Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too. <3
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Grew up seeing it on the bookshelf and thought it was a horror book. Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in book form.
The Lord of The Rings. This book changed reading for me. I always enjoyed fantastical themes, but this one really got me. Then, I found out there was more. More background, more world building, more why.
I’ve never turned back. I re read it occasionally and I’ve read much of Tolkien’s other works. Next on the list is to begin working through The History of Middle Earth. I will be starting this in the fall. It may take me quite some time to get through.
Enders game a it was the only novel I had finished in my life. Took me 3 years but disabilities like ADHD is horrible for me. I can read pretty well but any books like novels just can’t do it. Also with aphantasia it gets even worse.
Fear of Small Numbers, by Arjun Appadurai
How to seize the means of computation By cory Doctorow.
Great author love all of his books. Love his its free to read any of his books on craphound. But i ended up buying physical copys because i just needed to own them.
The book talks about how things were with betamax and VHS. And how modern day tech is crap and how to fix it!
Its diffently the most influential books ive read.
Learning Perl, 2nd edition
There’s therapy for that.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Gave me fresh perspective on the state of America
Witness.
(Not the book name, but if you’ve read the book, good on you).
The Scar, China Meiville - It’s an epic journey and the clear best, in my opinion, of the Bas Lag novels. It has such weight and magic to the journey. Mystery too. It’s a book that leaves you feeling like you want to feel more.
The Wild Girls, Ursula K Le Guin - a tale so emotional that I was broken for two days after reading it. Couldn’t bring myself to read, or really do much except think about what I’d read.
Its about a slaving raid on a village near a city state, family, love, and gender.How to solve it by Polya.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Tells you everything you need to know about war. First book which made me cry. Everybody should read it.
That book is partly why I oppose all war. The film Netflix produced of it a few years ago is pretty amazing too. The cinematography is almost too beautiful given the subject matter.
Can I say the entire Discworld series? Sure they’re funny fantasy stories, but I reckon Pterry’s view on humanity formed a lot of how I think about the world.
Also Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
Going to add Dark Money to my reading list. Thanks!
Anna Karenina. There’s no better pshychological character study of upper class Russian culture (but at the same time, about people in general).
Voltaire’s Bastards by John Ralston Saul. It showed me how the world really works. Also The Doubter’s Companion as a supplement to that.
Edit to add that after reading through all the comments, it’s pleasing what a well-read community we have here.
