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What books do you consider must reads? (beehaw.org)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So basically I was unschooled, and the amount of books I've read in my life is embarrassingly low. It was never emforced like in a school, and with my family's religious hangups, I never tried getting into new things because I never knew what would be deemed "offensive".

But I'm always interested when I hear people talk about both storycraft and also literary criticism, so I want to take an earnest stab at getting into books.

No real criteria, I don't know what I like so I can't tell you what I'm looking for, other than it needs to be in English or have an English translation. Just wanna know what y'all think would make good or important reading.

ETA holy shit thanks for all the suggestions! Definitely gonna make a list

ETA if I reply extremely late it's because it took me this long to get a library card in my new locale.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein is one the books I read during my formative years that I still think about a lot.

If you like graphic novels, The Sandman by Neil Gaiman is fantastic. Great writing and great artwork.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Funny. I absolutely hated Stranger in a Strange Land. It felt like a 14-year-old boy's fantasy/im14andiamsmart. Pretentious and masturbatory.

Maybe I would have loved it if I read it when I was 14 instead of when I was something like 22.

It's actually my go-to example for a book that I dislike. I think it's the only book I've really actually hated. I would have just thought it was tripe if it hadn't taken such a wonderful title away. Now there will never be a good book with that fantastic title.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Stranger has a point where you can feel in your body the whiplash of the change in tone. After the middle point Heinlein was blocked for years, and when he continued the result was grotesque.

When you start reading dialog about what happens in Heaven, when the story started as proper sf, you know that the author lost the plot (literally and figuratively).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I liked it until about half way through, it seemed to lose all the intrigue and then there was the weird bit about rape (if I remember correctly) at which point I gave up. Shame because it started well.