Hello! When I was younger, I loved reading and was always eager to try new books. Once I found out about video games in middle school, my consistency in reading plummeted, and I only read manga now. I want to start reading actual books again (not to throw manga under the bus, I love it to death, but it’s not the same), but I don’t know where to get started. Unfortunately, it’s been so long since I’ve read that I don’t remember many books that I enjoyed. I’m really sorry if this makes it difficult to make suggestions, but thank you so much!
I also think it’s important to note that since middle school, my overall reading level has become more advanced, so I can handle books that are more complicated. However, I think I’d struggle with anything geared towards very proficient readers.
Books I liked in elementary school/early middle school: Harry Potter, The City of Ember, Genius: The Game (wasn’t bad, but not the best, same goes for the other two books in the trilogy), the Hunger Games, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Living, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Refugee, The Bridge Home, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Land of Stories, Book Scavenger (unrelated but I found out a while ago the author is my mom’s friend from school!), Obsessed (by Allison Britz), The Zodiac Legacy: Convergence, Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Little House on the Prairie, Hatchet, The Terror, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Grenade
Genres I like: Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Horror/Thriller, Mystery, Fantasy, Adventure, Realistic Fiction
Genres I avoid: Romance (especially anything smutty) and most Non-Fiction books (There’s an exception to the romance bit: if there is romance in a book but it’s not the main point/forefront, that’s okay)
One more thing to note, my tastes in books and manga are a little different. In manga, I mainly read yuri/gl stories, shonen, thriller, and psychological horror. If it’s even relevant, my favorite mangas are Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Initial D, Happy Sugar Life, Takopii’s Original Sin, Monster, Kitanai Kimi ga Ichiban Kawaii (I don’t know the translation, my apologies), Parasyte: the maxim, and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. If there are books similar to any of the above, I would love to try those out as well. 🙂
Tl;dr: Just focus on the genres I like and don’t like. Books geared towards people ages 15-16 and up are preferred. Thank you very much! I look forward to any responses I get 😀
by TheUltimateKaren