Being a busy adult, coupled with my ADHD and lingering resentment from my mandatory reading assignments in school, reading a full book cover to cover used to feel like a chore to me compared to more easily digestible audiovisual media like YouTube videos, TV shows, and video games.
But recently, I stumbled upon *House of Leaves* by Mark Z. Danielewski, and it blew my mind! I was amazed and entranced by its creative use of form to tell its story, so uniquely intertwined into the narrative that I could not imagine the book being properly adapted into a TV show or movie.
This experience opened my eyes to the joys of reading, and now I’ve got a massive pile of books I’m eager to dive into. Currently reading *Antkind* by Charlie Kaufman.
Does any of y’all have a similar experience with a book that changed your perspective on reading? What’s your literary game-changer?
by GratefulDeadpool
36 Comments
Hyperion sent me into a search for a similar experience. No luck yet. On this journey I really got into reading again though, but I’m still looking for that Hyperion high.
The Stranger by Camus
After I got out of my (aborted) Ph.D. program and took some time away from reading for a while (aka “didn’t want to read another book again for the rest of my life”), the book that pulled me back in was John Langan’s *The Fisherman*. Read it and loved it, and it sort of reminded me that reading can be fun and *de*-stressing.
I used to read tons of books when I was younger but set that aside after working in IT and whatnot. Started reading again this year when I grabbed a copy of “Wool”, the first book in the Silo trilogy.
The Count of Monte Cristo.
I picked it up almost at random from the bookstore because I liked the design on it (penguin clothbound classics) without knowing anything about the story except that it was an old classic and maybe had something to do with revenge. It turned out to be not just easy to read, but a page turner. The collossal size of the book made me scared that I wouldn’t finish it at first, but a couple chapters in I was hooked and the length seemed less and less terrifying.
Reading this book, I discovered that books could be more than just movies without sound and visuals. I wasn’t a stranger to books before this, but I hadn’t read any stories that made me feel like I was learning about life, humanity, society, etc. I shortly after read Les misérables, which expanded further on this.
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.
This is a little embarrassing, I guess, but my love for reading fizzled out after I stopped college and had some major life events happen.
Anyway, I decided to finish my English teaching degree this year. I wanted to start reading again, but I couldn’t get my library card yet for some reason, so I grabbed the first book on my shelf that I hadn’t read yet: The Da Vinci Code.
Anne of Green Gables
A few times in my life I’ve hit a reading slump and I’ve re-read the Anne of Green Gables book (series) and I’m off and running again. I think it’s because this was the first book I fell in love with as a kid, and re-reading it just brings that initial joy of reading right back again.
Grapes of Wrath for me.
Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. I read almost every book he ever wrote immediately after, plus more than a dozen other science books, including my ENTIRE college biology textbook.
House of Leaves is one of my all time favorites. You would probably enjoy David Mitchel novels as well! Slade house in particular, but it’s helpful to have read Ghostwritten and The Bone Clocks first. And of course Cloud Atlas is amazing as well
The Expanse by James S. A. Corey. Epic sci-fi, some of the best I’ve ever read.
Thanks to discussion in this sub I think it was Frankenstein. I wasn’t ever really a big reader but after following this sub for a while I’ve picked up a healthy reading habit and Frankenstein was the beginning of that journey for me. My reading list is full of great options for my next book!
Blood Meridian, but more specifically just Cormac McCarthy’s writing overall. I enjoy the challenge and beauty of his prose and the reward for the effort. I’m working my way through all of his novels before I start tackling some Faulkner.
The Little Princess
Misery by Stephen King. It’s not too long and gripped my attention the whole time. First time I stayed up through the night reading a book.
Also I coincidentally just bought Antkind the other day haha.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Redwall
The Martian by Andy Weir
I was just obsessed with trying to figure out how this guy fuckin survives this thing.
Working a mind-numbing, redundant job at Amazon lol I went from reading maybe 5 books a year to listening to 260 books a year mostly at work!
Edit: I misread the question but I’ll leave this anyway 😅
I used to read a ton of fiction, but went through a period of several years where I read only non-fiction, and not that much of it. What got me back into fiction was reading Dune for the first time.
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. Although, after reading it, it was hard to read anything else for a while because of the heavy weight it left after reading it.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
For me it wasn’t a book, but changing my habits. I decided no more phone in the bedroom. I replaced it with reading. Now habit is to read a few pages each night. After several months I’m now spending time during the day picking up a book and reading. Also, I’m choosing books that interest me, whereas before I found I was choosing books that I felt I was supposed to read because they were classics or tackled important subjects. Now I just read what interests me. Turns out that’s thrillers that take place in the ocean. I love it.
Casino Royale. I love James Bond movies and was down in New Orleans for vacation about a decade ago. I stumbled into a quaint, little used book store and found this gem. It’s a fairly simplistic read, but after I was finished, I realized how much I enjoyed reading and haven’t stopped since.
The count of Monte Cristo.
20 years ago after finishing a Masters in English Literature, I hated reading. A few months after defending my thesis, I picked up Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It was the first I’d read from either author. It reignited my joy of reading and sent me through both authors’ books.
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.
I’ve always loved reading, but go through phases. This book absolutely changed the game for me as an adult, I’ve been much more consistent about reading in the last few years and I’m absolutely loving it.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
I stopped reading for years and despite best attempts couldn’t get into anything. I only tried reading heavy books like getting back in to GoT, rereading The Silmarillion, or classics like Crime and Punishment or Plato’s Republic.
I was to prentensious and didn’t end up finishing book for years.
I finally decided to read something light and was immediately drawn in with Dog in the Night’s unique flow, simple narrative, and fast reading. I had forgotten how delightful a relatively short modern fiction could be.
It was a pretty significant revelation for me that really allowed me to wrap my teeth around the fact that literature could simply illustrate the relatively mundane (compared to grand historical lineages or tomes on the nature of humanity) and breathe a fullness of life into the figures you might pass on your way to work or in the grocery store.
That reopened the flood gates and I worked my way back to being in a place where I could appreciate reading 700+ page novels.
rereading the hunger games trilogy!
The Way of Kings
A Game of Thrones.
Something about the sprawling nature combined with the POV chapters got to me. Probably realizing the old idea that everyone thinks what they’re doing is right, and GRRM exemplifies that well in his writing.
Of course some characters are more sympathetic than others, but the nature of the series has me empathize with most characters in some way or another.
Six of Crows
A song of ice and fire was the first book series that i read and make me love books.
The Lord of the Rings. Read it about 8 years before the movie were a thing. Made me read many, many more books after.
Terry pratchett