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On mobile, too tired to write but… So many… But I honestly think Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is as close to the perfect book as I can imagine (for me!). Also, Kafka for me is like the Final Boss, once you go through him, everything else pales in comparison
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
It’s cliche I suppose, but 1984 by Orwell. It’s actually a fucking great read beyond it’s thematic meaning. People are correct in saying A Brave New World was more prescient, but it’s not as good a book in my opinion.
Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series, all six mainline books and even the side books are all fantastic.
It’s manga, but Berserk by Kentaro Miura. IYKYK
I read Frankenstein in my highschool literature class way back, loved it then and love it now. Shelly was a pioneer.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I had no idea writing, even fiction, could be so ridiculous and non-traditional. It really shaped my imagination from a young age.
Lord of the Rings just about saved my life in high school. Possession by A.S. Byatt. Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, though I’ve yet to read the sequels. Atonement by Ian McEwan. Just about anything by Geoff Ryman, Ali Smith, José Saramago, or Sheri Holman.
Your taste seems like exactly the sort of thing I’d enjoy, do you have any specific suggestions for someone who absolutely loves Eco’s metafictional novels in particular and metafiction in general? (Aside from Possession, which I’ve never heard of but is going directly on my to-read list)
I recently read How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, which I really liked. It is science fictional, though, but maybe not…maybe more surreal. Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, David Markson. I started Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić many years ago, got interrupted, and haven’t got back to it, but I definitely need to because it was so intriguing in form.
I’m probably gonna be an odd one out here with a cleaning book, but I really, really like K.C Davis’s “How to Keep House While Drowning” book about cleaning your house while mentally unwell and not considering yourself a moral failure for the state your house is in.
I think it’s the one that had the most amount of positive benefits to my life. It turns out having a positive influence in the form of a book that tries to encourage you take things one step at a time, a book that even admits it doesn’t know everything either—well, it’s more beneficial than my real life acquaintances and family who opted for the shame method.
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett - which is interesting for me, because most of what I read is SciFi - but it’s such a fascinating, thought provoking, and entertaining read
I love Small Gods! It’s my go-to when people ask which Discworld book they should start with and want a good standalone.
The image of Om, in turtle form, piloting an eagle by biting it’s unmentionables to canonball the head priest is fantastic.
Small Gods is first followed by Night Watch.
I loved the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Read it as a kid and every time I go back to reread my beat up copies it is a joy.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
- The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsay Drager
- The Book of Nightmares by Galway Kinnell
- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
a few of importance to me:
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Guards! Guards!
Piranesi
The Scar
A chain of voices - Andre Brink
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
The name of the rose - Umberto Eco (so much better than the movie)
A prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
I used to read a lot when I was younger. Now I’m down to max two books per year. I miss it.
I was the same way, I felt guilty for reading or like I could never sit still long enough to finish a book. I really recommend audiobooks… Now I just listen to a book while I’m doing chores, driving, playing games, etc. I’m back to reading a book or two a week!
Far too many to list but some of my favourites are -
The Belgariad series by David Eddings
The Magician series by Raymond E Feist
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
Pretty much anything written by Dan Abnett, Terry Pratchett and R.A. SalvatoreLove all of those with the exception of Bernieres, gonna need to check them out
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin surprised me. It’s such a bittersweet and emotional book. It hooked me right from the start.
- Philip K Dick - Galactic Pot-Healer
- Jose Donoso - The Obscene Bird of Night
- Alfred Kubin - The Other Side
- Ursula K Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven
- Stanislaw Lem - Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
- Boris & Arkady Strugatsky - Roadside Picnic
- H G Wells - When The Sleeper Wakes
- Stefan Wul - Oms en Serie
- Yevgeny Zamyatin - We
- Jerzy Zulawski - On The Silver Globe
I also really love all the Moomin & Oz books.
I like to hand out copies of WE to anyone who mentions 1984. I get chills when discussing it sometimes.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance can be a difficult read at times, but is honestly incredible.
If you like having things to ponder and think on, it’s unforgettable
I was assigned Zen in college. I could not get into it. And I had to get it read. I took it chapter by chapter backwards and loved it.
I listened to it on Audiobook myself; i think it’s very suited to the format
My top 3, in order are:
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The Lord of the Rings
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Dune
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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So, for me, the cliche answer is Lord of the Rings. But another book that I’ve always really loved, is East by Edith Pattou. It’s a very simple fantasy story, but I read it when I was much younger and it’s always just felt very comfy and cozy whenever I read it.
I’m putting east on my TBR list! Thank you for sharing!
I really hope you’ll enjoy it! The sequel, West is also good, though a bit weaker than East. I don’t often reread books, just because I would rather spend my reading time with a book I haven’ yet read, but East is one of the few books I’ve made an exception for; I must have read that book four or five times by now.
