I’m looking to get into reading. I’m 34/male with 3 kids and never was much of a reader. I’m into games, business, cooking, parenting/husbanding, and exercising. I honestly don’t know what I want to read, so it might be a challenge to make a suggestion. Maybe you can ask a question or two that I can answer to hep narrow down? I enjoy movies like Lord of the Rings, but I don’t think I want to read about that sort of thing. I like to read things that make me think and better myself as a human, with actionable information and directness, I think. But again, who knows! Thanks for your help.
by rec8189
5 Comments
Stephen King is who got me into reading. His writing style is very conversational and doesn’t really feel like “reading” as much as it does with authors who are more flowery in their descriptions.
If you have any interest in his work I could give a couple suggestions based on what you think you might want to read.
I would first pick a biography of someone you are interested in.
Madhouse at the End of the Earth is my favorite non-fiction. It’s not really a book that will make you smarter, but I found it incredibly fascinating
I think one non book suggestion recommendation is to read on your phone! I use the kindle app and the libby app which helps me get in little bits of reading in throughout the day.
Also, if there’s a book you find tedious to read, don’t make yourself finish it. No shame in DNF 😊
Re: book suggestions, maybe start w/ a memoir like Educated. Inspiring stories about people who’ve overcome incredible hardship and have advice as a result of that.
—**Non-Fiction**—
[SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28789711-spqr), by Mary Beard
[The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7282903-the-crusades), by Thomas Asbridge
[1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39020.1491), by Charles C. Mann
[The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/166123.The_Iron_Cage), by Rashid Khalidi (Palestine pov)
[Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/131324.Righteous_Victims), by Benny Morris (Israel pov)
[The War that Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19015833-the-war-that-ended-peace), by Margaret MacMillan
[The First World War](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1030160.The_First_World_War), by Hew Strachan (WWI overview)
[Storm of Steel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/240485.Storm_of_Steel), by Ernst Jünger (German WWI memoir)
[Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11256415-inferno), by Max Hastings (WWII overview)
[The Cold War: A New History](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28432.The_Cold_War), by John Lewis Gaddis or [Origins of the Cold War](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212076.Origins_of_the_Cold_War_2ed), by Leffler and Painter
[Dispatches](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4276743-dispatches), by Michael Herr (Vietnam war memoir, partially fictional)
[The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3109.The_Omnivore_s_Dilemma), by Michael Pollan
[The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25510906-the-mushroom-at-the-end-of-the-world), by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
[The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15797662-the-righteous-mind) or [The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36556202-the-coddling-of-the-american-mind), by Jonathan Haidt
[Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48761204-invisible-women), by Caroline Criado Pérez (since you’re a husband, and possibly dad to daughters)
—**Fiction**— (tried to go by your comments, sorry if I’m way off)
[Mrs. Dalloway](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46749.Mrs_Dalloway), by Virginia Woolf (interwar stream of consciousness)
[Mother Night](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17665486-mother-night), by Kurt Vonnegut (WWII trial)
[Watchmen](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472331.Watchmen), by Alan Moore
[The Remains of the Day](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57934597-the-remains-of-the-day), by Kazuo Ishiguro (post-WWII England)
[The Three-Body Problem](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20518872-the-three-body-problem) (pt 1 of trilogy), by Liu Cixin (aliens sci-fi)
[The Gone World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33413556-the-gone-world), by Tom Sweterlitsch (time travel sci-fi)
[When We Cease to Understand the World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53972214-when-we-cease-to-understand-the-world), by Benjamín Labatut (on scientific discovery and its moral consequences)