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Reverse engineer it - what kind of movies/shows do you like? See if they started out as books and read them. If there is no book, google what kind of books are similar to the show/movie.
Talk to your local librarian. They know everything and more. Or join a book club, in person not online. Check out some small book stores and talk to the owners. They still exist, you just have to find them.
So real. I used to go to a particular branch and saw the same librarian a lot. One time I was feeling in a rut so I asked her to give me a few recommendations. She gave me four books and they were all fantastic and to my taste.
Il give that a try, thanks.
Yes, libraries are the best because you can browse in the shelves, and even take home a stack of books to dip into, and bring them back, all for free. If they hadn't been around so long we'd be more aware how radical that is.
Try to remember your favorite books as a kid, because that will help clue you in on types of books you might like now. And maybe you'd feel like checking out one or two of your childhood favorites, the librarian isn't going to judge you.
The type and genre of other media you enjoy indicates the kind of books you should try (but expand your horizons later).
So, tell me some of your favorite movies and/or tv shows or genres, and I’ll recommend some books.
For example:
- Sci-fi —> Project Hail Mary
- Cyberpunk —> Thin Air
- Vikings —> The Last Kingdom
- FPS dystopia —> Battle Royale
- Romance (comedy) —> Yours Truly
- Romance (literary) —> Wedding People
- Thriller (espionage) —> Gray Man, John Rain
- Thriller (romance) —> The Chemist
- Literature (comedy, drama) —> My Friends
- Western (modern) —> No Country for Old Men
- Horror (sci fi) —> The Watchers, Relic
- Horror (romance, medieval) —> Paladin’s Grace
- LitRPG (vengeance) —> Path of the Berserker
- Philosophy (metaethics) —> On What Matters
I’ve read thousands of books, so tell me your mood.
Im usually into survival/exploration, technology and space type stuff. Real events would be preffered but some fiction wouldn't hurt.
Ive tried reading Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, but i didn't make it past 10 pages or so, but that may be because i was reading from a PDF (sorry if that's a bad thing)
Here's a good survival story that's also an easy read - 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin. Try that one out.
ooo, this one looks interesting. Thank you!
Try reading The Martian by Andy Weir. Or Project Hail Mary by the same author. I think they would tickle the survival, tech, and space moods all at once.
That seems something i might read. Il take a look into it, thank you.
If you're up for the classics, you could try ‘Robinson Crusoe’. Its language is rather antiquated, and apparently there are multiple long passages of musings on religion (which I must've forgotten), but at least for a month afterwards I was thinking of getting a period survival game with base building — except I wasn't playing desktop games at the time, which saved me.
Regarding tech, you'd do well with all the cyberpunk classics: William Gibson's ‘Neuromancer’ and sequels, Neal Stephenson starting with ‘Snow Crash’, everything by Cory Doctorow (usually freely accessible). Stephenson and Doctorow in particular are well-informed on actual tech and adjacent topics, and their novels and stories are often grounded in real stuff.
survival/exploration
Vaguely related but The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel was incredibly gripping right off the bat for me. And it's relatively short and easy to read which might help get you some momentum.
Ohhh I'll take you up on your offer, nothing like adding more to the TBR. Thank you! :3
I'm a huge fan of stuff like: Steins;Gate, Counterpart, Fringe, Looper, Avatar: the last airbender universe and Mass Effect series. So got anything that scratches the time-travel, parallel/alternate worlds & doppelgängers, space, and elemental magic system type of action itch? For reference, recently finished This Is How You Lose The Time War -- in which I really enjoyed how the time-travel aspect was handled; and am now reading Sword of Kaigen for the Avatar vibes.
Looper (time travel)
- The Perfect Run --> Deadpool + Groundhog Day, almost literally. The MC is overpowered and hilarious, the world is a gritty cyberpunk-superhero amalgam crammed with action and fantastic character development. The whole series is good.
- Apocalypse: Regression --> World ends, MC goes back in time to save humanity from monsters. Unfortunately, his young self was a bit of an idiot, so nobody believes him. Really entertaining. Sadly, only the first two or three books are worthwhile, since the story loses momentum once he saves the day.
- Reborn: Apocalypse --> similar premise. Prose and character development are much worse, but the plot is better and more intricate. If these two authors had collaborated we’d have a real winner. Still entertaining, although the opening’s slow.
Avatar the Last Airbender is one of the greatest narrative achievements of all time. There is nothing else like it. That said, if we consider books whose young (magically empowered) protagonists are on a quest to save the world, with themes like found family and antiauthoritarianism, we find… Harry Potter! Just kidding, that’s the magical academy trope.
- Are You Even Human --> MC and friends acquire powers, which they need to save the world. Found family + adventure quest + antiauthoritarianism. All the published books are superb. The author is a master of characterization. Her prose is okay, the action scenes are excellent, and the plot is fantastic. The story only slows down in the later volumes, which get some slice-of-life elements.
Mass Effect is one of the coolest stories in sci-fi. It’s an unapologetically tropey masterpiece of action and adventure. I have read 300 sci-fi novels and I’ve never seen anything like it, except some ersatz derivatives, of course, which sucked and shall not be mentioned. That said, if we look for a team of heroes with variegated skillsets under a badass commander trying to save the galaxy from an unknown alien threat, we get…
- The Expanse --> an alien proto-molecule designed to hijack the machinery of life arrives in our solar system and causes a bunch of chaos. One commander and his team are forced to spearhead humanity’s subsequent battle for survival against the aliens.
- The Last Reaper --> the first book follows a formidable MC trying to infiltrate a prison planet. By the second and third books, the story evolves into building a team of misfits led by our overpowered hero to protect the entire galaxy from invading aliens.
Whoa thank you so much, wasn't aware of any of your recommendations except The Expanse. You're a legend, much appreciated! 🖖
Go to a bookshop and don't mind judging books by their covers. Just see what appeals to you, which titles and what covers you like. Pick a nice looking book and read the back. If you still like the sound of it, start reading. If you're 10 pages in and have been standing there like an idiot, you've probably found your book.
I do exactly this, except I don't start at the first page but like 10-30 pages in. So that the writer has started to write normally.
Yeah, I take several random samples of the prose from throughout the book, just to get a good sense of the overall style. Though I do always begin with the first paragraph, and on at least one case, that was enough to immediately close and buy the book.
That being the over-the-top, sorta Victorian prose of Jacqueline Carey:
Lest anyone should suppose that I am a cuckoo’s child, got on the wrong side of the blanket by lusty peasant stock and sold into indenture in a shortfallen season, I may say that I am House-born and reared in the Night Court proper, for all the good it did me. It is hard for me to resent my parents, although I envy them their naïveté...
She then keeps going just like that for three large books, probably totaling something like 2k pages. I loved every page of it.
I had to hop off kushiel's dart, but you are spot on that the writing style is evocative.
Not a very accurate method, but any discerning reader should get into Nabokov right away from:
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.
Wow, good call. That paragraph was uniquely unpleasant.
I mean, without telling us what kind of books you're looking for, how are we to help?
StoryGraph
Search for and add the books that you have read. Ask it for suggestions based upon your read history.
Go to the library, have a browse. If a cover (or blurb or whatever) interests you, sit down and read the first chapter or 20 pages or something like that. If, after that, you want to keep going then you've found a book you'll probably like :)
Take your time, there's no rush.
Or, alternatively, find some short story collections in a genre of tv/games/movies you like.
Honestly I just read things at random. Lots of places have "free trials" so to speak so you can figure out if it's for you. Some books I never thought I'd enjoy but ended up liking it
What types of movies, tv shows or games do you like? Fantasy, horror, comedy etc.. Once you settle on a genre to start with, hit up online best of book lists for that genre. Goodreads can be a start, or hit up your libraries for additional recommendations. Once you start diving in, find an author you click with and then you can get more recommendations from that.
I ask people on the internet or just scroll through my library's recommendations.
Internet recommendations (from people who share the same tastes) are better than library randoms... Mostly because YA stuff is more common in my library recommendations for some reason but I still usually read them anyway.
There's only been one book that I ever regretted reading. "Conrad's Time Machine" ... Fuck that book. It was so bad I'm still salty 20+ years later.
Just try a book, if you're not feeling it, just quit and start a new one! There's nothing wrong with not finishing a book, just try a bit of everything and you'll figure out what your looking for pretty quickly.
I highly suggest short story collections. There are free ebooks of them (Some of the Best of Tor.com, for example). This way you only sink roughly 10 to 20 pages per story while sampling different authors' writing styles.
A large barrier for me was finding authors who write in a manner that meshed with the language of how I think. I gravitate to simple declarative language (ex: Kurt Vonnegut, Octavia E Butler, etc).
Bet you might also like Lou Reed's style of songwriting— namely on Velvet Underground's albums.
well what stuff do you like in other media?
What topics interest you? Do you like fantasy, romance, sci-fi, thrillers, non-fiction?
I'd start from that and try and find recommendations from your favourite genres.
For general authors if you want something to hook you, I don't think you can go wrong with Stephen King, Blake Crouch and Dennis Lehane. They tend to be fast-paced and maybe a good introduction if you want to get into reading. Oh and anything written by Terry Pratchett!
Try some short story analogies.
A best mysteries will have a cozy who-dun-it, a violent thriller, a cryptogram, and others.
Same with science fiction or romance.
Also, here are two books that cover a variety of genes.
'Night Soldiers' by Alan Furst. In 1935 a Fascist mob kills a young Bulgarian. His brother is recruited by the KGB. After training in Moscow he is sent to the Spanish Civil War. History/espionage/love/politics.
'The Harlem Shuffle' by Colson Whitehead. Harlem businessman just wants to be able to sell quality furniture to the community and lead a quiet life with his family. But it's 1960s and a Black man has to make certain compromises, like fencing stolen jewelry for psychotic crooks and crooked cops.
History/race relations/crime/comedy
Goodreads gave me some really on-the-nose recommendations for a while but idk how much data about yourself you wanna give them to do it.
I'd recommend having a look at well known books like Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. And if the summary sounds good just give it a go.
Its far too complex a topic for someone except you to judge the taste. As others said, librarians, yes, could be a good guide. But you might miss out on things you'd not strictly expect to like.
Be open, experiment!
this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2026
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