hey all! i've been wanting to brush up/improve my vocabulary and i've always heard that the best way to go about it is simply to read. so my question is, which books would be most beneficial to me? which would really give me a workout? i'm interested in fiction and non-fiction (no text books though). thanks in advance!

btw, suggestions of authors are great, it doesn't have to be a specific book.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez would be good in my opinion. But be careful with it, some people hate the novel. I haven't read anything else by Marquez, so I can't really suggest him as an author...

Maybe a classic book like Conrad's Heart of Darkness or Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

I found myself consulting the dictionary often while reading Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books. Be warned, though - his graphic violence and themes put off many. Do a search in this forum and you'll find the series listed as both a favorite and a "Book you're sorry you read."

Joseph Heller had one of the largest working vocabularies of any modern author. I've been working on obscure-words lists for 20th-21st century fiction and he gets about a dozen pages per novel.

Fitzgerald is similar, Gatsby especially.

Chabon.

John Gardner.

And surprisingly enough, Stephen King.

Umberto Eco. Of course, it is all translated from the Italian (usually by William Weaver I think), but nonetheless the novels are a fantastic source of vocabulary. Not only in English, but usually some degree of basic latin or french.

Same warning on Eco as the GGM though. Some people hate it. Hell, even I hate it sometimes.

Without recommending any specific authors, one good way to broaden your vocabulary is to read a lot of *different kinds* of books, both fiction and nonfiction. In fiction -- mainstream literary fiction, older classics, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy. In nonfiction -- science, history, biography, etc.

Plus, it's interesting I love reading a wide variety of books!

all these are great suggestions. most of the authors mentioned are also in my boyfriend's part of our book collection. please, keep 'em coming. thanks to all!