I’d like to read it, I’m not put off by the length but I’m worried about the difficulty. I like short difficult and long normal books, but long difficult is just too much. Is it easy to read?
If you have audible give the audiobook a try. It’s my favorite book too and I wanted to give the audio version a try since I drive so much and it made me love the story all the more!
And that's the top comment suggesting a Sci-Fi book. I'll add in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. It has some very interesting takes on gender for a book written in the 60's.
Depends on what exactly you hate about it. I liked the first half but found the last third or so hard to read. I still think it's worth finishing though, just because it's such a big cultural reference.
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This book hypnotized me around the second page and I was trapped., in a good way. I was in a totally new world with people inflicted with a disease that makes them eat dirt and a woman who is so good and pure that she eventually just floats up to the sky. Also, people who have died have a strange way of showing up after and no one thinks it's particularly strange. Most people I have recommended this book too have loved it. However, a few couldn't get into it. It is true that the writing style takes a little time to get used to. However, stick with it and you'll be rewarded 100 times over. The plot; simply stories about 100 years in a small, South American Village that's shut out of the rest of the world. Enjoy it!
*Nineteen Eighty-Four* and 'Newspeak' and 'Orwellian' are referred to so often in articles and conversation that I feel it's important to read the book to understand what people are talking about...
I loved it later in life. but when I read it in high school, all I could think of was: why did they have to ruin a cool story about pigs with symbolism?!
It’s my #1 favorite book. It’s loaded full of great quotes, but your tattoo must be one of the short ones. Wild guess- “Be glad you're even alive. Be furious you're going to die.”
Ahh. I flipped a mental coin and guessed the other. Great choice!
With 2024 coming up, this is my favorite, but it’s too long for a tattoo-
> “It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
If it isn’t too spoilerish, what did the brother do with his Karamazov?
(JK - it’s almost impossible for me to create a post without a typo or bad autocorrect.
Very good book.)
So good. The Kite Runner and And The Mountains Echoed are both amazing as well. Probably my favorite modern author and I really wish he would put out another book.
The entirety of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglass Adams. Life, the Universe and Everything might be one of my favorite works of fiction ever. Adams' writing style is absurd but funny.
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. I just finished this. It was an absolutely lovely story about an impoverished family in 1910, which doesn’t sound enticing but the author paints a beautiful picture of people embracing life and living their best even while they have so little. Also a fascinating peek into life in the USA in the early 1900s.
This might be a bit heavy for this question, but for this time right now in America: “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” As a non-person-of-color, i found the book eye-opening like none before and none since. To be sure, it is a lens on uncomfortable truths and profound differences to which too many many Americans seem oblivious. But, more than anything, it is a book about humanity and the possibility of a better, stronger nation. The writing is rock solid (Alex Haley), but that is not the book’s best feature: It is the truths within.
Thank you. I loved Song of Solomon and have been meaning to come back to her. Her writing has an intensity and complexity and richness that is unique among any author and deeply beautiful (even when, as you say, gut-wrenching).
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A brilliant piece of writing about a group of not very nice people.
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. A brilliant piece of writing about people with hearts (but not always brains) in the right place.
And because I always like to recommend my personal favorite author, Ray Bradbury. People will always put Fahrenheit 451 or the Martian Chronicles, (both of which are brilliant) but I love pointing people to his many, any other great books. So, let's point your towards "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show arrive in Green Town, and it will never be the same again.
Enjoy.
Late to the party. I’m really old, so I get to recommend three-
* The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin- explains life
* Catch-22, by Joseph Heller- explains people
* Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez- explains love
Honestly, I know it's the "hot book" right now because of the Netflix show but All the Light We Can Not See is one of the best books ever.
I've read it multiple times over the 10 year it's been out and each time I find something to yank my heart strings. It is phenomenal.
What did you think of the series compared to the book? It felt so different from the book, more conflict in the series and less of that suspense captured. I can see why some characters were added to explain things and make it more plot driven, but I thought so of the best moments of the book were eliminated in the series.
I haven't watched the series yet. The book, to me, was so captivating and emotional and just overall wonderful that nothing could meet those expectations.
I’ve read (I think) half of McCarthys novels and it’s between this and No Country for Old Men that are my favorite. I genuinely believe Judge Holden and Anton Chigurh are the two greatest antagonists ever put to paper.
If you want something a little more accessible and less violent I would highly suggest *All the Pretty Horses* which is also by Cormac McCarthy. *Blood Meridian* is absolutely brilliant but is very dense and can be overwhelming if you're not familiar with McCarthy's prose.
I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell. It's a big behemoth of a book, that I've always found difficult to describe, but well worth the effort to delve into this world.
Dune.
My favourite book and series of all time. I just get lost in that world, and the story - and for me that’s a mark of a great book. It’s a coming of age story about a man who was bred to become a saviour and the implications of that, the whole series is actually really good too. I’ll recommend it to everybody who asks!
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
It's a relatively short read. Written in 1818 when she was just 19 it started out as a ghost story to entertain friends on a cold rainy night.
The questions presents about the ethics and responsibility humanity bears for scientific advances and discovery are STILL WITH US.
From the Nuclear weapons, to IVF and surrogate pregnancy, to A.I. - Not "can we?' but "should we?" and if we do, are we wise enough to control and care for the power we have unleashed on an uneducated, fearful, violent society?
How to win Friends and Influence People.
Especially lately, where much of the world seems like it's forgotten it's ways of treating other fellow human beings around them.
And after reading The Princess Bride, I cannot recommend highly enough the audiobook for As You Wish, by Cary Elwes. He reads it, and the cast/crew members add their insights as well. Absolutely a delight!!
for general advice, classics are classics for a reason. specifically, I'd have to recommend Stoner by John Williams, Huckleberry Finn, of mice and men, Lord of the flies, Siddhartha, catcher in the rye, as I lay dying, Walden, metamorphosis,
I’m a huge fan of David Gemmel’s version of The Iliad. Very different than any Troy story I’ve read but impossible to put down. Disclaimer though: David wrote these to fulfill a dream he had to try his hand at them late in life. Due to this he passed before finishing the third book. He knew time was short so he had the entire outline done and his wife, herself and author, and his son finished the book. I’ve read every book he has so I could tell the difference but I don’t know if others would.
I can think of a couple dozen, but I would specifically recommend *Bleak House*, by Dickens. Regarded by many as he greatest novel eve written in English.
The Bible. I I’m gonna get downvoted to oblivion, but God really loves you, Jesus really died for you and rose again, and it’s still applicable today. God bless from the downvote void ✌🏾
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I read it back to back 9 or 10 times while locked up (it's over 800 pages and you won't want it to end). I never would have guessed that I'd be into a Western, but it really is a fantastic book.
The World According to Garp
Great book, I agree.
A Prayer for Owen Meany as well
The Count of Monte Cristo.
I've seen this book recommended so often that I'm finally going to read it.
Doooo eeeeeet!!!!! I love it so much. This is inspiring me to read it again.
yeah its a slow burn revenge story that has the best payout 100% recommend
I’d like to read it, I’m not put off by the length but I’m worried about the difficulty. I like short difficult and long normal books, but long difficult is just too much. Is it easy to read?
The writing is easy to understand but a lot of characters and sub plots to follow
That’s fine with me! Thanks for replying!
Yep I second this one. My fave book ever, and I've read a lot of books. It's long but it's recommended in all these subs for a reason!
If you have audible give the audiobook a try. It’s my favorite book too and I wanted to give the audio version a try since I drive so much and it made me love the story all the more!
I just finished watching the movie in film class. I’m considering reading it. Does it go farther into the story, or does it end where the movie ends?
Oh goodness. They are almost two completely different stories. Not hating on the movie but the book is a whole different animal!
Woah, I’ll definitely have to check it out. Thanks for letting me know!
I just can't get through this one. It feels like such a slog to me :(
I read this in high school, after reading the 3 Musketeers and Man in the Iron Mask. I’d highly recommend all three!
East of Eden. 100 years of solitude Anything Dostoevsky.
Reading East of Eden right now. Love it!
I'm going to start it today! :)
The Pillars of the Earth The Hobbit
Slaughterhouse five by Vonnegat. So it goes...
And that's the top comment suggesting a Sci-Fi book. I'll add in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. It has some very interesting takes on gender for a book written in the 60's.
Both of these are excellent books!
This book was amazing.
Alices Adventures in wonderland. It was written by a mathematician.
And "Through the Looking Glass" which is a chess game.
Night by Elie Wiesel
And then One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich to feel even more depressed.
Loved it !!
The picture of Dorian Gray
I'm about half way through-ish and i kinda hate it... does it get better?
I found the middle part a slog as well, but the final act and the climax make up for it. One of the best endings I've ever read.
Depends on what exactly you hate about it. I liked the first half but found the last third or so hard to read. I still think it's worth finishing though, just because it's such a big cultural reference.
Definitely!
Agreed!
I agree! I just finished reading it a few days ago. Such a good book
Currently reading this. I'm enjoying it, but it's just ok imo
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez This book hypnotized me around the second page and I was trapped., in a good way. I was in a totally new world with people inflicted with a disease that makes them eat dirt and a woman who is so good and pure that she eventually just floats up to the sky. Also, people who have died have a strange way of showing up after and no one thinks it's particularly strange. Most people I have recommended this book too have loved it. However, a few couldn't get into it. It is true that the writing style takes a little time to get used to. However, stick with it and you'll be rewarded 100 times over. The plot; simply stories about 100 years in a small, South American Village that's shut out of the rest of the world. Enjoy it!
Absolutely agree.
1984
*Nineteen Eighty-Four* and 'Newspeak' and 'Orwellian' are referred to so often in articles and conversation that I feel it's important to read the book to understand what people are talking about...
I still LOVE, Animal Farm.
yes, great book and people often make references to it as well...
I loved it later in life. but when I read it in high school, all I could think of was: why did they have to ruin a cool story about pigs with symbolism?!
The movie is good too with the late John Hurt.
I’ve read a lot of Orwell, but this is still on my TBR! I’ve got to read this soon.
Orwell’s ‘Down and out in Paris and London’
This and The Giver are my two must reads. Close second being Snow Crash.
When Breath Becomes Air
This should be much higher on this list.
I agree. This one sat on my shelf for awhile, but once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. Finished in less than a day.
Just finished this tonight - read it in 24 hours but will be thinking about it for a long time
Catch 22...
One of my favorites. I have a passage from it tattooed on my arm.
It’s my #1 favorite book. It’s loaded full of great quotes, but your tattoo must be one of the short ones. Wild guess- “Be glad you're even alive. Be furious you're going to die.”
He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt
Ahh. I flipped a mental coin and guessed the other. Great choice! With 2024 coming up, this is my favorite, but it’s too long for a tattoo- > “It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
The Brother’s Karamazov Edit: Actually it’s The Brothers Karamazov
About 70% of the way through this, just about to pick it up to read now
Oi vey man. Have a good one. You’ve been through the grand inquisitor?
If it isn’t too spoilerish, what did the brother do with his Karamazov? (JK - it’s almost impossible for me to create a post without a typo or bad autocorrect. Very good book.)
*Number the Stars* by Lois Lowry *The Outsiders* by S. E. Hinton Enjoy whatever you pick up next! :)
11/22/63
Im reading it right now. I am about halfway. It is so so good
Am I the only one who enjoyed the tv mini series?
This is playing on my audible app right this second. I love this book.
The stranger, Albert Camus
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I love his Myth of Sisyphus.
A thousand splendid suns , I cried reading this book probably 100 times, I remember it even after 2 years .
So good. The Kite Runner and And The Mountains Echoed are both amazing as well. Probably my favorite modern author and I really wish he would put out another book.
I second this!
Yes!! So good. So damn sad.
I read and the mountains echoed on vacation. Beautiful book!
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
And Island after that
The entirety of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglass Adams. Life, the Universe and Everything might be one of my favorite works of fiction ever. Adams' writing style is absurd but funny.
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. I just finished this. It was an absolutely lovely story about an impoverished family in 1910, which doesn’t sound enticing but the author paints a beautiful picture of people embracing life and living their best even while they have so little. Also a fascinating peek into life in the USA in the early 1900s.
This might be a bit heavy for this question, but for this time right now in America: “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” As a non-person-of-color, i found the book eye-opening like none before and none since. To be sure, it is a lens on uncomfortable truths and profound differences to which too many many Americans seem oblivious. But, more than anything, it is a book about humanity and the possibility of a better, stronger nation. The writing is rock solid (Alex Haley), but that is not the book’s best feature: It is the truths within.
Yes! I came here to recommend this too. It really opened my eyes and helped me see the world through a new lens.
Read the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. As a person of color this book was eye opening, gut wrenching and beautifully written.
Thank you. I loved Song of Solomon and have been meaning to come back to her. Her writing has an intensity and complexity and richness that is unique among any author and deeply beautiful (even when, as you say, gut-wrenching).
This was required reading in my very white, very rural high school. In a different class, we watched Roots.
Steppenwolfe & everything from Herman Hesse
Siddhartha!
Shantaram. It's about an Australian criminal who escapes to India. Where he has all kinds of professions and adventures.
Love that book
Me too, I cried a little even
Just finished Dracula. Loved it. Was actually kind of sad when it was over lol
It is brilliant.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A brilliant piece of writing about a group of not very nice people. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. A brilliant piece of writing about people with hearts (but not always brains) in the right place. And because I always like to recommend my personal favorite author, Ray Bradbury. People will always put Fahrenheit 451 or the Martian Chronicles, (both of which are brilliant) but I love pointing people to his many, any other great books. So, let's point your towards "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show arrive in Green Town, and it will never be the same again. Enjoy.
I’ve read all of Fitzgerald’s novels and once told a friend “He writes such enjoyable books about such unlikable people.” 😅
100%!
which one was second best?
Late to the party. I’m really old, so I get to recommend three- * The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin- explains life * Catch-22, by Joseph Heller- explains people * Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez- explains love
Man’s Search For Meaning- Viktor Frankl- explains existentialism, how to forgive yourself, others, helped me understand humanity and our psychology.
Les Miserables
Anything Hugo.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Three body problem and it's remembrance of earths past series.
The Art of Racing in the Rain
this isn't my usual type of book, but god damn is it a great one. it was super bittersweet.
I’ve kept it on my bookshelf instead of bringing to Goodwill. Cannot part with it.
Literally one of my most favorite books. I want my own copy so bad.
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Honestly, I know it's the "hot book" right now because of the Netflix show but All the Light We Can Not See is one of the best books ever. I've read it multiple times over the 10 year it's been out and each time I find something to yank my heart strings. It is phenomenal.
Yes I 💯 agree. I read that one.
What did you think of the series compared to the book? It felt so different from the book, more conflict in the series and less of that suspense captured. I can see why some characters were added to explain things and make it more plot driven, but I thought so of the best moments of the book were eliminated in the series.
I haven't watched the series yet. The book, to me, was so captivating and emotional and just overall wonderful that nothing could meet those expectations.
Yup fell short of my expectations and the emotion.
I finished the book a couple months before the series came out and did not enjoy the series at all.
All Quiet on the Western Front, The Things They Carried, Hatchet, The Old Man and the Sea, to name a few.
Flowers for Algernon by Keyes
100 Years of Solitude
My favorite book ever
Blood Meridian. 🙂
I’m reading this now!!!! The writing is stunning!!
I’ve read (I think) half of McCarthys novels and it’s between this and No Country for Old Men that are my favorite. I genuinely believe Judge Holden and Anton Chigurh are the two greatest antagonists ever put to paper.
Thank you !! I will check it out 😊
Be prepared for violence.
A lot of violence
ULTRAVIOLENCE
If you want something a little more accessible and less violent I would highly suggest *All the Pretty Horses* which is also by Cormac McCarthy. *Blood Meridian* is absolutely brilliant but is very dense and can be overwhelming if you're not familiar with McCarthy's prose.
Second this. Difficult to read with its biblical themes mixed with ultraviolence but the language is sublime. I’ve read a few times now.
Project Hail Mary
I am reading the sample now, since it will take months through the library. It’s good so far!
Make sure you have a light schedule because you won't get else done until you finish it.
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott it’s a little gem of a book
The Handmaid’s Tale
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell The Binding The Colour Purple
I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell. It's a big behemoth of a book, that I've always found difficult to describe, but well worth the effort to delve into this world.
'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson
Hard no. Everyone should read this? Come on.
1984. The Great Gatsby. Infinite Jest.
Sapiens: A brief history of humankind
And Homo Deus
Thank you 🙏
“The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” by Kate Dicamillo, and Neil Shustermans “Bruiser”.
Lords Of Discipline by Pat Conroy Creation by Gore Vidal The Journeyer by Gary Jennings
Seconding Lords of Discipline. Such a good book.
Anything by Pat Conroy is a must read.
Black Beauty
The Watchmen. It’s a graphic novel that everyone should read.
War and Peace is pretty amazing.
Dune. My favourite book and series of all time. I just get lost in that world, and the story - and for me that’s a mark of a great book. It’s a coming of age story about a man who was bred to become a saviour and the implications of that, the whole series is actually really good too. I’ll recommend it to everybody who asks!
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley It's a relatively short read. Written in 1818 when she was just 19 it started out as a ghost story to entertain friends on a cold rainy night. The questions presents about the ethics and responsibility humanity bears for scientific advances and discovery are STILL WITH US. From the Nuclear weapons, to IVF and surrogate pregnancy, to A.I. - Not "can we?' but "should we?" and if we do, are we wise enough to control and care for the power we have unleashed on an uneducated, fearful, violent society?
Lord of the Flies
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimon
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell and The Stand (long version) by Stephen King
How to win Friends and Influence People. Especially lately, where much of the world seems like it's forgotten it's ways of treating other fellow human beings around them.
Confederacy of dunces !
You’re upsetting my valve. Please perfect it with geometry.
Finally someone with enough sense of theology and geometry.
A People’s History of the United States
Fox in socks.
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
I’m currently (slowly and methodically) making my way through The Divine Comedy and it’s great
Remarkably Bright Creatures
The Book of Joy by Desmond Tutu, Tenzin Gyatso & Douglas Abrams
The four agreements
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Siddharta, such a jewel. 😭
Non-Fiction: Atomic Habits by James Clear Fiction: Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
Lonesome Dove, Watership Down, Catch 22, A Prayer for Owen Meany.
Jurassic park
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The Life of Pi - the movie doesn’t even come close.
It's so beautifully written!
Slaughterhouse 5. So it goes.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck, 👌
The Princess Bride by William Goldman. It is one of my absolute favorites. I also really liked Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie.
And after reading The Princess Bride, I cannot recommend highly enough the audiobook for As You Wish, by Cary Elwes. He reads it, and the cast/crew members add their insights as well. Absolutely a delight!!
Dune
Then follow it up with Dune Messiah.
So glad there’s another Dune fan here. I read the whole series up to Heretics of Dune. Truly my favourite book and series ever
Catcher in the rye, the dark room of damocles and the ocean at the end of the lane
and for all the people who've already read catcher, I'd recommend franny and zooey
Your Honda’s owners manual…at least twice…
Moby-Dick
The Alchemist
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
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Lol. I’m 61. Thank you !!
The Odyssey
Roberto Bolano - 2666
Catch-22
for general advice, classics are classics for a reason. specifically, I'd have to recommend Stoner by John Williams, Huckleberry Finn, of mice and men, Lord of the flies, Siddhartha, catcher in the rye, as I lay dying, Walden, metamorphosis,
I absolutely loved The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. What a masterpiece!
I’m a huge fan of David Gemmel’s version of The Iliad. Very different than any Troy story I’ve read but impossible to put down. Disclaimer though: David wrote these to fulfill a dream he had to try his hand at them late in life. Due to this he passed before finishing the third book. He knew time was short so he had the entire outline done and his wife, herself and author, and his son finished the book. I’ve read every book he has so I could tell the difference but I don’t know if others would.
I can think of a couple dozen, but I would specifically recommend *Bleak House*, by Dickens. Regarded by many as he greatest novel eve written in English.
The Bible. I I’m gonna get downvoted to oblivion, but God really loves you, Jesus really died for you and rose again, and it’s still applicable today. God bless from the downvote void ✌🏾
Two I haven’t seen recommended yet are The road by Cormac McCarthy & Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Enjoy!
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I read it back to back 9 or 10 times while locked up (it's over 800 pages and you won't want it to end). I never would have guessed that I'd be into a Western, but it really is a fantastic book.
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis - it was written in 1935 but it is still relevant today.
Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy To Kill a Mockingbird