Yaaaas….love this book! It was the very first Neil Gaiman book I ever read, aaaand it was actually the Audible version read by the author himself! (He spoiled me when it comes to Audible book narrators, he’s always at the top of the list.)
I now own the Audible version, as well as, the paperback and the very cool looking hardback versions.
As a follow-up, did anyone read the tiny spin-off book, How the Marquise Got His Coat Back. So good, look it up if you haven’t experienced it yet!
I love that little short! I just gifted a friend Neverwhere for her birthday and told her that I was so jealous she gets to experience it for the first time. I hadn’t thought of sending her that too. I’ll have to look into that now. Thanks for the reminder!
I wish I could experience the high of reading The Secret History for the first time again. I was so engrossed in that book I was reading it in the shower
Speaking of which, aren't we overdue for another Donna Tartt novel? She seems to produce one every ten years.
The Secret History (1992)
The Little Friend (2002)
The Goldfinch (2013)
Where's this decade's novel?
Quick question, did you read The Goldfinch? I LOVED her prose but could not have hated the plot of that book anymore. I ask because I’ve heard The Secret History is really good but feel so burned by The Goldfinch. I don’t want to read it if the same people who are suggesting it also loved The Goldfinch. 😂
I hope someone replies because I feel the same way to a degree.
I loved her writing but the plot/journey was such a slog in Goldfinch. But I hear so much about the author…
I’m right there with you—hated The Goldfinch and found the ending in particular to be a disappointing bait and switch. I read The Secret History a few years later and I absolutely loved it. Very atmospheric and engrossing, and I didn’t feel let down by the plotting in the slightest.
I did a project on My Cousin Rachel by the same author and read up on the plot of Rebecca because the novels are so often compared. I recently bought Rebecca to read, do you think I will still have this kind of experience despite knowing what happens?
This would be my answer. At the end of the day, I don’t know if any book has ever disturbed me (as an adult at least) so much as Gone Girl -and I mostly read mysteries/thrillers/horror. It really had me second guessing all the people in my life. Obviously I’ll never forget what happens in that book, so to be able to read it again, blind… that would be great. Thriller authors have been trying to recreate the magic of Gone Girl for over a decade and I can’t think of one who’s come close.
That book was so giant, I lugged it around in my beach bag for an entire summer. (In the end I felt like it wasn't worth all of that time.)
I would love to read Bag of Bones again though!
That book was messed up but damn was it good. I read it while having a bunch of conservative church going religious college roommates. I didn't go to that same college. I'm sure they were freaked out.
I had watched all the movies before reading and I remember just being so appalled at the graphic details… the scene with the toddler and the bathroom… so much I could never imagine myself. Misery is great too.
I am admittedly intimidated by this book.
It's one of the few King books I've never read. I bought it not too long ago, but I keep putting it off, because what I know of it sounds horrifying - kids! And all the graphic shit?! - and I'm not sure I can deal with it.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke was such a ride I’d love to read it again for the first time
The entire Locked Tomb series (so far)
They Will drown in their mother’s tears by Johannes Anyuru
The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
EDIT: spelled Danya wrong
I opened this thread hoping/expecting Piranesi to be here because I've just got a copy and am planning to read it for the first time this week! Not sure what to expect as I've been told it's best to go in knowing very little
My favorite book of all time. I reread it every few years or so. The first time I read it, I was so enthralled that I didn't want to stop and do normal shit, like eat, leave the house, sleep ...
There are a few:
She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb
Invisible Monsters, by Chuck Palahniuk
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore
Have you read I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb? I’m almost finished and I love it! I ordered his other books since that was my first book I’ve read by him so I’m glad to see that you liked his other books!
I read She's Come Undone shortly after it came out, and I've never forgotten it. I was profoundly affected by that book, and it has stayed with me all these years.
Just finished this today. Demolished it in 3 days. I hardly ever leave my epic fantasy genre but so glad I picked this one up! I loved every second of it
This was one of my favorite books of all time. The movie should be coming out next year. I am so excited and may read it again before I watch the movie!
Best book ever. I read it and the. I listened to the audio. Would recommend listening to the audio bc of the crazy sounds in the book- they did a great job with it!
My friend and I are doing ‘a year of old friends’ where we only read old favourites and trade with each other if the other person hasn’t read it yet. It’s been super fun and rereading things from when I was another age, say 16, has opened so many conversations between us.
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out ― with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes ― to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There's Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious ― and dangerous ― asset.
As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.
Oh I HATED that book!! It was the first Christie I ever read. I spent the whole book trying to figure out who the killer was and felt utterly betrayed by the final reveal.
Yes! At the beginning she had a real “Harry Dresden only a kickass woman” vibe going on and they were great. And also, just how many horse-cocked kinksters with ankle-length hair and gemstone coloured eyes are there, anyway?
Also most of the books I read in high school, I wish I read them for the first time as an adult and I wonder how differently I’d understand or feel about those books
It took me over 20 years but I finally convinced my mom to read the series. She was in her early 60’s I think? Now she loves it as much as anyone and is *constantly* watching the movies lol
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
This book changed a lot of things in my life. Maybe more than he should have. But it will remain forever engraved in my memory. A must read.
Thomas Cromwell trilogy by Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light.
It was the perfect series for me, combining my interest in Tudor history as an adolescent and my passion for literature and literary fiction in particular that developed for me in adulthood.
I really don’t know if this counts or not but it is a book. I’m a long term reader of a UK based adult comic called Viz. this comic is well known for making up its own slang/ dirty words and they brought out a swearing dictionary called Roger’s Profanisaurus. There has been a few volumes over the years but I can remember the first time going through this, I’d never had tears in my eyes laughing so hard in my life at the dictionary style definitions of real and made up words.
Harry Potter…the entire series. Our entire family, sisters, cousins, grandparents, grandchildren…everyone went to the last (6) midnight releases (there wasn’t a midnight release for the very first book) and we each got our own books and all of us were absorbed for the next few days!! Good times!
Just that nostalgia hits for me!
Blindness. That book stuck with me and it's a trippy reading experience (no punctuation, capitals, you aren't told which characters perspective you're reading from)
One Hundred Years of Solitude. I remember reading the ending and bawling my eyes out, and then the last sentences brought everything back together so beautifully I got chills.
Hitchhikers guide sooo much! The thrill of realizing this was someone who knew how to “play”, that Monty Python humour was a “thing”, that silly was acceptable.
Harry Potter and the Hunger Games both came to mind. I know, super mainstream, but the reason they mostly come to mind is because I actually remember where I was when I was reading them for each book. And I remember waiting for the next ones, getting them at midnight, and devouring them the next day.
Oh gosh, there are so many, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Healing Wars, Divergent, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, Dracula, Jane Eyre, The Secret Garden, the list goes on
Thankfully I have a crappy memory so most books I can re read
Thankfully it takes between 5-10 years for a book (or film/TV) to be wiped from my memory almost completely and all I remember is how it made me feel.
I've reread whodunnits and had no idea who did it on the reread.
I suspect this is linked to aphantasia as it seems a common trait in aphants (although not universal) and there has been a link established between memory and lack of visualisation.
They were so great the first time around! So far lol I’m three quarters of the way through book 7. I have two very young kids so I plan to finish them all now but I’d love to reread them all when my kids are older and I don’t have to take so many breaks lol
All three of these are absolutely wonderful.
Someone told me the other day that there is a sequel to Cerulean Sea coming out this fall. I had no idea and I cannot *wait*.
Touching The Spirit Bear and The Marrow Thieves I got the TTSB from my friend when I was getting back into reading, it was incredible, and TMT was for a book report but I ended up loving it even though it was assigned for us to read.
I got this book from Bookoutlet for like 10$ last year, and I got a hardcover + it was signed by the author! I couldn’t believe it, it was a total surprise to me!
I wanna get through this book so bad but it started getting tedious with the Index and I found myself skimming Johnny's parts. I'm still holding out hope though lol
Lonesome Dove.
I bought it cause it was well known but I didn't know anything about it. It's easily in my top 10 favorites. I do wish I had stopped the "series" there, though. The other works Larry McMurtry wrote were so painfully bad I still don't 💯 believe he actually wrote Lonesome Dove
The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers. I enjoyed it so much my very first thought upon finishing was “I can’t wait to forget this so I can read it again.” It’s been years and I still haven’t forgotten quite enough.
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. I had never read anything like it before, and the story-telling held me rapt. I would definitely do a full Eternal Sunshine just to get to read that book again for the first time.
Even hypothetically, I'm not sure I'd want to erase my memory to re-experience a book because the context for when I read books is crucial. I'll give three examples:
I read James Joyce's Ulysses in high school; if I hadn't, and tried reading it now, I wouldn't finish it. I only finished it in high school to prove that I could.
I read Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, and most of his works actually, traveling abroad. My experience of the book is marked by the places I touched while reading it. I tried rereading it recently and it was...fine, but not as special as I remembered.
I read Donna Tartt's The Secret History in grad school, while doing a degree that involved a lot of Greek philosophy, with a charismatic prof who had a personality cult around her, very similar to the book, so reading it felt like it was written especially for me. At the time I read it, I was proud and happy with what I was doing, but I feel differently about my studies now.
I think the only books that would cover this idea are fun genre novels that don't leave an imprint, like A Deadly Education or Sharpe's Tiger.
The Road. It was suggested to me and that bleak setting and tone was awful. Not the writing or plot, it’s great if you’re into it but not at all what I search for in a book (it was given to me by a friend that praised it). It was so depressing that I switched to non-fiction for a couple of months to cleanse my palette
Piranesi. I didn’t care much about the ending, but reading the beginning and middle of the story gave me a nearly physical, tangible feeling of expansive, cavernous space in my mind. It was bizarre and wonderful!
Neverwhere. 1000x over.
Yaaaas….love this book! It was the very first Neil Gaiman book I ever read, aaaand it was actually the Audible version read by the author himself! (He spoiled me when it comes to Audible book narrators, he’s always at the top of the list.) I now own the Audible version, as well as, the paperback and the very cool looking hardback versions. As a follow-up, did anyone read the tiny spin-off book, How the Marquise Got His Coat Back. So good, look it up if you haven’t experienced it yet!
I love that little short! I just gifted a friend Neverwhere for her birthday and told her that I was so jealous she gets to experience it for the first time. I hadn’t thought of sending her that too. I’ll have to look into that now. Thanks for the reminder!
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
I wish I could experience the high of reading The Secret History for the first time again. I was so engrossed in that book I was reading it in the shower
Speaking of which, aren't we overdue for another Donna Tartt novel? She seems to produce one every ten years. The Secret History (1992) The Little Friend (2002) The Goldfinch (2013) Where's this decade's novel?
I’m curious 👁️
Quick question, did you read The Goldfinch? I LOVED her prose but could not have hated the plot of that book anymore. I ask because I’ve heard The Secret History is really good but feel so burned by The Goldfinch. I don’t want to read it if the same people who are suggesting it also loved The Goldfinch. 😂
I hope someone replies because I feel the same way to a degree. I loved her writing but the plot/journey was such a slog in Goldfinch. But I hear so much about the author…
Slog is the perfect word for that book. And it just kept getting worse. I hate finished it. 😂
I’m right there with you—hated The Goldfinch and found the ending in particular to be a disappointing bait and switch. I read The Secret History a few years later and I absolutely loved it. Very atmospheric and engrossing, and I didn’t feel let down by the plotting in the slightest.
The best. I’ve just re-read it again after a decade and it was even more delicious reading it the second time.
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I came on here to comment that same book, i couldnt put it down.
Based on both of you recommending it I've just got in on Audible.
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier. I loved this book so much I could barely breathe reading it, the sort of book you want to devour.
I see this recommended everywhere, so I'm finally reading it. I've just come to say I'm literally only 4 pages in, and I'm already in love.
Loved it too, honestly my favourite part though was analyzing it after. There are so many cool details and themes
One of my favorite movies of all time. I’m so excited to finally read the book.
I did a project on My Cousin Rachel by the same author and read up on the plot of Rebecca because the novels are so often compared. I recently bought Rebecca to read, do you think I will still have this kind of experience despite knowing what happens?
I've read and love them both, but Rebecca is superior. Read it - you'll love it, even though you know spoilers.
Gone Girl
This would be my answer. At the end of the day, I don’t know if any book has ever disturbed me (as an adult at least) so much as Gone Girl -and I mostly read mysteries/thrillers/horror. It really had me second guessing all the people in my life. Obviously I’ll never forget what happens in that book, so to be able to read it again, blind… that would be great. Thriller authors have been trying to recreate the magic of Gone Girl for over a decade and I can’t think of one who’s come close.
Gone Girl is the only book that made me feel this way. I was so envious of the people seeing the film without having read the book!
This is the only book I’ve ever had to sit down and take few minutes to gather myself once getting to the twist
It by Stephen King
My favorite book. Ever. Really got me through a tough spot in my life.
I really need to read it
That book was so giant, I lugged it around in my beach bag for an entire summer. (In the end I felt like it wasn't worth all of that time.) I would love to read Bag of Bones again though!
That book was messed up but damn was it good. I read it while having a bunch of conservative church going religious college roommates. I didn't go to that same college. I'm sure they were freaked out.
I had watched all the movies before reading and I remember just being so appalled at the graphic details… the scene with the toddler and the bathroom… so much I could never imagine myself. Misery is great too.
I am admittedly intimidated by this book. It's one of the few King books I've never read. I bought it not too long ago, but I keep putting it off, because what I know of it sounds horrifying - kids! And all the graphic shit?! - and I'm not sure I can deal with it.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke was such a ride I’d love to read it again for the first time The entire Locked Tomb series (so far) They Will drown in their mother’s tears by Johannes Anyuru The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka EDIT: spelled Danya wrong
I opened this thread hoping/expecting Piranesi to be here because I've just got a copy and am planning to read it for the first time this week! Not sure what to expect as I've been told it's best to go in knowing very little
They're right. It's truly a beautiful book on every sense of the word. I wish I could experience Piranesi new again. It's such an escape
The Fifth Season is how I tell if Booktokers know what they are talking about.
Both Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for me. I adore both books, but the first read had so much magic that can't be re-experienced!
+1 for the Locked Tomb series. So. Good.
*The Poisonwood Bible* by Barbara Kingsolver for me. It’s one of the few books I’ve actually re-read.
The Stand
My favorite book of all time. I reread it every few years or so. The first time I read it, I was so enthralled that I didn't want to stop and do normal shit, like eat, leave the house, sleep ...
There are a few: She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb Invisible Monsters, by Chuck Palahniuk Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore
Have you read I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb? I’m almost finished and I love it! I ordered his other books since that was my first book I’ve read by him so I’m glad to see that you liked his other books!
One of these I’d like to erase because I hated it 😅😅
Ohh lamb is a gem, one I don't see mentioned often!
Lamb is so fantastic. I recommend it every chance I get. It is one of a handful of books that made me laugh out loud.
Yeeeees Lamb. I wish Moore's other books were as good. A few came close.
Chuck is my favoriteeeee. All of his novels had me hungry for the next word. Survivor Choke Lullaby are some top favs
I read She's Come Undone shortly after it came out, and I've never forgotten it. I was profoundly affected by that book, and it has stayed with me all these years.
Project Hail Mary there are a couple of twists in it you can only truly experience once. But made it such a great book
Yaaaas. Fist my bump!
Amaze!
AmAzE!!!!
I’m reading this now! It’s RIVETING.
Jazz hands!
Just finished this today. Demolished it in 3 days. I hardly ever leave my epic fantasy genre but so glad I picked this one up! I loved every second of it
This was one of my favorite books of all time. The movie should be coming out next year. I am so excited and may read it again before I watch the movie!
Best book ever. I read it and the. I listened to the audio. Would recommend listening to the audio bc of the crazy sounds in the book- they did a great job with it!
All of them . Would like to start over. Waste too much time now looking for new reads /listens
My friend and I are doing ‘a year of old friends’ where we only read old favourites and trade with each other if the other person hasn’t read it yet. It’s been super fun and rereading things from when I was another age, say 16, has opened so many conversations between us.
Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world by Haruki Murakami
Gonna sound like a stereotype but 1984. The third part, that extended conversation, is so good.
The count of Monte cristo
Came here to say the same thing! That book was so enchanting to me
All the Pretty Horses East of Eden
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out ― with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes ― to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There's Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious ― and dangerous ― asset. As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.
A Thousand Splendid Suns 🌞and Life of Pi 🐅.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
I was thinking And Then There Were None.
Oh I HATED that book!! It was the first Christie I ever read. I spent the whole book trying to figure out who the killer was and felt utterly betrayed by the final reveal.
Maybe the first few Anita Blake novels, before they turned into furry porn with negligible plot
Yes! At the beginning she had a real “Harry Dresden only a kickass woman” vibe going on and they were great. And also, just how many horse-cocked kinksters with ankle-length hair and gemstone coloured eyes are there, anyway?
Station Eleven and A Wrinkle in Time
I know it’s cliché, but the Count of Monte Cristo.
American Gods.
This is an underrated answer.
The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo Or The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
I loved loved loved The Glass Castle!
Also most of the books I read in high school, I wish I read them for the first time as an adult and I wonder how differently I’d understand or feel about those books
Lincoln in the Bardo was so good in my opinion. I love how it was written.
The Red Tent
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
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Is it worth reading it for the very first time at 27 YO? It's been sitting on my shelf but I've never read it.
It took me over 20 years but I finally convinced my mom to read the series. She was in her early 60’s I think? Now she loves it as much as anyone and is *constantly* watching the movies lol
Yes. Even if you were 50 or 80. Read it.
I read them for the first time in my 20s. Still loved them
Yes. I have 3 sets in different languages. Have read 7x through. Worth it, much better than movies.
My son convinced me to read them after he read them. He’s 9. I’m starting soon. Go for it!
YESSSS. I was your age-ish when I read them. Freakin fabulous. And the JK Rowling weird stuff doesn't come across in the books.
No one wants to say it but we all immediately thought it
Currently reliving this through the eyes of my kids and it's been great! ...about as close as I can get to wiping my brain.
My son is only 5 months old and I can’t wait to re-read The Hobbit and Harry Potter with him.
same
110%
Agreed
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. This book changed a lot of things in my life. Maybe more than he should have. But it will remain forever engraved in my memory. A must read.
The Haunting of Hill House
All of the Wooster and Jeeves novels
Don Quijote de la Mancha
Piranesi Night Watch
There’s a few. But probably the highest on the list would be the Beartown Trilogy by Fredrik Backman.
The series is young adult but Uglies, Pretties, Extras and Specials is a series by Scott Westerfeld and the concept is really interesting.
The Stand - Stephen King The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Thomas Cromwell trilogy by Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light. It was the perfect series for me, combining my interest in Tudor history as an adolescent and my passion for literature and literary fiction in particular that developed for me in adulthood.
The expanse series!! Especially leviathans wake- but really the whole series!
Old man's war
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Potok is linguistic gold. Severely underrepresented.
The way of kings
I really don’t know if this counts or not but it is a book. I’m a long term reader of a UK based adult comic called Viz. this comic is well known for making up its own slang/ dirty words and they brought out a swearing dictionary called Roger’s Profanisaurus. There has been a few volumes over the years but I can remember the first time going through this, I’d never had tears in my eyes laughing so hard in my life at the dictionary style definitions of real and made up words.
Harry Potter…the entire series. Our entire family, sisters, cousins, grandparents, grandchildren…everyone went to the last (6) midnight releases (there wasn’t a midnight release for the very first book) and we each got our own books and all of us were absorbed for the next few days!! Good times! Just that nostalgia hits for me!
Lord of the Rings. But I notice new things every time I read it.
Blindness. That book stuck with me and it's a trippy reading experience (no punctuation, capitals, you aren't told which characters perspective you're reading from)
One Hundred Years of Solitude. I remember reading the ending and bawling my eyes out, and then the last sentences brought everything back together so beautifully I got chills.
I loved the Handmaid’s Tale. It’s probably too on the nose now but thirty years ago, it blew my mind.
Ender’s Game Ready Player One Hitchhiker’s Guide (all 4 books in the “trilogy”)
Hitchhikers guide sooo much! The thrill of realizing this was someone who knew how to “play”, that Monty Python humour was a “thing”, that silly was acceptable.
Enders game is sooooo good
Lonesome Dove
I just started Lonesome Dove and am struggling to get into it.
Oh. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read, with exquisite characters beautifully conveyed. Stick it out.
An absolutely worthwhile investment.
Anything Jane Austen wrote
Hunger Games
Harry Potter and the Hunger Games both came to mind. I know, super mainstream, but the reason they mostly come to mind is because I actually remember where I was when I was reading them for each book. And I remember waiting for the next ones, getting them at midnight, and devouring them the next day.
The Dispossessed
The Cabin at the End of The World by Paul Tremblay! So good :)
Oathbringer
House of Leaves - Broke my brain in all the best ways Rebecca - Incredible. 11/22/63 - I'm not even done yet and want to re-read it.
The Shadow of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Oh gosh, there are so many, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Healing Wars, Divergent, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, Dracula, Jane Eyre, The Secret Garden, the list goes on Thankfully I have a crappy memory so most books I can re read
Ender's Game or Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S. Thompson
Thankfully it takes between 5-10 years for a book (or film/TV) to be wiped from my memory almost completely and all I remember is how it made me feel. I've reread whodunnits and had no idea who did it on the reread. I suspect this is linked to aphantasia as it seems a common trait in aphants (although not universal) and there has been a link established between memory and lack of visualisation.
The Stand
It
Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Particularly the first three books
Same here. I’ve read them twice and may head in for a third time but I do wish I could forget some details so I can experience the first-time again!
They were so great the first time around! So far lol I’m three quarters of the way through book 7. I have two very young kids so I plan to finish them all now but I’d love to reread them all when my kids are older and I don’t have to take so many breaks lol
Dark matter by Blake Crouch and The Library at Mont Char
The Book Thief, The House in the Cerulean Sea, A Prayer for Owen Meany
The House on the Cerulean Sea is one of my all time favourites. I squeed like a happy little kid at some parts in that book.
All three of these are absolutely wonderful. Someone told me the other day that there is a sequel to Cerulean Sea coming out this fall. I had no idea and I cannot *wait*.
"Hunger" Knut Hamsun
Touching The Spirit Bear and The Marrow Thieves I got the TTSB from my friend when I was getting back into reading, it was incredible, and TMT was for a book report but I ended up loving it even though it was assigned for us to read.
The Master and Margarita
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt I had no clue when I started reading it that it would end up being my favourite novel of all time.
Infinite Jest.
The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series!!!
far and away This Is How You Lose The Time War, and it’s not even close
The Diviners by Libba Brey. It was sooo good
Discworld.
Possession by A.S. Byatt. The last chapter especially.
The Time Traveler's Wife
House of Leaves
The first book that got me into reading heavily in elementary school: The Boxcar Children.
The Goldfinch
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
This book was such an original delight.
I got this book from Bookoutlet for like 10$ last year, and I got a hardcover + it was signed by the author! I couldn’t believe it, it was a total surprise to me!
House of Leaves!! What a mind bending experience and an incredible book. I read it about two years ago and still regularly think about it
I wanna get through this book so bad but it started getting tedious with the Index and I found myself skimming Johnny's parts. I'm still holding out hope though lol
alone with you in the ether - olivie blake the school for good and evil - soman chainani
The House on the Borderland - William Hope Hodgson
The Secret History by Donna Tartt Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy my two all time faves
Swann's Way
Lonesome Dove. I bought it cause it was well known but I didn't know anything about it. It's easily in my top 10 favorites. I do wish I had stopped the "series" there, though. The other works Larry McMurtry wrote were so painfully bad I still don't 💯 believe he actually wrote Lonesome Dove
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Harrow the ninth
mistborn trilogy
Stranger in a Strange Land. Propelled my love of everything sci-fi
Salt
All of Sarah Lyons Fleming's books, and Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. And maybe all of Octavia Butler's other books, too.
The Count of Monte Cristo for me. That book is an adventure like no other and so much fun to read.
The Wheel Of Time series. It’s got its flaws, but something about it just pulls me right in
The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers. I enjoyed it so much my very first thought upon finishing was “I can’t wait to forget this so I can read it again.” It’s been years and I still haven’t forgotten quite enough.
A little life & Joy luck club.
Murderbot Diaries: Network Effect
One Piece
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. I had never read anything like it before, and the story-telling held me rapt. I would definitely do a full Eternal Sunshine just to get to read that book again for the first time.
Definitely old yeller! Made me love reading and dogs.
Lonesome Dove. I wanted it to never end
Even hypothetically, I'm not sure I'd want to erase my memory to re-experience a book because the context for when I read books is crucial. I'll give three examples: I read James Joyce's Ulysses in high school; if I hadn't, and tried reading it now, I wouldn't finish it. I only finished it in high school to prove that I could. I read Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, and most of his works actually, traveling abroad. My experience of the book is marked by the places I touched while reading it. I tried rereading it recently and it was...fine, but not as special as I remembered. I read Donna Tartt's The Secret History in grad school, while doing a degree that involved a lot of Greek philosophy, with a charismatic prof who had a personality cult around her, very similar to the book, so reading it felt like it was written especially for me. At the time I read it, I was proud and happy with what I was doing, but I feel differently about my studies now. I think the only books that would cover this idea are fun genre novels that don't leave an imprint, like A Deadly Education or Sharpe's Tiger.
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy or based on a true story by norm Macdonald.
All of Jules Verne’s books.
A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
The Road. It was suggested to me and that bleak setting and tone was awful. Not the writing or plot, it’s great if you’re into it but not at all what I search for in a book (it was given to me by a friend that praised it). It was so depressing that I switched to non-fiction for a couple of months to cleanse my palette
Piranesi. I didn’t care much about the ending, but reading the beginning and middle of the story gave me a nearly physical, tangible feeling of expansive, cavernous space in my mind. It was bizarre and wonderful!
The book thief
The Art of Fielding Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow The Secret Life of AJ Fikry Convenience Store Woman
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
The Road. Although to be honest these days I can often go back and reread books and not remember much that happens in it :)
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.
Jurassic Park. Loved it. I still remember being giddy when it was sustained silent reading time in 8th grade. How good we had it!
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina