Recommend 2-3 books for someone that wants to get into reading

potatolord said:
That's another one where the film was very different...
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I've not seen it, but on the subject One Flew Over the cuckoo's nest. In the book you're basically in Chief Bromdens head something they couldn't really do in the film.

Also the 1984 film of 1984 with John Hurt is great.

Going back to light reads the first two Red Dwarf books are great. It's goes a bit weird with the 3rd because basically the two authors wrote their own 3rd book.
 
The book that got me hooked on reading is "the Crystal Shard" by R.A Salvatore. Amazing experience!.
 
I'm the OP and its a little over a year since I asked for help in getting back into reading, and I'm happy to say that I've been reading ever since. I've now a fixed 30-40min working day slot during lunch that I read.

Thus far I've read

1) 2-4 books from the dresden files (skipped the 1st one on recommendation on this thread)
2) The Green Mile
3) The first 3 books by brandon Sanderson in the mistborn series
4) Where the crawdads sing by Delia Owens.
5) Ian Rankin, Knots and Crosses
6) First 4 J.B Turner books in the Jon Resnick series
7) The chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
8) And I'm just starting the 2nd in a series of 7 books, edge of collapse by Kyla Stone

Quite a mix I think, some are all about detailed realms or painting subtle pictures of a point in time, and/or deep character development and slow paced. Others are just great easier read action books.

In total that's 15 I've read to date, and those 3 Sanderson books are all quite lengthy.

Have to say, that for most of these, there are times when I'm sitting doing other stuff that I wander off thinking about where my current book might lead next, or mulling over the latest reveal, it's a nice interest to have. Some realms and storylines can really get into your head

I've downloaded several more, and once I get thru them, I'm determined to come back to this thread and start picking off some of the recommendations.

Cheers again to everyone for giving me the start i needed.
 
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For a great mix of humour and fantasy Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are pretty easy reading. There's maybe 20+ books, not entirely sure and I haven't read the last one or two, but I used to love re-reading and reading them as a teenager. His Sam Vimes, Nightwatch era stuff is great.
 
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there is a website called goodreads that all the bookworms are on. They review and rate books.

most books that have a score of over 4 out of 5 are generally very good, they are a fussy lot.
 
AndyCr15 said:
Tbh, I just thought it was the IMDb/Trakt for books... so I log my reads and leave reviews so I know what I've read, where I might be in a series etc and if there are books I might re-read, I have them tagged as such.
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well there are a few things to get involved in also though, over 7 million are taking part in the 2024 reading challenge on there saying they are going to read over 280 million books

and you can click on the community section and join groups such as booktok that has near 150,000 members
 
Lartyconshayo said:
For a great mix of humour and fantasy Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are pretty easy reading. There's maybe 20+ books, not entirely sure and I haven't read the last one or two, but I used to love re-reading and reading them as a teenager. His Sam Vimes, Nightwatch era stuff is great.
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I think its 41 in the main arc, with some additional as well

If you happen to have audible, most are now (if not all) rerecorded with a handful of actors. Including Bill Nighy doing the voices.
They are the full books and not the often dramatised ones you get frequently when "names" come in to read them.

Highly recommended.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
I think its 41 in the main arc, with some additional as well

If you happen to have audible, most are now (if not all) rerecorded with a handful of actors. Including Bill Nighy doing the voices.
They are the full books and not the often dramatised ones you get frequently when "names" come in to read them.

Highly recommended.
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Yup 41. And the "young adult" books in the series are actually quite good (the Tiffany Aching ones).

Personally Id suggest starting at Guards Guards, as it eases you into the setting a bit as it starts out on the sort of ground people are familiar with from pretty much any old TV or Film about a world weary copper.

As you say the new Audio books are excellent, they've done a really good job with the casting and whilst they're not "full cast" they do keep it consistent with the likes of Death and the footnotes being the same across the whole run.


Not terry Pratchett, but a couple of very fun books are "The Kaiju Preservation Society", and "Starter Villain" both by John Scalzi, relatively short and very entertaining (KPS is basically "what if Kaiju were real, but endangered and the government was trying to hide them", whilst "Starter Villain" is a guy inherits a criminal enterprise from his uncle, although as one of the characters keeps pointing out "we're criminals, we're not evil").
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Id like to offer a fantasy trilogy by Joe Abercrombie The Blade Itself, Before they are hanged, Last Argument of Kings

Really dark semi fantasy (I say semi as not classic fantasy but really dark human based fantasy)
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These are amazing.

On a different note, try some of the David Mitchell (author, not comedian), they're a different tone to most of the offerings but he's my favouritest author, Cloud Atlas or Ghostwritten for a starter.
 
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett got me turned on to reading (and Discworld in general) in my teens, the first book to ever make me legitimately laugh out loud multiple times.

More recently, absolutely LOVED the Gentlemen Barstewards (search for proper spelling) series.

Then remembering some books I actually randomly enjoyed when we covered them in high school, The Outsiders, Flowers For Algernon and and Of Mice And Men.
 
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