Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too. <3
Tigana
A book about loss. Loss of family. Loss of country. Loss of culture. Loss of all things. It’s beautifully written, and the theme of loss doesn’t mean a somber tone throughout, the found family is strong.
The Trial
“80,000 Hours”, because not only does it teach you something about wealth, humanism and fulfilling careers, it also highlights imminent dangers that receive little (scientific/regulatory) attention and points out that everyone can do something without being rich or a genius.
Although I somewhat dislike their frequent measure of ‘impact’ in terms of money, the book puts quite a few things into perspective, and I can accept that you need to quantify things to do so. I particularly like that they encourage you to think about problems from different angles, and them pointing out that you can have a very real impact on the overall wellbeing of any living creature, pretty no matter what you do.
- A Canticle for Leibowitz
- Cloud Atlas
- 1984
I have loved all of David Mitchell’s books but Cloud Atlas was the perfect one that I started with that made me want to see everything else he read. I just love the structure of it so so much.
Absolutely. Since I’m not really into the music scene, I thought I wouldn’t enjoy Utopia avenue, but I honestly think it’s my second-favorite of his works. I am about to start Ghostwritten, though will probably stop there, because I really don’t think number9dream is for me. I’m really not a fan of unsatisfying stories or bildungsroman, and I’ve read that n9d is both. What’s your take?
I enjoyed Black Swan Green, in spite of its bildungsroman plot, but It wasn’t my favourite (though it wasn’t my least-favourite, because that dubious honour has to go to Slade House, which I read before the Bone Clocks, and which I expected to have a MUCH better puzzlebox feel. I felt betrayed when I realized that the alchemical symbology and map of the house on the inside cover of my first-edition copy was all meaningless, especially when the climax was just a deus-ex-horologia before I knew who Marinus was)
Alll those, yes.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight was one that set me on quite the Dragonlance collection and reading journey
Crime and Punishment.
… “does the gentleman want his head smashed?”
The ending of the last night angel books really follows you around.
The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer
It isn’t just sci-fi, there’s a lot of coming to terms with your limited amount of human influence on your environment and life, that there unknowns that will always be unknown, and that’s ok, we’re no different than the gains of sand by the lighthouse, as subject to nature as the grass, or birds.
There are also clones of people that have to come to terms with their identity as to what they are, even if they themselves don’t fully understand it, and can’t.
The universe is bigger than you, and your scope is limited, but that’s ok. Find wherever you fit and try to find purpose in the chaos.
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Grew up seeing it on the bookshelf and thought it was a horror book. Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in book form.
I’d say it contains some existential horror…
I won’t disagree but I was under the impression the guy wrote at least 4 other Slaughterhouse books. With a title like Slaughterhouse I believed the book series was packed to the gills with blood and guts.
Enders game a it was the only novel I had finished in my life. Took me 3 years but disabilities like ADHD is horrible for me. I can read pretty well but any books like novels just can’t do it. Also with aphantasia it gets even worse.
This was my answer as well. It’s an amazing book amd I always recommend it.
Oh it was not a good book. Made by someone who’s donated actively to organization that want to make me dead for existing. It was a shit book but the only novel.i ever read.
How to seize the means of computation By cory Doctorow.
Great author love all of his books. Love his its free to read any of his books on craphound. But i ended up buying physical copys because i just needed to own them.
The book talks about how things were with betamax and VHS. And how modern day tech is crap and how to fix it!
Its diffently the most influential books ive read.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
it was the first book I ever read, and I decided to do it on my own. I was 16 and it was the greatest thing I had done for myself up to that point. It was such a big thing for me. I had never read a book front to back before, let alone deciding to do it on my own.
And so I checked that book out at the library. Went home and started to read the first couple chapters. Got some tomato soup and a grilled cheese and then next thing I know its 2AM and I read that whole book in almost one sitting!!!
The freedom it gave my mind was a gift I can never reply. Douglass Adams is and always will be one of my favorite humans for what he gave me in that story.
I agree. I’ve introduced it to a number of people and I find it’s a bit of a litmus test for me. If they come back with “that’s just stupid” I know they’re missing a sense of play that comes with messing with the rules of life.
We lost DA far too early, but he left us a wonderful gift.
The Lord of The Rings. This book changed reading for me. I always enjoyed fantastical themes, but this one really got me. Then, I found out there was more. More background, more world building, more why.
I’ve never turned back. I re read it occasionally and I’ve read much of Tolkien’s other works. Next on the list is to begin working through The History of Middle Earth. I will be starting this in the fall. It may take me quite some time to get through.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Gave me fresh perspective on the state of America
Foundation is great, have you also read the Empire trilogy? Also after reading Empire + Foundation you should read The end of Eternity, it’s an amazing book whose impact is only felt if you’ve read the other books.
Can I say the entire Discworld series? Sure they’re funny fantasy stories, but I reckon Pterry’s view on humanity formed a lot of how I think about the world.
Also Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
Going to add Dark Money to my reading list. Thanks!
