Hey guys. So, my wife is a big time reader, and it really bugs her that I don’t read… I’ve just never been into it, but we have a baby on the way, and the wife would love our kid to be a reader, so I’d like to get the wheels rolling and try to get some practice in…
Any good book recommendations? I’m open to both fiction and non-fiction suggestions. Also whilst we are at it, audiobook recommendations would be appreciated too.
Thanks 🙂

A few hints as to your likes/interests would be useful! 🙂

Honestly, I deliberately left that out, as I would like to broaden my horizons… I’m going into this completely open-minded.

Not actually recommending a book but try reading from a kindle. I’ve probably read more books on a kindle than any time before.
Someone on here recommended the original Bourne Identity books and I’ve found them to be a real page turner.

I Am Pilgrim – a crime / spy sort of tale. There are many greater books and you will get lots of recommendations. I’m suggesting this one because it’s straight in from the first page, which I think will help if you’re not yet an avid bookworm.

Harry potter…start at the 1st one.

Seriously.

If not get hold of Guards Guards by Terry Pratchet.

Hunger Games Trilogy, easy to dip in & out of as your interest wanes

I’m a ‘non’ reader, but pick up my kindle for holidays / travel and that makes it easier than carting a book about

How about..

French Revolutions
The Forever War
The Best a Man Can Get
The English Passengers
Lord of the Flies
Brave New World
Fluke

They are all fairly easy to read but interesting in their own ways.

Bourne Books +1 – nothing like the films so don’t feel it will spoil them if you’ve seen them.

Stephen King – he’s written some really rather good books. I found Joyland really enjoyable – and not too long either – not like some of Kings 1000 epics!…

And this is really funny as something completely different – Round Ireland with a Fridge…

Bill Bryson, his first two are brilliant:

America

Europe

Harry Potter is a pretty good shout actually, especially given you’ve got a sprog on the way. “Young adult” type books can be surprisingly good at times, they’re much easier to pick up and get into than serious titles which can be convoluted with unnecessarily florid language.

Sorry if that sounds condescending, what I’m getting at is that if you’re a self-confessed “non-reader” then they’d serve you well as a literary “gateway drug.”

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, (the books that got me into reading as a young un because somehow I’d got it into my head that reading ‘grown up books’ would be hard! A mate had a copy with him on holiday, he lent it to me and I devoured it! 😀 That set of books has improved my life immeasurably)

The War of the Worlds. Great story that rattles along (no really, a beautifully detailed interplanetary battle in about 180pages! Great book.
(The Invisible Man too if you fancy something a bit darker)

The day of the Triffids is my comfort reading go to book. The world’s just ended, what now then? Endless musing possibilities! 🙂

David Sedaris’ Squirrel seeks Chipmunk is worth a look. If your sense of humour clicks with it you’ll love it an awful lot indeed.

Non Fiction, Backroom Boys by Francis Spufford, A collection of tales about British Tech triumphs (and often of how they were squandered/mismanaged away too).

A book for the future bedtime reading duties, Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man. Everyone should have that read to them when a nipper!

Currently reading The Ginger Man on my Kindle app. Great for a bit of rollicking debauchery.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, (the books that got me into reading as a young un because somehow I’d got it into my head that reading ‘grown up books’ would be hard! A mate had a copy with him on holiday, he lent it to me and I devoured it! That set of books has improved my life immeasurably)

+1 to all of that. H2G2 is a stone cold classic.

sean dillon series by jack higgins i hardly read but finished the first on holiday and halfway through the second

If you like slow burn thriller movies, then try the jack reacher series by lee child – start with the killing floor.

Easy reading.

The Hobbit

Trainspotting

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Glass bead Game

If you’re not in the habit of reading then you’d probably want to check out someone with a distinctive voice, a voice you can hear as you read.

Hunter S Thompson’s Fear & Loathing would be my recommendation, these are also good:

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, (the books that got me into reading as a young un because somehow I’d got it into my head that reading ‘grown up books’ would be hard! A mate had a copy with him on holiday, he lent it to me and I devoured it! That set of books has improved my life immeasurably)

David Sedaris’ Squirrel seeks Chipmunk is worth a look. If your sense of humour clicks with it you’ll love it an awful lot indeed.

without wishing to piss on your parade the last book I started was 6 years ago when my first born arrived – still not finished it!

+1 for The forever war. Made for very interesting read also read if you like that worlds, worlds apart and worlds apart and time. Very powerful subject matter that can really open your mind to different concepts and shock you.

My fav short story’s are

1. The man who would be king.
2. All my sins remembered.

The Hobbit

I revisited The Hobbit as an adult. It’s really hard going, it’s very definitely a children’s book. It’s really twee, “little Bilbo Baggins in it little stripy dungarees” sort of thing.

The dragon tattoo series of books were excellent.

The “Dan Shepherd” books are excellent too (by Stephen Leather ) hard landing was the first, start there, there’s loads to go at.

I’m not a massive reader but those two “sets of books” were very hard to put down.

Any of the books from the “sets” can be bought for pennies on amazon. I wouldn’t go splashing out on a Kindle just yet,

Like yourself, I’m not much of a reader but I downloaded and read Treasure Island on my phone. I went and built a tree house fort afterwards!

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Non-fiction. Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman-Richard Feynman. Feynman is one of the greatest physicists in history and he was an interesting character.

The book is very readable and focuses as much on him picking safes and learning to play the bongos as it does on physics. In fact the science bits are more his views on stuff and some interesting bits on his involvement in the Manhattan project than science theory. It is also very funny.

You can’t go wrong with a bit on Tom Clancy for a it out light reading either. Think Die Hard the story.

Buy a Kindle and get cracking.

I’m not a fiction reader, so i’m here to suggest a few examples of non-fiction that i’ve read over the last couple of years:

‘Obsessive compulsive cycling disorder’ by Dave Barter. A collection of blogs rather than a book per se, but it’s very entertaining and has been written by a STWer. Might be a good introduction to reading if you’re interested in cycling (which i presume you are) and it’s very easy to pick up for a few minutes at a time.

‘Walking the Amazon’ by Ed Stafford. A retired Army officer who became the first person in history to walk the length of the Amazon river, from source to sea. Very down to earth and entertaining. A proper account of a propper adventure.

‘Survival of the Fittest’ by Mike Stroud. My default answer to any ‘What book?’ thread. A brilliant account of some incredible adventures in some of the harshest environments on earth, usually with Ranulph Feinnes. This is the one to get if you have even a passing interest in endurance sport, and how the body works during endurance sport. My favorite book ever.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

My g/f current favorite book, not sure that going from her description, that it’s an easy going nice book though. At one point she woke me in the middle of the night announcing she wanted to move to the slums in India (better than the time she dreamt I’d cheated on her, so woke me to hit me!)

The Hobbit
I revisited The Hobbit as an adult. It’s really hard going, it’s very definitely a children’s book.

+1, really not how I remembered it.

Lots of interesting book suggestions above, of those that I’ve read, I’m not sure I’d suggest them to get into reading.

I will suggest “The Martian” by Andy Wier, after taking the recommendation from here, Sci-fi with getting too locked into the indepth sci-fi & a brilliant audiobook IMO.

Really enjojoyed Shantaram.

Some excellent recommendations there guys. My wife even owns many of them already too, so that’s a bonus!
Thanks 🙂

From a cycling perspective, Faster and The Hour both by Michael Hutchinson are good reads, particularly if you have any inner geek for cycling numbers.

My tuppence worth:

First Light – non fiction autobiography of a WWII Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot

And another vote for Harry Potter

Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid – you’ll obviously need to be interested in football for this one to appeal!

One point I’ll also make: if you get bored with a book, don’t feel you absolutely have to finish it. I read loads, but I’ve usually got up to 10 books on the go at once, I’ll read a bit of one then switch to another depending on my mood. And I’ll even consciously abandon books if I’m not enjoying them at all.

Enjoyed reading many of the above, oh and Bill Brysons “Short History of Nearly Everything”, I read that twice, back to back.

Also, some faves this summer:

Jim Butcher – The Dresden Files

Ben Aaronovitch – Rivers of London

Ian Tregillis – The Milkweed Triptych

Ramez Naam – Nexus

Here’s some I always recommend

Carlos Ruiz Zafon – The Shadow of the Wind (Beautifully-written thriller)
Philip Pullman – Northern Lights trilogy (Just a brilliant bit of storytelling, especially the first one)
PG Wodehouse – Any Jeeves and Wooster
Iain Banks – The Crow Road
Bill Bryson – Notes from a Small Island (easygoing witty travelogue)
Alex Garland – The Beach (well written thriller)
Peter O’Toole – Loitering with Intent (autobiography)

Mountaineering to inspire (or put off) none Mountaineers
The White Spider
Touching the Void
Into Thin Air
Starlight and Storm

dont let the pigeon drive the bus.. witty, laugh out loud, angst, pictures, short. ticks all the boxes.

Any collection of Asimov’s short stories if you like logic puzzle type things and/or science fiction. They were mostly originally published in magazines so pretty easy to read, and if you get into them you can work your way up to the epic Foundation series.

Also +1 for H2G2, fear and loathing, stephen king and harry potter. All easy reading. Trainspotting is an excellent book but worth saving until you’re a bit more “into” reading as the dialect can be fairly hard going at times.

Also Catch-22. Try looking at GCSE reading lists to see what books are considered fairly easy to read but worth reading (pre-Gove lists that is).

War of the worlds.

+1 for ‘I am Pilgram’ recommendation.

Similar to you, I dont read often but found this really gripping right from the first chapter.

As one or two others, I enjoyed reading the old horror/scfi classics. Time Machine, Frankenstein, Brahm Stoker’s Dracula, brave new world for example.