Welcome to the Wright State University Reading List
for the General Public!
In the mid-1980s the Wright State English department developed its first "Fiction Reading List for the General Public," a three-page printed list of recommendations distributed to schools, bookstores and libraries throughout Southwest Ohio. Now the list is back. It is larger and better, and best of all, it is available to everyone free on the world-wide web. You are welcome to download or print any of these lists and to use them for any non-profit purpose.
The purpose of these lists is to guide those seeking recommendations of quality fiction, drama, and children's literature. The lists do not claim to be exhaustive. Thus they include only one title for each author (with one exception: William Shakespeare), and they omit works of substantial reputation considered too esoteric to be of general interest.
Since our first list of fiction only, we have made many additions and improvements. The fiction list has been broken into two parts, the list of classic fiction and the list of contemporary fiction. We've added the list of children's literature, which is divided into three parts: contemporary children's fiction, contemporary children's poetry, and classic children's fiction. And finally we've added a list of works of drama which we think will be of special interest to readers. In the future we hope to add a list of poetry, and we hope to be able to provide informational links on many of the authors and works listed here. The fiction and drama lists were chosen by the Wright State University English department faculty (with help from the Department of Modern Languages faculty). The children's books were chosen by teachers, school and public librarians, faculty of the English department and of the WSU College of Education and Human Services, and by children themselves.