio