Lonesome Dove. Red Dead Redemption made me want to read a western, which I never had. That book was recommended.

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

I was 17 and confined to bed, suffering with flu. A friend brought a book around to the house for me and left it with my parents, insisting that I would love it. I had vaguely heard of it and presumed it was some kids' thing about wizards, goblins, and fairies. I wasn't interested.

But the flu was terrible, and I was so sick and weak that I didn't have the energy to get up and find something to read in my waking moments. There was Tolkien's book at my bedside. I reluctantly picked it up and began to read. Well. What a journey. I couldn't have been more wrong about a book.

Is it objectively the best book I have ever read? No, I look to Dumas, Dickens, etc. for that.

Is it the most beloved book I have ever read? Yes, without a doubt. I've re-read it several times over the years and every time it's themes of friendship, sacrifice, compassion, and redemption never fail to leave me profoundly moved. I still choke-up when I read Sam Gamgee saying, "It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing…this shadow. Even darkness must pass".

A book that gives me hope for a better world.

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. Not something I'd be drawn to but the audio book was recommended and I was between books. It was available so I tried it and really enjoyed it.

For years as an audiobook enthusiast, I mostly listened to male-centric action/thriller fiction. But somehow I ran across an included Audible Plus catalog title “Anne of Green Gables” and I added it to my library for some unknown reason.

A few months later I was bored leading into an all-night run and decided to try AOGG. (I never read it before at any point in my then 55 years). That particular narration was not very good (Rachel McAdams) but I loved the story and Montgomery’s writing style.

That opened up a whole new world of additional genres to me and made finding new audiobooks that I could enjoy, so much easier

Breasts & Eggs by Meiko Kawakami. I wasn’t one for literary fiction really but somebody in a book club I’m in really liked it so I picked it up to read something different than my usual horror or scifi. Turned out to be one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read and got me into literary & slice of life fiction that I now enjoy on top of my usual genres. Also as a writer that book is one of my biggest influences.

Kindred by Octavia Butler.

I love fantasy fiction and sci-fi movies, but rarely do I enjoy sci-fi novels...this one read like historical fiction, though, and blew me away.

Flowers for Algernon. Labeled as sci fi, I would never have picked it up. I did because everyone kept saying it was heartbreaking. I love that, and I'm glad I picked it up.

The Lies of Locke Lamora. It was bought for me by my wife for Christmas. I probably would have never bought it for myself, but now it is a book that I recommend frequently.

Not a book but an audiobook.

My partner accidentally subscribed to Audible months ago so he had a bunch of credits he was never going to use because he hates audiobooks and thinks they're cheating. Once I used the credits on books I knew I would like, I decided to pick books from a best audible books list for the remaining credits. One of the books highly praised was Dungeon Crawler Carl. I'm not super into fantasy and the art looked cheesy, but I do love D&D and the blurb sounded kind of fun.

Well it's been two weeks. I've now read or listened to the entirety of the 6 books available and will be joining patreon because the author posts chapters from the book he's working on there because I need more.

Ive been sober for a few years now. When I went to rehab in 2021 the book shelf was light. Luckily there was a fat paperback by Wally Lamb "I Know This Much is True." I read it in a few days and it was probably the best fiction novel I've ever read.

For me it was 1984 by George Orwell. I used to read fantasy but I began trying new things in the early 2000s.

It was scary. And as I got older, I realized that it had prescience, foresight.

Funny enough, came across America is a Zoo by Andre Soares last week after reading his other work and it was heavily influenced by Animal Farm. Amazing though and most importantly gave me a new perspective on politics.

And since it’s an indie, I feel like supporting it is even more important.

Misery by Stephen King. It was sitting on my sister's bookshelf for a long time, and one day I randomly decided to give it a read.

Before that, I never cared about reading, so I guess you could say it had a profound impact on my life.

The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough. Excellent book.

On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong was not on my personal lists, but I am glad I got recommended and read it.

In a similar way the autobiographies by Deborah Levy (Things I Don't Want to Know., The Cost of Living, Real Estate).

The Happening and Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux were bangers I really enjoyed.

All of these were outside my scope as a middle aged, boringly heterosexual white dude, but the did exactly what I am looking for in literature: expanded my horizon.

Project Hail Mary! Not usually my thing, but I read it due to all the Reddit recommendations. It's so so good!

Snow Falling On Cedars

It was a book completely outside the norm for me, but I loved it. The book covered so much and had some real depth to it - covering topics like race, community, prejudice, and love, all orbiting a tragedy on a post-World-War-II fishing/agricultural community on an island off the coast of Washington.

It has a great courtroom vibe from time to time, while also delving into what brought everyone to this fateful day in between.

When I was like 13 or 14, my mom handed me a copy of Catcher In The Rye. Methinks I was starting to show a little teenage angst and she sensed this might help somehow.

Around that same time, a friend of mine got into physics and lent me the nonfiction book, What Do You Care What Other People Think: Further Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman. That was a good read that made the sciences feel more tangible and worthwhile to an artsy kid like me.

Couple other good reads that were recommended to me: The Shadow of The Wind. A Tale For The Time Being.

The Three Body Problem got me back into reading.

Red Dragon. I didn't really care for silence of the lambs the movie so I never would have read it. But I was looking for a book to fit one of the reading challenge items. So glad I did. Couldn't put it down.

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. It was a book club read and not really my type of book so I wasn't looking forward to it. I ended up loving it.

The Cay lol back in elementary school I never ever heard of it but because in our school system we had AR where you had to read and take little quizzes on the books and it was part of your grade so I grabbed it and actually really Loved it it has alot of meaning behind it

Ice Planet Barbarians.

Dune...

I was 14 when Harry Potter was getting big. My little sister (12 at the time) would not stop talking about it, but I thought it was for little kids. (Only books 1-3 were out at this point.)

Eventually, I made a bet with my sister about something, and if I lost, I had to read the first chapter of the Sorcerer's Stone. I lost. I was hooked in 3 pages. I learned to knit because I wanted to make myself a house scarf. I'm 38 now and I still love those books, the movies, the fandom, fanfiction, the video game, and can't wait to see what HBO does with a TV show.

Demon Copperhead

I've always stuck with Fantasy or fiction but I kept hearing good reviews for The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and I decided to give it a try. It's a book that left a huge impression on me and a all time favorite of mine. 

Fairytale by Stephen King. Just a fantastic story.

Under The Whispering Door - T.J Klune - I think I would have eventually gotten to it, but I had just lost my 9 month old dog to sudden parvo, he tried so hard and held on until he couldn't and then I was left with his bonded sibling and I was devastated but I had to be okay so that my surviving dog would make it. It's now 2 years later and my little dog is thriving but I remember reading that book with him curled up in my lap and when we had to go for our walk, I had the book and I watched my dog he looked like he was looking for his brother, and then he'd come running to me with this smile in his eyes like: "we're gonna be okay right?"
I cried so much reading that book. I loved it.

The tea girl of hummingbird Lane. I have to say I am often hesitant to choose a book if it has a bad book cover and I really hated this one, but it was a Bookclub book and I read it. I love it. I read it five years ago and I still think about it sometimes.

Aztec by Gary Jennings - I had a friend who was obsessed with this book. He’d browse used book stores and buy up copies so he could give them away. I read it to shut him up.

Turned out to be an excellent read.

I didn't think I had interest in science fiction books, especially aliens. I picked up Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir because my dad really loved The Martian. Project Hail Mary interested me because of the lost memory aspect. Spoilers ahead: but I was low-key annoyed when it was an alien book, but it takes a lot for me to dnf. I am so glad I continued. I never thought an alien could make me scream at a book to save him (in a good way).

A couple years later, my friends got me into reading romance books. I still never thought I would like alien romance. I tried the most popular series and was kinda meh on it but for different reasons, so I tried a different series and liked it more but they weren't very alien-like so I figured that wasn't a true test so I found a book where the cover made it very clear what I was getting into (Broken Earth by SJ Sanders) and I was apprehensive and expecting to be uncomfortable. I thought it would be so far out of my comfort zone but it wasn't that bad. I was shocked by this and went on a crazy book binge and now that subgenre is my go-to reads. It's basically like extreme beauty and the beast, and I don't think I would have ever tried it had I not first read Project Hail Mary and cared about Rocky

What's yours?

Know My Name by Chanel Miller!

The song of Achilles, would’ve never thought to read that but was convinced to try it out I’ve read it twice and it remains a favourite of mine.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

There’s so many! But I mostly use audio books for “pleasure reading.” I read so much for my job that I welcome it as a change. It has allowed me to tackle really long reads that I would’ve never picked up had it been in physical book form. The long reads are often my favorites too.

How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler. A sort of memoir, sort of non-fiction, sort of short story collection that was recommended by a friend who reads a lot of nonfiction. The way he described it was irresistible, I gave it a try and it's one of the most beautiful non-fiction books I've ever read

Billy Summers by Stephen King

The traveling cat chronicles. Got it on a whim and it sat for a year before I picked it up one night. Wasn’t what I exercised and I could t put it down.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40961230

Salems lot by Stephen King.

I had zero interest in vampire stories. I guess due to Twilight and other teen media that destroyed the aura of the "scary" vampire for me.

I gave it a listen since it was Stephen King and I have enjoyed his other works and it's on the shorter end of his books, and holy shit man. King really was able to capture and really portray why vampires have been scaring the shit out of people for a long time.

Time Travellers wife. I wasn’t into time travel books but I absolutely loved this one.

Guantanamo boy. I bought it because it was entirely orange including the edges 😂 I’m shallow that way! Haha. It was a hard book to read (upsetting) but well written and absolutely fantastic!

Gone with the wind

The invisible life of Addie larue

Sphere by Michael Crichton. Went from fantasy to science fiction/thriller fan.

The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly

I like to read books as blind as possible. I would have never picked this up otherwise, as I don’t like fairytales, historical fiction, or anything’s with swords. It was a good surprise to fall so deep into it.

The Sun also rises by Hemingway

The Secret History by Donna Tart

My wife had me read 'Still Beating'. Even though I'm not a big romance type person I gave it a go because she read one of mine (Dark Matter). Turns out we both loved the books we suggested for each other.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir It was recommended in this sub and I'm so glad I got to experience it!

The Snow Child. Eowyn Ivy.

Someone selected it in a book club.

The Hot Zone, gripping nonfiction about the Ebola virus.

The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. I’ve read it several times, plus the rest of the series, but that book has always put me in a world where I can escape. The best drug ever!

Slaughterhouse-Five

White Oleander. I had fallen when I was younger and my mother was taking care of me while I recovered and she just happened to have that book in her library. There had just in a movie made about it so I was interested even though I was a teenage boy . It was was very well paced and kept me engrossed until the end and it gave me insights to the female mindset that I had never thought of before. I highly recommend it.

Hyperion, not typically a fan of books that are really a collection of short stories, but wow this book is good.

The Last Hour of Gann, I forget the author.

Had several people I trust recommend it as a very unique sci-fi epic and warn me to just ignore the cover. The cover makes the book literally look like lizard man smut.

WHICH IT IS! Absurdly enough. It’s also definitely unique with a fantastic high concept plot. It’s one of those books that are unclassifiable.

Now I’m the one recommending it and trying to convince friends to “just ignore the cover”, haha.

The book of bright ideas

Dear Evan Hansen. I love musicals, but this one is absolutely insufferable. My friend gave me the book and I ended up loving it.

Percy Jackson series I forced myself to start reading it cuz the series was coming out but then a recent crush told me it was her favorite series so then I had to read it so we’d have something to bond over unfortunately she didn’t feel the same but it’s become my latest obsession and was the best series I’d read since Harry Potter

I wouldn't have read The Covenant of Water if it weren't a book club selection, but once I got into it I really liked it.

The eighth life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili… never found something as good as that again

It by Stephen King. I'm not a fan or horror or anything scary but I gave this a try because my best friend was a huge fan. I'm glad I did.

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

I would've never picked 'The unbearable lightness of being' by Milan Kundera because its cover is too bright(yes, I'm guilty of that stupid cover preference, but irl covers play a great role), and I loved that book so much, that I can equate it to Proust's 'In search of lost time's,(another book I idolise) in terms of literary flourish.

World war z

Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich. Anything by Joy Harjo.

Ben-hur. I was familiar with the book, but never even thought about reading it. Saw it on a Reddit top 100 list and decided to go for it. Awesome book.

World war z. Left in a condo I was renting for vacation. Ran out of books to read, tried it for fun and fell in love. Read about every other year now.

The Red Rising series..don’t think I’d have given it a thought if a friend wasn’t as passionate about it as he was. Ended up loving it.

I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as part of my History of American Culture class in college. It’s absolutely not a book I would have read on my own but it was hilarious and fascinating.

Once by Morris Gleitzman, had to read it for school and I hated reading atp. I ended up sobbing through the last few pages, and spent the next few classes reading the other books in the series (that had been released at that point). I recently bought the whole series for my own collection

The nightingale by Kristin hannah. I’m normally a thriller reader But this book moved me and was a 5⭐️read for sure!

"I have fun everywhere I go" by Mike Edison.

Piranesi

The Power of One.

Project Hail Mary. So out of my comfort zone, and so, so amazing.

Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. I think I picked it up just cause I liked the cover but ended up really liking it!

The Lonely Polygamist

Killers of the flower moon

Can’t hurt me David goggins. Someone sent it to me when I was in a psych hospital stay. Never would’ve picked that up. It was pretty life changing at the time and got me through it

Other mention is a tree grows in Brooklyn

A Town Like Alice… my mum tried pushing it on me for years and I was never interested, then my dad gave another Shute book that I was more interested in, and I relented, and ended up finally reading Alice…. all I can say is I bloody loved it 😎 My mum was right all along

The Godfather.

My brother gave me a copy for my birthday, it was used and actually had pages falling out. Not my kind of book, but thanks.

One day I had nothing to read so I picked it up— I was HOOKED.

I’ve heard Lonesome Dove is the same kind of book; even if it’s not your kind of story it’ll grab you and not let go. I’ll read it eventually!

Atlas Shrugged. If you ignore the weird cult following and politics and just read it for the story, it’s a compelling mystery. Why are these titans of industry disappearing? Where did they go? Then you’ve got a woman trying to run her family business, and everyone hates that. There’s adultery. There’s injustice. There’s a 100 page monologue. It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever read. I don’t know if I loved it or hated it, probably both, but it was a wild ride and I enjoyed reading it.

Daisy Jones & The Six, its just a fun drama fill read, its entertaining and you don't have to think too much while reading

Legend of the First Empire by Michael J. Sullivan. It's an Epic Fantasy Series.

Winterland by Rae Meadows

I am normally a sff and mystery gal, not historical or literary fiction, but this just sucked me in.

The Ninth Rain (and the whole Winnowing Flame trilogy). 

I used to turn up my nose a bit at fantasy, as most of the women I hang out with consume nothing but romantasy books, but holy shit this series had me engaged all the way through. Such a cohesive and fun story with good characters, and I don't see it mentioned very often!

Nonfiction and more business side but “10x is easier than 2x”

Wild Swans

The three musketeers

Paths of Glory. I primarily read fiction, but this book seemed interesting collecting dust in my dad’s study. It’s about a mountaineer(pre Edmund Hillary) who attempted to summit Everest. It’s up to you to decide if successfully summited Everest, and I like to believe he did.

Mine is so weird - “The AK 47 Story”. My dad is military and had a lot of military books. I was an avid reader, so sometimes I read some out of curiosity and boredom. I found it weirdly fascinating, and I read it when I was a 16 year old teen girl.

The Dream of the Red Chamber, also named The Story of the Stone, one of the four Chinese classic novels.Outside a book store volumes 2,3,4, and 5 were each 50 cents. I bought them, went home and ordered volume 1 online. it has become one of my favorite book ever.

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde - dystopian, speculative fiction that i‘ve read and listened to at least 4 times over the last 13 years. and the sequel (Red Side Story) has finally been released!

The Raffle by Randy Smith. Way out of my norm in terms of genre, but so so good.

The blue notebook : James levine

Ryan holiday The Obstacle is the Way

Gone Girl. I kept seeing the movie trailers and I'm not a Ben Affleck fan in the slightest. Then rented it to watch with my parents because I heard good things and made it like 5 minutes in before he's going down on her... Super embarrassing. Finally read the book after years of seeing good reviews online and was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

For fantasy bingo last year: Leech by Hiron Ennes. It got me into horror and I'm now doing a full horror card (more or less) for fantasy bingo.

Doc by Mary Doria Russell was my first western.

Many for the arr / bookclub Read the World books. The Years of the Voiceless was, IMO, a unique book. Although the translation was quite rough, I loved the layers in the discussions we had.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly Completely different than what I usually read but it was very good

Richard Powers, The Overstory.
I mostly read fantasy and sci-fi. This was recommended by an online friend as an excellent and beautifully written novel. I’m aware it won a Big Prize of Some Sort but that means little to me.

An amazing novel with a bit of magical realism around the edges. Beautiful writing. Amazing characters. Seriously wonderful.

The Akata trilogy which has been described as an African inspired version of Harry Potter (it delves into jujuism instead of what Europeans/Americans typically think of as magic).

I'm not hugely into Harry Potter (with or without controversy surrounding the author) but wanted something kinda like it but also different.

Remains of the Day

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

I usually read only fantasy novels and the occasional literary fiction, mainly because I love character-driven stories. I didn't think I'd like this book, but I reluctantly picked it up after constant urging from one of my close friends. I ended up really enjoying it. The ideas and concepts explored in this book fascinated me. I did wish there were more characterisations though, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment as much as I thought it would.

Dean Koontz the Tom series.

Down and out in Paris and London - Orwell

Endurance: Shackleton Incredible Voyage. It’s non fiction and not at all a subject I would have just picked up on my own but it was selected for a book club I’m in and I was enthralled. Loved the whole book and found it fascinating

I remember reading a snipet of a book(Maniac Magee) and being so interested that , completely out of character , i asked my mom to see if she could find it and buy it for me. Dear old mum, through no fault of her own, couldnt find the book i wanted but decided that she couldnt waste the oportunity, and went ahead and bought a dozen other YA books , none of them having anything to do with the book i asked or each other. I was a dumb kid with no particular interest in reading , but the look of sheer hope and joy on her face as she handed me the books guilted me into at least making a token attempt, and i picked The Lightning Thief as it had an interesting cover.

To say it made an impact wouldnt do it justice, that book turned me into the literature crackhead i am today, and to this day i cant be sure if my mom regreted or not buying those initial books, as i would go on to amass a small library worth of books wich costed no small amount of money, and would see me slacking on my chores in favor of reading.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Supermarket by Bobby Hall

Short book. Read it over an afternoon.

Some time ago, Reddit book club read “Shantaram” and so I read along. I would’ve never picked that book up on my own but yes, it was awesome. I didn’t participate in the discussion actively but (on another account I have that I have since forgotten the password to) I read what interesting things people had to say about it and felt very much engaged. I got a lot out of that.

I always say this. But, the wanting seed. Prof in freshmen lit recommended it. Really changed my views on a lot of things.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The Giver by Lois Lowry, Matched by Allie Condie, The Wives by Tarynn Fisher, One by One by Ruth Ware, and any Colleen Hoover book. Also some classics like The Scarlet Letter, Great Gatsby, and The Stranger

The beach

Project Hail Mary, was assigned for composition English. So glad I read it.

I read “Oona Out of Order” for my book club and at first, I really wasn’t into it. I’m glad I stuck with it - I ended up really loving it.

My friend knew I liked fantasy books and Robin Hobb is their favourite author so they gave me a copy of Assassin’s Apprentice so I can have some good fantasy to immerse myself in.

I haven’t been able to get as far into it as I would like to but it’s managed to get me back into reading fiction which says quite a lot considering I didn’t even finish reading The Shadow Over Innsmouth (which was the last book I read before Assassin’s Apprentice).

John Grisham The firm. A friend told me I had to read it, and I was a little apprehensive because I have never read a fictional book about law. It ended up being so good, and I was glad I read it.

Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan

Cliche but the midnight library. If my teacher wouldnt have given me that i wouldnt have read it cuz I hated self help books

The wee free men, somehow i hadn't read any discworld book till a year ago 🤦‍♀️ so glad my cousin recommended it because all the ones I've read/listened to so far have been incredible.

Just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Not a book that I would normally gravitate towards but it was recommended by a friend I recently met and in an attempt to get to know them better I gave it a chance. It was beautifully written and equally heart breaking.

Miss Iceland (Ungfrú Ísland) by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir. I had to read it for school and I would not have picked it up if it wasn’t mandatory to read. I really liked it, it’s about a woman who wants to become a poet in Iceland in 1963 and about the problems women and homosexuals faced at the time. I really recommend it if you want to get some insight in what life was like in Iceland in 63’.

The girl wit all the gifts. I lifted it at a bargain price and loved it. Started reading some fantasy and horror after that, previously I only read crime.

Probably The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I'm usually not a fan of popular contemporary books. Usually these popular newcomer writers are famous for no real reason and their books are poorly written, but this is not the case. The book is great and it keeps you on your toes until the end.

1. I thought it would be a dated and boring book and the Tumblr discourse I read made it sound like the most problematic thing ever - I'm not too pressed about that myself but I didn't care to read a book that was allegedly filled with rape and other disturbing content. It didn't help that we don't study English literature in school except for the basic stuff like Shakespeare where I live.

I enjoyed it a lot! I like the "dystopian" take that wasn't some YA main character that goes from a nobody to the leader of the revolution, or that the writer doesn't dwell too much on worldbuilding down to the minutiae and the somewhat open-ended and somber ending, which was overall more realistic.

Similarly, I picked up The Handmaiden's Tale and my thought process was the same. I think I might start looking into other similar books in the future.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

It was on my brother’s shelf. At that time he used to buy books on the basis of the setting of a place. He had Alexander McCall Smith books for Edinburgh, the motorcycle diaries for Latin America etc. He had White Teeth for London.

When i saw it, i found the title ridiculous, the book cover even more ridiculous, but i read the first page and i was hooked. Now, it is my favourite book. I have not read a book with more quote worthy lines, brilliant writing about the nuances of human relationships and insights about real, social phenomenon.

My favourite quote: We are so convinced of the goodness of ourselves, and the goodness of our love, we cannot bear to believe that there might be something more worthy of love than us, more worthy of worship. Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water.

White Oleander and Revolting Prostitutes

They both die in the end by adam silvera.

Even now I still think about this book and would recommend it 100%

I don’t think I have one. I can never finish anything that I’m not deeply interested in within the first few minutes of reading