The Peter Grant (Rivers of London) books by Ben Aaronovitch. A gripping series of modern fantasy mysteries with a relatable main character who keeps at it through hard times. It’s engaging enough that it keeps me reading, and somehow I always feel a little more hopeful after.
PatchworkGirl82 on
{{Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg}} and the other books in her Elmwood Springs series. They’re so charming and funny and uplifting.
lightafire2402 on
My university professor used to jokingly say anyone depressed should start reading Kant, because they’ll be so overwhelmed by trying to understand what on Earth Kant is saying that they’ll forget they’re depressed.
I’m not going to recommend Kant to you, but I think if you’re depressed and want to forget about this world or your depression, go for *The Songs of Distant Earth* by Arthur C. Clarke. Calming and soothing novel, very unique even in regards to Clarke’s own body of work.
Embarrassed_Base_668 on
Fantastic People Who Dared To Fail
iiiamash01i0 on
{{ She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb }}
creaturesonthebrain on
*Magic’s Pawn* by Mercedes Lackey really helped me through some shit.
Academic-Catch-8895 on
Girl in pieces
UltraFlyingTurtle on
In college it was messed up surrealist literature, or existential and postmodern novels, as well as absurdist stuff. I don’t know if they helped or worsened things, but it felt cathartic to read. For example:
* **Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis** – Gen X slacker nihilism with a smattering of post-modern existentialism. Definitely not a feel good book.
* **Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille** — really really really fucked up surrealist book, but the inspiration for a particular notorious scene in the classic surrealist film, Un Chien Andalou.
* **Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut** — a wonderful satire which made me laugh, especially the crudely drawn pictures.
* **Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett** — a play about nothing, done in absurdist greatness.
* **America by Jean Baudrillard** — a French social critic post-modern view of America during the 1980s. It’s actually an easier read than you think and at times funny (or depressing, depending on your view).
But I feel Vertigo comics is what really saved me in college. Vertigo Comics is the now-defunct imprint of DC Comics that featured more adult comics. I read the entire run of **Sandman** and **Hellblazer**, and **Alan Moore’s run on the Swamp Thing**. There was a local used bookstore next to my college and I could buy boxes of the comics for cheap. Students, when moving out, would sell there entire comics collection. I could get lost in this comic worlds for months at a time.
The comic that helped me the most was Vertigo’s **Shade the Changing Man**, about an alien who takes human form and befriends two women as they drive all over American going on adventures. Shade is continually involuntarily changing forms, and has problems forming a stable self-identity, and I think this really appealed to me at the time. It’s written by Peter Mulligan and featured the debut of the artist Chris Bachalo.
Post college, at different points in my life, it was:
* **The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry** — coming of age story in a small Texas town. There’s a frankness of the depiction of the characters that really appealed to me (plus McMurtry is a really great writer).
* **Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham** — written over a hundred years ago, but it doesn’t feel like it. This story about an orphan trying to live his life by traveling and learning and experience things, really made me feel better.
* **Ready Player One by Ernest Cline** — I had a severe reading block that lasted for several years after the passing of some close people, and because this book is extremely easy to read, it’s rather simplistic (but fun) story finally allowed me to start enjoying novels again. Afterward I could start reading anything again.
8 Comments
The Peter Grant (Rivers of London) books by Ben Aaronovitch. A gripping series of modern fantasy mysteries with a relatable main character who keeps at it through hard times. It’s engaging enough that it keeps me reading, and somehow I always feel a little more hopeful after.
{{Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg}} and the other books in her Elmwood Springs series. They’re so charming and funny and uplifting.
My university professor used to jokingly say anyone depressed should start reading Kant, because they’ll be so overwhelmed by trying to understand what on Earth Kant is saying that they’ll forget they’re depressed.
I’m not going to recommend Kant to you, but I think if you’re depressed and want to forget about this world or your depression, go for *The Songs of Distant Earth* by Arthur C. Clarke. Calming and soothing novel, very unique even in regards to Clarke’s own body of work.
Fantastic People Who Dared To Fail
{{ She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb }}
*Magic’s Pawn* by Mercedes Lackey really helped me through some shit.
Girl in pieces
In college it was messed up surrealist literature, or existential and postmodern novels, as well as absurdist stuff. I don’t know if they helped or worsened things, but it felt cathartic to read. For example:
* **Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis** – Gen X slacker nihilism with a smattering of post-modern existentialism. Definitely not a feel good book.
* **Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille** — really really really fucked up surrealist book, but the inspiration for a particular notorious scene in the classic surrealist film, Un Chien Andalou.
* **Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut** — a wonderful satire which made me laugh, especially the crudely drawn pictures.
* **Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett** — a play about nothing, done in absurdist greatness.
* **America by Jean Baudrillard** — a French social critic post-modern view of America during the 1980s. It’s actually an easier read than you think and at times funny (or depressing, depending on your view).
But I feel Vertigo comics is what really saved me in college. Vertigo Comics is the now-defunct imprint of DC Comics that featured more adult comics. I read the entire run of **Sandman** and **Hellblazer**, and **Alan Moore’s run on the Swamp Thing**. There was a local used bookstore next to my college and I could buy boxes of the comics for cheap. Students, when moving out, would sell there entire comics collection. I could get lost in this comic worlds for months at a time.
The comic that helped me the most was Vertigo’s **Shade the Changing Man**, about an alien who takes human form and befriends two women as they drive all over American going on adventures. Shade is continually involuntarily changing forms, and has problems forming a stable self-identity, and I think this really appealed to me at the time. It’s written by Peter Mulligan and featured the debut of the artist Chris Bachalo.
Post college, at different points in my life, it was:
* **The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry** — coming of age story in a small Texas town. There’s a frankness of the depiction of the characters that really appealed to me (plus McMurtry is a really great writer).
* **Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham** — written over a hundred years ago, but it doesn’t feel like it. This story about an orphan trying to live his life by traveling and learning and experience things, really made me feel better.
* **Ready Player One by Ernest Cline** — I had a severe reading block that lasted for several years after the passing of some close people, and because this book is extremely easy to read, it’s rather simplistic (but fun) story finally allowed me to start enjoying novels again. Afterward I could start reading anything again.