I honestly can’t remember the last time I read a book. I’m not saying that to brag but I also know the benefit of reading but with my ocd it makes it a little harder as I have to re read lines a lot of times.
Anyway what recommendations do you have for a adult male in their 40’s.
My main reason is I want to keep my brain sharp so I’m open to all genres. Ideally something that is not too long and I would prefer a easy read.
by Hot-Performance-1361
15 Comments
Everyone is going to recommend Project Hail Mary or Dungeon Crawler Carl, because those are the only two books that exist for men, apparently.
I’ll go with the Dresden Files or High Fidelity.
Read the murderbot series. There are seven short novels. The first book has been Made into a TV series
I didn’t know anything about your taste in stories so I checked your post history.
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny is a mystery with the same feeling as Nightmare Before Christmas. I don’t want to explain too much because figuring out what’s going on with the characters is part of the experience.
The Machine Adam by Prashant Benjamin is a great start. It’s a collection of short stories on how tech advancements can have a negative effect on how we live life as humans.
Some of the older books, say from the 1950s, can be quite good for straightforward storytelling. I read them every so often to get a break from modern styles.
Neville Shute is a good author.
Or something like The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monserrat.
Or if you wanted something newer try The Journey by James Michener.
Or The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger.
Project Hail Mary is really good. On the plus side the movie is coming out soon. I like to watch the movies after I read the book.
What are your interests? What kinds of movies do you like? My favorite book of all time is actually the Godfather. It’s not super long, it’s not the greatest book of all time, but it was so entertaining, it just pushes all the right buttons. I usually take about 1-2 months to read a book, I tend to read longer novels and don’t read every night, but this one I read in 2 days. I started in the morning and I literally couldn’t put it down all day.
Graham Greene novels are accessible, exciting and short
**A Movable Feast** by Ernest Hemingway. Extremely entertaining!
For me, it was audio books that got me back into reading, im a mid-40s guy myself. Another comment mentioned Dungeon Crawler Carl – it really is an amazing series, and the narration is absolutely top rate. Highly recommend.
Some other great audio books:
Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey – first book in The Expanse series. Also a GREAT show, the adaptation is phenomenal.
Armada by Ernest Cline – same guy who wrote Ready Player One. The audio is narrated by Will Wheaton, since you grew up in the 80s and 90s, you might have a soft spot for our boy Wesley Crusher. The story has real “The Last Starfighter” vibes. It’s not “literature”, but its a fun listen.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah – the last two were sci-fi, this is Trevor Noah’s memoir, it’s damn fantastic. This is the book that got me reading again. Funny, reflective, and Trevor narrates it himself. Really worthwhile and great listen.
If you want some more thriller/mystery type books, check out Blake Crouch, his books, like Dark Matter, Recursion, and Upgrade are absolute page turners. I read each of them in a day over the summer (I teach high school) and thought they were awesome.
If you like science fiction, try the Murderbot Diaries from Martha Wells, the books are thin and next to science fiction and suspence, it has humour in it as well…Apple TV has the first season (first book) with Alexander Skarsgard as Murderbot…love it…
If you like outdoor settings, The River by Peter Heller (2019), or the Joe Pickett series by CJ Box. The first Joe Pickett book is Open Season (2001). These are both good, easy reads.
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch is also really good. It’s an urban fantasy series with cops, mysteries, magic, river goddesses, etc. The first book is Rivers of London (2011).
Also, Dungeon Crawler Carl. It really is great.
The Wager by David Grann. It’s a historical book during the time of colonialism across the globe and a specific ship called Wager as it runs into disaster and what happens with the crew. It’s an incredible story that is true and has tons of citations and historical documents to support each and every claim. Written extremely well, only around 300 pages with a lot of citations pages.
Just jump into the deep end and go right into Lonesome Dove. It’s arguably the greatest American novel and it isn’t difficult to read, you have some chapters where the author legitimately dumbs down the character. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s epic and the characters are unforgettable.
I’d suggest reading more female writers if you aren’t already doing it (Claire Keegan, Ali Smith, Clarice Lispector, Han kang, Maryse Conde etc etc)