We read every day, whether we want to or not. Advertising, directions, papers, Internet, ingredients, menus … it goes on.

Outside of engineers, writers are the most purposeful people in the world. Here are some of my favourite books below.

There’s nothing contentious about them, just pieces of literature I sincerely appreciate and have helped in spurring me on.

Enjoy.

The Authors

Hunter S. Thompson – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hey Rube, Songs of the Doomed, The Great Shark Hunt, Fear and Loathing in America, Generation of Swine, Kingdom of Fear

Joseph Conrad – Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, the Secret Agent, Nostromo

Bentley Little – The Town, Dominion, The House, The Resort, The Return, The Revelation, Dispatch, The Burning

Stephen King – The Shining, The Stand, Dreamcatcher, Night Shift, Tommyknockers, Cujo

Carl Hiaasen – Tourist Season, Double Whammy, Skin Tight, Native Tongue, Strip Tease, Stormy Weather, Lucky You, Sick Puppy, Basket Case, Skinny Dip, Nature Girl

Neil Gaiman – American Gods, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere

H.P. Lovecraft – The Call of Cthulu, Shadow Over Innsmouth, At the Mountains of Madness, The Dunwich Horror

The Books

Rainbow Six – Tom Clancy; The Hot Zone – Richard Preston; Shutter Island – Dennis Lehane; The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka; World War Z – Max Brooks; Watership Down – Richard Adams; Moby Dick – Herman Melville; The Lions of Tsavo; The White Bone – Barbara Gowdy; The Origin of Species – Charles Darwin