My husband was not a reader when I met him. My ploy to sucker him in to loving books with me was to read aloud. While successful, I quickly discovered that he has a limited interest window. It has to be a plot driven book with action, and a generally sympathetic protagonist.
Now I'm looking for more to read to him
Things we have already read that he liked:
1) Hitchhikers guide (stalled out in the fifth book)
2) Johannes Cabal -read all five
3) Dresden files- read the first 6 or so
4) Lies of Locke Lamora
5) Patrick Rothfuss
6) Brandon Sanderson- first trilogy of misborn, storm light
7) Garth Nix – Sabriel
8) The Martian
The duds (in his opinion):
1) The night circus
2) Harun and the sea of stories
3) Gene Wolfe
4) Ray Bradbury
TYIA!!!!!
by Trixie_Dixon
10 Comments
Shogun
Watership Down
Has he read any John Grisham?
Project Hail Mary (by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian) would probably be right up his alley. He might also like Badasstronauts by Grady Hendrix. It’s a novella (short is often a bonus for those new to the reading habit) and is a really great time.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Finder by Suzanne Palmer
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
All of these have more in the series if he ends liking them.
I love books by Jules Verne! I’d say they fit criteria. I’m currently reading “Around the World in 80 Days” and have read “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Both are full of adventurous action and are page turners. I’ll be up front and say that since they were written in the late 1800s, there is some language that might be somewhat challenging to understand by a modern reader, but I can usually get by with context clues. Bonus points: some of Verne’s books have since been made into movies!
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett! Followed by Night Watch in the same series.
A Bad Day for Sunshine
Curse of Chalion and/or the Penric-Desdemona novellas
A Elderly Lady is Up to No Good
All Systems Red (1st Murderbot novel)
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant
I enjoyed Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter and I think it fits your criteria.
Didn’t like Ray Bradbury?!?!?! Blasphemy. jk
I second the recommendation for Robert Jackson Bennett. He has, I think, 3 series and a few standalone books and the ones I’ve read were all fun and fast paced.
A. Lee Martinez might also be one to look up. He’s written *The Automatic Detective*, which is like a robot hard-boiled detective story and a bunch of humorous fantasy books
Others have said, the Murderbot diaries series would be perfect! They’re short novellas, lots of action, and quick to read.
Otherwise, maybe Red Rising? It’s technically YA, but it’s really good, and definitely would hold his attention from the beginning.