Which book would you recommend me as my first ever book?
You could also try Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. It’s hilarious and easy to read (at least for me)
Second Terry Pratchett books!
And for those confused about the numerous books and parallel storylines, there’s this neat chart
Good link
Do you know why Terry said to skip the first 2? Personally the only one I’ve read is the colour of magic and I loved it as an introduction to the world and can’t wait to read more (I read new books very slowly 9/10 unless my adhd decides to hyperfocus on them like it thankfully did with Dune)
Like any artist, as he improved his craft, he grew embarrassed about his early work, and felt it wasn’t up to the quality of the later books. There are also some inconsistencies; most notably, Death is actively trying to claim Rincewind, when in later books He just facilitates the process of crossing over.
Notably, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic both directly parody contemporary fantasy, and if you’re familiar with the books he’s making fun of, it’s pretty obvious. Equal Rites is where he went more into the allegory, satire, and social commentary which people tend to associate with Discworld.
No idea, but tbh I’d always bounce off Color of Magic when I tried to get into it from there. I haven’t read the Rincewind novels yet so I can’t compare them to others, but for me Guards! Guards! was a much better intro.
They started my love for books as a young teenager! Going to the library, looking for a discworld novel I didn’t know, yet… those were the times!
Definitely check out the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
Seconded. It’s funny, light, and pretty short, so a good way to ease OP into the world of books.
anything by Brandon Sanderson, especially his Cosmere stuff. Light reads despite density, story gets complex under the hood once you realize what’s going on in the greater Cosmere universe glimpsed through the various book series.
Golden Compass (His Dark Materials trilogy) or Sabriel (Nix’s Old Kingdom series) are both good ones to start with imo.
In /r/fantasy, someone recently read Mistborn as their first book and loved it! I would recommend this one. Brandon Sanderson is very approachable, and he doesn’t employ tropes like deliberately leaving the reader utterly confused at the same time as the main character (only a little, in manageable doses), or having a huge number of plotlines that intersect at very confusing times in confusing ways, or etc.
Which isn’t to say the plot is straightforward! There’s lots of twists and turns, and you’ll be amazed where the series ends up :) Very suspenseful and engaging trilogy.
“Wool” by Hugh Howey. If you like it there are many more and AppleTV+ just made a TV series (Silo) that is doing quite well.
@s804 I’d recommend Terry Pratchett books, and more specifically Guards! Guards!.
If you’re more into hard fantasy, Brandon Sanderson wrote very enjoyable books, you should check his Mistborn book (which expands in to a trilogy).
If you want some easy to read SF, Asimov’s Foundation is still a blast, and so is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Plus they can be read as one shots, but they have sequels in case you enjoyed them enough.
That’s a really broad question. The types of stories you’re interested would go a long way. If you like mysteries I can write an essay and a half of some of my favorites of different styles.
If you like other types of stories I can also make suggestions, but a little direction would go a long way.
Actually, bored at work, so let’s write the essay. If I misspelled a name, sorry. This is off the top of my head.
Light, shorter, on the wacky side:
- Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. Stephanie Plum is a little crazy, but the world she’s in is crazier, and she takes it all in stride. She’s a bounty hunter working for her cousin’s bail bond agency chasing fugitives, and while there’s mild profanity and some messed up situations, the tone is incredibly light and funny. This is one of my favorites that I reread frequently, and I really enjoy Lorelei King’s reading of the audiobooks. There’s some minor carry over, but you don’t need to start at the beginning.
- Miss Fortune series by Jana DeLeon. Fortune Redding is a CIA agent hiding in a tiny town of Louisiana because she pissed off an arms dealer by breaking her cover to protect a kid. I looked a long time for other books comparable in tone to Stephanie Plum, and this is my best example. More stupid nonsense and enjoyable characters. Starting at the beginning isn’t strictly necessary, but there’s more underlying plot arc through the series.
- Haunting Danielle series by Bobbi Holmes. You’d probably be surprised by how many lengthy series there are centered around a haunted B&B owner solving murders. This is my favorite though. It’s similar in the light, nonsensical tone, but with an OK (if not super deep) mystical element. You won’t be lost starting wherever, but you’ll miss out on character development if you start partway in.
- Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. The Amazon series takes it dark and hardcore, and that stuff all happens in the books, but they don’t really feel dark reading them. Much more action oriented, but Reacher sees something wrong, gets hooked in one way or another, and comes in like a nuke ripping the bad guys to shreds. These theoretically have carry over, but you can very easily read them in any order.
-continued
Dark, more substantial, more explicit
- Karen Rose’s Romantic Suspense. The world is full of monsters, and Karen Rose will introduce you to them all. These aren’t fantasy monsters, but the human kind. They do fucked up shit and you see a lot of it. WARNING: I think it’s all off screen, but this includes children as victims of sexual crime. However, to me she’s the gold standard for fiction authors. Her characters are broken, and there’s a dichotomy between how they see themselves when they’re the character leading a scene and when they’re a side character that’s really well done. She gets you inside the heads of both the main pair of characters as they heal and fall for each other and the villains, and does an exceptional job at being aware of who knows what and when in their interior monologues. I love the way the books are paced, and the mysteries are complex and layered. I don’t really read romance so can’t comment on that part, but I really like how the developing partnership builds out the characters. In sharing their deepest darkest secrets with their co-lead in a given book, the characters get really fleshed out. This is hands down my favorite series and I go through it start to finish on audiobook 3-4 times a year since discovering it. You don’t need to read the entire series from the start, but they’re broken down into sub-series by city, and those sub-series have strong arcs through them. So far example, you would want to start the 3 part Sacramento series with Say You’re Sorry and go in order. This is probably not “first read” material, but I can’t give a list of my favorite fiction and not pitch what I think is the best I’ve read. There’s really nothing else like it. If Game of Thrones isn’t too much, this is probably OK.
Victorian Era
- Lady Sherlock by Sherry Thomas. This is a wildly popular setting because of Sherlock Holmes, and I don’t think most manage it very well, but when you do nail the setting, it really creates a deep feeling world. Holmes adaptations themselves are also relatively popular, but this is the most interesting one to me. Charlotte Holmes is thrown out of her house for refusing to fit in to the era’s norms, and invents the Sherlock character we all know and love to survive and use her brain. Of all the adaptations, this is the one that feels like the same character deep down to me. It also highlights the issues with the era instead of romanticizing them like most, without being overbearing. You don’t have to read in order, but book one sets up the premise.
- Glass and Steele by CJ Archer. This one is an awesome mesh of different settings and genres blended really well together. It’s Wild West outlaws coming to Victorian era England for a fantasy epic styled renaissance era of magic, where magicians who have hidden themselves for fear of prosecution from the craft guilds come into the light. The mysteries don’t ignore the magic elements, but don’t use them as a crutch and stay broadly true to the era, and the take on magic is unique and interesting. You really want to read this from book 1.
I’ll stop there for now. Having to split the comment seems like a good indication it was too long.
I’d second all the recommendations here, but I’d also want to know what reading level you’d be interested in, and also why you haven’t ever read a book for fun before? It would be helpful to know to be able to point to books that would avoid whatever your sticking points may have been. As far as introductory fun books I’d recommend:
- The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (Not too long, it’s a classic and is one I’ve read multiple times over the years)
- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (While it’s a YA novel, it was very formative for me as I read it in like 3-4th grade, is basically something that could have happened in reality but is a fictional account.)
- Cradle series by Will Wight (A bit off the path from traditional fantasy, it’s more properly in the subgenre of progression fantasy, which is basically what the genre of Dragon Ball Z would be, the unifying premise of these stories is that the MC starts fairly weak and then gets stronger over the course of the series, with generally an unlimited upper cap to how powerful characters can get through various kinds of training/levelling up/finding new gear/items/spells etc)
I second The Hobbit if you have interest in fantasy! It was still one of the best reading experiences I’ve ever had.
What kind of fiction do you like? As a sci fi nerd Ender’s Game is the book that made me love reading.
For a lot of people it was Harry Potter or Hunger Games more recently.
Honestly if there’s a movie you love that was adapted from a book give the book a go. You know you like the story - it’s just a more detailed take.
yeah i love all kinds of movies like harry potter, hunger games, lotr, and some sci-fi stuff. i loved harry potter growing up so i feel that the books would be too childish for me now.
The Harry Potter books are a bit kiddish but that’s largely motivated by Harry being a young character. They tend to mature as you read through them and a good trait of kiddish books is they’re easily digestible. If you want to try something similar feeling to Harry Potter but new to you check out The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - it’s the first Percy Jackson book. You can read the 5 book series or there’s so many spin offs now you can spend a long time in that universe
I would recommend any of the Neil Gaiman books, very readable and fascinating. For shorter reads go with Good Omens, Coraline, Neverwhere, Stardust and for a longer read American Gods (my fav).
If you like horror Stephen King is incredibly easy to get into.
Oh yeah, Good Omens is great!
