The idea of a Bucket list is nothing new. But what about a reading bucket list? I love to read and have done so since middle school. Yet my tastes tend to drift toward genre fiction and not classics. There are authors I know I should read and then there are authors I can’ believe I haven’t read yet. You know the ones that are beyond famous. Writers everyone is talking about. They even sound interesting, yet you haven’t gotten around to reading. This is my list. I hope to read several of these this summer.

Reader’s Bucket List

• Gabriel Garcia Marquez– he’s on my summer reading list. I actually have one of his books, I just need to read it. He’s a Nobel Prize winning novelist from Columbia. He writes magic realism, which is one of my favorite genres to read. He wrote: One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the time of Cholera.
• George R. R. Martin– he’s on my kindle. One of the first books I bought. Yet I have never read him. You know who he is. He wrote Game of Thrones. His books are the size of encyclopedias and everybody dies. Epic fantasy.
• Jim Butcher– The Dresden Files have been recommended to me by many, many people. I’m having a bit of trouble finding book 1 Storm Front. He writes urban fantasy, another favorite of mine.
• Brandon Sanderson– The Mistborn series has also been recommended. I found one of his stand alone novels at a used book store and bought it. Still haven’t read it. I think he falls under epic fantasy. This is a genre I enjoy if it is done well. Like Tolkien.
• Nora Roberts– I’m not a fan of romance, but she is a legend. I bought one of her books when it went on sale. I think I can learn a lot from her as a writer. I hear she’s good at telling a story through multiple points of view.
• John Grisham– I know really! He’s a local boy (Mississippi) and he writes mysteries. Why have I not read one yet? No excuse. Not sure which book to read of his.
• Gillian Flynn– I hear she is scary good. I guess you could say she writes thrillers. I saw the movie for Gone Girl and it totally freaked me out.  I need to read that book to see how she managed the insane plot.
• Tom Clancy– He writes military thrillers. Not my favorite thing to read. But I want to give it a try.
• Edgar Rice Burroughs-  Stop laughing. Yes, her wrote Tarzan and stories following John Carter. He’s a classic. His books are easy to find for free on Kindle. I have like 3 or 4 of them. I think reading them will be entertaining. I’ve been warned his viewpoint on many things is … old school. I’ll tell you after I read it.
• Bram Stoker– That’s right. I have never read Dracula. I found it for free online. I don’t ever read horror. Ever. Dracula is really old. It’s on the edge of too old for me to read. I shall try.

There you go. I should be able to cross a few this summer.

What author do you want to read this summer?

-CK