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What books do you consider must reads?

So basically I was unschooled, and the amount of books I’ve read in my life is embarrassingly low. It was never emforced like in a school, and with my family’s religious hangups, I never tried getting into new things because I never knew what would be deemed “offensive”.

But I’m always interested when I hear people talk about both storycraft and also literary criticism, so I want to take an earnest stab at getting into books.

No real criteria, I don’t know what I like so I can’t tell you what I’m looking for, other than it needs to be in English or have an English translation. Just wanna know what y’all think would make good or important reading.

Diddlydee ,

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. Kalki by Gore Vidal. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley. Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Atonement by Ian McEwan. Being Dead by Jim Crace.

apotheotic ,

I can never stop recommending The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

Its some of the most beautiful, cozy writing I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, all wrapped in queer and race allegory and science fiction splendour.

Please read it.

InputZero ,

I’m reading that right now and it’s fantastic! I was reading a horror series that just got too bleek, a friend recommended The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet and I’m really enjoying it. I’m a slow reader so it takes me a while to get through a book but I’m definitely going to finish this one.

apotheotic ,

I can’t recommend enough that you read the sequel too! There’s even more but I haven’t read them yet. Its all just so good and cozy and yum.

IvanOverdrive ,

How about some pre-transhuman solarpunk? I recommend my favorite book, Walkaway by Cory Doctorow. It’s about the birth pangs of a post scarcity society. Absolutely brilliant.

Tolookah ,

I’d happily recommend anything by Brandon Sanderson, I generally find everything he writes to be an easy read.

Also, get an account at your local library, it’s much easier/cheaper to fly through books that way. Tip: if your library sucks, many libraries will accept you as local if you work in the town. (I belong to two library systems this way)

MadBob ,

If you’ve already read a lot of books, you should give If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller a go.

Unquote0270 ,

All of HP Lovecraft’s stories.

TheOubliette ,

For nonfiction I would recommend books about media criticism and history. Manufacturing consent and The Jakarta Method, for example. These can help set you up for further reading. For media criticism, it will help you recognize when to keep reading about the people that journalists talk to and who they don’t, why they are writing this article rather than that one, and identify others that take a media critical approach, as they are good people to read. For history, I think it is good to read widely and critically. We are not taught particularly thorough or accurate history in school. Much is left out or glossed over with selective narratives. For example, I was taught that the US Civil War was about states’ rights, not slavery, because the text was from Texas and my teacher taught from the book. This was, of course, nonsense. A People’s History of The United States is a pretty good way to start out if you want to start with US history. That might be better than The Jakarta Method, actually.

For fiction, it really depends on what you enjoy! What kinds of stories or topics do you find most interesting?

selokichtli ,

Won’t be taking very much of your time:

Kafka’s The Trial, Shelley’s Frankenstein, Machiavelli’s Prince, Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo

Just to avoid naming the very obvious ones.

xilliah ,

Hmm, considering your religious upbringing you might want to try some absurdist literature to break the mold.

  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  • The Cyberiad
  • Discworld
  • The Little Prince

These are accessible too, as you’re not used to reading yet.

I can also recommend subscribing to a monthly magazine and making a point to read it from cover to cover. That way your skills will improve. You can also buy a whole stack of old national geographics cheaply. This will expand your horizons.

bimily ,

I also come from a religious family, which is why I say: For a fun read, please read Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore. Honestly, everything by Kurt Vonnegut, but if I have to pick, Harrison Bergeron is one of the best short stories I have ever read, and I carry Cat’s Cradle in my heart.

Someone else suggested Catch-22, and I consider it a must read.

The Sun Also Rises is my favorite cock-and-bull story, but also, incredible for learning how to read critically. What I mean is, Hemingway is a 2 for 1 deal. There’s the story that’s written out, but when you read it again, you see everything he didn’t say is a whole different story. Hemingway was a very deliberate writer, every word chosen for a reason, so when reading his work, it enhances the experience to ask yourself why he would choose to write that way.

But if you want some real good recommendations, I suggest finding a banned books list.

dessalines ,

As far as good storytelling, some of my favs are:

  • The count of monte cristo
  • The arabian nights
  • 100 years of solitude
  • The silmarillion
  • A confederacy of dunces
  • The three musketeers

I have a very long ranked list, but there’s a few.

Drusas ,

I really loved The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. I was surprised at how well they held up over time.

BlueSquid0741 ,

The best science fiction has to offer:

Metro 2033

Sphere

Jurassic Park

Roadside Picnic

Metamorphosis

Add from Stephen King:

Night Shift

4 Minutes to Midnight

(Both are novellas/story collections)

And also:

The Call of Cthulhu and other weird tales

Drusas ,

I agree with more than one of these, but I would call out The Metamorphosis as one that everybody should read. You can appreciate it at any age (well, within reason--maybe not for the 8-year-olds), it's dramatic and captivating, and it's short.

I always try to recommend books of short stories to my friends who like to read but don't have much time for it.

fubarx ,
  • Catch 22
  • Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (series)
Drusas ,

I don't mean to be replying to every post on this thread--I guess I love a lot of books--, but I'm going to have to recommend these in particular for people who don't usually read.

I had this friend in college who had never read a book of his own volition. He wasn't the sort of person who was proud of the fact, he just thought books were boring and had trouble getting through them. This horrified me, as somebody who had a collection of some 500 books or so at that point (almost all of them read). Anyway, he read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and then Catch-22, and he was hooked. He's been a reader ever since.

Drusas ,

The dystopic books that warn us of what we could be.

1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, Animal Farm, The Giver (and yes, you should still read The Giver even if you're an adult if you've never read it before).

But the first book that flashed through my mind when I read the question was Slaughterhouse Five.

MonkeMischief ,

Ah yes, all those books whose plots are being used as manuals these days. :( lol

The Giver was really neat. Accessible too. The movie adaptation was such a bad idea because I thought one of its strengths was how it was set in an ambiguous time, iirc. The reader’s visuals seemed really important for that story.

absGeekNZ ,
@absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz avatar

It depends on what you are looking for.

Look at the classics, some can be a bit heavy. But there is generally a reason they are considered classic stories.

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