One of the best questions ever !!
It is true, this kind of exposure will greatly expand your periphery of human behaviour, essential for any storyteller (directors are storytellers).
The classics are always a good bet, but also look for some of the road-less-traveled classic works. I also HIGHLY suggest reading works from the 20s and 30s, and on up to the 50s when American English was, in my opinion, its most beautiful and eloquent (British English' heyday was - again in my opinion - in the late 1800s, with the likes of William Morris, George MacDonald and Lewis Carroll). If you want to build your vocabulary, and cadence in structure (also essential for effective storytelling) then reading older books is pure gold. Take it all the way back to the 1600s if you dare!
One of my faves is Abraham Cowley, 1618 - 1667. You can find his books on Ebay, and not really all that expensive if you want to read them in the then style of English (note the
S and
'd instead of
ed), among numerous other differences.
Read this on 'Solitude'...
http://essays.quotidiana.org/cowley/solitude/
You can also watch clips of old TV shows from the 50s to hear the difference in English now, and English then. Talking about dumbing it down. Business English really did some damage. And now texting is driving in the coffin nails.
First short list ...
Read 'In Praise of idleness', by Bertand Russell. 1932
http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html
Read 'Jurgen' by James Branch Cabell. 1919
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8771/pg8771-images.html
This book was dragged through the US courts for Obsenity (even the printing plates were siezed), and went on to win an important case for freeedom of press and speech. Cabell is an absolute master of prose and observaionist of human behavior. The likes of Tolkien were all influenced by his work.
Read 'Lysistrata', by Aristophanes, 411 BC
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0242:card=1
Be sure to read up on what Lysistrata is REALLY about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata
Read Jack Kerouac.
Read 'The Art of War'.
Read about Wabi Sabi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi
Read Sappho poems.
Read Haiku
Read 'The Social Animal, Elliot Aronson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Animal_(Aronson_book)
READ VOLTAIRE !!
alex