Here is your task, should you choose to accept it. You are to create a new appendix N for the next edition of D&D, what do yo do with it? Do you expand it to include other media?
Probably. Personally, I quite like the idea of it just being a reading list, but the game should probably embrace the reality that players and DMs are much more likely to watch a film for a couple of hours than they are to wade through page after page of archaic prose.
Do you try to push the flavor of the game in certain specific directions, perhaps away from its original inception?
Not deliberately, but by choosing the "Recommended Reading", there will undoubtedly be some element of this.
So one more time, if you were given the task of writing the appendix N that would appear in the core books of the next edition, what's on it and why? What is your appendix Next?
From the existing Appendix N:
R.E. Howard: Conan series
Fritz Leiber: Lankhmar series
H.P. Lovecraft
Michael Moorcock: Elric series
J.R.R. Tolkien: "The Hobbit", "Lord of the Rings"
Jack Vance: Dying Earth series
There's probably plenty of other books on the list that are worth a read, but these appear to be the main ones. And, to be honest, much of the list is now rather obscure.
Older books to add:
A. Dumas: "The Three Musketeers"
M. Shelley: "Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus"
B. Stoker: "Dracula"
Modern Fantasy:
To be honest, there's a problem with modern fantasy - most of it is turgid, over-written drivel. Seriously, guys, if you need more words to tell your story than "Lord of the Rings", then frankly it's probably not worth the telling. It also
really doesn't help that the genre is filled with epic (and unfinished) series - I always feel loathe to recommend the otherwise-excellent "Song of Ice and Fire" because I myself am sick of years-long waits for the next volume, for example.
Still...
B. Cornwell: "Arthur" trilogy (especially - the rest is good, too)
N. Gaiman (pretty much everything)
D. Gemmell: "Troy" trilogy (especially - much of the rest is good, but he tends to be very repetitive)
W. Gibson & B. Sterling: "The Difference Engine"
G.R.R. Martin: Song of Ice and Fire series
C. Mieville: Bas Lag series
T. Pratchett: Discworld series, "Good Omens" (with N. Gaiman)
P. Pullman: "His Dark Materials" trilogy
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter series
R.A. Salvatore: "Icewind Dale" trilogy, "Dark Elf" trilogy (and
nothing else!)
M. Weis & T. Hickman: "Dragonlance Chronicles", "Dragonlance Legends"
There's probably a bunch more stuff that I would add if I thought of it, but nothing more leaps to mind at this point.