\*Any advice will greatly influence myself as a potential new reader to find the joy I’ve been missing with reading\* (Thanks in advance!)
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So I am 22 years old (male), and used to have a passion for reading as a kid. As I grew older, I found myself hating reading, as I often found it boring and just not something I enjoyed. I recently was gifted “A Little Life” over the summer and as I finally committed myself to reading through it fully, I found that coupled with listening to music whilst reading, I had actually enjoyed that book.
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The notes I have for my “first book” as an adult was that the first 100-150 pages where quite boring, and the writing was pretentious and contrived at times. Definitely as wordy and overdescriptive as possible as well which I hated. However, I just bought my second book “The Song of Achilles, and after reading the first few chapters I can tell it will be a much quicker and easier/entertaining read for me. Overall I enjoyed “A Little Life” in the ways where it made me feel invested in the story, as well as pulling emotion out of me, which I strangely found to be relaxing.
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Do you have any suggestions for what my third book should be? Here’s how I would describe my ideal book.
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1. Something I can read for enjoyment that doesn’t take 10 pages to put into words what happens for a single moment. I find that when a book becomes overly descriptive/unneccesarily wordy, I become bored with it.
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2. Something either sad/exciting/dramatic/ preferably. I enjoy tv shows similar to “The Handmaids Tale”, “Big Little Lies”, and “Suits”, so Ideally someting very thought provoking/interesting.
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3.Nothing too cheesy with fiction. I doubt I would find myself interested in a fantasy novel, nor do I think something “classic” such as a book that would be required reading material (The outsiders, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc). I want a book that feels intelligent to read, whilst still being very captivating, in the same way that a award-winning tv show is.
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Once again, any advice is greatly appreciated! I just find that maybe I don’t hate reading as much as I thought I did, and I am in a point in my life where discovering a new passion for reading could be extremely beneficial for me.
by Unhappy-Shallot149
8 Comments
I finished “The Martian” recently and it was a solid book to start the year off for me personally. It’s science fiction without any cheesy fantasy. It’s written mostly in the form of journal entries. But they are easy to follow and tell the story well without being overly wordy. It has a lot of solid humor in it, while still maintaining some action and drama. You mentioned something intelligent, I think this book checks that box as well! Personally, it got me back into the kick of reading frequently!
what do you think about a fiction book that’s thriller/mystery/suspense?
I found listening to audiobooks while driving or working out was better
Check out Richard Starks(Donald Westlakes) Parker books, fastpaced action about a bank robber in the 60s and 70s.
Apparently your taste runs pretty dark/sad but in a mature way. I think Kazuo Ishiguro has some books you’d like, starting with either Remains of the Day or Never Let Me Go.
Never Let Me Go is the more brutal of the two, you will absolutely cry. Remains of the Day won a Nobel prize for literature if you care about credentials. Neither is syllabus stuff though.
Hope you enjoy getting into reading!
How about Stephen King’s The Stand? Apocalyptic, plot driven but still has great characters. Has some fantasy elements.
Get the audiobook of Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
Welsh’s works falls into the category of “books for people who don’t normally read”- should have everything you’re looking for
The John Grisham book The Firm is a GREAT read. Thrilling, exciting. Plot driven.