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You want some adult books that arent full of negative crap go read some Terry Pratchett. All my life these are some of the only ones that make me laugh out loud consistently while still having a great plot, characters, and just overall excellent writing in so many ways.
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And when you're done you go read Douglas Adams, and not just the book with the towels.
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Yes! Dirk Gently series is great too.
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I agree but the towel books are a good place to start. I also recommend the Dirk Gently series. But don't stop with fiction. At least read the meaning of liff.
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The Guide is also excellent in other forms like radio and tv and each one is slightly different.
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Terry Pratchett is AMAZING.
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What, what? :)
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I purchased Going Postal in an airport. I ended up laughing out loud on a plane.
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Terry Pratchett.
I always get Pratchett and Brooks confused. Too many Terrys.
All my life these are some of the only ones that make me laugh out loud consistently while still having a great plot, characters, and just overall excellent writing in so many ways.
He does a great job of writing a series that can be read piecemeal but pays off if you go through the whole things.
I'm also a big fan of the Myth Adventure series by Robert Aspirin. It's more comedic, but has a similar vibe.
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Myth Adventures rocks!
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Read his "children's" book Maurice And His Amazing Rodents and try not to sob. But also laugh, and fume, and learn.
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Just don't read the biography. I just finished it, and while it's amazing it will leave you devastated.
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I also highly reccomend the Myth books by Robert Aspirin.
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Myth, Phule, and Thieve's World. Though I will concede that Aahzimandius, no relation, was quite possibly the best character he ever created.
I personally call people coffee zombies because of the book where Skeeve has to clear his name at the interdimentional mall.
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Bought the 5-book series based on your recommendation.
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Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremour ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, 'To die will be an awfully big adventure.'
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. Kids' books are rad.
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I still maintain the best adaptation of that story was Hook.
Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams absolutely Nailed their roles, shout-outs to Julia Roberts and Bob Hoskins, they also nailed their roles, but got upstaged by the former two thespians.
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I'm an adult and proud that I don't read this nonsense anymore. But what is the book where there is a magic tree house ? just so that I don't read it mistakenly
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It's literally called Magic Tree House. It's a series. The tree house is also a time machine and adventure becomes inevitable.
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You are reading the wrong adult books if that is your take away from it.
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This is the problem with so much complaining. "There aren't any good games anymore" says the people who only buy the yearly CoD and Fifa releases and don't even think about thinking about lifting a finger to find all the easily available great games being released constantly. Same with music and everything else. People just complain and somehow don't realise the only thing they do is show everyone else how dumb they are by not even trying to find the good stuff. Also the constant "I hate ads so much" idiocy and then they just ignore anyone who tells them to install an adblocker.
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I hate being that guy, but damnit, today I will be.
#this.
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Someone needs to read better adult books.
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I recently read Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books, really interesting in that first half are kids lit and the second half were written 30 years later for a grown audience.
Best of both worlds! Though I did find the kids books way more fun.
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Yeah, you get to book 4 and you're like "Is everything ok, Ursula?
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I was prepared but I can imagine it was quite the surprise
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High school English classes kind of beat the habit of reading out of me. I mean first of all there was this sense of new = not valid; To Kill A Mockingbird was the newest work of literature I studied in high school, written in the 60's about the 30's, everything else was 19th century or older. The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, Poe, the goddamn Bronte's.
I stopped going to book stores. I stopped going to the library. Adult reading is like rubbing wood chips in your eyes. It's dry and awful.
My grandmother handed me a book. A paperback novel called Utopia by Lincoln Child. It's a kind of whodunit mystery thriller set in a futuristic theme park, and the main character has a teenage daughter who has an mp3 player. And that caught me off guard. Because I was a teenager with an mp3 player. This book was new. It was written by someone who was still alive, about characters who were my age and my generation. And the book was kinda okay.
I miss my gramma.
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Man, same here. In Germany, all we did was read scripts for drama plays. There's nothing more boring. We read only one enjoyable book, which was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.
Only recently have I started enjoying books again and it started with the Hyperion Cantos. I also read a shit ton of books with my little daughter, ranging from Toto the Ninja cat, over Stitch head and Amelia Fang to Harry Potter and Roald Dahl classics. It's a lot of fun, especially since I get to do all of the voices. Sometimes we laugh so hard, it's difficult for her to fall asleep :)
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I recall two enjoyable books, both by Morton Rhue, being boot camp and the wave (and one that I liked but most people didn't, kafka's metamorphosis. Sure didn't like having to interpret that though).
At least early on they tried making us read enjoyable books, as in modern books aimed at teenagers, they just... weren't very good.
I think the peak of unenjoyment for me was Das Parfüm, which is technically somewhat modern. I tried reading it and was so bored I just couldn't continue, ended up reading a synopsis somewhere and pretended to know what i was talking about.
At least it never killed reading for me because by the time school made me read books I was already reading fantasy novels in my free time anyway.
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I read mostly three things: fanfics mostly on My Little Pony, literature for degree and scientific papers(mostly unrelated to degree).
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This is why I read genre fiction rather than literary fiction. Sure, you and your book club can look down on me but until you're reading a book that isn't a variation on a theme of "unsuccessful professional moves back to coastal small town to look after their mother who has dementia", yous can all get to fuck.
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Stop shaming people about reading kids' books.
The kids can have those books back when you're done and not one minute sooner.
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Sounds like someone is shaming people who like adult books, rather.
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No, it's just saying adult books have heavy topics sometimes
If I say i think apples suck im not necessarily shaming people that eat apples
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This is basically the “everybody secretly likes pop music” reverse snobbery angle. It’s so difficult to imagine that other people have different tastes from you.
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it's not saying everybody likes kids books. it's just saying you shouldn't shame people who do.
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I like the take that science fiction and fantasy is just a better form of fiction because you could take literally any fiction story about a mopey 30 year old who has to take care of their sick parent and a science fiction story has the potential to write an equally compelling story except this time there's a killer robot on the loose or they're on Mars or something.
All good stories are human stories, even science fiction. There's nothing inherently better about setting your story in the "real world".
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"Human stories" are depressing and boring as fuck. I've already dealt enough with people dying of illnesses and being in shitty relationships and all that bullshit in my own life. I don't need to be reminded of it by reading or watching a dramatized version. Put that shit in a metaphor the characters can solve their problems by blowing up.
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The only reason people set books in the real world is to try to appeal to the sensibilities of reactionary realists. http://soulism.net
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If you're into magic treehouses in your books, you can ease the transition from kids books to adult books by going via the Fantasy genre.
Granted, there will be more swords involved than in a kids book...
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The adult books in fantasy are just about as bad as regular fiction in regards to the image. There’s still war, rape, affairs, etc…just dressed up with magic and swords. Maybe the change of environment makes it seem more distant?
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Did someone say magic tree house?
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You want a sad book? Mr. Frumble, from that same worm driving an apple book, is a tragic character. In a single day the poor guy has tragedy after tragedy, probably costing him millions, and making him hated by his entire community. There's no relief. There's no mercy. His life is chaos.
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He should get rid of that hat.
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I love reading all sorts of books, and I think most people do too. Those who judge others for what they read are just a loud minority.
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Wasn’t Animal Farm marketed and widely believed to be a “kids” book??
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It is part of the children education curriculum in the US for McCarthyism reasons.
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I’m never ashamed of what books I read, especially since they are on a kindle and no one ever looks at the title. Besides, you’re just as likely to find LOTR, Dune, Foundations, pretty much anything from Dumas, among others on my kindle. If i’m reading books that are well written, have a decent plot and make me never want to put the book down, then who the fuck cares that I’m reading hunger games, harry potter or the golden compass… not any friend i’d want to keep.
Its the same with movies, though i find those less compelling overall. But damn if i’m not going to go see any new finding nemo or minions movie.
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Define "adult book"
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I'll grant that the stories can be better in kids books but adult books have better pictures.
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Alice in Sunderland. Wonderful "adult" comic novel. Seriously the thing is between 200-400 pages. Neil Gaiman illustrated it, and Bryan Talbot wrote it.
I learned more about British history, as an American, from that book, than I did in my university level history classes.
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I had no idea this existed, and I'm from the area it's about! Will have to give this one a look 😎
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The bit about you all capturing a monkey, and deciding it was a Frenchman sailor/ spy is particularly humorous, though I do feel bad for the monkey.
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This is me every time I recommend Bone by Jeff Smith. It's a kid-friendly book but I'll be damned if it isn't a lovely 1000+ page adventure anyone can enjoy
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The adults. By a lot.
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Ok but everyone should read discworld, a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, Where the Wild Things Are, the lion witch and wardrobe etc
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My favorite romances definitely have happy people having affairs.
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What about historical nonfiction?
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For me the books became nourishment of the brain of sorts but once they were just fantasy entertainment and escapism. Maybe I am getting older or I am just getting my entertainment from different sources nowadays
I always consumed those cheap fantasy novels in droves but now I am looking for different experiences of being human and generally something that provokes thought.
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I have no shame for enjoying the entire Rick Riordan Olympian / Norse / Roman series. But I did have "reading to kid before bed" as an excuse.
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I started the series as a teenager and I'm not going to stop just because I'm older now.
That said I was also reading my parent's books when I was younger too. I grew up on Dan Brown and Clive Cussler just as much as I grew up on Rick Riordan and Anthony Horowitz. I feel like my taste in books has only devolved as I've gotten older if anything.
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Eulaliaaaaaaa!!! I'll defend my Redwall books to the hilt.
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Gatekeeping books is a great sign that someone didn’t read anything but the Wikipedia synopsis just to sound smart on the internet.
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Children's books are great for getting an overview of a new subject.
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Okay but why do you think adults having affairs are sad? They're out there chasing tail and they're getting some.
