Current Events > I want to try reading some actual books, recommendations?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not much of a traditional book reader nowadays. Sometimes I get into a bit of a kick, but thats usually only a book or two. Most recent book Ive read was Reggies new biography, not my usual fare, but it was pretty decent. Before that, I read Oathbringer (Sanderson), and didnt care to continue on to Rhythm of War.

Id prefer fiction, but would probably be open to anything if it sounded good.

Animorphs

Strider102 posted...

Animorphs

I remember seeing those books in my Middle School library, not sure why I never read them. Maybe it was something to do with the cover art.

The Road
Lucifer's Hammer
Alas, Babylon

Those are all books about the end of the world, but that's my favorite genre

Ronda Rousey: My Fight, Your Fight

The Alchemist is probably one of the more basic recommendations, but I love that book, and would recommend it to anyone.

it's pretty short, a simple read, and is a fantasy-like narrative.

PerseusRad posted...

I read Oathbringer (Sanderson), and didnt care to continue on to Rhythm of War.

Blasphemy!

What are you interested in? If you've not read them, you can try Poirot by Agatha Christie, she's the 2nd most read author in the world for a reason (just after Shakespeare).
Her novels are easy to pick up and read, even now.

billcom6 posted...

The Road
Lucifer's Hammer
Alas, Babylon

Those are all books about the end of the world, but that's my favorite genre

Out of those three, is there one you prefer the most? End of the world is an interesting enough concept, dont really see much media that uses it.
RealityDose posted...

Ronda Rousey: My Fight, Your Fight

Might check out some reviews, I dont really care about her at all, but maybe thered be something interesting.
[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Thats one where I kinda feel like I should read it, but also hesitate. Might be too long for me to just casually pick up.
g0ldie posted...

The Alchemist

This one seems familiar, like I might have read some, but not all, of it before.
A_Good_Boy posted...

Blasphemy!

Might pick it back up someday, I only really cared about Dalinars parts the whole way through.

I hadn't been reading for awhile, but just rediscovered my love of Nelson Demille, who writes adventure thriller books, some legal, some crime, some political, some espionage, but all thrillers. He was huge from like late 80s through the 2000s.

It had been like 20 years since I read his stuff.

The King In Yellow

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I'll actually second this. It's about 100 pages too long due to Tolstoy's editorializing but it's still a good read.

The Count of Monte Cristo, unabridged Penguin Classics version, translated by Robin Buss, is probably my favorite book (or tied for it).

it's a big book, with some slow parts, but I think it has something for everyone - adventure, romance, drama, lessons to learn, etc.

Non fiction and a short essay rather than a book, but its still some of the most entertaining prose Ive ever read:

https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/264/fmw.htm

Bertrand Russells essay, A Free Mans Worship

I always recommend the one book we were forced to read during middle school. Wizard of Earthsea. Surprisingly its pretty good. I still have to read the other ones.

PerseusRad posted...

Might pick it back up someday, I only really cared about Dalinars parts the whole way through.

Then you really goofed up cause Dalinar gets a much larger focus starting in the 2nd book. In book 3 he's pretty much the primary character.

my final recommendation, for now, is the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

it took me a bit to get into the first book, but by the end, I was hooked, and the rest of the series is easier to read.

I second The Road. Literally read it in a day (not very long) as it just sucked me in.

House of Leaves is good but different.

Ender's Game is good (hence part of my username, lol).

For nonfiction... I'd recommend The Hidden Life of Trees. Really made me look at the natural world so differently.

A_Good_Boy posted...

Then you really goofed up cause Dalinar gets a much larger focus starting in the 2nd book. In book 3 he's pretty much the primary character.

Oathbringer is the 3rd book, the one I read and then didnt go to the 4th.

PerseusRad posted...

Oathbringer is the 3rd book, the one I read and then didnt go to the 4th.

Wait, did you not read the first two? If so, that is a kinda dumb move.

Ronda's book isn't actually bad. It falls apart a bit in the middle if you don't like her career
First like 100 pages are fucking soul sucking depressive tho if you didn't have a good childhood

bsp77 posted...

Wait, did you not read the first two? If so, that is a kinda dumb move.

I read 1-3 and didnt want to read 4, because I felt like there was only one good part of 3.

I think I might start with The Road, two people suggested it and it also sounds short enough for me to not get burnt out. Ill try to remember to update this thread about it.

In Cold Blood

Hangman by Jack Heath. Its about a cannibal who works with the FBI off the books in exchange for them providing him with bodies to eat

Finishing an audiobook of a hard sci fi first contact novel called Blindsight.

Enderknight17 posted...

House of Leaves is good but different.

Oh yeah this! That book is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma trapped in an MC Escher painting.

I recommend World War Z by Max Brooks. Waaaay better than the shitty movie which had nothing to do with the book.

If you want weird, my favorite book is probably Ubik.

Confederacy of Dunces is the funniest shit ever. So read that.

I also really like The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, an adventure novel, and the only novel Edgar Allen Poe ever wrote. Some of the images in the book (not literal pictures of course, its all words dude) are forever burned into my mind.

It's astounding that they've never made movies out of either of these - Toole's other, lesser known novel does have an adaptation (The Neon Bible, haven't read or seen it), and you can find Poe adaptations hiding under every rock - but I can't imagine that they'd be done justice.

IShall_Run_Amok posted...

Confederacy of Dunces is the funniest shit ever. So read that.

I also really like The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, an adventure novel, and the only novel Edgar Allen Poe ever wrote. Some of the images in the book (not literal pictures of course, its all words dude) are forever burned into my mind.

It's astounding that they've never made movies out of either of these - Toole's other, lesser known novel does have an adaptation (The Neon Bible, haven't read or seen it), and you can find Poe adaptations hiding under every rock - but I can't imagine that they'd be done justice.

It's kind of racist. Like, in an ignorant Victorian way, to be fair, but still...even so, it is really good. But it's racist and a lot weird, and most people can name like 5 Poe stories/poems tops and that ain't one of them.

As for my recs: Dracula is pretty approachable. Basically, Bram Stoker wasn't a particularly good writer, but he managed to catch lightning in a bottle one time and wrote this cool schlocky thriller. I actually read some one compare it to Frankenstein and laughed.

If you want something non-fiction, I can recommend two of the top my head that are written with great verve: The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 and Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the Fight for His Empire. The advantage, particularly for a lay reader, of works like these that have a narrow focus is that the narrow focus allows the writer to craft a much more vivid story from historical events, and they're both exceptionally well-written and well-researched. They can really dig into what the motivations and aims of the actors involved were, whereas overviews can tend to be dry, because they have too much ground to cover to really drill down into the details.

The Great Brain by John Fitzgerald

When I started reading it was super late with work the next day, Ill pick it back up, didnt get too far in.

Not been busy just been doing other stuff, bumping this to shame myself into reading.

PerseusRad posted...

I remember seeing those books in my Middle School library, not sure why I never read them. Maybe it was something to do with the cover art.

The story is more disturbing than the cover art.

I recommend these 4 books:

1984
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
Jennifer Government

Collectively I call those four books the modern gospel.

If you're not sure which one to read first I recommend Jennifer Government. It's slightly more light hearted and straight forward than the rest.

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq