I'm currently working on a writing project myself (historical fiction), and I think my writing benefits from being exposed to good, serious writing.
However, some of the navel-gazing lit-fic bores me to tears. Most Booker Prize winners that I've tried just make me want to roll my eyes.
But I'm also not just looking for stuff in the vein of Twilight or Eragon or The Da Vinci Code. I guess I want something "middlebrow" – good, adult writing that nevertheless moves quickly, has smart plotting, sharp dialogue, memorable side characters etc. Prestige TV (Mad Men, The Wire, Shogun, Peaky Blinders), but the novel equivalent.
Here's a little more about my tastes:
I like stuff that's funny (Pride and Prejudice, Catch-22), pacy (Of Mice and Men), or has beautiful world-building (Dracula, Brave New World). In historical fiction, I like "Imperium" and "Pompeii" by Robert Harris. I like film noir/legal movies (Laura, Double Indemnity, 12 Angry Men, The Maltese Falcon).
I dislike stuff like "Saturday" by Ian McEwan, "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" by Roddy Doyle, "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. I almost quit reading after attempting "Great Expectations" as a nerdy 12-year-old.
In fantasy, I like "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George RR Martin, and "The Kingkiller Chronicle" by Patrick Rothfuss. I don't read much sci-fi, but when I was younger I loved the Timothy Zahn Star Wars books. My favorite young adult books were the Skulduggery Pleasant series, and "Discworld" by Terry Pratchett.
Anyway, I basically want good, adult stories that … aren't so self consciously lit-fic. Something good enough to win an award, but wasn't written explicity for that purpose. Stories that show their quality through sharp dialogue, clever plotting, and rich scene-setting, rather than philosophical rumination and oblique prose (what I call "Booker Prize literature"). I'm sure that has its virtues too, but it's just not for me.
I'm basically genre agnostic (and I don't believe that you can divide literature into "good writing" vs "genre writing"), but historical fiction would be especially good since that's what I'm working on right now.
by crossbowthemessenger