List Five Books That I've Read That I Think Everyone With A "Read More" Goal Should Read

You know the kind of books. The ones that are as thick as telephone directories. The ones that have more than a thousand pages. The ones that are almost as thick as they are wide. Well, maybe not THAT big, but still, massive and intimidating. But they don’t need to be. I was intimidated too. And then I read The Count of Monte Cristo. That book is very long, and I thought I’d never get through it. But I did, because it was a) so well-written and b) so entertaining. I was sucked right in, breezing through the pages so that by the time I had finished, I realized I’d read something massive but it didn’t seem that hard at all. It’s a lot of fun to read, and a classic for a reason. Don’t be intimidated: it’s not as hard as it looks.

A few of my friends read sci-fi and fantasy, and that’s cool. I don’t read a lot of that stuff, but I read my share when I was younger, and pick up the odd book every once in a while. What’s NOT cool is only reading sci-fi or fantasy. There’s so much good general fiction out there. So if you are a big speculative fiction fan, then you should read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Sure, it’s often unfavourably compared to Nineteen Eighty-Four, but I actually preferred Huxley’s dystopia to Orwell’s. The setting and concepts in this book would be familiar to most sci-fi readers, but there’s a bit more literary foundation and merit in this one. So if you have a hard time branching out, this is a recommendation I could make wholeheartedly.

I know what you’re probably thinking. This book might have been discussed to death in your high school or introductory University English classes – it sure was in mine – but Heart of Darkness is a lot better than you probably remember. It’s a slim book, but it’ll take you a little longer to read than you’d expect, because Joseph Conrad’s writing is very dense. And that’s a good thing: he creates mood that gets darker the more you get into the book, so the reader feels as though he or she is taking their own trip into blackness. I’ve read this book over ten times, and own three copies of it, so I might be a little bit of an oddity, but for me, you don’t get much more quality per page than you do in this book. Plus, if you’ve seen Apocalypse Now and haven’t read the book, then you should really get on that.

There are a lot of great comic books out there, but a lot of people can’t get past a lot of their prejudices against the medium. But I’ve found a couple of books that seem to break through the barriers. And if I had to pick just one, it would be Fables. The first collection, Legends in Exile, isn’t the very best of the series, but it’s still very good. An interesting mystery and a good introduction to the characters. The story gets better with successive books, and the story grows more and more important but not unwieldly. Mark Buckingham writes great characters and puts them in interesting situations, and the artists – Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha in particular – really bring them to life. One of my favourite series published now or at any other time, and really easy for people to cross over with.

I’ve decided to make this a theme list; not anyone would necessarily like all of these books, but I’m sure that everyone would like at least one of them. John Lee gave me advice on this goal: he said to “think about what sells”. Well, I used to work in a bookstore, and these were always books that I’d try to sell to people. Not because I worked on commission – I wish – but because I wanted people to leave with something they’d love.

So, for the person looking for The Great American Novel, I would recommend Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey. Although he’s better known for One Flew Over The Cukoo’s Nest, this is his best novel. I read it and it absolutely blew me away. Multiple narrative points of view; rich, full characters; and a story that’s sweeping in scope yet still focuses on personal dynamics and relationships. It’s not easy to read, but it’s BRILLIANT.