Uno de los maestros de la literatura del suspenso y el terror, Stephen King, recomendó casi un centenar de libros que todo escritor deberían leer, en base a su experiencia personal.
El autor de éxitos como It, Misery y El Resplandor presentó una lista de los 96 libros que lo ayudaron en su carrera. Cabe aclarar que se trata de títulos publicados en los últimos años y prácticamente todos son en lengua inglesa.
Sorprende la versatilidad de King ante esta lista, ya que oscila entre El Paciente Inglés (The English Patient), de Michael Ondaatje, y tres de los libros de la saga de Harry Potter. "Estos son los mejores libros que leí en los últimos años, y sospecho que cada de uno de ellos tuvo algún tipo de influencia en lo que fui escribiendo. Mientras leas la lista, recordá que no soy Oprah y este no es un club de lectura, simplemente son los libros que funcionaron para mí", reseñó.
Peter Abrahams, A Perfect Crime
Peter Abrahams, Lights Out
Peter Abrahams, Pressure Drop
Peter Abrahams, Revolution #9
James Agee, A Death in the Family
Kirsten Bakis, Lives of the Monster Dogs
Pat Barker, Regeneration
Pat Barker, The Eye in the Door
Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
Richard Bausch, In the Night Season
Peter Blauner, The Intruder
Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
T. Coraghessan Boyle, The Tortilla Curtain
Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods
Christopher Buckley, Thank You for Smoking
Raymond Carver, Where I’m Calling From
Michael Chabon, Werewolves in Their Youth
Windsor Chorlton, Latitude Zero
Michael Connelly, The Poet
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
K.C. Constantine, Family Values
Don DeLillo, Underworld
Nelson DeMille, Cathedral
Nelson DeMille, The Gold Coast
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
Stephen Dobyns, Common Carnage
Stephen Dobyns, The Church of Dead Girls
Roddy Doyle, The Woman Who Walked into Doors
Stanely Elkin, The Dick Gibson Show
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Alex Garland, The Beach
Elizabeth George, Deception on His Mind
Tess Gerritsen, Gravity
William Golding, Lord of the Flies
Muriel Gray, Furnace
Graham Greene, A Gun for Sale (aka This Gun for Hire)
Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana
David Halberstam, The Fifties
Pete Hamill, Why Sinatra Matters
Thomas Harris, Hannibal
Kent Haruf, Plainsong
Peter Hoeg, Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Stephen Hunter, Dirty White Boys
David Ignatius, A Firing Offense
John Irving, A Widow for One Year
Graham Joyce, The Tooth Fairy
Alan Judd, The Devil’s Own Work
Roger Kahn, Good Enough to Dream
Mary Karr, The Liars’ Club
Jack Ketchum, Right to Life
Tabitha King, Survivor
Tabitha King, The Sky in the Water
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Bernard Lefkowitz, Our Guys
Bentley Little, The Ignored
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence
Cormac McCarthy, Cities of the Plain
Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing
Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes
Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
Jack McDevitt, Ancient Shores
Ian McEwan, Enduring Love
Ian McEwan, The Cement Garden
Larry McMurtry, Dead Man’s Walk
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Zeke and Ned
Walter M. Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz
Joyce Carol Oates, Zombie
Tim O’Brien, In the Lake of the Woods
Stewart O’Nan, The Speed Queen
Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient
Richard North Patterson, No Safe Place
Richard Price, Freedomland
Annie Proulx, Close Range: Wyoming Stories
Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
Anna Quindlen, One True Thing
Ruth Rendell, A Sight for Sore Eyes
Frank M. Robinson, Waiting
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Richard Russo, Mohawk
John Burnham Schwartz, Reservation Road
Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy
Irwin Shaw, The Young Lions
Richard Slotkin, The Crater
Dinitia Smith, The Illusionist
Scott Spencer, Men in Black
Wallace Stegner, Joe Hill
Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Anne Tyler, A Patchwork Planet
Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
Donald Westlake, The Ax
Fuente: La Cosa Cine