1. Lord of the Rings – All other fantasy has paled in comparison and I’ve given up on the genre a bit. The world is incredible, and the prose is vivid. You will feel like you are in Middle Earth. It’s not as plot centric as most modern fantasy which I like but can be a tough read for some for that reason.
2. Remains of the Day – A story about a butler taking a road trip and reminiscing about his life. Unreliable narration, which requires the reader to figure out what’s actually happening at times. Beautifully written, I was hooked from the first page of this old butler explaining his mundane life.
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde is a genius. Every line of dialog in this book is brilliant. He can go from philosophical, to a scathing and hilarious critique of society in just a few words.
4. Demian – Awesome book that examines the human soul from a philosophical and moral point of view, kind of similar to Dorian Gray in a way. Extremely introspective and explores the duality of man, with a beautifully written vibe of loneliness throughout.
5. Frankenstein – Considered one of the best books of all time for a reason. Just a constant roller coaster of empathy, anguish, anxiety.
Writing them all out like this made me realize I really like lonely and introspective books.
unlovelyladybartleby on
Unsheltered and Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
The All Girl’s Filling Station’s Last Reunion and A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg
Anne of Green Gables and Rilla of Ingleside by LM Montgomery
World War Z and Devolution by Max Brooks
A Dirty Job, Coyote Blue, and the Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
Karen by Marie Killilea
Most of the Dragonriders of Pern books, most of the Brainships books, and all of the Crystal Singer books by Anne McCaffrey
Books 2, 3, and 5 of the Dark Tower books and The Talisman by Stephen King
ModernNancyDrew on
Rebecca – fiction
Atlas of a Lost World – non-fiction
HughHelloParson on
Ada by Vladimir Nabokov
Anathem By Neal Stephenson
Antkind by Charlie KAuffman
The quick and the Dead by Joy Willams
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan LEthem
mglj42 on
Ulysses by James Joyce
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
bear1y on
I’ll give a few short stories
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber – Hemingway
Death and the Compass – Borges
A Good Man is Hard to Find – Flannery O’Connor
jazzberryjamm on
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
The State Boys Rebellion – Michael D’Antonio
Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson
The Girls He Adored, by Jonathan Nasaw
I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis de Bernieres
We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
The Quaker, by Liam McIlvanney
And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, by Fredrik Backman
Blendi_369 on
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
The Lord of The Rings – J. R. R. Tolkien
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Emma – Jane Austen
Faust – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Brothers Karamazov – Dostoevsky
tancrediVittore on
Here’s 3 of them:
The Gray House, Mariam Petrosyan (god I hate the title in English, it’s The House in Which ffs)
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
And the first book in the Mirror Visitor series by Christelle Dabos
IllustriousPost382 on
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Beartown (the whole trilogy) by Fredrik Backman
The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Pretty_Fairy_Queen on
– Perla by Carolina De Robertis
– Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
– The Inhabited Woman by Gioconda Belli
– My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Queenofhackenwack on
great expectations charles dickens
babysoop on
The Stand by Stephen King
The Stand is a very lengthy read (823 pages), and I’m honestly surprised I read it at all, let alone read it more than once. My attention span is ruined. But the story is so good, very well paced and just keeps you wanting to know what’s going to happen next. The book throws you into the thick of things right from the first page. There is a large enough pool of characters that you get to jump through the perspectives of, so the tone of the story doesn’t get repetitive or boring. And as crazy as it sounds, I think the uncut version (1,153 pages) is even better than the original publishing. The extra bits added aren’t necessary for the story of course, but they add so much to the atmosphere of the book imo. If you’re already reading an 800+ page book, what’s a few hundred more pages, right?
20 Comments
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Top 5 is probably as follows:
1. Lord of the Rings – All other fantasy has paled in comparison and I’ve given up on the genre a bit. The world is incredible, and the prose is vivid. You will feel like you are in Middle Earth. It’s not as plot centric as most modern fantasy which I like but can be a tough read for some for that reason.
2. Remains of the Day – A story about a butler taking a road trip and reminiscing about his life. Unreliable narration, which requires the reader to figure out what’s actually happening at times. Beautifully written, I was hooked from the first page of this old butler explaining his mundane life.
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde is a genius. Every line of dialog in this book is brilliant. He can go from philosophical, to a scathing and hilarious critique of society in just a few words.
4. Demian – Awesome book that examines the human soul from a philosophical and moral point of view, kind of similar to Dorian Gray in a way. Extremely introspective and explores the duality of man, with a beautifully written vibe of loneliness throughout.
5. Frankenstein – Considered one of the best books of all time for a reason. Just a constant roller coaster of empathy, anguish, anxiety.
Writing them all out like this made me realize I really like lonely and introspective books.
Unsheltered and Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
The All Girl’s Filling Station’s Last Reunion and A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg
Anne of Green Gables and Rilla of Ingleside by LM Montgomery
World War Z and Devolution by Max Brooks
A Dirty Job, Coyote Blue, and the Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
Karen by Marie Killilea
Most of the Dragonriders of Pern books, most of the Brainships books, and all of the Crystal Singer books by Anne McCaffrey
Books 2, 3, and 5 of the Dark Tower books and The Talisman by Stephen King
Rebecca – fiction
Atlas of a Lost World – non-fiction
Ada by Vladimir Nabokov
Anathem By Neal Stephenson
Antkind by Charlie KAuffman
The quick and the Dead by Joy Willams
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan LEthem
Ulysses by James Joyce
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
I’ll give a few short stories
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber – Hemingway
Death and the Compass – Borges
A Good Man is Hard to Find – Flannery O’Connor
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
The State Boys Rebellion – Michael D’Antonio
Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
A Woman is No Man – Etaf Rum
The Soul of a Woman – Isabel Allende
Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr
Edit: Formatting
There’s a new sub you should join!
https://www.reddit.com/r/IReadABookAndAdoredIt
A selection, in no particular order:
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
Deathscent, by Robin Jarvis
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
Thud!, by Terry Pratchett
Hogfather, also by Terry Pratchett
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson
The Girls He Adored, by Jonathan Nasaw
I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis de Bernieres
We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
The Quaker, by Liam McIlvanney
And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, by Fredrik Backman
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
The Lord of The Rings – J. R. R. Tolkien
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Emma – Jane Austen
Faust – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Brothers Karamazov – Dostoevsky
Here’s 3 of them:
The Gray House, Mariam Petrosyan (god I hate the title in English, it’s The House in Which ffs)
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
And the first book in the Mirror Visitor series by Christelle Dabos
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Beartown (the whole trilogy) by Fredrik Backman
The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
– Perla by Carolina De Robertis
– Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
– The Inhabited Woman by Gioconda Belli
– My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
great expectations charles dickens
The Stand by Stephen King
The Stand is a very lengthy read (823 pages), and I’m honestly surprised I read it at all, let alone read it more than once. My attention span is ruined. But the story is so good, very well paced and just keeps you wanting to know what’s going to happen next. The book throws you into the thick of things right from the first page. There is a large enough pool of characters that you get to jump through the perspectives of, so the tone of the story doesn’t get repetitive or boring. And as crazy as it sounds, I think the uncut version (1,153 pages) is even better than the original publishing. The extra bits added aren’t necessary for the story of course, but they add so much to the atmosphere of the book imo. If you’re already reading an 800+ page book, what’s a few hundred more pages, right?
1. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
2. Devils Company by David Liss
3. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
4. False Impression by Jefferey Archer
5. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rowling
6. Some Luck Trilogy by Jane Smiley
7. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
8. The Giver by Lois Lowry
9. Framing Innocence by Lynn Powel
10. The Appeal by John Grisham
Wuthering Heights
All Quiet on the Western Front
A Tale of Two Cities
The Remains of the Day
Rebecca
The Things They Carried
The Age of Innocence
Pillars of the Earth
Into Thin Air(nonfiction)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Heart of Darkness
A Farewell To Arms
The Sound and the Fury
The Count of Monte Cristo
Homegoing
Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet
A Town Like Alice
Where The Lost Wander
Les Miserables – Hugo
The Count of Monte Cristo – Dumas
The Brothers Karamazov – Dostoyevsky