I will probably post a bunch as I think of stuff..


Brave New World

oh and how about some classic Greek stuff? the stories always keep ya interested..

The Illiad
Odyssey
The Orestian Trilogy


Cool thing is, if you need to tie in history, you can read a bit of Herodotus who will keep you interested and (to a lesser degree) Thucydides

The Metamorphosis-Kafka

C'mon. Guy wakes up to find he's been transformed into a huge cockroach. Can't beat that.

Steve

why would he find "catcher in the rye" boring?

dont' all 13 year olds love that?

i also support "animal farm"

Mostly short stories, but Edgar Allan Poe.

EDIT: Especially "A Cask of Amontillado" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue".

a lot of great suggestions, guys.
he read animal farm, farenheit 451 and the invisible man last year. also, my daughter had us all reading a lot of poe last year.
he's also had the illiad and the odyssey read to him but i will look into the orestian trilogy.

dreaded marco- feed was on his list for last year and he never got to it. thanks for reminding me about it again. i'll add it again this year.

i suggested the metamorphosis but he's too freaked out by bugs. as well, i think albert camus' the plague would freak him out at this point.

i'll be adding on the road fer shure and will check out catch-22. i'd like him to read johnny get your gun with catch-22 but he might be a little young for those two.

thanks again and feel free to add more if you think of anything.

What about "The Red Badge of Courage" or is that too immature for his age group? Might be apropos esp. with the current wartime situation.

AAAAGGGGH!

i read the red badge of courage as an adult and liked it but no way that will fly with junior. hope he reads it when he's older though.

Maybe he should read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and For Whom The Bell Tolls before he reads Camus, since he is an american and all. Although, The Stranger is great, and I'd recommend that regardless of prior readings.

How about Burgess's Clockwork Orange? Or Ishiguruo's Remain's of the Day? Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49?

He should read Golding's Lord of the Flies.

He has most likely read Steinbeck's The Pearl and Of Mice and Men already. If not, remedy post-haste.

Are we limiting this list to fiction? Because Simon Winchester, Bill Bryson, and Thomas Cahill books are always enjoyable.

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler or The Maltese Falcon by Hammett I think he would like. Really, anything by those guys is pretty great.

Definitely skip The Fountainhead. That's just pretentious wankery.

Ill second Philip K Dick, and on a similar note add Isaac Asimov. Both are sci-fi and will appeal to a 13 year old boy( like Fahrenheit 451 did), but both deal with a lot more mature issues then most sci-fi writers.

And please don't give him Camus or anything like that yet. I mean L'Etranger is great and all, but it would be pretty boring to a 13 year old, and over his head.

Your Son can try the following:


Robertson Davies' Fifth Business

Michael Ondaatjes' The English Patient

Rainer Maria Rilke's (any of his collected poems)

Italo Calvino's The Baron in the Trees

Douglas Copeland's Girlfriend in a Coma


For what it's worth, this happens to be an area of professional expertise for me. I don't think he'll be disappointed by any of the first four. Copeland, may be something he reads when he's 16 or 17.


Cheers,

audiobill