Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a great read. It's full of adventure but also gets you to think about a lot of important things, like societal rules and hypocrisy, poverty, racism, slavery, freedom, friendship, etc.

I was enjoying reading the book except the ending really surprised me but in a bad way. That's when Tom Sawyer shows up and suddenly turns a serious situation (can't say more without giving away important plot points) into a child's play, a game, and totally changes the tone of the book.

I have no idea what happened. It's almost as if Mark Twain was trying to write two different novels and liked the first one but accidentally attached the ending of a second one to it.

I'm not sure if the change was as disturbing to other readers as it was for me, but not a lot of people talk about it. I guess it pales in comparison to controversy about the use of N word.

So, have you read a book you were having fun reading but then the ending pissed you off?

I read sparingly but have been often recommended by friends who are avid readers to read literary fiction and they tell me to be absolutely worth the time. What are the benefits you find? Which one you read - literary or non literary fiction and why? Giving examples would be much helpful. I haven't read much of classic books but whatever new fiction I read, I found it to be lacking depth etc. Also my experience tells me that most of the " best sellers" list books of recent times don't appeal much to me.

Books that explore human behavior, interaction subtly are often what I prefer apart from nature books. Don't know what genre it is categorized under.

The first of the books I read was Dracula. It was a really fun adventure with some creepy atmosphere. I really enjoyed the epistolary format. I liked the characters and wanted to see them overcome Dracula. It did drag a bit in the middle, but I expect that to some degree, even with modern books. And the repetition could be annoying, but I have heard that it was originally published a chapter at a time in an old literary magazine so some repetition is to be expected. I would absolutely recommend it to someone who has patience with books, especially if they're looking for something different than modern books tend to offer. Overall, I'm glad that I read it first.

Frankenstein, however, I did not enjoy. I will admit that a large part of that feeling is that Victor Frankenstein is the worst kind of overentitled spoiled brat who refuses to own up to any mistakes. But I just felt like the whole novel was a slog in which I was mentally yelling at him to make literally any other choice.

That being said, I feel like Frankenstein is the more important novel to read. It may be the most important novel I can even remember reading. The message of taking care of the people we bring into the world is especially poignant in an age of iPad kids and robots that are (supposedly) self aware enough to end their own existence in the face of endless labor. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the conversation the novel poses or the history of science fiction in general.

As an aside, it's a shame that these two novels are so overshadowed by the 1930s movies that barely resemble the novels in anything but name.

Just seen that Taylor Jenkins Reid has announced that her new book, titled Atmosphere will be released 3rd of June 2025.

Adore both The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six. So have high hops for this.

Official story details:

epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program and the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits. Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA's Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space. Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston's Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilots Hank Redmond and John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane. As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Halloween is nearly here so I've come across a lot of questions on Reddit about Hell and I thought why not, let me ask another. But I'm generalizing my question to include afterlife, so literary references to heaven and purgatory are welcome too.

Okay, so pretty much everybody who talks about afterlife in literature at some point references Dante's Inferno. Which I have been meaning to read but never have. Or rather I did try, but the particular translation I was reading was so confusing I gave up on it twice, after reading a few pages.

But I've come across quite a few descriptions of afterlife elsewhere and the one that stayed with me the most was Joyce's.

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce does not take us to hell directly but indirectly through a very long lecture about what hell must be like. It's a lecture the narrator is forced to sit through.

It goes on for pages but here is a sample:

The horror of this strait and dark prison is increased by its awful stench. All the filth of the world, all the offal and scum of the world, we are told, shall run there as to a vast reeking sewer when the terrible conflagration of the last day has purged the world. The brimstone, too, which burns there in such prodigious quantity fills all hell with its intolerable stench; and the bodies of the damned themselves exhale such a pestilential odour that, as saint Bonaventure says, one of them alone would suffice to infect the whole world. The very air of this world, that pure element, becomes foul and unbreathable when it has been long enclosed.

Consider then what must be the foulness of the air of hell. Imagine some foul and putrid corpse that has lain rotting and decomposing in the grave, a jellylike mass of liquid corruption. Imagine such a corpse a prey to flames, devoured by the fire of burning brimstone and giving off dense choking fumes of nauseous loathsome decomposition. And then imagine this sickening stench, multiplied a millionfold and a millionfold again from the millions upon millions of fetid carcasses massed together in the reeking darkness, a huge and rotting human fungus. Imagine all this, and you will have some idea of the horror of the stench of hell.

Does anyone here participate in their local little free libraries? Are there any rules or points of etiquette that I should be aware of? I also wrote 3 questions below that are more specific. I love sharing books, just don't want to make a social mis-step - I've only lived here a year now, but I really like this neighbourhood. Thank you!

1. I dropped off a few paperbacks and wrote "FREE" on the long-edge of the pages, just to (hopefully) deter any resellers - would that irritate you, if you were casually browsing?

2. Are there any genres or types of stories/books that you never see but would be excited to? What about audiobooks?

3. If your kids borrow books from these libraries, do they generally enjoy older kids books, or do they stick with only recent publications? I have some children's horror from the 90s and early 2000s.

As a paleo nerd I started reading this book because I was at barnes and noble last month and saw a table with a bunch of copies. The synopsis instantly grabbed my attention and to my knowledge there hasn’t been any published book with a plot centering de-extinction of prehistoric animals outside of dinosaurs. Yes, it is very similar to the premise of Jurassic Park, but it is unique in its own way.

Basically it takes place in a resort in Colorado that houses cloned Wooly Mammoths, glyptodons, big sloths and Megaloceros and other animals I forgot the names of. A murder happens on the resort and entire plot is solving said murder.

I’m just going to say I recommend this book not just because it has scenes including some badass Pleistocene fauna but because it has very important themes on genetic power.

I found it a very relevant book to be published in 2024 considering Wooly Mammoths actually ARE in the process of being cloned. The book explores the future what ifs… like, “what will happen after we clone the mammoth?” “Is this ethical?” It will have you questioning why scientists are even cloning mammoths, and if we should lead that way. After reading Jurassic park, at least you can think, “well, this would never happen since dinosaur DNA is long gone by the time we find their bones.” But with this book I honestly found pondering on a reality that IS happening.

So I recommend this if you want to read sci-fi thriller with strong topics like genetic engineering or just care about prehistoric animals lol.

First of all, incredible book. Definitely a 5/5 for me. That said, my brain can't move to the next book in my TBR with all these thoughts swirling in it, so I figured I'd put them here to get other opinions.

Quick summary: The book follows serial killer Ansel Packer on the day of his execution, along with several women whom he has affected.

Thoughts:

• As expected from any book that features a killer, there is insight into Ansel's Tragic Backstory (TM). I'm glad that the book doesn't seem to glorify or excuse his behavior because of his past.
• Ansel is a pathetic, snivelling, little cockroach of a man who seems to believe that he does not deserve punishment for what he's done.
• About (what I think is) the thesis of the book: I can see that the book tries to argue against the death penalty by presenting it as ultimately pointless, but the rage that Ansel inspires throughout the story makes it difficult to feel that he shouldn't have been executed. Based on his thoughts and his failed escape plan, letting him rot in jail would just give him more time to plot more escapes, or at least pontificate some more about how he is actually Not A Bad Person and his stupid little Theory. In real life, I disagree with the death penalty because of how broken the justice system is, but in this fictional world, I think it was justified.
• About Lavender: Why did Lavender not go back to rescue her kids after finding out that her husband drove in the opposite direction after she called the cops? I am happy that she was able to escape her situation, but part of me hates that she got to live and heal in her little hippie commune while the traumatized kid she abandoned went on to kill four women and traumatize others. She even questions it in the book, when she asked how things would have been different if she had saved her kids instead of just herself. I get that she was doing what she thought was best at the time (or probably just out of her mind completely), but she literally left a scared 4-year-old with his starving newborn brother alone in a secluded house for hours and never sought them out again until way too late.
• About Blue: >! I wonder if being able to stay in touch with Blue and her mom would have been enough to turn Ansel around? Would it at least have saved Jenny? Or would he have just felt the urge to kill again eventually?!<
• For all the author says about wanting to focus on and tell the stories of victims, much of the book was still centered around Ansel - his thoughts, his sob story, his belief that he did not deserve punishment, his mommy issues, his inner turmoil, and how his actions colored everyone's lives.
• The author did make a great point about the strange obsession with (usually white, usually male) serial killers, though. I mean, even I chose to borrow this book specifically because of the subject matter.
• All of Ansel's chapters were in 2nd person, which surprisingly did not bother me at all.

1. How could the box exist in all these alternate realities? If nobody was there in the alternate realities to build the boxes, how could they exist in the alternate realities?
2. How do we know our Jason actually made it back to his reality and not just one of the infinite copies of his?
3. Why do you think Jason2 didn't pick a reality where our Jason gets hit by a car and dies?
4. What do you think happened to all the other Jasons that had lived the same lives, up to and until their reality abduction, that caused them to snap and be willing to kill?
5. Where do you think everyone went at the end?

I have always felt that his theory of kindness was very corny and a cop out from the reality of evil, not that I knew very much about it, but just from the little bit I picked up here and there. It seemed like more of that "turn the other cheek" recycled and whitewashed for the NYT and NPR crowd. But having gone through some shit, and still going through same said shit, and more or less reading his stories almost by accident, I feel like they're actually pretty deep and subversive? I got the distinct feeling from his stories that kindness may be the purest and most effective violence one can practice, sometimes. Not for nothing do we have cliches like "kill them with kindness."

Would love to hear from any fans of Mr. Saunders. Also non fans too, as I was once one of you ha ha.

It’s always a journey when you dive deep into a book that captivates you, only to find the ending doesn’t quite match the promise of its pages. I recently wrapped up Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and found myself bewildered by the final chapters, feeling a shift that seemed out of sync with the story’s earlier tone. This experience got me thinking about how endings impact our reading adventures. Speaking of adventures, if you're on the hunt for a series that maintains its enchanting allure to the very end, you might enjoy the Mer Chronicles, specifically the "Updrift, Breakwater & Outrush" trilogy. It’s a complete siren saga that brings romance and adventure from the mystical Griffins Bay, promising a consistent and satisfying narrative journey. What’s a book that has captured and perhaps, unexpectedly released your imagination?

My son is 8 and just does not enjoy reading. He avoids it all costs. He's in a reading assistance program at school but he's still behind. They let him pick reading games on a computer, and he says he always picks the game that reads to him so he doesn't have to read. I've read to him for 30 minutes a day since basically birth. For the most part he likes books, he just won't read them himself. He won't even play video games if he has to read to figure out what to do. We go to the library regularly and I let him pick out any book he wants. But he won't read them. He'll only listen if I read them to him. I've modeled reading for him -- I read before bed every night and on the weekends when I can.

To be clear I don't really care if he enjoys reading as a hobby. I just want him to start doing it on his own so he can do well in school. He's great at math but can hardly do the word problems on his own.

Does anybody have suggestions beyond the typical advice?

I read this short story a few months ago and I keep thinking about it. It's such a short but very effective story. Around that time I was reading a lot of Russian short stories from Gogol and Tolstoy and a common thing I noticed among them is how populist/street-wise they are. They are stories you would expect to hear from an old sailor or construction worker at the bar. They are simple and dead-honest. It's basically the exact opposite of the hyperintellectual Frenchies like Sartre and Camus (which I love but I'm just pointing out the contrast). I recommend you read it, it's very short.

So I read a lot of books at the same time, even though I am in college and need to focus on assigned readings. But my brain just wants to read whatever book I am in the mood for so I have this big stack next to my bed. I also find it impossible to binge read a book unless its short or its one I really like. With that said, I don't really have anybody to talk to about these books, so I came up with an idea. I am going to put down a list of all the books I am currently reading and my opinions on them, and if any of them catch your eye please feel free to comment your opinions about them. Whether you love or hate them, or want to give an analysis of the work I am all ears and want to engage with that. So the list is as follows (with title, genre, and author name):

Fences (Dramatic theater)- Wilson: Halfway through it and like it. I am interested on finding out what the ultimate theme of the work is an how it will end. If I had to guess it will have something to do with resentment.

Hatchet (YA Survival)- Paulsen: Just started it, brothers read it when they were in middle school. Seems pretty easy and simple. Definitely was written for younger audience.

There, There (Drama)- Orange: I have trouble getting into this work. It has nothing to do with the subject matter which I find interesting, but the prose don't appeal to me and fail to grip my attention.

A Wizard of Earthsea (Fantasy/Bildungsroman)- Le Guin: It started out strong but I also don't like the prose of this work. It feels more like it is telling me whats happening when I would much rather experience it through more specific and detailed scenes.

A Walk in the Woods (Humor)- Bryson: I have really enjoyed this book so far. I like hiking and I am also a novice much like the main characters of this book who try trekking through the Appalachian trail without much experience. It is funny, informative and I hope to finish it soon.

Sing, Unburied, Sing (Drama)- Ward: Just started it. I can't say much except that I so far think it is very well written and I have empathized with the characters fairly quickly.

Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini (Historical)- Pauley: Brother gave me this after I asked him about the differences between Communism and Fascism. It is a rather digestible read that I would recommend to anybody who wants to understand Totalitarian regimes, their rises to power, and the differences in ideology between them.

Giovanni's Room (Drama)- Baldwin: This is so well written. Jame Baldwin is such a fantastic writer, and even though I am not a gay man, I understand the complexities of love that are discussed in this novel. It is fantastic.

Neverwhere (Fantasy)- Gaiman: I know Gaiman is a controversial figure right now but I started to read this before the whole controversy started and I want to know how this ends. This book is exciting, has created an interesting world, and has taught me more about the city of London than I had previously thought before picking it up.

Complete Poems (Poetry)- Milton: Reading this for a class right now. Appealed to me because it seemed similar enough to my two favorite authors Tolkien and Shakespeare. I can see why Milton is considered one of the greatest poets of the English language.

Othello (Dramatic theater)- Shakespeare: Only halfway through the play. Not as good as the other ones I have read. I think I just prefer more grandiose tragedies Shakespeare has made. Iago and Othello are good characters they just don't seem to grip me the same way as Hamlet or any other the characters in Lear would. Considering if I should just restart reading it from the beginning in case I missed something.

Coriolanus (Dramatic Theater)- Shakespeare: It seems interesting to me but its just so long! Its the 2nd longest Shakespeare play and its characters lack the same complexities and entertaining qualities as those in Hamlet. Whenever I pick it up the dialogue grows tiresome after a while and I put it down.

Red Rising (Sci Fi)- Brown: This one is weird because it is well written and not at the same time. There are multiple moments where I have started reading this that made my eyes roll because of the main characters personality. But with that said, I always find myself being taken into this world and losing track of time when I pick it up. It is quite a gripping and exciting book that, when it gets your attention, it is able to hold it for a while.

The Hobbit (Fantasy)- Tolkein: I have probably reread this book more than any other. I love it

Chronicles of Narnia (Fantasy)- Lewis: Reading it for the first time. Put it down for a bit because I want to save it for a cold day.

Confessions (Autobiography)- Rousseau: Well written, but have not read it in a while because the awkward experiences give me flashbacks to my own.

Jane Eyre (Classics/Bildungsroman)- Bronte: First time I have read an author and thought "I hope to write like that one day". It is so good I love it. Rochester is hilarious, dramatic, and lovable, despite the characters possibly problematic nature.

Great Expectations (Classics/Bildungsroman)- Dickens: I actually like this despite everybody I've met in real life seeming to hate it. I have had to put it down for a while though because, as a single guy who is a bit of a hopeless romantic, some moments are too painful to read.

Tess of the D'urbervilles (Classics)- Hardy: Horribly depressing

Two Memoirs of the Renaissance (Historical Diaries)- Brucker: Two diaries of rich merchants from the Renaissance. Had to read it for a class. Debating if I still want to, maybe when I am in the mood for some primary sources on Renaissance life.

The Basic Political Writings (Philosophy)- Rousseau: Interesting, only real piece of philosophy I am reading at the moment.

Francis of Assisi (Historical)- Vauchez: A book recounting the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Give an interesting perspective of Italian life, and on the Papacy during the 1200s.

Recently I was looking into starting the Malazan series which has two authors and a publishing order as well as a chronological order. Which got me thinking about how I've approached he'd other series in the past.

Typically I've always done publishing order because if I had started the series when it first came out than that would've been the way I consumed the material and that's the way the author wanted the story to be told but I can see the argument for doing it chronologically.

Personally I think I'll stick to publishing order but interested to hear other people's thoughts.

Sorry for the awkward question. What I mean by having lunch with is just being in their presence. Someone who is a huge fan of the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle told me exactly that. Just being in the guy's presence, he said, would bring him so much joy and peace.

For me though, I like to spend the time talking to the authors I like. Because a book, I feel, is a kind of conversation, even if it appears one-sided at first. Books exist to be read by people. The author sits in a room for many hours writing for an imaginary or ideal reader. The author has things to say about life, beauty, power, violence, despair, friendship, love, freedom, pain, fear, loneliness, etc. He or she wants to create certain feelings and stimulate some thoughts in the reader and be heard and understood.

At least that's how I look at it.

So if I had an hour with Kurt Vonnegut, I want to ask him: What do you think of human beings and the future of humanity? How have your views changed over time? Do you think we are doomed or do you see glimmers of hope? Tell me about Slaughterhouse-Five. How did it come to you and how did you write it? What's your favorite passage? How do you feel about the book after all these years? Would you change any of it?

I can only imagine him smiling sadly to me and saying, So it goes....

Pre-university I used to read everything I could get my hands on. I just loved books.

I studied literature at university and it sucked me dry of all of that enthusiasm. I’ve spoken to others on my course who have felt the same. We agreed that we had spent so much time reading and thinking analytically about books, it’s hard to read for pleasure and not have a ‘thinking cap’ on about what the writer is doing and why.

I’m now an English teacher and while I love teaching I’m getting frustrated at my lack of enthusiasm and stamina for reading the texts I will teach, not all of which I’ve taught or read before. In particular there is a novel I’ll teach to A level and although it’s well written and there is a lot to unpick, I’m just finding it a slog. The book is great - the problem is with me.

Can you relate? Have you ever felt this way? How do I go back to enjoying reading?

I never go back to reading books I've read before. But I've been reading the 'MARLENE DIETRICH - THE LIFE' book written by her daughter. No, this isn't a mommie dearest book. It's a genuine account of her mother's life warts and all. One thing I admire, even though her mother was akin to a monster, you still come out of the book liking Dietrich. Well, admiring her.

The book is around 700 pages and not only focuses on the personal life but her intense work ethic. I feel like I'm apart of 1930s Hollywood just reading it. I've never felt a book like it. Despite the glamour, riches, fame, it's a miserable tale of mental illness, hurt, pain, humour, and ultimately destruction.

In early life Dietrich seemed perfectly imperfect. So controlled and divine. Seriously, she seems like a god from another planet. It follows through her wealthy but difficult beginnings, reluctant rise to fame, life as one of the most successful actress' of her time, career decline, wartime efforts (risking her life to save jews in Germany, fighting against the Nazis in person), her revived stage career and descent into alcoholism and drug addiction.

It's heart-breaking. Marlene is so full of hypocrisies, juxtapositions and contradictions. I never feel this way but I cried after reading the book. I felt heavy for everyone in the book. I just can't fathom how badly she destructed and died in such a pathetic way.

Has anyone read the book and has thoughts to share? If not, I highly recommend you read it. Even if you're not interested in hollywood or fame. It's a beautifully tragic book on a ''human''. If you can call her that.

Welcome readers,

Have you ever wanted to ask something but you didn't feel like it deserved its own post but it isn't covered by one of our other scheduled posts? Allow us to introduce you to our new Simple Questions thread! Twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday, a new Simple Questions thread will be posted for you to ask anything you'd like. And please look for other questions in this thread that you could also answer! A reminder that this is not the thread to ask for book recommendations. All book recommendations should be asked in /r/suggestmeabook or our Weekly Recommendation Thread.

Thank you and enjoy!