Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale

Why? It's a frightening experience to watch a woman with a family, career, and independence lose her identity when [a Christian fundamentalist] goverment takes over and creates 3 classes of women: wives (with social status), handmaids (who breed), and aunts (who are the rest  - teachers/enforcers). Another one that just stuck with me. - Jen Kuehne

I'll second this one. I'm in the middle of reading it right now, but I'm enthralled! It really is a frightening look at America, if the Fundamentalists take over America. Very 1984-ish, and very good. - Grimm

Bellairs, John
The House With A Clock In Its Walls

Block, Francesca Lia
Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books
The Hanged Man

Borges, Jorge Luis
Labyrinths

Bradbury, Ray
Farenheit 451
Death is a Lonely Business

A mystery, a noir thriller, a horror novel and an earthy drama all at once about a struggling writer who witnesses a seemingly random series of deaths and tries to convince himself that nothing bad is happening. - Darren McKeeman

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth
Lady Audley's Secret

A female response to Wilkie Collin's The Woman in White. Just goes to show that sweet little innocent Victorian angels were not all that men thought they were. - Twilight

Bronte, Charlotte
Jane Eyre

This is _beautifully_ written, very romantic (and not in a silly, floofy way), and the title character is very real and believable and, once again, I could identify with her. - ~E.V.

Bronte, Emily
Wuthering Heights

A book about passionate love which even death cannot conquer *hand, staple,forehead* which is notable because the protagonists are not particularly likeable people. Goes into themes of class structure and revenge, as well. I prefer this one to Jane Eyre; with the exception of a ghostly incident or two, it is a much more plausible story overall. And so beautifully written. - ed.

Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita

Byatt, A.S.
Possession

Calvino, Italo
The Castle of Crossed Destinies
If on a winter's night a traveller...

Carroll, Jonathan
Bones of the Moon
Outside the Dog Museum
Sleeping in Flame
From the Teeth of Angels
The Marriage of Sticks

Carter, Angela
Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories
The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman
     (aka The War of Dreams)
Love

A short novel (120pp) novel about a young teacher in an English university town who meets and marries a mentally unstable teenage girl. When the teacher's eccentric and violent younger brother returns to live with them, and the teacher's affairs with other women become public knowledge, the wife's mental illness takes over. This is a very nasty book - nobody is remotely sympathetic - I think I've read it at least five or six times. ;) - ed.

The Magic Toyshop
Nights at the Circus

Conrad, Joseph
Heart of Darkness

It changed how I looked at the good and evil in humanity, and really opened my eyes when I was in high school. - faile alizarine

Coupland, Douglas
Generation X
Microserfs
Shampoo Planet

Just found myself a remaindered hardcover copy and am rereading this for the second time. It's not my favorite Coupland piece, but it's still quite worthwhile. - Christabel LaMotte

Davies, Robertson
Rebel Angels
What's Bred in The Bone
The Lyre of Orpheus

Yah, so it's a trilogy.... it's more like one big, long book. Straight fiction, it's about art and education and people, and they're bloody wonderful. - Leanan Sidhe

Dinesen, Isak
Out of Africa
Winter's Tales

Dunn, Katherine
Geek Love

This is a book that took me a while to know if I liked or not. It's fascinating, disgusting, and fantastically real. If you like "real-life" stories of carnies, genetic mutations, and a mother's love, this is the novel for you. - Twilight

Eliot, George
Middlemarch

This book is 800 pages long. It is also funny, sad, absorbing, heartwrenching, and likely to make you say things like "Dammit, Rosamund, you bitch!" and cause people to look at you funny. Virginia Woolf (I think) called it "a novel for grownups," which it is. This is a book to be savored and digested. - rufus

Faulkner, William
Absalom, Absalom
The Sound And The Fury

The master of the Southern Voice. I don't believe the depth and character of Yoknapathwa (sp?) County has been matched by any english language author. He grants every character, whether they are the protagonist or an accessory, a life and breath that is fully believable. The tragedy of life, the frailty of the heart, and the constant struggle for humanity - this is what Faulkner brings with his writing. No one has done it better: at least, not in English. - L. Melancon

Follett, Ken
Pillars of the Earth

It's way up there on my book list, and it's something like 950 pages, and I've still read it nine or ten times, I think. It's about the politics and nuances of life in the Middle Ages (around 1100) and the building of a cathedral. It's the kind of book you don't put down. Plus it has one of the best opening lines ever... "The small boys came early to the hanging." - eloquence

Quite possibly the best, most intricate piece of historical fiction ever to hit the NY Times best-seller list. The medieval story of the construction of a Cathedral and the lives connected to it, spanning 3 generations. - Raphrat

Forster, E.M.
Howards End
A Room With A View

It's sharp, very witty, every time I read it I find another nuance I haven't noticed before. The language and story are beautiful. It's one of my favorite movies as well. It's one I've read about nine or ten times, when I'm feeling really depressed. - eloquence

This is one of my favorite books, as well... it's about a girl who meets an unconventional young man while on a trip to Italy in the early 1900s. When they return to England, she becomes engaged to an upstanding and well-meaning but hopelessly dull prig, but very soon things that happened while she was in Italy start to interfere with her engagement, and she finds herself having to choose between the two men. It is *oh* so swoony and romantic, but makes some good points about relationships and independence as well. - ed.

Fraser, George MacDonald
The Pyrates

I'm a longtime fan of his other work (the inimitable Flashman novels and his Highland regiment short stories) and have heard many recommendations for this particular novel over the years. Well, I'm currently in the midst of it, and they were all right -- it is the most over-the-top, uproarious, hysterical swashbuckling piece of derring-do I've seen in ages. - Christabel LaMotte

Fry, Christopher
The Lady's Not For Burning

Fry, Stephen
The Hippopotamus
The Liar

Gira, Michael
The Consumer

This book is a collection of what Michael Gira refers to as his "fairy tales." Written at different times and at different junctures... this book is, if nothing else, a collection of some very grim situational satire and random malignant thoughts on life and love. If you liked Animal Farm... you'll LOVE The Consumer. It's a nice walk through the corridors of the former SWANS' mind. - The Lighthouse Keeper

Golden, Arthur
Memoirs of a Geisha

Graves, Robert
I, Claudius

Hawthorne, Nathaniel
The Scarlet Letter

Classic and devastating in a weird puritanical sort of way. The movie should be banned because it is awful. - Ash

Twice-Told Tales

A collection of somewhat Poe-like gothic tales. My personal favorite is "Rappaccini's Daughter", which is about a botanist who experiments with poisonous plants, his beautiful daughter, and a young man who falls in love with her. - ed.

Helprin, Mark
A Soldier of the Great War

Homes, A. M.
The End of Alice

Disgusting book about a pedophile in jail and his correspondance with a 19-year-old girl obsessed with a young boy. Well-written and fascinating. - Opium Poppy Fields

Hornby, Nick
High Fidelity

This book was hilarious. Until now, I had never read a book written by a man that so perfectly describes this semi-pathetic, semi-pitiful stage in a record store owner's life. It gave me insight into the male mind, which is strange, since men have a tendancy to clam up when it comes to talking about "feelings." I think it's being made into a movie, with John Cusack as the starring role. I couldn't picture any other actor playing the protagonist. - Ulalme

What happens when the perpetually adolescent yet somewhat-over-thirty owner of a British indie record store is dumped by his longtime girlfriend? He muses on their relationship and begins to obsess over his checkered romantic history. Many men hate this book, but it's superior to Hornby's newer novel, About A Boy. - ed.

Irving, John
A Prayer for Owen Meany

Korman, Gordon
Son of Interflux

Simon Irving has moved around a lot, because his father is an executive in the huge corporation INTERFLUX. But when he enrolls in an arts high school in his latest hometown, and finds he likes it, he allows an error on his records to create a second identity for him. When the school's peaceful meadow, which many of the students use for relaxing and sketching, is slated for takeover and development by INTERFLUX, Simon and his friends form a corporation that they call ANTIFLUX, and vow to fight back; thanks to the secret identity, he is able to do so without creating obvious and immediate problems at home. This book is hilarious and perceptive, poking fun at a lot of personality types found in art schools. My only complaint is that, aside from the "constantly moving around" aspect of Simon's home life, the main force of the plot would have been more believable if it had been set in a small liberal arts college rather than a high school. - ed.

Lamb, Wally
She's Come Undone

It blew me away - truly amazing, engaging, easy to get very absorbed in and just...ja. damned good. Follows a girl from age 4 to 40 as she goes insane, to college, gets married, has an abortion, is raped, has all of her family die one by one but still manages to be sarcastic and humorous. - mayfair

Leroux, Gaston
The Phantom of the Opera

This was recommended by several people; it seems to be a sort of goth favorite, although not as notoriously as, say, Dracula. It's about a deformed genius named Erik, who has for various reasons been able to build a virtual castle in the cellars of the Paris Opera House. The story's major plot involves a young soprano, Christine Daae, who he has become obsessed with and decided to make a star, and her childhood friend, Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, who has recently come back into her life and wishes to marry her. At the same time, there is an amusing subplot about Erik's penchant for bilking the Opera's managers out of a fortune. Just the right balance of excitement, mystery, romance, and horror, with a tear-jerker ending, all presented in a journalistic style. Try to get the Bantam Classics edition translated by Lowell Bair: it's the only modern translation, as well as the only unabridged edition available. Other editions have a more Edwardian flavor and edit a lot of detail information regarding the Opera House itself and the characters' pasts. - ed.

Lightman, Alan
Einstein's Dreams

This is a wonderful book about the endless ways time can be perceived and, metaphorically, the way so many people seem to live their lives. - Jdal

Liu, Sola
Chaos and All That

A quick read at 126 pages, Liu [her name is Liu Sola, written the Asian "backwards" way, i.e. her first name is Sola] manipulates language in such a way that this book seems to speed by even faster. It's the account of a young girl coming of age in modern China, with touches of feminism. You'll relate no matter where you're from. Liu is the vanguard for contemporary Chinese literature. A wonderful read, especially if you want to open your mind a bit, and you can brag to your friends about how jetsetty you are, reading a book that was BANNED in China. - Ulalme

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
Love in the Time of Cholera
Of Love and Other Demons
One Hundred Years of Solitude

Maupin, Armistead
Tales of the City
Tales of the City
More Tales of the City
Further Tales of the City
Babycakes
Significant Others
Sure of You

These are highly absorbing and addictive books about a bunch of people living in an apartment building in San Francisco. - rufus (also recommends the sequels)

Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Murakami is a respected and popular novelist in Japan, where his books are consistent best-sellers. This book is published as literary fiction in the rest of the world, but it's actually a beautiful cyberpunk novel about the nature of life and existence. In the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" story, the narrator, a human encryption machine who has lived alone since his wife left him, and whose life is filled with fine whiskeys, old movies, and dreams of a low-key retirement, is contacted by a mysterious scientist who wishes to tell him the truth about what he is. In "The End of the World", a man is trapped in an isolated, grim fantasy town where the inhabitants have no souls, and attempts to find a way out before his shadow (soul) dies, but while he is there, he is the "dreamreader", studying the skulls of unicorns in the town library. The two stories are told in alternating chapters until their inevitable, inexorable convergence. Imaginative and heartbreaking. - ed.

Nabokov, Vladimir
Lolita
Pale Fire

Pinkwater, Daniel
Young Adults

This is the funniest thing that I have ever read. It's about a group of high school boys who worship the Dadaists, and create art, sort of, heh. In the second part/sequel, they get really, really interested in Zen because of a cookbook. In the third part, they go to college, sort of. This is sort of a comfort book, and most of the stuff is still funny, even after repeatedly reading it. - ~twilight~(little t.)

Pirsig, Robert M.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Zen was one of the cult books of the late sixties and early seventies, and is still one of the most brilliant books ever written. It details the author's cross-country cycle trip with his young son and some friends, intermixed with recollections of another personality, called Phadreus. It goes through a huge amount of philosphy and thought, and gradually arrives at a superb conclusion. You can read it in any number of ways, and any number of times - I'm currently on what must be my twentieth re-reading. - Gothwalker

Plath, Sylvia
The Bell Jar

Poe, Edgar Allan
Complete Works

Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow

This particular work contains perhaps the most dense writing I have ever seen. How any one man is able to pack so much meaning into so few words, while still creating so much atmosphere, boggles my mind. - L. Melancon

Rand, Ayn
Atlas Shrugged
The Fountainhead

Rhinehart, Luke
Adventures of Wim

One of the most fun books I've ever read, Adventures of Wim is an account of the life and times of Wim, a member of an almost extinct Indian tribe whose motto is "Brave men run." Wim is given a mission by the gods, to seek enlightenment, and in the process manages to collapse any reader on the ground laughing. - Gothwalker

Rice, Anne
Cry to Heaven

Never really cared for her vampire stuff, but this book, about castrati singers, had me mystified. I didn't even think I would like it. - Opium Poppy Fields

Robbins, Tom
Jitterbug Perfume

Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

The Harry Potter books are actually children's fantasy, but they're so popular that you can find them in the general adult section. They're about an English boy who is the orphan son of a wizard and a witch, sent to live with horrible anti-magic relatives (Rowling calls them "muggles"; you'd call them "normals") for most of his childhood, and then saved by an invitation to attend a magical academy, where for the first time in his life he makes friends and is treated well. They're well-written and fun to read, highly reminiscent of Roald Dahl. - ed.

Stoker, Bram
Dracula

Duh. - ed.

Szilagyi, Steve
Photographing Fairies

A dark little tale, sort of a murder mystery or descent into madness story. A photographer is presented with some fairy pictures taken by little girls in England (NOT the Cottingley pictures, mind you) He becomes obsessed with taking his own photos of the fairies, and all sorts of truly horrible events unfold. The made a movie of this which was quite good, but not even half as good as the book. - Tinkerhell

Weiss, Peter
Marat/Sade

Wilde, Oscar
The Picture of Dorian Grey
The Complete Works

Note: Wilde is a popular figure with many goths, and is considered proto-goth himself by some. So many people mention Wilde or read him on a regular basis that it would be unfair to attribute just one or two comments about him. While I'm sure there are also a few who will tell you not to bother with his work, the overwhelming majority of bookish goths love him. - ed.

Winterson, Jeanette
Art & Lies
The Passion
Sexing the Cherry
Written on the Body

Wodehouse, P.G.
Cocktail Time
The Inimitable Jeeves

This book isn't quite a novel, but a series of related short stories that is almost a novel. The Jeeves and Wooster novels are wonderful, but this is my favorite of the (quite large)series. The prose is wonderful, and the plots are unparalleled. High compliments come from a wide range of worthies, from Douglas Adams and George Orwell. Almost all of his books are worth your attention, but watch out, there's at least one book of golf stories lurking in wait for the unwary. - Jim Rantschler

The World of Jeeves

Contains all of Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, including those from The Inimitable Jeeves, but not the novels. - ed.

Yoshimoto, Banana
Kitchen
n.p.
Lizard
Amrita