We're doing a big international trip with our two small kids, and we're going to TRY to set an example for our kids by not just being glued to our phones for hours at a time while we're on planes and trains.
He loved the TV series Station Eleven, Silo, and The Expanse. I've thought about just choosing the book of one of these.
As an edgy teen boy, he read a lot of Kurt Vonnegut.
He read Piranesi on a plane a few years ago and liked it.
He's snobby and hard to impress, but I need something very easy to read, as it will be hard to focus under the circumstances.
by cantnotdeal
25 Comments
Project Hail Mary.
Perhaps **We Are Legion, We Are Bob**. It’s an easy read, and pretty entertaining light sci fi.
Basically a software engineer gets killed after signing a cryo-preservation contract and wakes up a couple hundred years later to ‘crew’ a Von Neumann probe.
The Things We Carried is a great Vietnam War book by my Tim O’Brien.
You could try some Hemingway for something shorter. His style is very accessible and goes quickly.
ORRRR … Raymond Carver has a series of short stories (a few, actually) called What We Talk About When We Talk About Love — never mind the title. Carver is very gritty and his style is really concise and smooth for a reader. He’s one of my all time favorites.
If he likes the TV series Station Eleven, maybe get him one of Emily St John Mandel’s other books: Sea of Tranquility is so good, too. It is a pretty quick read, in my experience.
Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House might pair well. It’s literary fiction, but near-future rather than present day, with some elements that also feel slightly scifi.
Arkady Martine’s duology A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace are also scifi with gorgeous world-building, which it seems like he enjoys based on those shows, and really captures the different cultures of planet vs space station (very Expanse-adjacent in some ways(.
“As an edgy teenage boy he read a lot of Kurt Vonnegut” so it goes. My recommendation is Dungeon Crawler Carl or, Operation Bounce House by the same author
Portals by Douglas Richards! Adventure, sci-fi, very good to get some reading momentum started!
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
got my other half into reading using dungeon crawler carl.. he’s on book 2 now..
The Murderbot Diaries. It’s about a robot who gains consciousness and does things but really wants to just watch soap operas. The first four are also novellas so short and quick.
Also, as someone who is an avid reader because my parents set the example of being avid readers, I appreciate what you’re doing!!!!
Murderbot Diaries feels like a very safe plane pick: short, funny, sci-fi, and not a giant commitment if he bounces off it. If he liked Piranesi and Station Eleven, I’d also try Sea of Tranquility for something quiet but still page-turny.
Never Let Me Go – dystopian drama
Rags and Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales – short story retellings
We – dystopian
Crossings by Alex Landragin – historical fiction with magical realism
I Am Legend – sci-fi supernatural
Animal Farm – dystopian fable
Snow Crash – sci-fi
Life of Pi is a good read alike for Piranesi, it an easy read too and not to large a book.
The silo series books are really good. I highly recommend
Station Eleven the novel grabbed me HARD when it came out, it def has snobby vibes, too. Yet is still an east read. Adored the show; I was astounded it captures the vibes so well. In a similar vein is Heller’s “The Dog Stars.” Post-apocalyptic pair of guys living in a former community airport, working together to stay safe, keeping a Cessna running. Another well-written but easy read, if not on the level of Mandel’s writing in S11.
Definitely Project Hail Mary!
World War Z by Max Brooks. It’s much better than the movie.
Jurassic Park
I think he would love The Book of M by Peng Shepard. It’s a great story about a strange apocalyptic pandemic that begins with a person losing their shadow. It’s very well written and is a stand alone, so easy to complete while on vacation. >!It also has a pretty happy ending so, while there are lots of serious moving aspects to the story, it won’t bring down the mood too much for a vacation!<
Have a great trip 🙂
A snobby non-reader sounds like an oxymoron lol
Second Project Hail Mary
I too enjoy the apocalypse and read Vonnegut as an edgy teen boy, may I recommend the stand and 11/22/63 by Stephen king and the secret history by Donna tart?
Dungeon Crawler Carl. It’s fucking hilarious and an easy read. Perfect for a plane ride.
REAMDE by Neal Stephenson.
But the Expanse series is fantastic so that’s a great choice.
Swan Song by Robert McCammon is a fantastic book and it’s a long one. Would be perfect for a long flight!
Highly recommend Station Eleven. If he dug Vonnegut, he might like the short stories of George Saunders or Karen Russell, too.
Project Hail Mary
The Martian
Radio Player One