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What books do you consider must reads? (beehaw.org)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So basically I was unschooled, and the amount of books I've read in my life is embarrassingly low. It was never emforced like in a school, and with my family's religious hangups, I never tried getting into new things because I never knew what would be deemed "offensive".

But I'm always interested when I hear people talk about both storycraft and also literary criticism, so I want to take an earnest stab at getting into books.

No real criteria, I don't know what I like so I can't tell you what I'm looking for, other than it needs to be in English or have an English translation. Just wanna know what y'all think would make good or important reading.

ETA holy shit thanks for all the suggestions! Definitely gonna make a list

ETA if I reply extremely late it's because it took me this long to get a library card in my new locale.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Especially if you're new to reading, the books worth reading are the ones you enjoy reading.

Like anything else reading is a skill and you get better at it the more you do it. There's a reason we don't start kindergarteners on Tolstoy and Shakespeare.

There are great suggestions in this thread so I'm not going to suggest any more. But I'd recommend to start every new book with an open mind, but if you're not "feeling it" by page 10 or 20 it's 100% okay to put it down and try a different one.

You can always come back to it later. Or not. There are more "must read" books than can ever be read in a lifetime. Find the ones you enjoy and which make an impact on you.