I've often been told not to judge a book by it's cover, but I'm curious: How else are you supposed to choose? Something must grab you in order for you to choose a book to read. Sometimes it makes logical sense; for example, you might choose a book because you've read the author before and enjoyed…
Please, don’t say fifty shades of grey.
Just looking for others that understand my woes! If I start reading a book and I like it I can't stop until I finish it which means I don't go to bed until late. Or once I finish one if I can start the next one in the series I have to start that one "a little bit". If I do manage to sleep without…
Hi everyone, English professor here. I got motivated to make this post because this weekend I finally finished an undertaking that you would think would be common in my profession but actually is not: I finished reading every book on the Modern Library's list of the 100 greatest English language…
[edit] Thanks guys, some really great suggestions here. Enough to keep me busy for a while haha. I really appreciate all you input. I've added all your recs to my goodreads account 'want to read' list. Hi friends, I would consider myself fairly conservative. I am a christian, and my faith is very…
I have been using goodreads as a source for books for many years now, but the declining quality of the website, lack of maintenance and the still lacking support of a night mode (which I require to actually survive looking at the page in the dark) hare driving me away from it more and more. Another…
So many people post about reading their first book in years, or having a hard time getting back in the habit of reading. This post is IN NO WAY a knock on them and I have nothing but respect for those who have been trying to pick it back up. That being said, though, I just can’t imagine not…
I recently started try to re-read House of Leaves...and I had honestly forgotten that the book is a friggin' acid trip in writing, to the point that I am genuinely wondering if I should let that beast lie. However, trying to take another bite at this beast got me thinking about a question to ask you…
I believe three years ago, back when I was in 11th grade, I read The Great Gatsby (it was one of three choices) for my English work. I liked it a lot back then, but I don't recall grasping it all. There were times when I was confused reading the story. Since I decided a week ago that I was going to…
The book was Halo: Cryptum by Greg Bear Reading lost its appeal for me a long time ago, and it was hard to stay focused on words on a page for years, but today I finished my first book in years and I am so happy. It's a small achievement, but an achievement nonetheless. I'm going to start reading…
Yeah, so... I think this kind of story is necessary. I just came across a mini comic (6 pages long) of Spider-Man, where he finds a homeless little girl that was a fan of his, and... Well, I guess there's no right way to put it. It's 6 pages long, and barely has any dialog, so you can read it in two…
My daughter is 5 and has begun to encounter things in the world that are scary and broken, like death and infertility. I don't try to hide things from her. I want her to grow up understanding that the world is broken and that sometimes brokenness is beautiful. That we need to let ourselves feel…
I recently read and finished Frankenstein and it was one of the best pieces of literature I have ever read. The way It was written was so unique and the amount of perspectives you can read it in is extremely impressive. Some perspectives I don't really comprehend completely yet. Especially the…
Does a book need an actual message to be good? To have something to say? Of course "goodness" is subjective, in the eye of the beholder etc... But still, does a book about nothing have less value than something that actually has a message? Can a book about nothing, just pure power fantasy or wish…
I’ve now read Norwegian Wood, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki by Murakami. I generally enjoy his writing style and I feel pulled in by his stories which has kept me coming back to his works. I just cannot get over how he writes women. They seem to solely exist as sex objects to…
No spoilers, just looking to talk about the quality of the book. I was blown away by this book. Her prose is so evocative and elegant, the descriptions so vivid, the pacing quick yet not rushed. The main characters are complex and layered in such a way that you become hungry to know them more…
The more I liked a book, the more bad I feel when I finish it. It's like there is an emptiness inside of me and suddenly a part of me is missing. I realize the world that I "came back" to and I feel so disappointed. I imagine how the world could be if we lived inside a world from the books,…
As the title says I'm looking for some World War One stories: this can be either in the diary format from an actual accounting - like Eugene Sledge or Robert Leckie from World War Two - or a work of fiction that is heavily historically accurate and includes real events as part of the narrative. I'd…
I am a full time student and I generally try to read a book when I can but I never can finish even 5 books a year. I am pursuing Mechanical Engineering so that can be why I am too afraid to give more time to reading other books than course books due to the course load. So I want to know how do you…
I love massive book series, especially sci-fi/fantasy. I really wish I could forget about and read The Wheel Of Time again for the first time. A few others would be Harry Potter, Runelords, The Culture series or Discworld books. I want to hear which books made you so emotionally invested in the…
Whatever the subject is in books (or any other media) You read reviews talking about how inaccurate and unrealistic that insert group of people here is. You see that criticism on books written by authors of that group or not. My problem with that type of criticism is how self centered it is. To…
A strange request! I have a family friend whose daughter has confided in me about feeling left out of everything. She herself is 13, and her younger sibling 7. Her younger sibling has additional needs and so gets more attention. She is also forced to stay at home during the holidays and look after…
A slow read, not too dissimilar to Stoner (another incredible book), Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day" is a great read. You wouldn't imagine having so many things in common with a Butler, but so many of his thoughts ended up resonating me in one way or another. The scene of his heartbreak…
I’d love to read a novel around a small tea shop. Urban fantasy or a cozy mystery would be great, but I’m open to anything. Other tea related novels are welcome too. Thank you so much!
I’ve been teaching the Gothic and Science Fiction at university for over 25 years here in London, and I’ve edited classics such as Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine. I’ve written books about topics that range from the invention of the concept…
I saw a bunch of people raving about this book in a book suggestion thread so I got the audio book from my library. My God.... it's like Eric Cartman dropped out freshman year, pounded out an incel manifesto and drowned it in Deus ex machina. How is every female character a manic pixie dream girl?…
In the past I honestly hated to jump between books while reading them, mostly because I loved the feeling of finishing one so much. But, I also had to fight myself through a whole book sometimes, otherwise I felt..., like leaving the book behind, incomplete. But nowadays it feels nice to jump…
Lots of genres come loaded with assumptions and stereotypes. Sci-Fi and fantasy are for "nerds" Romance books are for women etc. Because of this there must be loads of good books people miss out on. Personally, I avoid political/spy thrillers because I stereotype them as "dad fiction" and assume…
As a younger reader, I am interested in reading the classics and have read some of them eg.1984, The Outsiders, Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies etc. I know classics become classics because they bring new ideas to the table or have some deep allegorical meaning, and after reading some of these…
I really love science fiction like Snowcrash and Hyperion. The librarian around the corner recommend Exhalation, citing a philosophical underpinning. I also love short stories and this explores short stories. The ones I've read so far deal with regret, coping with mortality, the incompleteness…
and it was amazing. I loved the mystery and atmosphere of the world she built. After reading it I could just imagine exploring that place, discovering new statues, finding my way through the labyrinth. I'd say the first half of the book was my favorite, as the story unfolded it was still good, but…
Hi! I'm working on my undergraduate thesis analysing vulgarity/sexual terms, do you guys have any suggestion of books with lots of sexual terms (or swearing words with sexual terms), something like 'cunt', 'pussy', 'dickhead', 'little prick'? Not necessarily sexual books tho. Thanks!
Hello r/Books [https://www.reddit.com/r/Books/]! We are a small reading community called r/ClassicBookClub [https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicBookClub/], and we read and discuss a chapter of a classic book each day in a dedicated spoiler free discussion thread. Our readers nominate and vote on the…
Stephen King and Murakami are among my favorite authors. I would like to read something that marries the two writing styles. I’ve read all of McCarthy, and love him.
I was going through my kindle library and came across my collection of Flashman novels. I enjoyed these immensely, and am about to start reading them again. It did make me wonder, though; although these books are a savage lampoon of the upper echelons of Victorian society at the height of the…
I did a little math. George R. R. Martin is 73 years old. His a song of ice and fire books were realeased from 1996 until today. His longest time to release a book was book 5 (I haven't taken book 6 because it is not released). If we take distance of time the book we waited for longest (because…
I just read two pretty dense books back to back and would like a short easy to read book as a break
It seems like in every novel I read women are sexualised? Like can they not exist in any other context? Can they not have more plot than romance?? So many male characters go by without any real reference to how attractive they are. But a woman appears and immediately we must know: is she hot? Almost…
MINI SPOILERS FOR: Kafka on the shore and The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Hi my favorite work of art of all time is Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue | LOVE this manga it's beautifully written eye candy. | love the whole philosophical element to it and how it has a “Japanese Vibe” | thought…
Google isn't helping me out much so I decided to try here. I'm searching for a book in which the reader can follow along and get immersed in the character's life, from when they're a child all the way until they die (or get older) I want it to be meaningful and heart wrenching in a beautiful way.…
Here's a question. Which is the most disappointing book you've read and why would you not recommended it to anyone? So after all the hype and talk, I grabbed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and The Push by Ashley Audrain. Unpopular opinion but the Midnight Library disappointed me. The entire…
I suppose what I'm looking for is more like a post-apocalyptic society, where people are having to re-form communities and get by as best they can. Nothing too dark, more uplifting if anything. I've read (and loved) Station Eleven, so that's a bit of a guide. Thanks!
So it's been a couple of weeks since I read Flowers for Algernon. I'm really thinking that it's my favorite book of all time. I know some may think it's not that profound, but for me I definitely believe it is a literary masterpiece, especially for it's time. I guess it's the whole concept of a lab…