>>17271102
>>>>>>>>>lit

>>17271102
Read the modern classics - Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Roth, etc - anyone who would likely be on a college Modern Novel reading list. (You can probably find such a list by exploring a local university's English Department site)

Read for fun, but when you encounter a passage that really impresses you, stop and examine it to see what the author did there.

Read Grendel by John Gardner, then, if you liked it, get The Art of Fiction by the same author. It's basically the creative writing course he taught, put into a book.

>>17271145
Okay, thanks for the advice!

>>17271150
You sure Grendel is a good read? The review sites Google spits out don't give it anything above a 3 out of 5. I don't really know about the reputation book review sites have, so I'll take them with a pinch of salt and just ask you for a more detailed opinion.

>>17271125
I completely forgot about /lit/. Although I don't think they would want such an amateur question shitting up their board, I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

>>17271164
Look, all art is subjective. Just because I like something doesn't mean you, or anyone else, will. That being said, Gardner is my favorite author and Grendel is one of his best works. It's extremely dense - it's not very long, but it isn't a quick read. The reason I recommended it to you is because Gardner used language very thoughtfully and deliberately, more so than any other writer of prose I've read. He was clearly someone who loved language and that came through in his writing.