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

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Alice@beehaw.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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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[–] Drusas@fedia.io 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The dystopic books that warn us of what we could be.

1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, Animal Farm, The Giver (and yes, you should still read The Giver even if you're an adult if you've never read it before).

But the first book that flashed through my mind when I read the question was Slaughterhouse Five.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 6 points 2 months ago

Ah yes, all those books whose plots are being used as manuals these days. :( lol

The Giver was really neat. Accessible too. The movie adaptation was such a bad idea because I thought one of its strengths was how it was set in an ambiguous time, iirc. The reader's visuals seemed really important for that story.