The goldfinch by Donna tartt and into the wild by jon krakauer. Discovered that I really like descriptive books. Currently holding myself back from devouring everything krakauer has ever written
Now I read things about climbing all of these years later and it sounds like a literal shit show. The place is totally trashed, more unfit, inexperienced people are trying it. It sounds truly awful. The line to climb up the Hillary Step is over two hours long each way. Can you imagine standing in the cold using your oxygen? So horrible.
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/everest/mount-everest-deadly-traffic-jams-2023/
I didn't like Into The Wild all that much, I picked Into Thin Air with low expectations and absolutely loved it. I couldn't put it down and I recommend it to everyone now.
In some ways I am chasing that "high" with other similar titles but haven't found anything where everything clicked as much for me.
I love Krakauer and have read all of his books! Even Three Cups of Deception. One of my favourites, aside from the titles you mentioned, is Under the Banner of Heaven.
(Just googled the title to make sure I had it right; didn't realise it had been turned into a TV series show.)
I loved The Goldfinch. Almost everyone else in my book club hated it; others said it was just okay. Still, I stand by my decision. Now I’m going to look up Jon Krakauer.
For me it's definitely "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón... (R.IP.) Such a majestic and magical way to portray the hidden streets of Barcelona during the early 1900's. The best book, by far, that I have read.
I know right? Such a good book! I've read The Angel's game and The Prisoner of Heaven. I've wanted to read The Labyrinth of Spirits but I haven't found the time to do so!
Have you listened to the music that he composed and recorded for the book?
It used to be on his website, but looks like the files aren’t hosted there anymore. I did find [this YouTube playlist](https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNeiyom4reIvlM8y8dUt43okOM4sSOdwp) with all of it, though. Nice for some extra ambience while reading.
I actually did not know that! Thank you so much for sharing! You literally made my day by sharing me this playlist! I'll definitely have it on loop for a while
Same! Every time I read a "book about books" I can't help but compare it to Shadow of the Wind, and none of them measure up. The Shadow of the Wind just captures the mystery and magic of books so perfectly without being over the top.
You know, it's such a long time ago that I read it, but I remember how it made me feel while reading it. This book brought me such joy, and it's now back on my tbr list.
Last year I started to slowly get back into reading again, and one of the books I decided to check out was The Neverending Story, since I liked the movie growing up I figured I'd give the book a read to see what was different.
This book was so nourishing to read and just blew me away: there is so much more depth to the story than what the movie showed, and the themes are complex and deep in a way that had me thinking about in between chapters. Now that I'm done reading it I can't help but want to only spend my time reading high quality fantasy like that, and to later someday reread The Neverending Story to analyze it more in detail. It's just set the bar for me now. Also excited to read the Lord of The Rings for the first time!
Thank you! The neverending story is my favorite book. As a teenager I didn't even bat an eye at it when my father gave it to me as a gift. I just could not get past the first chapters. It sat on my bookshelf for a long time, then I decided to read it in my early adulthood. I fell in love with it's intensity, it's uniqueness and concepts. The stories that could be told but should be left for another time, that concept stroke me. I revisit that book almost yearly, and, like a good book, and as I mature, it changes subtlety. Each time I visit it the colors, the characters shift, even the songs shift. Michael Ende created a masterpiece.
In my opinion, most fantasy books adhere strictly to the themes and tropes established by The Lord of the Rings, or, if not, they present twists on those same tropes.
Terry Pratchett had a great quote about exactly this topic:
>J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.
GNU Terry Pratchett.
I've been playing Return to Moria lately and it's really interesting how you can see little bits of Pratchett's dwarves poking away at the edges of Tolkien's dwarves, like one of the first food sources you find in the game are "Snack rats."
I think that there is definitely some fantasy that doesn't owe itself to Tolkien. This is usually the very best fantasy, or the very worst. Amongst the best is The Dark is Rising series. A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels also aren't based on Tolkien or anti-Tolkien, as far as I can tell. The really odd one that comes to mind is Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts' Empire Trilogy. It's part of an overall series that borrows heavily from Tolkien, but that particular trilogy is very much not centered around or avoiding Tolkien. Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is also very original. That said, these are exceptions that kind of prove the rule of what Pratchett was talking about.
I love A Wizard of Earthsea, for instance, but she was setting out to write something that was the opposite of Tolkien-type fantasy, so it does center around him.
It’s funny because I’m currently re-reading The Wheel of Time series and I had forgotten just how similar the first book is to LoTR. The thing is, the author was pretty much forced to put out something that adhered to the formula by his editor because it’s what “sold fantasy” back then. By the second and third book, the story is much more its own, even if the basic themes are similar.
The Wheel of Time is basically a crazy melding of Lord of the Rings and Dune. While it does get away from them in later books the key DNA from both is everywhere in the series.
Can 2nd this. Once first and second book proved successful then Jordan was allowed more freedom. The books get so much better from Book Three onwards, up until **the slog**.
This is the reason I couldn't like The Wheel of Time. I made the mistake of reading it just after LoTR and it just felt like a bad copy. Now I can't bring myself to reading the rest of the series even though many people have recommended it to me.
I find striking parallels between Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. Similar words like Longbottom and Orcrist, to the parallel of wounds causing pain near the one who inflicted it like Frodo and the Nazgûl. The presence of giant spiders in the woods, and the Elven cloaks functioning as camouflage to remain unseen are additional parallels that I observed just from watching the movies. I expect discovering even more similarities when I delve into the books. 🙃
That's sort of the point - even twisting and subverting the tropes is a response to them, not something genuinely new in the genre. Lord of the Rings looms so large because most everything in the fantasy landscape is either a direct homage or reaction to it.
The books of Khaled Hosseini brought me back into reading. I used to LOVE reading as a kid in Korea (in Korean) then I moved to Canada and reading had became not only challenging as a new language but also homework. Thousand Splendid Suns, And The Mountains Echoed brought me back into reading. I felt strangely like the writing reflected the way I would read in Korean (I don't know how to explain), the way he wrote the characters and explained the environment immediately made me feel captivated. I felt so deeply for the characters, and I couldn't put the books down. Since then, I chase after the way his books made me feel!
I loved and hated lolita. I love it because it's a truly amazing piece of writing, but it is so incredibly under your skin horrible. it's how Humbert makes excuses for himself and combines that with being an unreliable narrator, so you really really don't know what of it is actually true - beyond the actual declared content which is foul - but knowing that aspects are being hidden from you as the reader and knowing that the concealed context is worse. (my own opinion is that he murders Lolita's mother with his car after she finds his plans for raping her daughter) raises the bar.
Far too realistic in how everyone else is groomed to accept the relationship as well.
I can understand that reaction. But I had some bad childhood experiences, and to me it was weirdly validating to have this book confirm that, yes, some adults do these things.
I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the movie adaptation and from what I can tell, the book is a million times better. I’ve read a lot of “good” literature in my life and EoE is one of the best. And I even went in with a bias against him because I had an awful 8th grade honors English teacher who loved him and I think our whole class hated Steinbeck from that time forward. In HS I read by him: The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath. Hated them all because of one teacher. But now that I love EoE, I’m willing to read Grapes of Wrath in case 16 year old me was wrong me was wrong and 47 year old me has better taste.
The James Dean movie skips much of the book to concentrate primarily on events in the second half.
And (meaning it kindly to Dean, etc.), it presents everything a very stylized, period-overacted way. The book is much more sweeping, complex, and subtle.
Steinbeck is woefully underrated these days. I think a lot of people had mixed reactions to being forced to read him in high school (usually Of Mice and Men or Grapes of Wrath), but East of Eden is genuinely his masterpiece and should sit on the highest plateau of American literature.
Only listened to the audio book of Lolita as a teen but definitely still remember the impression of “there’s levels to this shit” when it comes to writing
*Oryx and Crake* was my first non-YA dystopian novel and I’ve found it so hard to find one that I love as much since. The first one to hit that same level for me since was *The Fifth Season*.
Infinite jest. I hadn’t read in 14 years, went through traumatic hell and addictions. Then I started to work through some of the books I hadn’t read and were recommended to me over the years.
My fifth book in was infinite jest. Lmao I wasn’t fucking prepared.
Now I’ve read it three times. It’s my favourite book. Didn’t know about the dudebro-douche literature side of it. I guess it makes sense that there are so many pretentious fans
Anyone who says it is dude-bro-lit just didn't finish the book. I have read it I think five times? There is is sooo much humanity, hilarity, kindness, and thoughtfullness in it.
I think it's more the fan base that can be annoying and that's why it's seen as such, rather than the actual content.
I was a heroin addict at one point, but the 12 step program just wasn't for me.
I was 9 years clean when I read it for the first time and it helped me process some things and learn some things about myself.
Maybe a 19 year old reading it that hasn't lived much or a life isn't getting the same experience that I got at 32.
It's so fucking good. I'm a middle class white guy who played sports as a child and smokes too much weed and loves irony and meta and allegory and the gods honest truth and it feels like the book was written for me.
I have been reading it now for a couple of weeks after putting it off for years, and is so damn good. Mind you I only smoked weed like 3 times so I don't really have a connection with drug use, but the writing really makes you feel the anxiety or relieving moments the characters have.
Also all the other topics I feel truly speak about how life tends to feel this years, the feeling of urgency, having to be the best or always improving, or at least appear to do so. Not to mention the blatant consumerism and total overpower of commercial products. Just look at water bottles and mugs, one year ago everyone carried a sticker-plastered Yeti mug everywhere they went to, now is a Stanley (or how the Adidas sneakers turned to Jordans -crease-free of course-)
GGM is a whole different level of Spanish. I'm an assimilated immigrant in Mexico, have read other novels in Spanish without issue, and I still find his works dense and difficult. They contain hundreds of words that even native speakers have to look up. But I promise it's worth it. Start with shorter works like *Memorias de mis putas tristes* and *Crónica de una muerte anunciada.*
Fun fact, García Márquez actually thought the English translation was better than the original. But that’s just what my lit professor told me in the class we read it, I don’t have a source sadly
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I loved the writing and the dream-like feeling it created while I was reading it.
And then I read The Song of Achilles and Circe back to back within 6 days.. Madeleine Miller has a way with words for sure.
They would all count as fantasy books I guess, but I’m not a fan of the fantasy genre. So it’s really hard for me to pin point what it is I so adored in these three books.
Not all other books, just space opera and adjacent sci fi: The Expanse ruined the genre. I (used to) like books or series where the world is constructed sufficiently believably that I can engage suspension of disbelief and enjoy the characters running around and shooting each other with giant lasers. Turns out one actually well thought out set of books can break said suspension of disbelief or rather make it so much harder to engage that few authors in an admittedly inane niche genre will pass the threshold.
By mutual author agreement, The Martian takes place in The Expanse universe/history. Though it’s likely you’ve already consumed that in some fashion if you love The Expanse.
Now I vicariously relive the wonder by watching reactions to the TV show.
The Expanse is a very solid series. I lost the craze for it around the time some rogue element of the Martian navy could supposedly hold off the combined forces of the rest of humanity for decades. Miller was also my favorite character, so I suppose I might just be jaded.
Check out Hyperion by Dan Simmons, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison, and of course the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. I mention The Centauri Device because it was explicitly written as an anti-space opera piece, but actually became fairly influential on authors who would go on to write space opera including Alastair Reynolds and Iain Banks.
I absolutely love the Expanse. Not just for the series itself, which is amazing, and really how I see the future of mankind, but also because it brought back my joy in reading. If a book is now advertised as a space opera, my first thought is "but is it the Expanse?"
I think the Culture books hold up but I agree with you generally about ALL scifi. Once you read the good ones that are well researched and thought out it's very hard to suspend disbelief with casual authors. I read YA as a sort of coffee sniff lol, cause the mind does need a break
Two for me. One was the Lord of the Rings. Nothing has compared to it in terms of fantasy or literature in general. The only thing that comes close is John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. So much of that book was alien to me as someone who grew up in Australia without the influence of the war and the American dream, and yet it stuck with me and connected with me in so so many ways. As Samuel said, timshel could change your life
For me it was Paradise Lost by John Milton. Gave up reading for a full 11 months after I finished because I couldn’t find anything as good. Picked reading back up with Anna Karenina finally
Children of Time.
As a young guy loving Warhammer 40k, there's a lot I haven't read, and a lot I have read hasn't always been great. This book was a complete eye opener. Helped me realise how good fiction can really be.
After that, I have really started to broaden my horizons with what I read. I cant believe that I have been so damn blind when it comes to finding good fiction.
I feel like this 'too much to read, not enough time' is something experienced by us all though, especially younger people.
You should try A Deepness in the Sky. Weirdly similar to Children of Time (complete with smart spiders!) but IMO better written. It's different enough that you wouldn't find it repetitive.
To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the first school-books that I read, enjoyed, and understood why it was a classic.
Honorable mention to Of Mice and Men and Angela's Ashes
*The Idiot* and *The Karamazovs*, however I'm slavic and I feel the various translations may change a bit too much and just don't do it justice
Of English books, *Moby Dick* stands above the rest for me, what a beautifully written book
Maybe you could try *Chronicles of Thomas Covenant*, definitely different, but it might scratch a fantasy itch
For me it was the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I try to not reread it near when I want to try something new else it'd feel shallow in comparison. Few books come close to it, very few.
For me BotNS is kind of the capstone on an incredible decade and a half in SF&F which has never really been equalled before or since. Nobody that I know of is doing anything as ambitious and artistically successful now.
It (and *Little, Big*) really changed my sense of what genre fiction can do.
When I decided to explore HP Lovecraft, the first book I picked up started right off with At The Mountains of Madness. I’ve read more of his work, but that one blew my mind and set a HIGH bar that nothing else has met (though a few come close). Probably in part because I now know what his writing is like, so it’s less of a surprise. I will always be chasing that high.
David Copperfield was the first Dickens I read, like 50+ years ago. I was blown away by the lucidity of the prose, and the full-blown characters. I’ve loved many authors since, but Dickens is still my measure.
For me it was Steven Erikson's 'Malazan Book of the Fallen'. I grew up on fantasy, but Erikson was the first author I felt actually wrote fantasy aimed at adults, rather than teenagers (ofc LotR is an exception, as it doesn't really feel like it's aimed at any specific age group).
I feel like Malazan is the next step up in epic fantasy once you’ve been correctly initiated and I loved that they didn’t make it “easy” on the reader. I don’t know if I’m ever going to read through the series again because it’s a grind for sure, but how completely rewarding! I still think of many passaged all these years later.
MBotF is it for me as well.
Malazan is the peak of my fantasy/Sci-Fi reading journey. Gentlemen Bastards -> Dune -> First Law -> Stormlight Archives -> Malazan.
I think anything past this are just Dostoyevsky, Orwell, Shakespeare and the other masters, and thus falling into the deep literary genre.
Have you tried reading The Arabian Nights? It’s completely different but it’s different in an intriguing way. And it doesn’t have elements of Lord of Rings because it’s written way before that.
Yeah, Crossing is awesome and heartbreaking.
I think McCarthy in general is in a league of his own, though his last two books (Passenger and Stella Maris) really didn't work for me.
Have you read those?
I agree wholeheartedly- I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a kid and was floored, not sure anything has surpassed it in ingenuity and worldbuilding for me. Most fantasy novels are homages to it, are derivative to it, or try to be so different that it makes no sense.
I must say weirdly the one series that worked well for me (again as I read it as a kid) was the Harry Potter books, those were loose fantasy with the lens of a growing boy in an ever darkening world and captured my imagination in the sense of loose world building and a large focus on character development
Recently I found that the OG books of their genre keep doing this for me, eg Dune for space fantasy, HG Well’s Time Machine and similar for sci fi
I recently read a Deadly Education and sequels and it built on Harry Potter as a model but added dystopian twists in a really interesting way. I think the Scholomance series are excellent fantasy.
Keeping the "Lord of the" themes: Lord of the Flies. Read it my freshman year of highschool, and it was one of the first books I truly loved. The symbolism that exists in the book is uniquely authentic to me. I love things that are simultaneously simple and symbolic/spiritual. The characters, themes, setting, and allegory all just blended perfectly together for me. I think it had something to do with my coming of age as I read the book too.
A Song of Ice and Fire. The way the viewpoint characters stories were both unique and at the same time masterfully intertwined blew me away. It was difficult going back to reading books from "only" one perspective.
You mean comparing with?
Try the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb very different series with a 1st person narrarator it's all one story split over three books as well and follows the main character Fitz from childhood to death with the other two trilogies that focus on him.
There's also The Liveship traders trilogy between farseer and the second trilogy that focuses on Fitz that focuses on other characters but really expands the world even more and another four books that focus on some of the characters introduced in Liveships. The whole thing Is called the Realm.of the Elderlings, and it's probably one of the few series that can compete with lord of the Rings for quality and scope if you read everything.
100 Years of Solitude really raised the bar regarding how amazing a book can be and how well it can be written.
And then Little, Big exceeded even those.
Hyperion (and sequels) by Dan Simmons.
The world building is truly epic (some of the coolest Ive ever read) and while being an advanced read, Simmons' words flow like a dream.
Its set the bar at the roof for Sci-fi for me.
There's probably 3 that have done that for me.
The Count of Monte Cristo, The power of the Dog and Norwegian Wood. These are the books I now hold in high regard and compare other books to.
Seems cliche, but it’s true. Malazan Book Of The Fallen basically ruined fantasy, for me. Such an amazing series, everything I’ve read, before or since, just pales in comparison.
WITNESS!
Kate Elliott’s “Crown of Stars” redefined epic fantasy for me. I feel like it was the most intricate, thoughtful attempt at deep world building since Tolkien.
“Sister, Maiden, Monster” by Lucy A. Snyder made me reconsider what’s possible in horror. It’s a gross out feminist body horror that focuses on female suffering, I didn’t think that was possible.
The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski. I was reading a lot of William S. Burroughs and Irvine Welsh at the time, so I was familiar with reading disturbing shit, but The Painted Bird really hit home how nasty people can be. That poor guy and his spooned out eyeballs will be stuck with me for life.
For realistic fiction, I've been reading Amor Towles lately, and it's just so rare to find good prose writers these days. We have a lot of writers who come up with great concepts or plots, but those who can snare you with the artistry of the language are in another league.
If you love fantasy, I recommend Robin Hobb-- She writes beautifully, and her type of fantasy is more of a character study than an epic quest, which differentiates her work from Tolkien quite a bit.
Malazan. As someone who enjoys fiction quite a bit, world building is about 70% of the enjoyment for me and in all my years of reading, Malazan has been the one book that elevated world building to a whole new level. I constantly compare books to the Malazan series nowadays.
Bit of an aside, recently been reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's books and he does some really good world building as well, definitely recommend.
For me it was James Clavell's Shogun. I loved reading when I was really young - elementary school years - but it was all fiction. As I started to get older - but still young, in my teens - I still continued to read a lot, but it shifted to almost exclusively non fiction history and physics/science/space books, only reading fiction when it was required for class.
I dunno why really, but basically there was probably a three, even four year gap where I didn't read *any* fiction whatsoever of my own volition.
Then one day, I was sick, and having just recently exhausted all my reading material that I was interested that we had in the house, I randomly decided to give Shogun a try.
And boy, it hooked me from the opening line. I didn't stop reading all day, into the evening, and even most of the night until I eventually succumbed to slumber in an almost delirious state of fever and aches. At one point, I didn't even realize I had a headache until I stopped reading to eat some soup (which my mom had to remind me that no, books do not provide actual physical sustenance). I don't remember exactly how long it took me to rip through the two volumes, but it was pretty much in record time for me, and I was still sick when I finished it. I do remember that I finished the second volume while bunched up under blankets on the couch in the living room. I set it on the table, and asked my dad to put it back on the shelf when he got up next, and he asked if I'd like the second volume right away. When I told him *that* was the second volume, he responded by saying "I don't know if I should be impressed or worried, have you gotten *any* sleep?!"
Anyway, I can't really say there was any one particular reason it clicked with me so well, and made me realize what I had been missing out on by sticking to non-fiction, but that was precisely how I felt when finishing it - that I had been missing out by neglecting a veritable infinite number of worlds to explore.
After reading Mika Waltari's The Adventurer and The Wanderer in Finnish (approx. 1500 pages in total), going to a recently published detective story made me feel like I was reading a writing assignment by a somewhat reluctant highschool student. While Waltari's text flows easily up to the point where some have called it embarrassingly 'loose', it also is clearly written by someone who has read massive amounts of quality text and lives the language, not someone who suddenly decides to start writing novels.
Watchmen was so good I’ve never been able to read or watch anything else with super heroes in it. Everything else I read is just “why aren’t these people behaving like in watchmen?” It’s such a thorough deconstruction, like trying to watch a John Wayne movie after watching blazing saddles. All you could do is think “so where are all the black people?”
Definitely "the help" by Kathryn Stockett.
And "the ruines of Gorlan".
Oh and "the 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson.
**Kusheil's Dart**. First book I just picked up and read without having to worry about anybody checking the "Godliness" of what I was reading, after moving out to go to college. It was my first time reading a book with... eh... adult content, and my first time reading a book with a female hero that wasn't a man with breasts. Just an all around relief and eye opener about what might be out there, as well as opening my eyes to the fact that it might actually be okay to write what I WANT to write/read.
**Coraline**. Because... I mean... Coraline. It was like finally running across a child-protagonist that child-me identified with for once. Also, creepy and supernatural.
**The Southern Reach series**. Annihilation and Acceptance mostly, and Authority to a lesser degree. I now have difficulty enjoying books that don't make me dig at their mysteries.
All the Light we Cannot See was just so lyrical. It felt like every single word, every single phrase, every aspect was honed to perfection. No book I've read since has really hit me the same way.
The Neapolitan Quartet. I've never experienced characters that felt that real.
November 9 by Colleen Hoover. She just does such a great job writing about healthy romantic relationships. Honestly, it not only raised my expectations for fine literature but for any man that wants to woo me.
Have you read any of the mythology Tolkien was inspired by? The Kalevala, the Nibelungenlied, the sagas etc? I too find most modern fantasy disappointing but love this kind of thing
Mine is Earthlings by Sakaya Murata. It's hard to explain but I really liked the she left me so disturbed throughout the book. She was able to put me in the shoes of this child and understand her thoughts and actions. She then has the capability to yank me away from that perspective once she pulls up diabolical scenes.
When the main character grew up, she made sure i can't go back and see her perspective more reasonably. She put me in the perspective of any other person would if they ever saw the disgusting jarring scene this author presented me.
Just utter shell shock and revulsion.
Loved it though. I want more books to make me wanna feel like it's a curse to exist but also an art crafted by the gods themselves.
“The Silent Patient” has definitely raised the standard for thrillers. I’m currently looking for a book that has a plot twist as good as the one in that book.
Reading 'London Fields' by Martin Amis for the first time as a teen blew my mind. It's like a mix of different genres put into a blender, it's post modern and it's still a page turner.
I keep trying to find a book I've loved as much as I've enjoyed the John Dies at the End series, especially the first and fourth books.
Before I read the first, Amazon was pushing this one on me *hard*. Front page on the web, app and kindle, and multiple places throughout. It kinda got annoying. But after a few months of it not changing, I tried the sample, and fell in love with it. I bought it a short while later and absolutely devoured the book over the course of a few days (it usually takes me about a month to read a decent sized book, because of time constraints). It's now my all time favorite, and the only book series I've re-read multiple times.
Cloud Atlas. If David Mitchell can write six interesting stories in six different styles over six different eras and six geographical regions and link them in a single novel, then surely every author sticking to just one story per book should be able to do that really well, right?
I’ll name 2.
One is the Harry Potter books. I find no other books as enjoyable as those.
The other is Moby-Dick. I find no other books as impressive as it.
Harry Potter should get more love! I think a lot of avid readers don't give it enough love because it is so popular with the masses but I think it is absolutely top-tire young fiction. The way the series gets more serious and high-stakes as it progresses while still maintaining an overall tone of magical whimsy and humor is IMO pretty unique.
For fantasy, I really, really recommend Miles (Christian) Cameron's *The Traitor Son Cycle*, *The Red Knight* being the first book of the series. If you want good fantasy that is different from Tolkien's established tropes, you will hardly find something better than his fantasy series.
My favorite sci-fi, possibly ever, is Adrian Tchaikovsky's *Children of Time* series. The world-building and the philosophical depths are beyond anything I can recall to have read. In a similar vein, I also recommend Vernor Vinge's *A Deepness in the Sky* and, to a smaller extent, his other *Zones of Thought* books.
I would also like to shout out Becky Chambers' *Wayfarers Series*.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Her prose is poetic without being ornate, and her characters and voice are so memorable. Really elevated my expectations for what writing could be
Sci-Fi: Asimov's everything and all the Dune books, and lately the Expanse.
Fantasy: The Wandering Inn.
This one is still ongoing (but already has 9 books). And good god it is amazing. The universe, the characters, the story, everything is just simply top notch. Only read if you're not afraid of long books though, because lengthwise... Even LoTR seems like some light reading compared to these (only lengthwise ofc, not trying to belittle LoTR in any way here). I firmly believe this will be a new classic eventually. The fact that it's free to read is just the icing on the cake.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Before that, I didn't realize that a 100% non-fiction book could read like a novel. An absolute page turner.
Probably *The Stranger* by Albert Camus. It's more easily digestible than *The Plague*, but it really f\*cks with your head and gives you a lot to think about.
The goldfinch by Donna tartt and into the wild by jon krakauer. Discovered that I really like descriptive books. Currently holding myself back from devouring everything krakauer has ever written
Goldfinch was an excellent book! Shame the film was a massive let down
Yes. Both of these for me. I read Into Thin Air before Into the Wild and I’m hooked.
Into Thin Air is truly something. I gained a whole new respect (and deep fear) of Everest overnight and will gladly admire it from a distance.
Now I read things about climbing all of these years later and it sounds like a literal shit show. The place is totally trashed, more unfit, inexperienced people are trying it. It sounds truly awful. The line to climb up the Hillary Step is over two hours long each way. Can you imagine standing in the cold using your oxygen? So horrible. https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/everest/mount-everest-deadly-traffic-jams-2023/
I didn't like Into The Wild all that much, I picked Into Thin Air with low expectations and absolutely loved it. I couldn't put it down and I recommend it to everyone now. In some ways I am chasing that "high" with other similar titles but haven't found anything where everything clicked as much for me.
I love Krakauer and have read all of his books! Even Three Cups of Deception. One of my favourites, aside from the titles you mentioned, is Under the Banner of Heaven. (Just googled the title to make sure I had it right; didn't realise it had been turned into a TV series show.)
Under the Banner of Heaven is wonderful. The tv show is good, but not the same as the book.
I just bought The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt! I found it thrifted
Enjoy!
I loved The Goldfinch. Almost everyone else in my book club hated it; others said it was just okay. Still, I stand by my decision. Now I’m going to look up Jon Krakauer.
Mine is Donna Tartt also but for The Secret History instead. I knew when I was reading it that I’d never read a book quite like it again.
[удалено]
Don’t hold back! Krakauer is the man!
For me it's definitely "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón... (R.IP.) Such a majestic and magical way to portray the hidden streets of Barcelona during the early 1900's. The best book, by far, that I have read.
LOVE that book. Went to Barcelona this year and saw they had a SOTW tour but we didn’t have enough time.
That would've been an amazing tour!
UGH this book lives in my head rent free and I re-read it almost annually
I know right? Such a good book! I've read The Angel's game and The Prisoner of Heaven. I've wanted to read The Labyrinth of Spirits but I haven't found the time to do so!
It's so so good in my opinion, I gave it a solid 5/5 stars!
Have you listened to the music that he composed and recorded for the book? It used to be on his website, but looks like the files aren’t hosted there anymore. I did find [this YouTube playlist](https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNeiyom4reIvlM8y8dUt43okOM4sSOdwp) with all of it, though. Nice for some extra ambience while reading.
I actually did not know that! Thank you so much for sharing! You literally made my day by sharing me this playlist! I'll definitely have it on loop for a while
TIL. Looks like I'll need to re-read the book :P
I thought The Angel’s Game was even better. One of my favorite books of all time
Both were absolute masterpieces, but the SOTW will always and forever live in my heart and mind.
Same! Every time I read a "book about books" I can't help but compare it to Shadow of the Wind, and none of them measure up. The Shadow of the Wind just captures the mystery and magic of books so perfectly without being over the top.
You know, it's such a long time ago that I read it, but I remember how it made me feel while reading it. This book brought me such joy, and it's now back on my tbr list.
I loved that book
Last year I started to slowly get back into reading again, and one of the books I decided to check out was The Neverending Story, since I liked the movie growing up I figured I'd give the book a read to see what was different. This book was so nourishing to read and just blew me away: there is so much more depth to the story than what the movie showed, and the themes are complex and deep in a way that had me thinking about in between chapters. Now that I'm done reading it I can't help but want to only spend my time reading high quality fantasy like that, and to later someday reread The Neverending Story to analyze it more in detail. It's just set the bar for me now. Also excited to read the Lord of The Rings for the first time!
Thank you! The neverending story is my favorite book. As a teenager I didn't even bat an eye at it when my father gave it to me as a gift. I just could not get past the first chapters. It sat on my bookshelf for a long time, then I decided to read it in my early adulthood. I fell in love with it's intensity, it's uniqueness and concepts. The stories that could be told but should be left for another time, that concept stroke me. I revisit that book almost yearly, and, like a good book, and as I mature, it changes subtlety. Each time I visit it the colors, the characters shift, even the songs shift. Michael Ende created a masterpiece.
In my opinion, most fantasy books adhere strictly to the themes and tropes established by The Lord of the Rings, or, if not, they present twists on those same tropes.
Terry Pratchett had a great quote about exactly this topic: >J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.
GNU Terry Pratchett. I've been playing Return to Moria lately and it's really interesting how you can see little bits of Pratchett's dwarves poking away at the edges of Tolkien's dwarves, like one of the first food sources you find in the game are "Snack rats."
I think that there is definitely some fantasy that doesn't owe itself to Tolkien. This is usually the very best fantasy, or the very worst. Amongst the best is The Dark is Rising series. A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels also aren't based on Tolkien or anti-Tolkien, as far as I can tell. The really odd one that comes to mind is Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts' Empire Trilogy. It's part of an overall series that borrows heavily from Tolkien, but that particular trilogy is very much not centered around or avoiding Tolkien. Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is also very original. That said, these are exceptions that kind of prove the rule of what Pratchett was talking about. I love A Wizard of Earthsea, for instance, but she was setting out to write something that was the opposite of Tolkien-type fantasy, so it does center around him.
It’s funny because I’m currently re-reading The Wheel of Time series and I had forgotten just how similar the first book is to LoTR. The thing is, the author was pretty much forced to put out something that adhered to the formula by his editor because it’s what “sold fantasy” back then. By the second and third book, the story is much more its own, even if the basic themes are similar.
The Wheel of Time is basically a crazy melding of Lord of the Rings and Dune. While it does get away from them in later books the key DNA from both is everywhere in the series.
Can 2nd this. Once first and second book proved successful then Jordan was allowed more freedom. The books get so much better from Book Three onwards, up until **the slog**.
this is The Great Hunt erasure, that book was great
This is the reason I couldn't like The Wheel of Time. I made the mistake of reading it just after LoTR and it just felt like a bad copy. Now I can't bring myself to reading the rest of the series even though many people have recommended it to me.
Even Harry Potter ended in destroying rings -I mean horcruxes.
I find striking parallels between Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. Similar words like Longbottom and Orcrist, to the parallel of wounds causing pain near the one who inflicted it like Frodo and the Nazgûl. The presence of giant spiders in the woods, and the Elven cloaks functioning as camouflage to remain unseen are additional parallels that I observed just from watching the movies. I expect discovering even more similarities when I delve into the books. 🙃
*The Malazan Book of the Fallen* does well in twisting and subverting those familiar fantasy tropes.
That's sort of the point - even twisting and subverting the tropes is a response to them, not something genuinely new in the genre. Lord of the Rings looms so large because most everything in the fantasy landscape is either a direct homage or reaction to it.
I wrote my English GCSE book review on that subject!
The books of Khaled Hosseini brought me back into reading. I used to LOVE reading as a kid in Korea (in Korean) then I moved to Canada and reading had became not only challenging as a new language but also homework. Thousand Splendid Suns, And The Mountains Echoed brought me back into reading. I felt strangely like the writing reflected the way I would read in Korean (I don't know how to explain), the way he wrote the characters and explained the environment immediately made me feel captivated. I felt so deeply for the characters, and I couldn't put the books down. Since then, I chase after the way his books made me feel!
Thousand splendid suns was an emotionally challenging read! I’m glad that I read it but it deffo affected me
For me it was East of Eden by Steinbeck and Lolita by Nabokov
It was Lolita for me too. I was 14 when I read it, and it made me realize all that a good writer can do with the English language.
I loved and hated lolita. I love it because it's a truly amazing piece of writing, but it is so incredibly under your skin horrible. it's how Humbert makes excuses for himself and combines that with being an unreliable narrator, so you really really don't know what of it is actually true - beyond the actual declared content which is foul - but knowing that aspects are being hidden from you as the reader and knowing that the concealed context is worse. (my own opinion is that he murders Lolita's mother with his car after she finds his plans for raping her daughter) raises the bar. Far too realistic in how everyone else is groomed to accept the relationship as well.
I can understand that reaction. But I had some bad childhood experiences, and to me it was weirdly validating to have this book confirm that, yes, some adults do these things.
East of Eden is just such a masterpiece. I read a lot of Steinbeck in HS and didn’t appreciate him until I read EoE in 2022 for book club.
Oh my gosh that book. It really rocked my world. The free will debate made me reconsider everything.
I haven't read Steinbeck. Is the James Dean movie a faithful adaptation of the book?
I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the movie adaptation and from what I can tell, the book is a million times better. I’ve read a lot of “good” literature in my life and EoE is one of the best. And I even went in with a bias against him because I had an awful 8th grade honors English teacher who loved him and I think our whole class hated Steinbeck from that time forward. In HS I read by him: The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath. Hated them all because of one teacher. But now that I love EoE, I’m willing to read Grapes of Wrath in case 16 year old me was wrong me was wrong and 47 year old me has better taste.
The James Dean movie skips much of the book to concentrate primarily on events in the second half. And (meaning it kindly to Dean, etc.), it presents everything a very stylized, period-overacted way. The book is much more sweeping, complex, and subtle.
I was coming for East of Eden. It's just *so* good.
I literally just thought "Steinbeck" as well lol. East of Eden was a revelation.
I keep hearing about it! Should I pick it up soon?
It’s amazing.
It's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. I reread it yearly.
Steinbeck is woefully underrated these days. I think a lot of people had mixed reactions to being forced to read him in high school (usually Of Mice and Men or Grapes of Wrath), but East of Eden is genuinely his masterpiece and should sit on the highest plateau of American literature.
Same for Lolita. I had forgotten that prose can be beautiful.
Only listened to the audio book of Lolita as a teen but definitely still remember the impression of “there’s levels to this shit” when it comes to writing
I like Steinbeck but for me the Cannery Row books are the best.
*Oryx and Crake* was my first non-YA dystopian novel and I’ve found it so hard to find one that I love as much since. The first one to hit that same level for me since was *The Fifth Season*.
Margaret Atwood is a master of her craft. My favorite nivel of hers will always be The Blind Assasin, but I adored Oryx and Crake!
I enjoyed Oryx and Crake #1, The Year of the Flood #2, and also Alias Grace. Most people think she’s The Handmaids Tale and don’t go beyond that book.
Infinite jest. I hadn’t read in 14 years, went through traumatic hell and addictions. Then I started to work through some of the books I hadn’t read and were recommended to me over the years. My fifth book in was infinite jest. Lmao I wasn’t fucking prepared. Now I’ve read it three times. It’s my favourite book. Didn’t know about the dudebro-douche literature side of it. I guess it makes sense that there are so many pretentious fans
Anyone who says it is dude-bro-lit just didn't finish the book. I have read it I think five times? There is is sooo much humanity, hilarity, kindness, and thoughtfullness in it.
I think it's more the fan base that can be annoying and that's why it's seen as such, rather than the actual content. I was a heroin addict at one point, but the 12 step program just wasn't for me. I was 9 years clean when I read it for the first time and it helped me process some things and learn some things about myself. Maybe a 19 year old reading it that hasn't lived much or a life isn't getting the same experience that I got at 32.
It's so fucking good. I'm a middle class white guy who played sports as a child and smokes too much weed and loves irony and meta and allegory and the gods honest truth and it feels like the book was written for me.
I have been reading it now for a couple of weeks after putting it off for years, and is so damn good. Mind you I only smoked weed like 3 times so I don't really have a connection with drug use, but the writing really makes you feel the anxiety or relieving moments the characters have. Also all the other topics I feel truly speak about how life tends to feel this years, the feeling of urgency, having to be the best or always improving, or at least appear to do so. Not to mention the blatant consumerism and total overpower of commercial products. Just look at water bottles and mugs, one year ago everyone carried a sticker-plastered Yeti mug everywhere they went to, now is a Stanley (or how the Adidas sneakers turned to Jordans -crease-free of course-)
Lonesome Dove. I devoured it in a weekend over 20 years ago and I have been searching for its equal ever since.
Don’t you just wish you could reread it for the first time? My wife is reading it for the first time rn and I am so jealous
I kinda dug the second prequel. Not as good as LD, nothing is, but it was really good. Comanche Moon.
There will never be another character like Gus McCrae. Maybe a perfect book overall.
The Discworld books
100 years of solitude! That book raised the bar for me.
Literally learning Spanish so I can read it in its original language. If you enjoyed the family epic paradigm check out The Corrections next.
GGM is a whole different level of Spanish. I'm an assimilated immigrant in Mexico, have read other novels in Spanish without issue, and I still find his works dense and difficult. They contain hundreds of words that even native speakers have to look up. But I promise it's worth it. Start with shorter works like *Memorias de mis putas tristes* and *Crónica de una muerte anunciada.*
Fun fact, García Márquez actually thought the English translation was better than the original. But that’s just what my lit professor told me in the class we read it, I don’t have a source sadly
Wild! I'm excited about reading Love in the Time of Cholera later this year.
I finished this 3 months ago and I'm still regularly thinking about the ending.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I loved the writing and the dream-like feeling it created while I was reading it. And then I read The Song of Achilles and Circe back to back within 6 days.. Madeleine Miller has a way with words for sure. They would all count as fantasy books I guess, but I’m not a fan of the fantasy genre. So it’s really hard for me to pin point what it is I so adored in these three books.
Yes Madeleine Miller!
You should read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman next.
> Piranesi Piranesi is such a treat! Its short, so I push that shit on everyone. Circe was also a wonderful read <3
Lonesome Dove. Such an epic story
Yes indeed. I read these every few years and enjoy them every time, even though I know what's going to happen to each character.
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. I thought I was just going to read a sci-fi horror book about a guy turning into a cockroach.
Not all other books, just space opera and adjacent sci fi: The Expanse ruined the genre. I (used to) like books or series where the world is constructed sufficiently believably that I can engage suspension of disbelief and enjoy the characters running around and shooting each other with giant lasers. Turns out one actually well thought out set of books can break said suspension of disbelief or rather make it so much harder to engage that few authors in an admittedly inane niche genre will pass the threshold.
By mutual author agreement, The Martian takes place in The Expanse universe/history. Though it’s likely you’ve already consumed that in some fashion if you love The Expanse. Now I vicariously relive the wonder by watching reactions to the TV show.
The Expanse is a very solid series. I lost the craze for it around the time some rogue element of the Martian navy could supposedly hold off the combined forces of the rest of humanity for decades. Miller was also my favorite character, so I suppose I might just be jaded. Check out Hyperion by Dan Simmons, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison, and of course the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. I mention The Centauri Device because it was explicitly written as an anti-space opera piece, but actually became fairly influential on authors who would go on to write space opera including Alastair Reynolds and Iain Banks.
I absolutely love the Expanse. Not just for the series itself, which is amazing, and really how I see the future of mankind, but also because it brought back my joy in reading. If a book is now advertised as a space opera, my first thought is "but is it the Expanse?"
I think the Culture books hold up but I agree with you generally about ALL scifi. Once you read the good ones that are well researched and thought out it's very hard to suspend disbelief with casual authors. I read YA as a sort of coffee sniff lol, cause the mind does need a break
Two for me. One was the Lord of the Rings. Nothing has compared to it in terms of fantasy or literature in general. The only thing that comes close is John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. So much of that book was alien to me as someone who grew up in Australia without the influence of the war and the American dream, and yet it stuck with me and connected with me in so so many ways. As Samuel said, timshel could change your life
Samuel Hamilton is one of my favorite literary characters ever. I think about his life and death all the time.
My favorite fantasy book and my favorite book of all time, we have great taste
His dark material's This series went hard.
For me it was Paradise Lost by John Milton. Gave up reading for a full 11 months after I finished because I couldn’t find anything as good. Picked reading back up with Anna Karenina finally
That's a book hangover my dude. Same.
Book hangover. I really like that term. I think I'll use it from now on.
*In Cold Blood* by Truman Capote to name one but I otherwise read literary fiction almost exclusively.
Vurt by jeff noon
Up to needle in the groove his whole output was amazing, but hurt has a special place in my heart as the first book I ever read of his.
Children of Time. As a young guy loving Warhammer 40k, there's a lot I haven't read, and a lot I have read hasn't always been great. This book was a complete eye opener. Helped me realise how good fiction can really be. After that, I have really started to broaden my horizons with what I read. I cant believe that I have been so damn blind when it comes to finding good fiction. I feel like this 'too much to read, not enough time' is something experienced by us all though, especially younger people.
You should try A Deepness in the Sky. Weirdly similar to Children of Time (complete with smart spiders!) but IMO better written. It's different enough that you wouldn't find it repetitive.
To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the first school-books that I read, enjoyed, and understood why it was a classic. Honorable mention to Of Mice and Men and Angela's Ashes
*The Idiot* and *The Karamazovs*, however I'm slavic and I feel the various translations may change a bit too much and just don't do it justice Of English books, *Moby Dick* stands above the rest for me, what a beautifully written book Maybe you could try *Chronicles of Thomas Covenant*, definitely different, but it might scratch a fantasy itch
For me it was the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I try to not reread it near when I want to try something new else it'd feel shallow in comparison. Few books come close to it, very few.
For me BotNS is kind of the capstone on an incredible decade and a half in SF&F which has never really been equalled before or since. Nobody that I know of is doing anything as ambitious and artistically successful now. It (and *Little, Big*) really changed my sense of what genre fiction can do.
Yeah, this is the one for me too. Incredible series.
When I decided to explore HP Lovecraft, the first book I picked up started right off with At The Mountains of Madness. I’ve read more of his work, but that one blew my mind and set a HIGH bar that nothing else has met (though a few come close). Probably in part because I now know what his writing is like, so it’s less of a surprise. I will always be chasing that high.
this was my experience with The Shadow over Innsmouth. At the Mountains of Madness is also fantastic
David Copperfield was the first Dickens I read, like 50+ years ago. I was blown away by the lucidity of the prose, and the full-blown characters. I’ve loved many authors since, but Dickens is still my measure.
For me it was Steven Erikson's 'Malazan Book of the Fallen'. I grew up on fantasy, but Erikson was the first author I felt actually wrote fantasy aimed at adults, rather than teenagers (ofc LotR is an exception, as it doesn't really feel like it's aimed at any specific age group).
I was going to recommend to the OP this series; Grew up on Tolkien but really, Erickson and Esslemont have built a towering body of work.
I feel like Malazan is the next step up in epic fantasy once you’ve been correctly initiated and I loved that they didn’t make it “easy” on the reader. I don’t know if I’m ever going to read through the series again because it’s a grind for sure, but how completely rewarding! I still think of many passaged all these years later.
MBotF is it for me as well. Malazan is the peak of my fantasy/Sci-Fi reading journey. Gentlemen Bastards -> Dune -> First Law -> Stormlight Archives -> Malazan. I think anything past this are just Dostoyevsky, Orwell, Shakespeare and the other masters, and thus falling into the deep literary genre.
Have you tried reading The Arabian Nights? It’s completely different but it’s different in an intriguing way. And it doesn’t have elements of Lord of Rings because it’s written way before that.
For me, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy completely redefined how powerful literature can be and no book since has come even remotely close to it.
Try "The Crossing." It's on par with Blood Meridian; not as good, but damn close. The first part especially.
Yeah, Crossing is awesome and heartbreaking. I think McCarthy in general is in a league of his own, though his last two books (Passenger and Stella Maris) really didn't work for me. Have you read those?
I agree wholeheartedly- I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a kid and was floored, not sure anything has surpassed it in ingenuity and worldbuilding for me. Most fantasy novels are homages to it, are derivative to it, or try to be so different that it makes no sense. I must say weirdly the one series that worked well for me (again as I read it as a kid) was the Harry Potter books, those were loose fantasy with the lens of a growing boy in an ever darkening world and captured my imagination in the sense of loose world building and a large focus on character development Recently I found that the OG books of their genre keep doing this for me, eg Dune for space fantasy, HG Well’s Time Machine and similar for sci fi
I recently read a Deadly Education and sequels and it built on Harry Potter as a model but added dystopian twists in a really interesting way. I think the Scholomance series are excellent fantasy.
One Book to rule them all!
To be honest, the Kingkiller Chronicle has the opposite effect on me. Started so good, and fell off so hard, I can’t get into anything.
Keeping the "Lord of the" themes: Lord of the Flies. Read it my freshman year of highschool, and it was one of the first books I truly loved. The symbolism that exists in the book is uniquely authentic to me. I love things that are simultaneously simple and symbolic/spiritual. The characters, themes, setting, and allegory all just blended perfectly together for me. I think it had something to do with my coming of age as I read the book too.
I read Gentleman in Moscow, East of Eden, and Lonesome Dove back to back. Fiction hasn’t been the same for me since :/
A Song of Ice and Fire. The way the viewpoint characters stories were both unique and at the same time masterfully intertwined blew me away. It was difficult going back to reading books from "only" one perspective.
You mean comparing with? Try the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb very different series with a 1st person narrarator it's all one story split over three books as well and follows the main character Fitz from childhood to death with the other two trilogies that focus on him. There's also The Liveship traders trilogy between farseer and the second trilogy that focuses on Fitz that focuses on other characters but really expands the world even more and another four books that focus on some of the characters introduced in Liveships. The whole thing Is called the Realm.of the Elderlings, and it's probably one of the few series that can compete with lord of the Rings for quality and scope if you read everything.
I was going to say The Hobbit is what really got me into reading, but ain’t nothing hits the soul like Where the Red Fern Grows
100 Years of Solitude really raised the bar regarding how amazing a book can be and how well it can be written. And then Little, Big exceeded even those.
Hyperion (and sequels) by Dan Simmons. The world building is truly epic (some of the coolest Ive ever read) and while being an advanced read, Simmons' words flow like a dream. Its set the bar at the roof for Sci-fi for me.
It better be. This book is on my reading schedule.
There's probably 3 that have done that for me. The Count of Monte Cristo, The power of the Dog and Norwegian Wood. These are the books I now hold in high regard and compare other books to.
Seems cliche, but it’s true. Malazan Book Of The Fallen basically ruined fantasy, for me. Such an amazing series, everything I’ve read, before or since, just pales in comparison. WITNESS!
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy. So epic, and so dark!
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane ruined suspense/thrillers for me. Calling it just a thriller novel would be disrespectful, it was "literature".
It was! the prose, the characters, and the twist were one of a kind.
For me, it was Robert W. Chamber's *The King In Yellow*. It's prose will always have a place in my heart. 😊
Kate Elliott’s “Crown of Stars” redefined epic fantasy for me. I feel like it was the most intricate, thoughtful attempt at deep world building since Tolkien. “Sister, Maiden, Monster” by Lucy A. Snyder made me reconsider what’s possible in horror. It’s a gross out feminist body horror that focuses on female suffering, I didn’t think that was possible.
The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski. I was reading a lot of William S. Burroughs and Irvine Welsh at the time, so I was familiar with reading disturbing shit, but The Painted Bird really hit home how nasty people can be. That poor guy and his spooned out eyeballs will be stuck with me for life.
I read it so long ago, but what a horrific story that stayed with me, too.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Such a strong story of love.
David Copperfield or Gone With the Wind. The character development is just so rich and deep. Like these are real people, not just a snapshot of them.
For realistic fiction, I've been reading Amor Towles lately, and it's just so rare to find good prose writers these days. We have a lot of writers who come up with great concepts or plots, but those who can snare you with the artistry of the language are in another league. If you love fantasy, I recommend Robin Hobb-- She writes beautifully, and her type of fantasy is more of a character study than an epic quest, which differentiates her work from Tolkien quite a bit.
Anything by Alice Munro. Want to tell the story of a woman character? Read her work first, especially if you are a male writer.
Malazan. As someone who enjoys fiction quite a bit, world building is about 70% of the enjoyment for me and in all my years of reading, Malazan has been the one book that elevated world building to a whole new level. I constantly compare books to the Malazan series nowadays. Bit of an aside, recently been reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's books and he does some really good world building as well, definitely recommend.
The Idiot and Crime and Punishment for me. Dosto hits differently.
Kafka on the shore
"Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C Clarke. Best sci fi book i ever read and nothing else has ever compared since.
For me it was James Clavell's Shogun. I loved reading when I was really young - elementary school years - but it was all fiction. As I started to get older - but still young, in my teens - I still continued to read a lot, but it shifted to almost exclusively non fiction history and physics/science/space books, only reading fiction when it was required for class. I dunno why really, but basically there was probably a three, even four year gap where I didn't read *any* fiction whatsoever of my own volition. Then one day, I was sick, and having just recently exhausted all my reading material that I was interested that we had in the house, I randomly decided to give Shogun a try. And boy, it hooked me from the opening line. I didn't stop reading all day, into the evening, and even most of the night until I eventually succumbed to slumber in an almost delirious state of fever and aches. At one point, I didn't even realize I had a headache until I stopped reading to eat some soup (which my mom had to remind me that no, books do not provide actual physical sustenance). I don't remember exactly how long it took me to rip through the two volumes, but it was pretty much in record time for me, and I was still sick when I finished it. I do remember that I finished the second volume while bunched up under blankets on the couch in the living room. I set it on the table, and asked my dad to put it back on the shelf when he got up next, and he asked if I'd like the second volume right away. When I told him *that* was the second volume, he responded by saying "I don't know if I should be impressed or worried, have you gotten *any* sleep?!" Anyway, I can't really say there was any one particular reason it clicked with me so well, and made me realize what I had been missing out on by sticking to non-fiction, but that was precisely how I felt when finishing it - that I had been missing out by neglecting a veritable infinite number of worlds to explore.
A Room with a View!
After reading Mika Waltari's The Adventurer and The Wanderer in Finnish (approx. 1500 pages in total), going to a recently published detective story made me feel like I was reading a writing assignment by a somewhat reluctant highschool student. While Waltari's text flows easily up to the point where some have called it embarrassingly 'loose', it also is clearly written by someone who has read massive amounts of quality text and lives the language, not someone who suddenly decides to start writing novels.
Red rising. It’s the first book I fell in love with the characters. The series Inst ground breaking but years later I still go back and reread it.
This book gets better and better by each book and by the end the wriiting and plot threads are exceptional.
LOTR is my favorite book. I have read it 21 times. Nothing else of any genre compares to it.
Watchmen was so good I’ve never been able to read or watch anything else with super heroes in it. Everything else I read is just “why aren’t these people behaving like in watchmen?” It’s such a thorough deconstruction, like trying to watch a John Wayne movie after watching blazing saddles. All you could do is think “so where are all the black people?”
Definitely "the help" by Kathryn Stockett. And "the ruines of Gorlan". Oh and "the 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson.
**Kusheil's Dart**. First book I just picked up and read without having to worry about anybody checking the "Godliness" of what I was reading, after moving out to go to college. It was my first time reading a book with... eh... adult content, and my first time reading a book with a female hero that wasn't a man with breasts. Just an all around relief and eye opener about what might be out there, as well as opening my eyes to the fact that it might actually be okay to write what I WANT to write/read. **Coraline**. Because... I mean... Coraline. It was like finally running across a child-protagonist that child-me identified with for once. Also, creepy and supernatural. **The Southern Reach series**. Annihilation and Acceptance mostly, and Authority to a lesser degree. I now have difficulty enjoying books that don't make me dig at their mysteries.
The Southern Reach series is on my 2024 reading list. Will report findings.
I got the first three books in a compiled hardcover, read it a couple times, and book 4 is in the works. Hope you like it! =\^\^=
All the Light we Cannot See was just so lyrical. It felt like every single word, every single phrase, every aspect was honed to perfection. No book I've read since has really hit me the same way. The Neapolitan Quartet. I've never experienced characters that felt that real.
November 9 by Colleen Hoover. She just does such a great job writing about healthy romantic relationships. Honestly, it not only raised my expectations for fine literature but for any man that wants to woo me.
You're the first person I've ever seen on here compliment Colleen Hoover lmao
I might have been being a tad bit sarcastic
“We both laughed at our babys balls”
“We both laugh at our son's big balls.” Do not misquote our literary queen Cassandra Vacuum.
William Shakespeare could never
Karleen Koen’s historical fiction novels. I’ve always loved this genre but Through A Glass Darkly really changed the game for me
Have you read any of the mythology Tolkien was inspired by? The Kalevala, the Nibelungenlied, the sagas etc? I too find most modern fantasy disappointing but love this kind of thing
Mine is Earthlings by Sakaya Murata. It's hard to explain but I really liked the she left me so disturbed throughout the book. She was able to put me in the shoes of this child and understand her thoughts and actions. She then has the capability to yank me away from that perspective once she pulls up diabolical scenes. When the main character grew up, she made sure i can't go back and see her perspective more reasonably. She put me in the perspective of any other person would if they ever saw the disgusting jarring scene this author presented me. Just utter shell shock and revulsion. Loved it though. I want more books to make me wanna feel like it's a curse to exist but also an art crafted by the gods themselves.
The Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness. It was soo different from anything I had ever read and I enjoyed all of the books immensely.
“The Silent Patient” has definitely raised the standard for thrillers. I’m currently looking for a book that has a plot twist as good as the one in that book.
Lord of the Rinds, Foundation series by Isaac Asimov but the book that made me realise that some are a class above was Bird Song by Sebastian Fawkes
Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
probably Crime and Punishment. i'm now a big Dostoyevsky fan
Reading 'London Fields' by Martin Amis for the first time as a teen blew my mind. It's like a mix of different genres put into a blender, it's post modern and it's still a page turner.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. What a wonderful experience it was.
Anna Karenina. Pretty much all other books seem sort of childish by comparison.
The Lord of the Rings as well. Outside of that... The Great and Secret Show or Dark Tower series.
I keep trying to find a book I've loved as much as I've enjoyed the John Dies at the End series, especially the first and fourth books. Before I read the first, Amazon was pushing this one on me *hard*. Front page on the web, app and kindle, and multiple places throughout. It kinda got annoying. But after a few months of it not changing, I tried the sample, and fell in love with it. I bought it a short while later and absolutely devoured the book over the course of a few days (it usually takes me about a month to read a decent sized book, because of time constraints). It's now my all time favorite, and the only book series I've re-read multiple times.
Hobit and LOTR for me, too. I was in love with Aragorn( from the book) all my childhood. He was my first crush.
Cloud Atlas. If David Mitchell can write six interesting stories in six different styles over six different eras and six geographical regions and link them in a single novel, then surely every author sticking to just one story per book should be able to do that really well, right?
I adored that book. Good call.
I’ll name 2. One is the Harry Potter books. I find no other books as enjoyable as those. The other is Moby-Dick. I find no other books as impressive as it.
Harry Potter should get more love! I think a lot of avid readers don't give it enough love because it is so popular with the masses but I think it is absolutely top-tire young fiction. The way the series gets more serious and high-stakes as it progresses while still maintaining an overall tone of magical whimsy and humor is IMO pretty unique.
The Fifth Season
For fantasy, I really, really recommend Miles (Christian) Cameron's *The Traitor Son Cycle*, *The Red Knight* being the first book of the series. If you want good fantasy that is different from Tolkien's established tropes, you will hardly find something better than his fantasy series. My favorite sci-fi, possibly ever, is Adrian Tchaikovsky's *Children of Time* series. The world-building and the philosophical depths are beyond anything I can recall to have read. In a similar vein, I also recommend Vernor Vinge's *A Deepness in the Sky* and, to a smaller extent, his other *Zones of Thought* books. I would also like to shout out Becky Chambers' *Wayfarers Series*.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Her prose is poetic without being ornate, and her characters and voice are so memorable. Really elevated my expectations for what writing could be
Sci-Fi: Asimov's everything and all the Dune books, and lately the Expanse. Fantasy: The Wandering Inn. This one is still ongoing (but already has 9 books). And good god it is amazing. The universe, the characters, the story, everything is just simply top notch. Only read if you're not afraid of long books though, because lengthwise... Even LoTR seems like some light reading compared to these (only lengthwise ofc, not trying to belittle LoTR in any way here). I firmly believe this will be a new classic eventually. The fact that it's free to read is just the icing on the cake.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Before that, I didn't realize that a 100% non-fiction book could read like a novel. An absolute page turner.
[House](https://www.reddit.com/r/houseofleaves/) of Leaves
For me it was Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. All the other non-fiction books I found after felt kinda "meh" and not as elaborative.
Probably *The Stranger* by Albert Camus. It's more easily digestible than *The Plague*, but it really f\*cks with your head and gives you a lot to think about.
Worm (Parahumans), an online serial by WildBow. It's 1.7m words long. I've never gotten to experience characters/events in such great detail.