I enjoy epic poetry, so The Illiad, The Odyssey, Beowulf, The Aeneid, Paradise Lost, ect.
Anything by Tolkien or Hemingway also.
Clive Cussler when no one is watching.
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Iām a fan of anything with grounding in reality, and without romance at the centre of the plot
Fiction:
- anything by Agatha Christie. Sheās so masterful in crafting plots.
- one day in the life of Ivan denisovich. Iām not stuck in a gulag, but a lot of the sentiment applies to school life
- notes from the underground Russian history nerd. This is a historical gem.
- A tale of two cities. The plot is shallow and the protagonists are flat beyond belief but itās the first āhardā book I ever read
Non fiction: since āliteratureā doesnāt need to literally be a bookā¦ā¦Iāll list my favourite papers
- Burt (2004) structural holes and good ideas. My ability to being together diverse ideas and groups of people is whatās made me successful thus far
- Azoulay et al (2010) Superstar extinction. The methodology behind this is so elegantā¦. And really resonates with some mishaps Iāve gone through with various collaborators
- Offerman et al (2018) On the persistence of bad social norms . Economic justification of some struggles I was having with my family
- Ades and Di Tella (1999) Rents, competition and corruption. This paper kept me interested in econ
- Kamenica and Gentzkow (2011) Bayesian Persuasion. This relatively simple paper changed an entire field. Both kamenica and gentzkow are brilliant, but the impact to difficulty ratio on this one is mindblowing.
Literature is such a strong word. I LOVE audiobooks though! I like trashy, mind numbing garbage.
Action/ thriller
Mystery/suspense
History/ historical fiction
SciFi/fantasy
And sometimes a good kitty cat cozy. 
@QuadQueen and @punnyguy
My partners in crime!
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My favorite book that would probably pass the academic snob test for proper āliteratureā would be Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.
Iām curious if Tolkien has joined the literature club yet. Itās been a while since Iāve checked in with the academic community on that subject. Tolkienās massive popularity may have sunk any chance heāll ever have. Lots of people enjoying a book is a big slap in the face to the people who decide what is and isnāt literature. They take a lot of pride in knowing all about boring books that most people donāt enjoy and calling those books āliteratureā.
As an aside, one of my favorite movie characters of the last 20 years or so was Steve Carell as the gay uncle who is a suicidal Proust scholar in Little Miss Sunshine. He nailed it.
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ā¦like my womenā¦
I kid, I kid.
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I thought he was already there. LOTR is epic and full of great lessons. The movies kind of cheapened it and Rings of Power is essentially the antithesis of Tolkienās points. Pretty sure he is turning over in his grave and I hope haunting the producer of that awful show.
Old man and the Sea will also be a forever favorite.
And anything by Poe
Dracula
Frankenstein
At the Mountains of madness
āRime of the Ancient Marinerā
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Itās been over 20 years since I recall being informed by scholars that Tolkien wasnāt considered literature. Not in the way that someone so esteemed as Proust would be. It wasnāt a subject of serious literary study that I was ever aware of. That was right before the Peter Jackson films were released.
Khan read it and his last words were Ahabās. Thatās all you need to know.
ā¦like my bodybuilding forumsā¦
He has, itās one of those āahead of their timeā kind of things.
Fuck yeah, canāt believe I forgot to list this.
Actually almost everything by either of the Shellys and Byron.
Iāve never read this, and feel guilty.
And speaking of feeling guilty, I enjoy Ayn Randās writing.
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House of Leaves. I still come back to it every now and then after more than 20 years and still find new stuff in it.
That and the Gunslinger series.
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The Count of Monte Cristo, I just started the Shogun books, and Ready player 1 and 2.
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Ready Player one and 2 are great Books.
At the Moment i read the Transport from Petterson.
For SciFi Fans a must
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This was a great series. Favorites books were number 3 and 7.
By authors:
Fiction/SF
The entire Sherlock Holmes canon by ACD
Neal Stephenson
Isaac Asimov
John Le Carre
Hugo Pratt
Jaroslav HaŔek
Umberto Eco
Alan Moore
Stefan Zweig
History:
Timothy Snyder
Simon Schama
Simon Sebag-Montefiore
Tom Holland (historian, not the vertically challenged actor)
Richard Evans
early Niall Ferguson
Ian Kershaw
Robin Lane-Fox
Max Hastings
John Toland
Read Siddhartha on a toilet
Legit, anything you can find from him is great, but a solid starting point is The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims.
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Same! I spend a good part of most of my days reading research articles and career related material, when I have free time the LAST thing I want to do is learn something new or read/listen to something heavy. Bring on the psychological thrillers and chick-lit!! The closest I come to actually learning something in my free reading is when I read the bible (daily with my devotional) and the occasional dip into some historical fiction. (unsolicited review/recommendation: I just finished āThe Womenā by Kristin Hannah and learned so much about the Vietnam War. Highly recommend.)
Same! I āreadā so much more because I listen while Iām doing things - making dinner, cleaning, biking, walking, etc. Iāve started reading a ābook with pagesā before bed, but otherwise, itās all audio for me.
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Good on you for still reading.
I completely stopped reading for pleasure after high school.
I like to listen to fitness and history podcasts, watch YouTube and browse forums/discord
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Nothing wrong with reading/ listening for pure entertainment.
My life is rooted in realityā¦ ācalgon take me awayā.
One of my peeps, who was a retired teacher, told me I couldnāt just read garbage. (I beg to differ! Lol.) I try to read/listen a non-fiction/ historical fiction book once a month in her memory. I am looking for a good book about Teddy Roosevelt, havenāt found it yet. It still has to be interesting for me to stick with it.
Thanks! I will check out the one you suggested!
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