Maybe a bit modern and even Greene himself discribed much of his outputs as "entertainments", but i dont think the collection would be complete with out some Graham Greene.
 
Of the considerable output I would probably pick.

• The End of the Affair
• Brighton Rock
• The Ministry of Fear
• The Quiet American

Most have been filmed, I have always much prefered the book to the film.

jamesg1213

batsbrew
KEN SCOTT'S "ABBEY ROAD TO ZIGGY STARDUST" (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

If you liked that, I'd recommend 'Are We Still Rolling?'' by Phill Brown.

I recommend these too.  Both excellent.
 
Also:
"Jack Bruce Composing Himself" by Harry Shapiro
http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Composing-Himself-Harry-Shapiro/dp/1906002266

Why is it no one mentioned Archie comics?

 
They have a band too.

dmbaer

sharke
I've just started David Byrne's "How Music Works." It's early stages yet but it is shaping up to be the most interesting book on music that I've ever read. 

Please report back.  I have that book sitting in my to-read stack, but it's never bubbled its way to the top.

I'm looking this one up!

sharke
I've just started David Byrne's "How Music Works." It's early stages yet but it is shaping up to be the most interesting book on music that I've ever read. 

Yup...my best friend gave me this for my birthday, knowing I'd probably never read it. Seems after a lifetime of voracious reading all I read now is trade journals, manuals and science tomes. But, lo and behold, I had to take my car in for a lengthy service recently and I sat in the waiting room and read a good bit of it. Interesting, yes, but less so as it goes along. However, I'm determined to read the whole thing just to prove to myself I still can, so who knows, maybe I'll clue into it yet again?

From early in the 20th century US: John Dos Passos (a contemporary of Steinbeck): USA Trilogy: The 42nd Parallel; 1919; The Big Money.
 
Also two of Shakespeare's contemporaries: Ben Johnson and Christopher Marlow.  Also earlier: Geoffrey Chaucer.
 
On a very different level of "old" English, and admittedly religious in nature, is Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England, written about 731 or so.