Help me become well read and entertained at the same time
January 15, 2012 5:47 PM Subscribe
What is the intersection between the set of books I should read and the set of books I'd reallyenjoy reading?
I just got a Kindle, and as a result have been doing more reading. Much of what I typically read is non-fiction about physics/math/science. However, I'd like to be more well-read and expose myself to more literature. At the same time, I want to something that will pull me in, not something that I have to force myself to read just because its "good for me".
So tell me about your favorite book that is thought provoking, challenging, enlightening, and also is simultaneously engrossing and difficult to put down. It doesn't need to be one of the classics or High Literature (though these would be great), but I'd like more than just mindless entertainment or escapism. Non-fiction is okay too, as long as it is really interesting.
Off the top of my head, here's some books I've really enjoyed:
Pillars of the Earth (and sequel)
Ender's Game
The Historian
No Country for Old Men and The Road
Lord of the Rings
Gilead
Other books that I enjoyed, but that felt like "work" at times to get through:
Infinite Jest
Freedom
Brothers Karamozov
Extra points for books/stories that might challenge the perspective of an well-off suburban christian white male. (But don't let that limit you...)
I just got a Kindle, and as a result have been doing more reading. Much of what I typically read is non-fiction about physics/math/science. However, I'd like to be more well-read and expose myself to more literature. At the same time, I want to something that will pull me in, not something that I have to force myself to read just because its "good for me".
So tell me about your favorite book that is thought provoking, challenging, enlightening, and also is simultaneously engrossing and difficult to put down. It doesn't need to be one of the classics or High Literature (though these would be great), but I'd like more than just mindless entertainment or escapism. Non-fiction is okay too, as long as it is really interesting.
Off the top of my head, here's some books I've really enjoyed:
Pillars of the Earth (and sequel)
Ender's Game
The Historian
No Country for Old Men and The Road
Lord of the Rings
Gilead
Other books that I enjoyed, but that felt like "work" at times to get through:
Infinite Jest
Freedom
Brothers Karamozov
Extra points for books/stories that might challenge the perspective of an well-off suburban christian white male. (But don't let that limit you...)
My Antonia
Engine Summer
The Book of the New Sun (but not the sequels)
posted by dd42 at 5:59 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
Engine Summer
The Book of the New Sun (but not the sequels)
posted by dd42 at 5:59 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
Also, The Magus, even though it hasn't aged as well as one might hope and it doesn't seem to be available for Kindle. Still, it's very, very good at challenging the perspectives of suburban white males. You might also try Vonnegut if you haven't already read him and for something newer and also way challenging but really enjoyable as well, how about Oryx and Crake and its companion, Year of the Flood? I actually preferred Year of the Flood but ymmv.
posted by mygothlaundry at 6:01 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by mygothlaundry at 6:01 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
Life of Pi
posted by vegartanipla at 6:03 PM on January 15, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by vegartanipla at 6:03 PM on January 15, 2012 [5 favorites]
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 6:09 PM on January 15, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 6:09 PM on January 15, 2012 [5 favorites]
Lolita, Middlesex, The Handmaid's Tale, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Master and Margarita.
posted by mochapickle at 6:10 PM on January 15, 2012
posted by mochapickle at 6:10 PM on January 15, 2012
Middlemarch
posted by ropeladder at 6:17 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by ropeladder at 6:17 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
The Prophet - Khalil Gibran
A Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin
Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates - Tom Robbins
Jitterbug Perfume - Kurt Vonnegut
Freakonomics - Stephen D. Levitt
posted by jitterbug perfume at 6:22 PM on January 15, 2012
The Prophet - Khalil Gibran
A Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin
Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates - Tom Robbins
Jitterbug Perfume - Kurt Vonnegut
Freakonomics - Stephen D. Levitt
posted by jitterbug perfume at 6:22 PM on January 15, 2012
Moving on from the McCarthy you've already read, you might want to try tackling Blood Meridian, which is (in my mind) vastly superior to the two you list. Check out The Border Trilogy, too.
Some other suggestions:
Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay; The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor; Zone One (the latter is a literary zombie-pocalypse novel)
Hemingway (try The Old Man and the Sea; The Sun Also Rises; and A Farewell to Arms)
Chang-Rae Lee - Native Speaker
I always recommend Moby-Dick but a lot of people hate it and can't get through it. I really do believe it's worth the close attention though, even (especially) the cetology chapters. Take it a bit at a time.
posted by synecdoche at 6:25 PM on January 15, 2012
Some other suggestions:
Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay; The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor; Zone One (the latter is a literary zombie-pocalypse novel)
Hemingway (try The Old Man and the Sea; The Sun Also Rises; and A Farewell to Arms)
Chang-Rae Lee - Native Speaker
I always recommend Moby-Dick but a lot of people hate it and can't get through it. I really do believe it's worth the close attention though, even (especially) the cetology chapters. Take it a bit at a time.
posted by synecdoche at 6:25 PM on January 15, 2012
Since you seem to like historical fiction, check out Nobel prize-winner Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter. If you like that and decide you want more gloomy Nordic folk, then Kalle Paatalo's Koillismaa series, starting with Our Daily Bread, is an engrossing look at Finland starting in the 1930's. And hey, if you like Lord of the Rings, have you gotten around to reading the Kalevala or the Sagas of the Icelanders?
For the Russian classics, The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov) and Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) are both much more approachable than The Brothers Karamazov. I also love the new translation of Bulgakov's The White Guard, which is set in Kyiv during the Russian Civil War and is pretty action-packed. (Fun fact: Bulgakov adopted this novel into a play which became one of Stalin's favorites!)
Cecelia Holland is apparently best-known as a historical fiction author, but I recently read her science-fiction novel Floating Worlds which totally blew me away.
posted by posadnitsa at 6:48 PM on January 15, 2012 [3 favorites]
For the Russian classics, The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov) and Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) are both much more approachable than The Brothers Karamazov. I also love the new translation of Bulgakov's The White Guard, which is set in Kyiv during the Russian Civil War and is pretty action-packed. (Fun fact: Bulgakov adopted this novel into a play which became one of Stalin's favorites!)
Cecelia Holland is apparently best-known as a historical fiction author, but I recently read her science-fiction novel Floating Worlds which totally blew me away.
posted by posadnitsa at 6:48 PM on January 15, 2012 [3 favorites]
2nding Oryx & Crake and Year of the Flood.
I'm not a lover of spy novels, but I found myself reeled in by The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva and Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (author of Pillars) - and in the process I learned so much more about WWII than I ever learned in high school history class.
posted by kbar1 at 6:49 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'm not a lover of spy novels, but I found myself reeled in by The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva and Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (author of Pillars) - and in the process I learned so much more about WWII than I ever learned in high school history class.
posted by kbar1 at 6:49 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
You might enjoy The Hunger Games. And if you enjoy that series, I would suggest the far shorter but very interesting (and dead cheap) W.O.O.L series.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:53 PM on January 15, 2012
posted by DarlingBri at 6:53 PM on January 15, 2012
I'm loving Wolf Hall because it is that exact combination of intellectually provocative (won the Booker!) and a super page turner. I keep staying up too late reading one more section.
Also, have you read much LeGuin?
posted by latkes at 6:53 PM on January 15, 2012
Also, have you read much LeGuin?
posted by latkes at 6:53 PM on January 15, 2012
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" and "At Home" by Bill Bryson. I find him hilarious - so you learn, but it is an enjoyable ride.
posted by backwards guitar at 6:59 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by backwards guitar at 6:59 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
With the stuff you like, The Name of the Rose I think.
posted by BibiRose at 7:27 PM on January 15, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by BibiRose at 7:27 PM on January 15, 2012 [3 favorites]
The Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. Twenty books, highly addictive. The first six at least are available for Kindle, not sure about the whole set yet.
posted by ambrosia at 7:31 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by ambrosia at 7:31 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
Kafka on the Shore or Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
posted by lilnublet at 8:22 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by lilnublet at 8:22 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
vegartanipla: "Life of Pi"
You can skip the ending, even, if you want to.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:29 PM on January 15, 2012
You can skip the ending, even, if you want to.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:29 PM on January 15, 2012
I'd like more than just mindless entertainment or escapism
Yeah uh not Hunger Games.
posted by incessant at 8:33 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yeah uh not Hunger Games.
posted by incessant at 8:33 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
Corelli's Mandolin by de Bernieres is wonderful, deliciously readable, romantic historical fiction.
I also want to put Phillip Roth's American Pastoral in your list despite its being very very heavy stuff. For me at least, even though it's such an emotionally difficult book, I never had any "I'm working hard to get through this" feeling.
From a differently depressing but wonderful angle, there's Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. Again never a slog, really interesting and thought-provoking, though fairly depressing in its reflections of the real world.
posted by spbmp at 9:00 PM on January 15, 2012
I also want to put Phillip Roth's American Pastoral in your list despite its being very very heavy stuff. For me at least, even though it's such an emotionally difficult book, I never had any "I'm working hard to get through this" feeling.
From a differently depressing but wonderful angle, there's Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. Again never a slog, really interesting and thought-provoking, though fairly depressing in its reflections of the real world.
posted by spbmp at 9:00 PM on January 15, 2012
A Fraction of the Whole is one of the best books I've read recently and I highly recommend it. Very entertaining but also very well written (literature, not pulp) and very crimey.
posted by sweetkid at 9:28 PM on January 15, 2012
posted by sweetkid at 9:28 PM on January 15, 2012
vegartanipla: "Life of Pi"
You can skip the ending, even, if you want to.
Hm, I wouldn't skip it.
posted by sweetkid at 9:32 PM on January 15, 2012
You can skip the ending, even, if you want to.
Hm, I wouldn't skip it.
posted by sweetkid at 9:32 PM on January 15, 2012
A few that are scifi/fantasy classics, but because they are classics, might make you feel like you aren't just reading genre literature for total escapism:
- War of the Worlds
- A Canticle for Leibowitz
- The Once and Future King
- Beowulf (Seamus Heaney translation)
- Invisible Cities (by Italo Calvino)
- We (by Yevgeny Zamyatin)
- The Stars My Destination (by Alfred Bester)
- The Gormenghast novels (by Mervyn Peake—feel free to skip the last one)
- The Canopus in Argos Archives series by Doris Lessing
- The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard
I found all of these really engrossing, couldn't put them down, but also pretty mentally expanding (or culturally enriching, filling in some gaps in my own sense of being well-read).
A few from a wider net:
- I, Claudius
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- The Inferno
- Midnight's Children
- A Good Man is Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor)
- Against Nature (J.K. Huysmans)
- Strange Pilgrims (short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
- Labyrinths (Borges)
- The Bridge on the Drina (Ivo Andric)
- The Quantity Theory of Insanity (Will Self)
Again, I really enjoyed all of these and found them to be hitting my personal sweet spot for "challenging but engrossing." I tend to favor short stories, so I've included some collections of those. Some of them are somewhat scifi-adjacent: speculative, fantastic, that sort of thing.
Anyway, hope this helps!
posted by jann at 10:03 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
- War of the Worlds
- A Canticle for Leibowitz
- The Once and Future King
- Beowulf (Seamus Heaney translation)
- Invisible Cities (by Italo Calvino)
- We (by Yevgeny Zamyatin)
- The Stars My Destination (by Alfred Bester)
- The Gormenghast novels (by Mervyn Peake—feel free to skip the last one)
- The Canopus in Argos Archives series by Doris Lessing
- The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard
I found all of these really engrossing, couldn't put them down, but also pretty mentally expanding (or culturally enriching, filling in some gaps in my own sense of being well-read).
A few from a wider net:
- I, Claudius
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- The Inferno
- Midnight's Children
- A Good Man is Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor)
- Against Nature (J.K. Huysmans)
- Strange Pilgrims (short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
- Labyrinths (Borges)
- The Bridge on the Drina (Ivo Andric)
- The Quantity Theory of Insanity (Will Self)
Again, I really enjoyed all of these and found them to be hitting my personal sweet spot for "challenging but engrossing." I tend to favor short stories, so I've included some collections of those. Some of them are somewhat scifi-adjacent: speculative, fantastic, that sort of thing.
Anyway, hope this helps!
posted by jann at 10:03 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
Some choices that, in my opinion, fit in your Venn diagram:
Adam Bede, by George Eliot.
* Why you should read it: combines great historical fiction, which you seem to enjoy (pillars of the earth, Gilead) with characters you will identify with and insights into human nature (ender's game, lord of the rings).
* Note: you might find the first 150 pages 'work'--stick with it and next thing you know you will be wondering where the rest of your weekend went!
* Similar alternative: Middlemarch, also by Eliot--I think you'll like Adam Bede more, but if you're looking to say you've read Middlemarch, you've got to read Middlemarch.
Dracula, by Bram Stoker.
* Why you should read it: you read The Historian--go back and read the original! Very readable too.
* Similar alternative: Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (also a quick read and one of the forerunners of science fiction).
War and Peace, by Tolstoy, Constance Garnett translation.
* Why you should read it: very readable battles/tactics (ender's game), classic historical fiction (much more of a page turner than I was expecting).
posted by _Silky_ at 10:08 PM on January 15, 2012
Adam Bede, by George Eliot.
* Why you should read it: combines great historical fiction, which you seem to enjoy (pillars of the earth, Gilead) with characters you will identify with and insights into human nature (ender's game, lord of the rings).
* Note: you might find the first 150 pages 'work'--stick with it and next thing you know you will be wondering where the rest of your weekend went!
* Similar alternative: Middlemarch, also by Eliot--I think you'll like Adam Bede more, but if you're looking to say you've read Middlemarch, you've got to read Middlemarch.
Dracula, by Bram Stoker.
* Why you should read it: you read The Historian--go back and read the original! Very readable too.
* Similar alternative: Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (also a quick read and one of the forerunners of science fiction).
War and Peace, by Tolstoy, Constance Garnett translation.
* Why you should read it: very readable battles/tactics (ender's game), classic historical fiction (much more of a page turner than I was expecting).
posted by _Silky_ at 10:08 PM on January 15, 2012
A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews
Monkey Beach - Eden Robinson
Among Others - Jo Walton
The Shockwave Rider - John Brunner
posted by brennen at 10:12 PM on January 15, 2012
Monkey Beach - Eden Robinson
Among Others - Jo Walton
The Shockwave Rider - John Brunner
posted by brennen at 10:12 PM on January 15, 2012
I gotta Nth Lolita. I just read it for the first time a couple months ago and was shocked by how engaging it was. Also by how completely wrong the cultural meta-narrative about the book is. I'm pretty sure 90% of the people who discuss the book or refer to it in derivative works have never actually read it.
Unless I'm missing something, I think this is the longest any Ask MeFi book-rec thread has gone without a recommendation of Lev Grossman's The Magicians, so allow me to be the one to recommend it. The sequel is surprisingly good, too.
posted by rhiannonstone at 12:03 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
Unless I'm missing something, I think this is the longest any Ask MeFi book-rec thread has gone without a recommendation of Lev Grossman's The Magicians, so allow me to be the one to recommend it. The sequel is surprisingly good, too.
posted by rhiannonstone at 12:03 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
I would recommend taking a look at book club reading lists. It depends on the book club, of course, but generally these are books that can be read fairly easily but can also support a discussion. As a bonus, many of them are geared toward women (and you did say that you wanted your point of view to be challenged!)
Here's a list of book club classics -- includes things like To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Les Miserables, and A Prayer for Owen Meany -- all great choices!
I know people mock Oprah's picks, but a lot of them are great -- I'd especially recommend Fall On Your Knees, A Fine Balance, I Know This Much Is True, and Middlesex.
posted by cider at 4:41 AM on January 16, 2012
Here's a list of book club classics -- includes things like To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Les Miserables, and A Prayer for Owen Meany -- all great choices!
I know people mock Oprah's picks, but a lot of them are great -- I'd especially recommend Fall On Your Knees, A Fine Balance, I Know This Much Is True, and Middlesex.
posted by cider at 4:41 AM on January 16, 2012
For modern thought-provoking sci-fi, you gotta try The Left Hand of Darkness by LeGuin.
Also, I think you might really enjoy The Count of Monte Christo. It was the first book from English class that I and my classmates absolutely loved for itself, not because it was ~literature~.
And my favorite book of all time, which I also first read in English class, is The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I don't know how many times I've re-read it. And it continue to blow my mind.
Oh, and if you liked Lord of the Rings, you absolutely gotta read Watership Down, which takes the same epic fantasy quest trope and applies it to rabbits, like actual rabbits in the real world and not Redwall-type rabbits with swords and pants. It's my OTHER favorite book of all time...
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:48 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
Also, I think you might really enjoy The Count of Monte Christo. It was the first book from English class that I and my classmates absolutely loved for itself, not because it was ~literature~.
And my favorite book of all time, which I also first read in English class, is The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I don't know how many times I've re-read it. And it continue to blow my mind.
Oh, and if you liked Lord of the Rings, you absolutely gotta read Watership Down, which takes the same epic fantasy quest trope and applies it to rabbits, like actual rabbits in the real world and not Redwall-type rabbits with swords and pants. It's my OTHER favorite book of all time...
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:48 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
Lev Grossman's The Magicians.
Susanna Clarke(?)'s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
The Color Purple.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:47 AM on January 16, 2012
Susanna Clarke(?)'s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
The Color Purple.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:47 AM on January 16, 2012
I'm currently reading The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks and am finding it very engrossing.
posted by stampsgal at 10:18 AM on January 16, 2012
posted by stampsgal at 10:18 AM on January 16, 2012
Memoirs of Hadrian would I be a book I think you would find extremely enjoyable and mind expanding.
posted by xammerboy at 11:28 AM on January 16, 2012
posted by xammerboy at 11:28 AM on January 16, 2012
Not so much in your specific ballpark but I feel everyone should give Cloud Atlas a try.
posted by BibiRose at 11:34 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by BibiRose at 11:34 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
Any of Mary Roach's four books: "Stiff," "Spook," "Bonk," and "Packing for Mars."
All are non-fiction, very informative, and laugh out loud funny. She's similar to Bill Bryson, in that way, of introducing topics you may not think you're interested in until somebody awesome comes along and writes about it.
If you only read one, I'd recommend "Stiff," for sure.
posted by lea724 at 11:56 AM on January 16, 2012
All are non-fiction, very informative, and laugh out loud funny. She's similar to Bill Bryson, in that way, of introducing topics you may not think you're interested in until somebody awesome comes along and writes about it.
If you only read one, I'd recommend "Stiff," for sure.
posted by lea724 at 11:56 AM on January 16, 2012
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. Because no other work has come close to explaining Albert's physical theories in such an eloquent, whimsical and incredibly engaging manner.
posted by northxnorthwest at 12:01 AM on January 17, 2012
posted by northxnorthwest at 12:01 AM on January 17, 2012
I find David Eagleman's Sum to be a great companion to Invisible Cties and Einstein's Dreams.
posted by sudama at 8:16 AM on January 17, 2012
posted by sudama at 8:16 AM on January 17, 2012
Midnight's Children - Rushdie. (I actually prefer The Satanic Verses but am deferring to popular opinion, here.)
posted by neuromodulator at 4:37 PM on January 18, 2012
posted by neuromodulator at 4:37 PM on January 18, 2012
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje
nthing 100 Years of Solitude and Hemingway.
posted by neuromodulator at 4:40 PM on January 18, 2012
Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje
nthing 100 Years of Solitude and Hemingway.
posted by neuromodulator at 4:40 PM on January 18, 2012
I couldn't finish 100 Years of Solitude =[
posted by meows at 10:00 AM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by meows at 10:00 AM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Tomorrowful at 5:48 PM on January 15, 2012 [6 favorites]