TL/DR – please recommend me “fun” books that don’t require much thinking but that are well written and contain multidimensional characters and/or plot lines.
In my school years I used to be an avid reader. It faded with university and plummeted after i started working full-time – I couldn’t manage to concentrate enough.
Recently, I picked up “reading” (experiencing stories?) with audiobooks. As I can listen to books during my commute, gym and cleaning, I’m getting through stories at a healthy pace, and I can’t get enough of them!
In-between more “tedious” reads (LOTR, The Rose Code, Lonesome Dove, War of the worlds, The Martian…) I try to indulge with more “fun” ones (The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, Jeeves stories, Six of Crows, Daisy Jones and the Six, Bridgerton saga …)
I, unfortunately, recently fell in a trap set up by booktok. I tried out Fourth Wing, because I liked the idea of a fun, easy story with dragons (I remembered fondly the Inheritance series). It was mostly as forseen. I didn’t particularly enjoy the world, the “love” story, nor see much sense in the plot… But it was entertaining enough and didn’t require my attention tuning in. Think “blockbuster with teenage angst, dragons and alot of fluff”.
With this month being more stressful at work, i decided to give the second book of the series a go….
Let’s say that I wanted to get my braincells a spa treatment, but instead reading Iron Flame caused a riot of protest. I cannot count the amount of times I rolled my eyes at the writing or car-screamed “Ohh Stfu” at the whiny protagonists.
I’m cleansing my pallet with Piranesi. So far, so good. I’m about halfway in. However, it’s a rather short little thing..
I need help picking my next “fun” read. I now feel that tiktok is filled with landmines for book recs … Six of Crows & The song of Achilles were good, Fourth wing okay, but Iron Flame felt like a shameless unpolished cashgrab by the author and the publisher…
What would be your best remedy going forward for my fun reads?
Edit: Side note, I can also read in French.
Dans ma jeunesse j’ai beaucoup apprécié mes lectures de Marcel Pagnol, et les histoires d’Arsene Lupin.
by anananas07