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pagedown

New Member
Well the title pretty much explains it. I have probably finished about three books in my life, those being, catcher in the rye, lord of the flies, and a starCraft novel. At the moment im reading Dune, but i have been dragging that on for an year. Well any way i hear that reading helps your communication and writing skills like crazy and being a high school student with a low English mark i'd say i would love become an avid reader. The only problem im having is that the choices are soo overwhelming. I dont know where to start and what to read. I was thinking about getting some classic foundation reading out of way. I want to be able to tell if i read a good book or not. So guys were do i start?
 
Dune is great but if you're having a hard time with it, maybe you should put it aside and try to read it again in a year or two.

Easy classical reading, eh?

How about:

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemmingway
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Call of the Wild - Jack London
On the Road - Jack Kerouac


Without knowing anything about your personality and likes and dislikes, I'm also going to go ahead and throw these titles out. Look at the blurbs and pick what sounds interesting.

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Cook's Tour - Anthony Bourdain
The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Smoke and Mirrors - Neil Gaiman
The Harry Potter series
 
The Dune series is one series where I like the story, but really wish a different author had written them. I have trouble getting into Herbert's style, despite the fact that I really like the books.

I think the best way to begin reading is to go for what you like, regardless of what genre they fall into. While reading can help your grammar, vocabulary, and the like, it's so much easier to gain from reading if you're enjoying the experience. So what are your interests? What movies do you like? A lot of great movies were based, or loosely based, on even greater books. You might like to start with one of those.
 
The Dune series is one series where I like the story, but really wish a different author had written them. I have trouble getting into Herbert's style, despite the fact that I really like the books.

I think the best way to begin reading is to go for what you like, regardless of what genre they fall into. While reading can help your grammar, vocabulary, and the like, it's so much easier to gain from reading if you're enjoying the experience. So what are your interests? What movies do you like? A lot of great movies were based, or loosely based, on even greater books. You might like to start with one of those.

That's a great idea. Make a pact to read the book, then watch the movie.. and then have fun comparing them. Remember, sometimes the movie title is different from that of the book..so just check with amazon to see what book the movie is based on, and go from there.
 
Try some Stephen King. I'm not a fan of his to be perfectly honest, but I respect him as a author.

It's OK to not finish a book you're not getting into. Bring it back to the library and grab books randomly off the shelf. If they description catches your interest, give it a try. If you like the book you can read more by the same author or look for others in the same genre.

Don't forget to have fun. Reading is great for your personal growth, but if you don't enjoy it it's a waste of time.
 
The Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia series are easy yet interesting reads.

For more classical stories, try O. Henry, Jules Verne, Hans Christian Anderson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, or Niccolo Machiavelli. I enjoyed all of these when I first started reading regularly.
 
if you are a fan of suspense, go for some James Patterson and John Grisham.

if you enjoy some graphic stuff with a bit of a twist then I recommend Survivor or Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.

Dan Brown is pretty good.

If you are into some classics I would recommend The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, All the Pretty Horses and The Scarlet Letter.
 
Classics, huh?

The Scarlet Pimpernel by the Baroness Orczy
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

And some other good books to look into:

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
 
you should try reading a lot of mystery novels. i find them excellent and some you may not want to put down. i can give you a few authors names: Tami Hoag, Carla Neggars, the series by sue grafton but start reading from a is for alibi, beverly barton, iris johansen, and thats all i can think of right now. but try some of their books. some have an extreme amount of adult content, but thats only a little bit and a few pages.
 
Hey do you want some easy romance books to read? Really good books!
Nicolas Sparks writes very good easy books to read. Let me know what you think?

Laurie
 
just knowing if you're male or female makes all the difference. So, which are you.

Excuse-moi? I mean, Scusi?!

Entschuldigen Sie bitte
, but since when it does matter?!

My mom reads SF and crazy about Terry Pratchett . So does it mean that all females are into SF and Terry Pratchett?!
 
Oh, more people who want to fight.

If we want to get this person into reading we need to start them out with characters they can relate to. In situations they can relate to. In high school I thought I hated books because of all the crap on the reading lists. Shakespere doesn't speak to me and my place in life.

Yes, age and sex matter.
 
Get this person reading? They've not been back to the forum since 4th February. Either they are reading a book or they've lost all interest.
 
Get this person reading? They've not been back to the forum since 4th February. Either they are reading a book or they've lost all interest.


Which brings up something I've been wondering about: Why are people posting a post to 'find me a book' instead of posting a proper introduction and searching the threads for themselves? Then they drop off the edge of the planet and are never heard from again...

Not meaning to be divisive here, just wondering..
 
As a rule, people don't like to search. They either like to think their question is unique or they want the answer in their own thread. All forums are like that.
 
I want to suggest modern novels to the friend who asked for the suggestion.

Gay men - Raymond Marshal
My uncle Napoleone - Daneshvar

and something like that.
 
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