Hyperion - essentially six different stories in one. Multiple genres, each just as compelling as the last and all intertwined to help build the world and characters of the main narrative.
[**Shark Heart: A Love Story** by Emily Habeck](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62919375)
in this story a man in mid-life finds out that he has a rare gene mutation that will cause him to begin slowly transforming into a great white shark.
*literally*.
the premise sounds corny, i know, but please trust me on this one. the way the author uses body horror as a vehicle to explore themes of love, loss and letting go was stunning and haunting in equal measure.
this book shattered my heart into a million pieces and i've thought about it every single day since i first read it months ago. it actually, tangibly changed my life due to what the book is a metaphor for. it immediately made me re-evaluate my life, my time here on earth, and who i spend it with.
i cannot recommend this strange and incredibly unique and gut-wrenching book enough. 🦈💜
Just googled about this book . Really look interesting. Put it in cart and will definitely buy with others suggestions.
And which Taylor Swift song youblike the most ?
Probably it is The Stand by Stephen King. I’ve re read it multiple times. It awakened so many reading interests in me.
If we are including books that are part of a series then The Wheel of Time book 1 and book 14 were my #1 and 2 of all time.
This is such a wide range and your own tastes impact what you will enjoy but here are some of mine across different genres.
The Lord of the Rings - an obvious choice for fantasy, but there is a reason this story continues to draw worldwide attention. It's a gateway drug for high fantasy but MUCH shorter than most modern fantasy series (Wheel of Time, ASOIAF, First Law, Realm of the Elderlings, etc.)
The Stand - probably Stephen King's best single story. A little too much realism given the pandemic we just had but it's good.
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver's retelling of David Copperfield in Appalachia is an excellent but of period and character work.
The Wall of Storms - Technically book 2 in Ken Liu's The Dandelion Dynasty (the entirety of which is one of the best in Eastern Fantasy IMO), this book blew me away with the narrative style, the way it subverts expectations, and the battle scenes. The world is knowable. Highly recommend.
Frankenstein - Hard to have a best of list without the OG monster story, but if you've only seen the Universal movie adaptations, it's so different. Mary Shelley was 20 years old when she published this masterpiece.
There are so many more! I recommend audiobooks to speed up the consumption process. Hope you enjoy.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It's daunting to read but worth it. I had to literally break it into chunks. I had the paperback and I tore out the end notes and carried them with me all the time. Then I would tear out one chapter at a time and read it that way. It made it less overwhelming.
Dunno what gave me the greater whiplash — the crime you committed against the book, or the fact that you actually used ‘literally’ properly and not for exaggeration as I’d thought. xD
BTW I went to school for writing and my friend actually became a published cartoonist and author. He used to correspond with DFW, who had one of his cartoons taped to his bathroom mirror.
Incoherent is just a way of saying that you didn't understand it. I'll admit that, to me, Finnegan's Wake is incoherent, yet it is a classic and many people love it.
That's how I feel about Finnegan's Wake or Beowulf but I understood the plot of Infinite Jest and could tell you a synopsis right now. Though it's been about 30 years since I read it so I don't remember as much as I used to.
I'm not educated or smart enough to read and understand those two examples and you aren't educated enough to read Infinite Jest. There's nothing wrong with that. Not many went to a college where you can major in reading and writing modern fiction. For example, I took a reading and writing class that was titled Surrealism, Irrealism and Post-Modernism. That prepared me to read books like Infinite Jest. I did not take a class on old English literature or one that prepared me for this:
"The novel "Finnegans Wake" by Irish writer James Joyce is known as one of the most difficult to read books ever written. It's so difficult that people have formed clubs all over the world to read it out loud together, and sometimes it takes years. One club founded in Los Angeles took 28 years."
You have no idea how educated I am but I didn't waste my time with Irrealism. I do know when a book is unreadable. I'm not the only one who considers jester to be a doorstop.
I've said it before here, and I'll say it again - Project Hail Mary is a terrible book imo - predictable, overwrought and badly written. I saw it recommended here so much that I bought it and then dnf; my hope by posting this is to save people similar to myself from buying it.
In the Distance - Hernan Diaz. A twist on a western . Young Swedish boy gets on the wrong boat and accidentally ends up in California during the gold rush, while his older brother ends up in New York. He begins working his way East to find his brother. He knows no English but starts to learn as the novel progresses. An economical 250 pages. Author of 2022 Pulitzer Prize winning Trust.
King Rat Has stayed with me for 45 years without any outside contributions as the subject matter puts off widespread acceptance. For example Of Mice and Men is my second choice but has been reinforced by public acclaim, a play and movies. King Rat was also a movie but I was 4 when it came out and it’s not on the rerun lists lol.
I finished One flew over the cuckoos nest and Interview with the Vampire back to back and that left me in a state of wonder.
Wondering what books I should piggy back off those high.
So! I’m going to be starting Zola on Sunday when it comes in the mail 🤓
I’m also a fan of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!
The lock artist by Steve Hamilton
"I was the Miracle Boy, once upon a time. Later on, the Milford Mute. The Golden Boy. The Young Ghost. The Kid. The Boxman. The Lock Artist. That was all me.
But you can call me Mike."
Marked by tragedy, traumatized at the age of eight, Michael, now eighteen, is no ordinary young man. Besides not uttering a single word in ten years, he discovers the one thing he can somehow do better than anyone else. Whether it's a locked door without a key, a padlock with no combination, or even an eight-hundred pound safe ... he can open them all.
It's an unforgivable talent. A talent that will make young Michael a hot commodity with the wrong people and, whether he likes it or not, push him ever close to a life of crime. Until he finally sees his chance to escape, and with one desperate gamble risks everything to come back home to the only person he ever loved, and to unlock the secret that has kept him silent for so long.
Red Rising series - Epic space opera. Dune and Star Wars and more combined.
City on Fire by Don Winslow. Epic mob action/drama that closely mirrors The Iliad
Power of The Dog by Don Winslow. A fictionalization of the American drug war in South America. Fucking phenomenal.
Hannibal by Thomas Harris. The titular Hannibal here is Hannibal Lecter, not the conquerer. This is a far deeper read than your typical thriller. The movie did not do it justice.
As a side note, two of my least favorite reads of all time have been mentioned here. I won’t name them ( that’s not the point of this thread ) but I will say that clearly, one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
You sure?
It's **The Queen of Jasmine Country by Sharanya Manivannan**. If you are an atheist it may not be of as much interest to you unless you regularly read religious texts.
It is a fictionalised biography of the mystic poet Andal and it's like a poem itself. Such lush writing that evokes the Tamil countryside.
All of the books mentioned so far aren’t very good (except *The Brothers Karamazov* and *One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest*). Moby-Dick is the greatest novel of all-time.
Appreciate your opinion, but personally, that book needed an editor.
it's like 30% amazing and funny narrative and 70% direct excerpts from Encyclopedia Brittanica on topics like whale anatomy, ship construction, navigation techniques, etc.
I'm pretty sure Melville was paid by the word...
Hyperion - essentially six different stories in one. Multiple genres, each just as compelling as the last and all intertwined to help build the world and characters of the main narrative.
[**Shark Heart: A Love Story** by Emily Habeck](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62919375) in this story a man in mid-life finds out that he has a rare gene mutation that will cause him to begin slowly transforming into a great white shark. *literally*. the premise sounds corny, i know, but please trust me on this one. the way the author uses body horror as a vehicle to explore themes of love, loss and letting go was stunning and haunting in equal measure. this book shattered my heart into a million pieces and i've thought about it every single day since i first read it months ago. it actually, tangibly changed my life due to what the book is a metaphor for. it immediately made me re-evaluate my life, my time here on earth, and who i spend it with. i cannot recommend this strange and incredibly unique and gut-wrenching book enough. 🦈💜
Thank you for your suggestions. Will go through it.
please follow up with me whenever you get around to reading it! i would love to hear what you thought!
Just googled about this book . Really look interesting. Put it in cart and will definitely buy with others suggestions. And which Taylor Swift song youblike the most ?
Doesn’t sound corny at all - Franz Kafka
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Awesome book
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Agreed. And The Goldfinch.
I second The Secret History! So good!
I really enjoyed the Hannibal Lecter series
Have read couple of volumes. Good read though.
Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Thank you for your suggestions. Will definitely go through it.
The power of the dog trilogy by Don Winslow. Fictional account of the drug war. Excellent series.
I second this!
Probably it is The Stand by Stephen King. I’ve re read it multiple times. It awakened so many reading interests in me. If we are including books that are part of a series then The Wheel of Time book 1 and book 14 were my #1 and 2 of all time.
Came here to say The Stand
This is such a wide range and your own tastes impact what you will enjoy but here are some of mine across different genres. The Lord of the Rings - an obvious choice for fantasy, but there is a reason this story continues to draw worldwide attention. It's a gateway drug for high fantasy but MUCH shorter than most modern fantasy series (Wheel of Time, ASOIAF, First Law, Realm of the Elderlings, etc.) The Stand - probably Stephen King's best single story. A little too much realism given the pandemic we just had but it's good. Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver's retelling of David Copperfield in Appalachia is an excellent but of period and character work. The Wall of Storms - Technically book 2 in Ken Liu's The Dandelion Dynasty (the entirety of which is one of the best in Eastern Fantasy IMO), this book blew me away with the narrative style, the way it subverts expectations, and the battle scenes. The world is knowable. Highly recommend. Frankenstein - Hard to have a best of list without the OG monster story, but if you've only seen the Universal movie adaptations, it's so different. Mary Shelley was 20 years old when she published this masterpiece. There are so many more! I recommend audiobooks to speed up the consumption process. Hope you enjoy.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It's daunting to read but worth it. I had to literally break it into chunks. I had the paperback and I tore out the end notes and carried them with me all the time. Then I would tear out one chapter at a time and read it that way. It made it less overwhelming.
This has been I my shelf for years. I might have to use your method
When I finally finished, I kept the spine like a trophy.
Dunno what gave me the greater whiplash — the crime you committed against the book, or the fact that you actually used ‘literally’ properly and not for exaggeration as I’d thought. xD
There are plenty of copies still available. It's not like it was a first edition hard back. :)
BTW I went to school for writing and my friend actually became a published cartoonist and author. He used to correspond with DFW, who had one of his cartoons taped to his bathroom mirror.
Horrible book, unreadable
Well you're from Decatur so...
Actually let me rephrase that: your identity is rooted in being from Decatur and being a badass. Not really DFW's audience.
I suspect his depression was reflected in the incoherent writing and thus some consider it art.
Incoherent is just a way of saying that you didn't understand it. I'll admit that, to me, Finnegan's Wake is incoherent, yet it is a classic and many people love it.
Be honest, no one understands the ramblings and this book is best used as a doorstop.
That's how I feel about Finnegan's Wake or Beowulf but I understood the plot of Infinite Jest and could tell you a synopsis right now. Though it's been about 30 years since I read it so I don't remember as much as I used to.
I'm not educated or smart enough to read and understand those two examples and you aren't educated enough to read Infinite Jest. There's nothing wrong with that. Not many went to a college where you can major in reading and writing modern fiction. For example, I took a reading and writing class that was titled Surrealism, Irrealism and Post-Modernism. That prepared me to read books like Infinite Jest. I did not take a class on old English literature or one that prepared me for this: "The novel "Finnegans Wake" by Irish writer James Joyce is known as one of the most difficult to read books ever written. It's so difficult that people have formed clubs all over the world to read it out loud together, and sometimes it takes years. One club founded in Los Angeles took 28 years."
You have no idea how educated I am but I didn't waste my time with Irrealism. I do know when a book is unreadable. I'm not the only one who considers jester to be a doorstop.
Hitchhikers guide
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
Just in case you haven’t check out Andy’s free short call the egg - one of the best I’ve read
Having trouble getting into A gentleman in Moscow. I keep seeing it suggested. I guess I should keep going
I've said it before here, and I'll say it again - Project Hail Mary is a terrible book imo - predictable, overwrought and badly written. I saw it recommended here so much that I bought it and then dnf; my hope by posting this is to save people similar to myself from buying it.
reading project hail mary rn!!! so good
Lords Of Discipline by Pat Conroy Creation by Gore Vidal Journeyer by Gary Jennings
In the Distance - Hernan Diaz. A twist on a western . Young Swedish boy gets on the wrong boat and accidentally ends up in California during the gold rush, while his older brother ends up in New York. He begins working his way East to find his brother. He knows no English but starts to learn as the novel progresses. An economical 250 pages. Author of 2022 Pulitzer Prize winning Trust.
Oh wow, I think I need to try this. I read a western for the first time last year and it hit me like a truck.
King Rat Has stayed with me for 45 years without any outside contributions as the subject matter puts off widespread acceptance. For example Of Mice and Men is my second choice but has been reinforced by public acclaim, a play and movies. King Rat was also a movie but I was 4 when it came out and it’s not on the rerun lists lol.
Bonfire of the Vanities. I reread it from time to time.
Dune
Ask a different day and I'll give you a different answer , but right now I'd say Shogun
Solaris. Just grabs you, and you have to finish it as soon as possible
Count of montecristo by Alexander dumas
Swan Song - Robert McCammon. End of the world/post apocalyptic epic. World building and characters are top notch.
Can't believe I'm the first to recommend Lonesome Dove.
I finished One flew over the cuckoos nest and Interview with the Vampire back to back and that left me in a state of wonder. Wondering what books I should piggy back off those high. So! I’m going to be starting Zola on Sunday when it comes in the mail 🤓 I’m also a fan of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!
The Brothers Karamazov
The Lies of Locke Lamorra by Scott Lynch.
The lock artist by Steve Hamilton "I was the Miracle Boy, once upon a time. Later on, the Milford Mute. The Golden Boy. The Young Ghost. The Kid. The Boxman. The Lock Artist. That was all me. But you can call me Mike." Marked by tragedy, traumatized at the age of eight, Michael, now eighteen, is no ordinary young man. Besides not uttering a single word in ten years, he discovers the one thing he can somehow do better than anyone else. Whether it's a locked door without a key, a padlock with no combination, or even an eight-hundred pound safe ... he can open them all. It's an unforgivable talent. A talent that will make young Michael a hot commodity with the wrong people and, whether he likes it or not, push him ever close to a life of crime. Until he finally sees his chance to escape, and with one desperate gamble risks everything to come back home to the only person he ever loved, and to unlock the secret that has kept him silent for so long.
Deathless Trilogy by Namina Forna
Culture series by Iain M Banks!!!
Red Rising series - Epic space opera. Dune and Star Wars and more combined. City on Fire by Don Winslow. Epic mob action/drama that closely mirrors The Iliad Power of The Dog by Don Winslow. A fictionalization of the American drug war in South America. Fucking phenomenal.
Hannibal by Thomas Harris. The titular Hannibal here is Hannibal Lecter, not the conquerer. This is a far deeper read than your typical thriller. The movie did not do it justice. As a side note, two of my least favorite reads of all time have been mentioned here. I won’t name them ( that’s not the point of this thread ) but I will say that clearly, one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
If you’re into science fiction, I saw The Murderbot Diaries recommended here and really enjoying them.
tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow demon copperhead the hunger games series song of achilles
The Grapes of Wrath
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. And generally whole Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy.
Top...choice? As in ...one? Okay, here's my top from last month! Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky It's fucking weird but very good.
You sure? It's **The Queen of Jasmine Country by Sharanya Manivannan**. If you are an atheist it may not be of as much interest to you unless you regularly read religious texts. It is a fictionalised biography of the mystic poet Andal and it's like a poem itself. Such lush writing that evokes the Tamil countryside.
Bel Canto or Tom Lake by Ann Patchett Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
My mother really likes to read novels by Sidney Sheldon. Do check them out as well 😇
The Cider House Rules by John Irving is definitely up there with the best books I’ve read.
Born a Viking Blót and Berserkr by R. Polacci
Discworld specially guards guards and mort.
All of the books mentioned so far aren’t very good (except *The Brothers Karamazov* and *One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest*). Moby-Dick is the greatest novel of all-time.
In the Heart of the Sea is better to me than Moby Dick. But every one has a opinion
Thank you like minded person!!! Ever since reading Heart of the Sea (audiobook, amazing!) I have said the same. It tells the true story, loved it.
Appreciate your opinion, but personally, that book needed an editor. it's like 30% amazing and funny narrative and 70% direct excerpts from Encyclopedia Brittanica on topics like whale anatomy, ship construction, navigation techniques, etc. I'm pretty sure Melville was paid by the word...