The Danger Tree is the first novel in Manning's very impressive Levant Trilogy. Although the Levant Trilogy comes after the Balkan Trilogy, both in terms of publication and story-line, it's perhaps better to read the more action-oriented Levant Trilogy first and then backtrack to the Balkan Trilogy.

Ackerley wrote few books, but among them some of the most distinctive prose (three memoirs and one novel, We Think the World of You) of the 20th century. I'd start with My Dog Tulip, a great non-fiction book about the connection between people and animals.

You might as well read Lolita first. There are shorter and less complicated books and stories by Nabokov, but Lolita is a kind of acid test -- you'll love it or hate it, and if you love it the sheer story will carry you through the inimitably weird language.

I'd start with The Aspern Papers as perhaps the strongest and most interesting pure story that James wrote. Because it's such a good pure story, it's not entirely typical of James. Or rather, some of his great stories (like The Beast in the Jungle) are works with great dramatic tension that turn out to have nothing at the center -- like a lot of drama in everyday life, if you think about it. The Aspern Papers has a definite object and people clash over the object; it's a great story.

Hard Times is often taught in general college courses, because it's relatively short, has a strong plot, and shows Dickens's social ideas in a strong light. I'd recommend it as a first Dickens novel. Great Expectations would be second, because it's longer; but Great Expectations has a strong first-person narrative and a unified story. If you like those two, go anywhere from there ...

If you are not really into science fiction or fantasy and don't think you'd like Douglas Adams, you should read Adams's great nonfiction book (written with Mark Carwardine) called Last Chance to See. It's about travels that Adams and Carwardine made to see endangered animals in the wild. It's beautifully-written and beautifully-thought-out, as well as very funny in Adams's typical mode.