Title.
I've been putting together a list of things I would like to read at some point, and realized that it is heavy on high fantasy and sci-fi. So I want to broaden my horizons and find things that are outside the bubble I've trapped myself in. Though I will gladly take more suggestions for fantasy and sci-fi books, too.
Thanks.
by ScholarOfSols
20 Comments
1984
Fahrenheit 450, Animal Farm, and 1984 – they’re dull AF to read but still important
Hunger Games – modern and a ‘YA’ book technically, but still a good read.
*Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland*, and its sequel *Through the Looking Glass* by Lewis Carroll. Because it’s such a clever an imaginative book, and because it gets referenced so often in popular culture (often by people who don’t even realise their referencing it).
*Rebecca* by Daphne Du Maurier, because it’s a masterpiece of psychological suspense.
*The Murder of Roger Ackroyd* by Agatha Christie, because Christie’s plotting is just so good and this is one of her best. Be sure to read it before you Google anything about it, because spoilers abound on the Internet.
*Watership Down* by Richard Adams. Because rabbits.
h{{She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb}}
h{{Lamb by Christopher Moore}}
Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien.
Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield.
My Life and Work, Henry Ford.
The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand.
Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson.
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas.
Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes.
The Stand, Stephen King.
A lot of these are change your way of thinking about something or a different take.
The Millionaire Next Door – how to think about wealth, money, and saving.
I, Robot – science fiction thought experiment – what happens when you change one rule
Guns, Germs, and Steel – how environment shapes societies
The Old Man and the Sea for its writing style. Simplicity and word choice.
Freakinomics – economics applied to weird stuff, like the economics of being a drug dealer, or the impact of abortion on crime rates
BIFF by Bill Eddy. Brief Informative Friendly and Firm. How to communicate in high conflict situations.
Just good books
Lonesome Dove – probably the greatest Western written
Any Hammer’s Slammers. Author wrote a book about Vietnam. It didn’t sell, so he changed “rifle” to “plasma gun” and Viet Cong to alien. Draws a lot from historical battles, and extrapolates what would happen in the future of warfare. If you have superpowered lasers that can hit anything line of sight, what does that do to the battlefield?
Any Stephen Ambrose book – WW2.
Ender’s Game – a sci-fi classic
Neuromancer and Count Zero. Early cyberpunk.
Starship Troopers – I believe it’s the first appearance of powered armor in scifi. Lots of weird politics too.
John Dies At The End – It’s an early web serial. A couple slackers take a drug that lets them see the supernatural. Scooby Doo meets Wayne’s World.
Old Man’s War – You can join the space marines when you turn 75.
The Chronicles of Amber. Ten books about the royal family of Amber, the one true world, and their conflicts over the throne, with all other worlds, including Earth, being “Shadows” that can be manipulated by the family. Broken into two cycles with POV of two very different characters.
Books I deeply love are Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes, Warbreaker and The way of kings – Brandon Sanderson, The Road – Cormac McCarthy, The Midnight Library – Matt Haig, and The Mountain in the Sea – Ray Naylor.
Most books on the “banned or fought” book list. Lord of the flies, Brave new world, hunger games, hand maids tale, catcher in the rye etc.
Fiction
1. The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
2. A Touch of Blood by Sajni Patel
3. The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman
4. Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino
5. Throwback by Maurene Goo
6. I’ll Stop the World by Lauren Thoman
7. Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV
8. Long Way Down: The Graphic Novel by Jason Reynolds
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Non-fic (recommend the audiobook for all except Takei’s, which is a graphic novel)
1. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
2. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
3. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
4. The World Record Book of Racist Stories by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar
The Song of Solomon and the Gospel of John. The first for the poetry and to see the consistency of love over millennia, the latter to have a basic overview of Christianity.
On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin.
This book changed the world in profound ways. Almost everyone has an opinion about it. Go ahead; actually read it.
The holy books of
(A) Your own religion, if you have one, or the religion of your most recent ancestors who practiced a religion.
(B) The dominant religion of your country.
(C) The dominant religion of every country your country is currently in a military conflict with.
So, if you’re an American, you should at minimum read the Bible and the Koran.
The Enchiridion, by Epictetus.
The title is kind of intimidating but the book itself is quite simply the wisdom you need to understand to live a happy life. I think about this book often.
Cold-Blooded Kindness by Barbara Oakley
Something by Thomas Mann. *The Magic Mountain* is probably the Mann novel I’ve seen recommended and discussed the most, and while I think *The Magic Mountain* is great, I would recommend his 4 volume novel Joseph & His Brothers, a detailed retelling of of the story of Joseph (and Jacob in the first volume) from the book of Genesis. I also love his novel *Buddenbrooks* (his first novel) which is about the decline of German merchant family over multiple generations.
A prayer for Owen Meaney
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Now thankfully overtaken by events
Endeavour by Alfred Lansing and The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Two very different tales of Antarctic exploration.
The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin. Or anything by Ursula le Guin
James Herriot books. Perfect comfort reading
PG Wodehouse. Still funny after all these years
The Stone Book Quartet by Alan Garner. It will echo in your mind forever.
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
And every man needs to read Beloved by Toni Morrison. It changed my brain activity after reading it. As a white guy from the south it opened my eyes to the horrors of the south more than anything I have ever read before. I just kept waiting for it to have some semblance of happiness but nope just page after page of brutal despair
Also Absalom,Absalom and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The driver’s ed handbook.
The Alchemist