this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2024
86 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

43889 readers
855 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
86
What books do you consider must reads? (beehaw.org)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
100 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

The best science fiction has to offer:

Metro 2033

Sphere

Jurassic Park

Roadside Picnic

Metamorphosis

Add from Stephen King:

Night Shift

4 Minutes to Midnight

(Both are novellas/story collections)

And also:

The Call of Cthulhu and other weird tales

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Your "best of sf" doesn't include many recognized classics. That's weird. No LeGuin, no Bester?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I'm a week late but I never specified classics! I kept my request vague for a reason, I'm looking for variety. :) So I appreciate the recs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Michael Crichton in a list of "best sci-fi"? Really? He just does mass market pulp. It can be entertaining, in the same way a Transformers movie can, but it hardly qualifies as "best".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I’ve read some of Crichton’s other books, not all but a few, and I get it. I wouldn’t rate them so high. But I don’t consider these two to be that kind of book.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I agree with more than one of these, but I would call out The Metamorphosis as one that everybody should read. You can appreciate it at any age (well, within reason--maybe not for the 8-year-olds), it's dramatic and captivating, and it's short.

I always try to recommend books of short stories to my friends who like to read but don't have much time for it.