I started reading when I was young because I was nosy and impatient. I didn’t like waiting for the next Harry Potter movie to out come to learn what happens. So I read the books. I was drunk with power. People came to me begging for spoilers, or clarifications on the Wizarding World, I became an expert. And a monster. If someone pissed me off I could end their childhood by telling them Dumbledore died before they could see it for themselves on the big screen.
My friends made fun of me a lot for reading. We were more into sports, and girls, and lighting bags of shit on fire in front of peoples houses at the time. But I always brought a book to a sleepover. If we were doing a Madden tournament, I’d read while I waited for my game. Or I’d go to bed later or wake up earlier than everyone to get to my next chapter. I caught some flak. Luckily for me, I was bigger and much meaner than all my friends. They learned quickly to leave me alone when I’m reading.
But not everyone had that luxury. I’m sure many of you were discouraged from reading because it was weird, or nerdy, or everyone you know is just dicks. But there’s a case to be made for reading.
Everyone watches shows. It’s one of the first things in that you ask a stranger now to try and relate. “What shows do you watch?” Imagine someone said none? Ew. Books are just portable shows. That’s all it is. Not to sound like that prentious prick but the book is always better than the show. And rightfully so. There’s no restrictions, or time limits to tell the story. There’s less censoring. More freedom to see the world the way you picture it. With just the slightest bit of imagination you can open yourself up to the best and oldest form of entertainment.
By my own admission, most of my friends would hate this blog. But as we get older more of them come to me for recommendations. Public transportation commutes will do that to you. If you’re one of those select few, you’re in luck.
To start you off, I’m going to only recommend SciFi/Fantasy. A genre that used to be laughed at. But all these superhero movies and Game Of Thrones have done wonders to rid that stink. Everyone watched Thrones. I’m sure you know at least five people that made you go “Wait, YOU watch Game Of Thrones?!” It opened a lot of people’s mind to accepting categories that they used to make fun of.
It isn’t lost on me that it’s easy to get distracted while reading. Or it could sometimes feel mundane. These SciFi/ Fantasy books grab your attention right away and won’t let go. I chose books I feel like many people don’t know about or haven’t been adapted into a movie or TV show.
Without further adieu…
6. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jeminson
In the distant future of what I assume is still Earth, the world is consumed by natural disasters. Massive earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis are constantly changing the landscape of civilizations. They rise and fall with the seasons. The more wealthy cities can maintain their power and presence with the help of orogenes. People who are born with the power of orogeney can manipulate kinetic and thermal energies to prevent seismic events. But instead of being regarded for their powers, they’re treated as less than human.
The Fifth Season has you follow three women orogenes at vastly different stages in their lives. Damaya, a teenager who just learned of her powers and was taken from her family to be properly trained as a puppet for her society. Syenite in her twenties is being apprenticed by the most powerful orogene, who are both forced to breed with each other. And Essun, a 42 year old mother who found her four-year-old son murdered by her loving husband. Now she hunts him down in the midst of an apparent apocalypse.
I’ll be honest I’m still reading this one, but I have a sneaky suspicion that all three women are the same person. We’ll just have to wait and see how smart I am. This book is the first of a trilogy. All three books won the Hugo Award for best sci-fi/fantasy which is unfucking heard of.
5. Night Circus by Erin Morganstern
In the early 1900s, two magicians from two very different schools of learning make a wager on who’s form of magic is superior. They agree to raise two children to battle each other in mystical traveling circus.
Night Circus follows the lives of Marco and Celia, who are unaware that their lives were created for the sole purpose of a magical duel. Only the winner can come out of this alive. There’s only one issue, they fall in love.
4. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The most excitement in Robert Mayhew’s life is his move from Scotland to London. He’s got a boring job, a shitty boss, and a bitchy fiancé. That all changes when he stops to help a crying bloody girl on the sidewalk.
He meets Door, royalty from London Below. Door’s family has the power to make portals appear to travel anywhere in the world. All of them have been murdered except her. Now she’s enlisted Robert to help her get her revenge while dodging her assassins through London Below. London Below, London’s secret magical underground that’s filled with mythical beast hunters, rat worshippers, and evil angels alike. Robert is just a regular ass dude and doesn’t see the part he has to play in this fantastical adventure.
3. Three Body Problem by Liu CixinThis former Hugo Award winner caught my eye when it was described to me as the most realistic alien invasion out there. That, coupled with Obama labeling it as a must read. It made me think that the President was giving me a blueprint for what’s actually out there. It’s lengthy though, lengthier than this blog if you could believe it.
This story takes place in flashbacks and flash forwards to modern day. During China’s Cultural Movement in the late sixties, Ye Wenjie witnesses her father being murdered by the government. Her mother and sister support the execution but Ye condemns it. She’s labeled a traitor and sent to a labor camp where she’s later recruited for a top secret assignment due to her physics expertise. She makes contact with aliens who warn her not to respond or Earth will be invaded and destroyed. She responds explicitly for that reason.
In modern day, nanotechnologist Wang Miao is recruited by local police to help with the murders of top scientists. Wang knows somehow that this video game everyone is playing has something to do with the disappearances. Teamed up with local detective, Yang Dong, they infiltrate the secret society inviting a deadly alien invasion. The world is split between people fighting the upcoming invasion and those welcoming it.
2. Magicians by Lev GrossmanThis book is like Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia combined. That is, if all the students were fucking, murdering, and doing a shit ton of drugs. Magicians explores the land of Fillory and a newfound young magician’s obsession with it’s lore and power. After attending Breakbills College of Magical Pedagogy, Quentin Coldwater enlists his friends to find the mythical storybook land that he read about as a child. But it isn’t all unicorns and rainbows, it’s fucking dark as shit.
I know it’s a TV show and I said I wouldn’t do that, but I’m pretty positive no one watched it. Syfy produced it. I was obsessed with this series and I couldn’t even make it through two episodes.
1. Hyperion by Dan SimmonsThis is probably my favorite book I ever read and I’ve never met a single person who’s heard of it. Dan Simmons creates this complex universe with intricacies that make you feel like you’ve lived there all your life. This level of world building is paralleled only to maybe George RR Martin.
Thousands of years in the future, seven pilgrims take the journey to the planet of Hyperion because one of them has the best chance to stop the mythical Shrike. The Time Tombs that held the immortal killing godlike creature are deteriorating. Both religious prophecy and super computer confirm these random people from all walks of life have the best chance to stop the universal apocalypse. But only one will stop the Shrike and undo the tragedy in their life, the rest of them are walking to their deaths.
The pilgrims are made up of a priest, a disgraced war hero, a drunk poet, a nature Templar, a Jewish scholar and his infant daughter, a private investigator, and a government official. Each one tells their story of why they took the journey on the way to the Time Tombs and why they risk their lives in front of the Shrike. With each passing tale, it becomes more and more difficult to figure out who you are rooting for to be the last one standing.
Dan Simmons does an unbelievable job in painting planets with their different properties and histories. While still acknowledging “Old Earth” and where humanity stemmed from. His foresight for future technologies is genius. Houses that have portals for doors that result in each room being on a different planet. Robots that have the memories and live the lives of humanity’s most famous artists, philosophers, and leaders. Hyperion is really unmatched.
I’ve been dying for this series to be adapted into screen. The good news is that apparently Bradley Cooper in love with the Hyperion Cantos and is determined to get it done. _____________________________________________
If you’re just starting out reading, it’s important to stay engaged. So if someone recommends a classic to you, they’re an idiot. I’ve read the Mark Twains, and the Sherlock Holmes, and the Oscar Wildes. They’re all great books, they’ve held up this long for a reason. But it’s better to work yourself up to them. Go for something more recent.
Or maybe you’re not just starting out reading. In which case, you’re welcome for these. Thank me later.
He meets Door, royalty from London Below. Door’s family has the power to make portals appear to travel anywhere in the world. All of them have been murdered except her. Now she’s enlisted Robert to help her get her revenge while dodging her assassins through London Below. London Below, London’s secret magical underground that’s filled with mythical beast hunters, rat worshippers, and evil angels alike. Robert is just a regular ass dude and doesn’t see the part he has to play in this fantastical adventure.
3. Three Body Problem by Liu CixinThis former Hugo Award winner caught my eye when it was described to me as the most realistic alien invasion out there. That, coupled with Obama labeling it as a must read. It made me think that the President was giving me a blueprint for what’s actually out there. It’s lengthy though, lengthier than this blog if you could believe it.
This story takes place in flashbacks and flash forwards to modern day. During China’s Cultural Movement in the late sixties, Ye Wenjie witnesses her father being murdered by the government. Her mother and sister support the execution but Ye condemns it. She’s labeled a traitor and sent to a labor camp where she’s later recruited for a top secret assignment due to her physics expertise. She makes contact with aliens who warn her not to respond or Earth will be invaded and destroyed. She responds explicitly for that reason.
In modern day, nanotechnologist Wang Miao is recruited by local police to help with the murders of top scientists. Wang knows somehow that this video game everyone is playing has something to do with the disappearances. Teamed up with local detective, Yang Dong, they infiltrate the secret society inviting a deadly alien invasion. The world is split between people fighting the upcoming invasion and those welcoming it.
2. Magicians by Lev GrossmanThis book is like Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia combined. That is, if all the students were fucking, murdering, and doing a shit ton of drugs. Magicians explores the land of Fillory and a newfound young magician’s obsession with it’s lore and power. After attending Breakbills College of Magical Pedagogy, Quentin Coldwater enlists his friends to find the mythical storybook land that he read about as a child. But it isn’t all unicorns and rainbows, it’s fucking dark as shit.
I know it’s a TV show and I said I wouldn’t do that, but I’m pretty positive no one watched it. Syfy produced it. I was obsessed with this series and I couldn’t even make it through two episodes.
1. Hyperion by Dan SimmonsThis is probably my favorite book I ever read and I’ve never met a single person who’s heard of it. Dan Simmons creates this complex universe with intricacies that make you feel like you’ve lived there all your life. This level of world building is paralleled only to maybe George RR Martin.
Thousands of years in the future, seven pilgrims take the journey to the planet of Hyperion because one of them has the best chance to stop the mythical Shrike. The Time Tombs that held the immortal killing godlike creature are deteriorating. Both religious prophecy and super computer confirm these random people from all walks of life have the best chance to stop the universal apocalypse. But only one will stop the Shrike and undo the tragedy in their life, the rest of them are walking to their deaths.
The pilgrims are made up of a priest, a disgraced war hero, a drunk poet, a nature Templar, a Jewish scholar and his infant daughter, a private investigator, and a government official. Each one tells their story of why they took the journey on the way to the Time Tombs and why they risk their lives in front of the Shrike. With each passing tale, it becomes more and more difficult to figure out who you are rooting for to be the last one standing.
Dan Simmons does an unbelievable job in painting planets with their different properties and histories. While still acknowledging “Old Earth” and where humanity stemmed from. His foresight for future technologies is genius. Houses that have portals for doors that result in each room being on a different planet. Robots that have the memories and live the lives of humanity’s most famous artists, philosophers, and leaders. Hyperion is really unmatched.
I’ve been dying for this series to be adapted into screen. The good news is that apparently Bradley Cooper in love with the Hyperion Cantos and is determined to get it done. _____________________________________________
If you’re just starting out reading, it’s important to stay engaged. So if someone recommends a classic to you, they’re an idiot. I’ve read the Mark Twains, and the Sherlock Holmes, and the Oscar Wildes. They’re all great books, they’ve held up this long for a reason. But it’s better to work yourself up to them. Go for something more recent.
Or maybe you’re not just starting out reading. In which case, you’re welcome for these. Thank me later.
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