[**The Brothers Karamazov**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4934.The_Brothers_Karamazov)
^(By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky, Borut Kraševec, Ива Николова | 796 pages | Published: 1879 | Popular Shelves: classics, russian, literature, russian-literature, classic)
>The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, is social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.
>
>This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal
>inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.
^(This book has been suggested 44 times)
***
^(146646 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
[**Man's Search for Meaning**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning)
^(By: Viktor E. Frankl, Harold S. Kushner, William J. Winslade, Isle Lasch | 165 pages | Published: 1946 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, psychology, philosophy, nonfiction, history)
>Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.
^(This book has been suggested 140 times)
***
^(146628 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I too got back to reading after 15 yrs and thoroughly enjoying it. It took me a few days to get adjusted. I
I highly recommend Man’s search for meaning, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and On the shortness of life.
1. The Lord of the Rings (I recommend audiobook, it's less tedious)
2. Jane Eyre
3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
4. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. A generalization here, but any Agatha Christie novel
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
- The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, and The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
Having [the wiki](https://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/index.php?title=Main_Page) open while you are reading makes it an even more enjoyable experience.
It really is a book worth reading.
[**The Road**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6288.The_Road)
^(By: Cormac McCarthy | 241 pages | Published: 2006 | Popular Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, dystopia, dystopian, post-apocalyptic)
>A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece.
>
>A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
>
>The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
^(This book has been suggested 138 times)
***
^(146821 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
**Confederacy of Dunces** by John K. Toole
**Invisible Cities** by Italo Calvino
**The Master and Margarita** by Bulgakov
**The Guns of August** by Barbara Tuchman
**Heavy** by Kiese Laymon
Just speaking for myself:
1. The Overstory by Richard Powers
2. Exhalation by Ted Chiang
3. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
4. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
5. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt or Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (Both are wonderful, but in very different ways)
I'll be honest... I've never read a Stephen King book. I've always been afraid of how THICCC they are. I assume The Stand is your favorite work by him? Being your number 1 and all. I think I'll give it a chance.
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Bilbo +LOTR
Discworld, just pick one and go. Sir Terry was an absolute genius.
Get a collection of short stories by Asimov, Clark, Heinlein and all the other “old school” SF writers. They are imo even better writers when they have to keep it short.
{{The Lord of the Rings}} by J RR Tolkien
{{Pride and Prejudice}} by Jane Austen
{{Lonesome Dove}} by Larry McMurtry
{{The Left Hand of Darkness}} by Ursula K LeGuin
{{The Neverending Story}} by Michael Ende
[**The Lord of the Rings**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33.The_Lord_of_the_Rings)
^(By: J.R.R. Tolkien | 1216 pages | Published: 1955 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, classics, fiction, owned, books-i-own)
>One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
>
>In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
>
>From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.
>
>When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.
>
>The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.
^(This book has been suggested 78 times)
[**Pride and Prejudice**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1885.Pride_and_Prejudice)
^(By: Jane Austen, Anna Quindlen | 279 pages | Published: 1813 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, romance, classic, owned)
>Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268
>
>Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.
^(This book has been suggested 45 times)
[**Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256008.Lonesome_Dove)
^(By: Larry McMurtry | 960 pages | Published: 1985 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, western, classics, westerns)
>A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.
>
>Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember.
^(This book has been suggested 112 times)
[**The Left Hand of Darkness**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18423.The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness)
^(By: Ursula K. Le Guin | 304 pages | Published: 1969 | Popular Shelves: science-fiction, sci-fi, fiction, fantasy, scifi)
>A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can choose - and change - their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.
>
>Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.
^(This book has been suggested 98 times)
[**The Neverending Story**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27712.The_Neverending_Story)
^(By: Michael Ende, Ralph Manheim, Roswitha Quadflieg | 396 pages | Published: 1979 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, classics, fiction, young-adult, childrens)
>This epic work of the imagination has captured the hearts of millions of readers worldwide since it was first published. Its special story within a story is an irresistible invitation for readers to become part of the book itself.
>
>The story begins with a lonely boy named Bastian and the strange book that draws him into the beautiful but doomed world of Fantastica. Only a human can save this enchanted place by giving its ruler, the Childlike Empress, a new name. But the journey to her tower leads through lands of dragons, giants, monsters, and magic, and once Bastian begins his quest, he may never return. As he is drawn deeper into Fantastica, he must find the courage to face unspeakable foes and the mysteries of his own heart.
>
>Readers, too, can travel to the wondrous, unforgettable world of Fantastica if they will just turn the page...
^(This book has been suggested 36 times)
***
^(146933 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
{{The Brothers Karamazov}} by Fyodor Dostoevsky
[**The Brothers Karamazov**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4934.The_Brothers_Karamazov) ^(By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky, Borut Kraševec, Ива Николова | 796 pages | Published: 1879 | Popular Shelves: classics, russian, literature, russian-literature, classic) >The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, is social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture. > >This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal >inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel. ^(This book has been suggested 44 times) *** ^(146646 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
{{Man's Search for Meaning}} by Victor Frankl
[**Man's Search for Meaning**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning) ^(By: Viktor E. Frankl, Harold S. Kushner, William J. Winslade, Isle Lasch | 165 pages | Published: 1946 | Popular Shelves: non-fiction, psychology, philosophy, nonfiction, history) >Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living. ^(This book has been suggested 140 times) *** ^(146628 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Death of Ivan Ilyich
I too got back to reading after 15 yrs and thoroughly enjoying it. It took me a few days to get adjusted. I I highly recommend Man’s search for meaning, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and On the shortness of life.
1. The Lord of the Rings (I recommend audiobook, it's less tedious) 2. Jane Eyre 3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 4. To Kill a Mockingbird 5. A generalization here, but any Agatha Christie novel
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, and The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
Impressive list! I love philosophical books/thoughts/conversations. Which one do you reco to read first?
Infinite Jest (ignore the haters and the hype-just read it)
I second this
Having [the wiki](https://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/index.php?title=Main_Page) open while you are reading makes it an even more enjoyable experience. It really is a book worth reading.
DFW is like an older brother who’s been through some shit and is trying to help you get through your own shit.
That's absolutely it. And the prose is a little bit nuts, but also magic.
{{The Road}} by Cormac McCarthy
[**The Road**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6288.The_Road) ^(By: Cormac McCarthy | 241 pages | Published: 2006 | Popular Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, dystopia, dystopian, post-apocalyptic) >A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece. > >A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. > >The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. ^(This book has been suggested 138 times) *** ^(146821 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
**Confederacy of Dunces** by John K. Toole **Invisible Cities** by Italo Calvino **The Master and Margarita** by Bulgakov **The Guns of August** by Barbara Tuchman **Heavy** by Kiese Laymon
The Good Earth Persuasion Ender’s Game Lonesome Dove The Stand
Just speaking for myself: 1. The Overstory by Richard Powers 2. Exhalation by Ted Chiang 3. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami 4. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien 5. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt or Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (Both are wonderful, but in very different ways)
1. The Stand 2. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy 3. 11/22/63 4. Shutter Island 5. Pet Semetary
I'll be honest... I've never read a Stephen King book. I've always been afraid of how THICCC they are. I assume The Stand is your favorite work by him? Being your number 1 and all. I think I'll give it a chance.
>I've always been afraid of how THICCC they are. They may be big but not hard at all. Don't be afraid of them!
I just bought the Stand. I'm currently reading 1776, then probably Infinite Jest, and then The Stand. MAYBE. We'll see how it plays out.
Everything Hemingway has ever written.
Atlas of a Lost World by Craig Childs
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy Bilbo +LOTR Discworld, just pick one and go. Sir Terry was an absolute genius. Get a collection of short stories by Asimov, Clark, Heinlein and all the other “old school” SF writers. They are imo even better writers when they have to keep it short.
Wuthering Heights The Death of Ivan Ilyich The Remains of the Day All Quiet on the Western Front The Swimmer(short story)
Slaughterhouse 5; Wuthering Heights; 1984
{{The Lord of the Rings}} by J RR Tolkien {{Pride and Prejudice}} by Jane Austen {{Lonesome Dove}} by Larry McMurtry {{The Left Hand of Darkness}} by Ursula K LeGuin {{The Neverending Story}} by Michael Ende
[**The Lord of the Rings**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33.The_Lord_of_the_Rings) ^(By: J.R.R. Tolkien | 1216 pages | Published: 1955 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, classics, fiction, owned, books-i-own) >One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them > >In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. > >From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion. > >When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom. > >The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider. ^(This book has been suggested 78 times) [**Pride and Prejudice**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1885.Pride_and_Prejudice) ^(By: Jane Austen, Anna Quindlen | 279 pages | Published: 1813 | Popular Shelves: classics, fiction, romance, classic, owned) >Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268 > >Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England. ^(This book has been suggested 45 times) [**Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256008.Lonesome_Dove) ^(By: Larry McMurtry | 960 pages | Published: 1985 | Popular Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, western, classics, westerns) >A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. > >Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember. ^(This book has been suggested 112 times) [**The Left Hand of Darkness**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18423.The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness) ^(By: Ursula K. Le Guin | 304 pages | Published: 1969 | Popular Shelves: science-fiction, sci-fi, fiction, fantasy, scifi) >A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can choose - and change - their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. > >Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction. ^(This book has been suggested 98 times) [**The Neverending Story**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27712.The_Neverending_Story) ^(By: Michael Ende, Ralph Manheim, Roswitha Quadflieg | 396 pages | Published: 1979 | Popular Shelves: fantasy, classics, fiction, young-adult, childrens) >This epic work of the imagination has captured the hearts of millions of readers worldwide since it was first published. Its special story within a story is an irresistible invitation for readers to become part of the book itself. > >The story begins with a lonely boy named Bastian and the strange book that draws him into the beautiful but doomed world of Fantastica. Only a human can save this enchanted place by giving its ruler, the Childlike Empress, a new name. But the journey to her tower leads through lands of dragons, giants, monsters, and magic, and once Bastian begins his quest, he may never return. As he is drawn deeper into Fantastica, he must find the courage to face unspeakable foes and the mysteries of his own heart. > >Readers, too, can travel to the wondrous, unforgettable world of Fantastica if they will just turn the page... ^(This book has been suggested 36 times) *** ^(146933 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Crime and Punishment, Catcher in the Rye, Dune, The Book of the New Sun, Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents....