Hey guys, I am interested in starting reading again. I used to love reading up until I was in around 8th grade or so, and now I am in college I am very into studying books and into author’s lives and cultures in general and I love studying literature throughout time. I just don’t read the books themselves but now I am interested in actually reading. I was wondering if someone could give me a list or just give suggestions starting from a book like Beowulf which came out something like a thousand years ago and detailing some books in between all up until modern works. I would appreciate it, thanks!
by Malindrone
4 Comments
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
For an overview of English literature, you could try something like the [Norton Anthology of English Literature](https://wwnorton.co.uk/subjects/textbooks/literature/sifs/the-norton-anthology-of-english-literature).
An old piece of literature is The Tale of Genji. I have *not* read this myself, I’ve just heard of it.
[Carmilla](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/j-sheridan-le-fanu/in-a-glass-darkly) by J. Sheridan Le Fanu is a vampire novel a little older than Dracula.
[The Description of a New World](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51783) by Margaret Cavendish is another old piece of fiction I have not read myself.
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I’ve read a lot of sci fi from the past hundred years or so, so I could recommend a lot of books that show different usages of similar ideas over time, or the ways sci fi has evolved with time due to whatever pop science ideas were big. But I don’t want to bury you in a lot of recommendations that may not be relevant. Is this something you’d be interested in? Here are a few:
* If you like The Canterbury Tales that the other commenter recommends, there’s a sci fi novel whose structure is based on it, Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Published 1989.
* [Islands in the Net](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218571.Islands_in_the_Net) is a 1988 cyberpunk novel that is definitely a product of its time, but also has some surprisingly good insights into how people would use technology in everyday life.
* [The Girl Who Was Plugged In](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23574147-the-girl-who-was-plugged-in), a 1973 novella. Very ahead of its time, it has aged very well. I’ve read some speculation that the themes of performing femininity, one’s true self, and social acceptance could reflect on the author being a woman and using a male pen name, and fears that she wouldn’t be accepted as a sci fi author if people found out. A few years later, it was found out, but I believe she could still successfully publish under the pen name. However, she struggled to get stories published when using a feminine name, according to Wikipedia.
* [Blackfish City](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068768-blackfish-city), published 2018. A modern take on some similar ideas seen in Islands in the Net. It’s interesting to me to see the impact of HIV/AIDS on literature.
You might like the Song of Achilles or Circe – both by the same author. Modern retelling of Greek mythologies. Really well done. I enjoyed both books thoroughly.