Current Events > I want to start reading. Recommend me some books CE

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was reading a little bit about... 8-10 years ago. Finished a few novels. My favorite author back then was James Patterson. Loved everything I picked up from him.

In terms of preferences, I dont really have any. Just post your favorites and Ill check them out to see if they peak my interest. I might screenshot some messages to keep an archive of recommendations.

The only think I know I wont like are novels like 50 shades of grey. If it is similar to that then that isnt for me. Feel free to recommend non-fiction as well. As long as it peaks my interest Ill give it a go. Im planning on buying physical copies as well.

Thanks in advance everyone

---

I re-read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and I really enjoyed it.

it's a pretty short book (~160 pages, iirc), and if recommend it to anyone.

if you're looking for something epic, I'd recommend The Count of Monte Cristo, the Penguin Classics, Robin Buss unabridged version.

it's tied for being my favorite book ever when Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

and a book that I really liked, but was really dark and bleak, was The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski.

---

boxington posted...

I re-read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and I really enjoyed it.

it's a pretty short book (~160 pages, iirc), and if recommend it to anyone.

if you're looking for something epic, I'd recommend The Count of Monte Cristo, the Penguin Classics, Robin Buss unabridged version.

it's tied for being my favorite book ever when Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

and a book that I really liked, but was really dark and bleak, was The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski.

Thanks for the recommendations. Ill look into them

---

James Patterson is for fifth graders.

---

The elementals and Blackwater by Michael McDowell. Both southern Gothic horror, Elementals is fat more horror focused and much shorter, Blackwater is much longer and mixes it in amazingly well with a family drama spanning several generations.

SaltyWet posted...

James Patterson is for fifth graders.

Don't be that guy, let people like what they like.

RadiantAdolin posted...

Don't be that guy, let people like what they like.

He could've been in the fifth grade 8-10 years go.

---

I was a regular reader all through my childhood and teenage years then it all came to a halt, just got back into reading around the beginning of last year. So I'll rec some books that sparked my interest again

Two books by Neil Gaiman, technically kids books but they were very fun to read - Coraline and The Graveyard Book.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. Clicked with me immediately, tale of mind altering drugs, multiple realities and a strange depressing future. I didn't expect it to be so easy to read given the subject matter.


---

Philip K Dick is an excellent recommendation, he has many great novels. Don't read A Scanner Darkly (mentioned because it was made into a movie) unless you want to be depressed, though. Stick with stuff like Galactic Pot Healer, Ubik, and Our Friends From Frolix 8. Kurt Vonnegut is great, too, for easy to read books that sacrifice nothing in being so. Slaughterhouse 5, Galapagos, Venus on the Half Shell, Bluebeard, all great.

---

1001 arabian nights

---

SaltyWet posted...

James Patterson is for fifth graders.

SaltyWet posted...

He could've been in the fifth grade 8-10 years go.

Ill be honest. I was 20-24 years old. Somewhere around there. Not in the 5th grade. I didnt even know that was an author for younger people. Never even considered it TBH. I didnt read in school unless I absolutely had to. I hated it. I worked at Walmart as a Pharmacy Tech back then.

I couldnt be on my phone during down time so I decided to go to the book section at Walmart. I went to the book section, picked up random books, read the back of them, then picked out a book that interested me. That was it. I didnt know anything about books. I was shocked that I really enjoyed reading. I was even reading at home.

I ran into personal issues and I stopped reading. It was almost like I forgot about it. I was thinking back and I really want to start again. James Patterson may be only for young teens but I'm
grateful that he got me interested in reading by pure chance.

That is my background. I dont know why I even shared this lol

---

No shame in enjoying schlocky reads. Everybody has their cheesy books they enjoy. Nobody reads nobel prize shit book after book. I'm enjoying the hell out of some Jack Vance right now, cheesy 50s style sci-fantasy that's just completely off the wall.

---

Don Quixote

Red Rising.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles is really good.

---

If you like James Patterson you'll love 50 Shades.

Jokes aside, for fiction, I'd highly recommend the Fall and the Stranger by Albert Camus. They are shorter reads, but they're still somewhat challenging due to how dry and sometimes nihilistic they can be. Also, Dune by Frank Herbert is one of the most well known and beloved sci-fi classics, and is something I consider to be an essential read.

I don't want to overwhelm you but I want to add a non-fiction title that I've been reading and finding fascinating, How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. It's basically this long time best selling author was exposed to psychedelics again as a 60+ year old man and sets out to delve into the new research being done all over the world. He shares a lot of facts about the history of psychedelics as well as details and testimonials from Johns Hopkins' 300+ clinical trials with psilocybin. He also gives his own accounts of three separate psychedelic experiences that he had while writing the book.

---

Catch-22 (satirical war novel)
Yahtzee Croshaw's books (I've personally only read Mogworld, Jam, and Will Save the Galaxy for Food, and they were good for a laugh imo)
Tim Dorsey novels (They're about a history buff serial killer based in Florida, and there's usually at least 1 or 2 wacky Florida Man-esque subplots running in the background)
---

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
White Noise - Don DeLillo
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

---

To Kill a Mockingbird
Asimov's Foundation series
Time Enough to Love by Heinlein

---

I'm currently reading Shogun by James Clavell, it's great, but fat as a phone book. It's historical fiction. Just read Hyperion by Dan Simmons, which is a great sci-fi, I'd recommend that too. Or something like The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas if you're interested in a black perspective on 'current' events.

Roadside Picnic- Novel the Stalker and Metro games are based off. (Cant spell the authors name its russian)

Haunted- Chuck Palanick short story anthology

Missing 411- book retelling real life disappernces in national parks around the country, goes into all the crazy ass theories and what not.

Princess of Mars- the original pulp scifi written by burrougs, maybe read the original tarzan too.

---

Blood meridian by cormac mccarthy

---

Master Li and Number Ten-Ox novels (hist-fi; Barry Hughart)
Discworld novels (fantasy-humor; Terry Pratchett)
Ethshar novels (fantasy; Lawrence Watt-Evans)
Sam McCade novels (sci-fi; William C. Dietz)
Alfar novels (fantasy; Elizabeth H. Boyer)
Druss novels (hist-fi; David Gemmell)
Dune novels (sci-fi; Frank Herbert)

Also:
Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods (modern-fantasy; Neil Gaiman)
The Coldfire Trilogy (fantasy; CS Friedman)
.

If you read only ONE book from each author mentioned:

A Bridge of Birds (Hughart)
Pyramids (Pratchett)
The Misenchanted Sword (Watt-Evans)
The Bodyguard (Dietz)
The Sword and the Satchel (Boyer)
Lion of Macedon (Gemmell)
Dune (Herbert)

American Gods (Gaiman)
The Madness Season (Friedman)

---

The Road

Anything by Murakami

---