"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." - George Orwell, "1984" (1949).
Context: I am a huge consumer of media. I read basically webnovels, webtoons, manga, and watch anime. I'm also a self-proclaimed low-IQ reader of exactly what you call the popular tropes and genres (Romance, BL, SOL, Fantasy). I am literally that QUARTER of the average webtoon audience.
I read a lot. I ended up studying, majoring, and graduating with a degree in English Lit. I also taught high school English (Composition, Creative Writing, and Functional English). If you don't believe I am qualified to be telling you what to do, then don't keep reading and click that back button!
My Goal: I think reading more improves your writing! You should learn from the masters themselves! I think if your writing ends up lasting centuries after your death and ends up being a topic of study, it means you've made it big!! This is based on the concept of intertextuality.
This reading list is based on what I personally know and have read. I can't really recommend what I haven't read so take this with a grain of salt! There is a full list here
Epic Fantasy
What defines the following list is a very detailed world with strict laws and systems that all characters in the world abide by. The story focuses on different perspectives from different groups surrounding one major event. Groups may encounter each other during the timeline of the story, or may never meet in their lifetimes. This type of writing plays on the "the reader/audience/viewer is the only one who has all the information" while the characters only hold partial information and move rather blindly in context of the overall story.
Classic: The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Characters of varying races and origins move due to the existence of the Rings.
- Solid world setting including maps, entire languages, and lore.
- Tolkienism is a large field of study within literature.
Modern: A song of Ice and Fire (1996 - ) by George R.R. Martin
- Various groups of different nations are called to action due to the fight for the throne.
Webnovel/Light novel/manga/anime equivalents:
Overlord by Kugane Maruyama
- Technically an isekai fantasy, but MC is a level 90 Lich in a world where most humans are level 30 at most.
- All characters abide by the world system, including MC. Everyone uses the same spells, same skills, same ranking system.
- Novels explore the different perspectives of various nations as they face an unknown entity akin to a god.
- Main character simply exists, and other characters act accordingly to deal with the sudden appearance of a God.
Fate/Stay Night by Kinoko Nasu
- Very strict universe laws and magic system. All character exceptions still abide by the rules set up by the author.
- The different stories of 7 mages and how they act in regards to a large event known as the Holy Grail War.
- Classic battle royale w/ fantasy elements
Young Adult
Usually features teen or child characters. Effective use of this genre involves using the child as the lenses through which the reader discovers the world. Interestingly, YA fiction tends to feature themes such as "antagonistic adults".
Classic: The Hobbit (1937) by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Commonly used as an example of the Epic Hero's Journey
- Was originally written as a children's story, but the vocabulary is clearly much higher than what modern kids are capable of reading.
Modern: His Dark Materials (1995-2000) by Phillip Pullman
Things to read for:
- Only children have special powers. They lose it once they become adults.
- Definition of "adult" as a loss of innocence? Character growth?
- Antagonistic adults: they clearly hold information that children are not aware of
- Ideas of escaping institution and fighting for freedom
- Discovery of another world/dimension
Modern: Harry Potter (1997-2007) by J.K. Rowling
Things to read for:
- School setting for children with special powers, and meeting various creatures at school
- Literally every magic school genre ever with tournaments, rivals, bad teachers, etc.
- Concepts of everyone inherently having a House they are categorized in (fitting into groups)
- Antagonistic adults (teachers, parents' killers)
Webnovel/Light novel/manga/anime equivalents:
Literally any of these "Magic School Anime
Handbooks on Rulership and Royalty
The Prince (1513) by Niccolò Machiavelli
- Machiavelli gets referred to a lot in other literature on what constitutes an ideal ruler in his writing.
- "It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both."
- "The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."
- Good book to look at if you plan to write a political/historical/war/fantasy
The Book of the Courtier (1528) by Baldassare Castiglione
- What skills does it take to be someone worthy of living within the walls of the royal court?
- Covers weird things like language, entertainment, sports, behaviour
- Good reference for writers planning "reincarnated as a prince/princess/emperor's concubine" type stories
Tales of Revenge
Classic: The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) by Alexander Dumas
- The absolute LEGEND when it comes to revenge plots
- There is no greater satisfaction than seeing a decades-long plan finally destroy an entire group of people and all the parts of the wheel start to move
- Edmond Dantes is the OG for "mysterious, handsome, skilled, rich man with a very dark streak"
- Long and difficult with very lofty vocabulary.
Easier version: The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Similar story of revenge where MC plays the long-con to get his revenge on people who screwed him over
- MC is also the "mysterious, handsome, rich, talented man" type
Webnovel/Light Novel/manga/anime equivalent:
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest by Ryo Shirakome
- Well-liked novel series about a snubbed isekai protagonist who vows to get back at the people who left him for dead in a dungeon
- The anime sucks, don't watch it
Politics and Large scale Warfare
Classic: Three Kingdoms (14th century) by Luo Guanzhong
- It's the basis for many novel series that feature war and unrest between 3 powerful kingdoms/empires
Modern: Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1982-1987) by Yoshiki Tanaka
- People either agree it is rather difficult to find holes with the story as it is so tightly written many consider it a "perfect anime", or they don't know this series and pretend they will read/watch it eventually.
- a series of 10 novels
- Sci-fi story of a corrupted democracy in a war against an enlightened monarchy
- themes of idealism versus reality
- reference classic war and historical literature such as The Art of War
Webnovel/light novelManga/anime equivalent:
The Heroic Legend of Arslan (1986-2017) by Yoshiki Tanaka
- manga and anime adaptation available by the artist of Fullmetal Alchemist
- a modern, simplified version of historical large-scale political wars
Marxism and the fate of human society
No matter the setting, it seems like humanity is fated to break into groups of the oppressor and the oppressed (The proletariat and the bourgeousie).
Quick read: Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell
- It's less than 100 pages, no excuses
- Story is told through animal characters who represent major historical figures of communism
- Author used animals as symbols to indirectly convey his discontent with society
Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding
- a group of British school boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves.
- Power dynamics, bullying the weakest sample, the birth of religion
The Horrors of science and Humans attempting to play God.
The Time Machine (1895) by H.G. Wells
- Man creates time machine in order to recover his dead lover.
- He travels to the far, far future where he discovers a futuristic society of 2 species evolved from humans
- More like DEvolved because these humans are very dumb, pacifist and gentle. They live a life of luxury because they were so smart in the past that they ended up creating enough technology to do everything for them and they became useless lumps of flesh with poor brain capabilities
- Some cosmic horror as the man travels to the death of the universe and faces true nothingness as the last star is about to die out.
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1823) by Mary Shelley
- Victor Frankenstein creates a creature made out of dead parts from humans he sewed together
- The monster is super strong, probably immortal, and grossly human shaped but all sorts of wrong proportions and sizes.
- Monster slowly gains intellect as he learns to read, speak, communicate
- Victor regrets creating a living creature (well then why did you attempt to play god and creator???)
- Creature demands a mate, Victor refuses
- Frankenstein's monster is cursed to live forever in loneliness, away from human society since everyone is scared of him and shuns/wants to kill him
- DON'T CREATE A POOR CREATURE AND SUBJECT HIM TO A CRUEL ETERNAL FATE OF LONELINESS
Anime equivalent:
Ghost in the Shell (1995) film
- What does it mean to be human when 95% of your parts have been replaced with cyborg parts?
- Does the soul/consciousness still exist for cyborgs?
- Identity crises for Motoko as she ponders her "shell" versus her "soul"
- Ideas that race does not exist for cyborgs, rather they are created in the likeness of their creators. However, the original brain used has a base culture/ethnicity.
Dystopian fiction
A setting where it seems like all's good, except there's some extremely controlling system or government that limits personal freedom in some way.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell
- Great classic, but very dry and difficult read.
- Big brother's always watching.
Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury
- Easier and more engaging than 1984.
- Another big government system is controlling and watching your every move.
- Those that do not conform are removed or eliminated
Webnovel/light novel/manga/anime equivalent:
Psycho-pass by Production I.G.
- the Sibyl System constantly monitors each citizen's mental state for signs of criminal intent and removes any that are determined to be a threat.
Battle Shounen
Beowulf (700-1000 AD)
Things to watch for:
- Cyclical structure AKA story arcs: Beowulf learns of a new threat to humans, goes on a journey to defeat them. Rinse and repeat
- Grendel as prime rival/relatable villain character. He keeps coming back. Also, Beowulf won't stop mentioning him even after Grendel is long gone.
- Many monsters are compared to Grendel as "this was not as difficult as grendel" or "grendel was much stronger"
- Grendel as a antagonist is a product of society. He is half human, half monster, and was shunned by human society because he looked a bit too monstrous. He grew to despite humans because of this.
- gay ship moments like Naruto and Sasuke levels
--
Sorry if this is very long. I was discussing this with a friend til 2am last night. I also have a lesson on impactful first lines of stories from my teaching notes for creative writing.