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You want some adult books that arent full of negative crap go read some Terry Pratchett. All my life these are some of the only ones that make me laugh out loud consistently while still having a great plot, characters, and just overall excellent writing in so many ways.
And when you’re done you go read Douglas Adams, and not just the book with the towels.
Yes! Dirk Gently series is great too.
I agree but the towel books are a good place to start. I also recommend the Dirk Gently series. But don’t stop with fiction. At least read the meaning of liff.
And Last Chance to See! It’s somehow almost as absurd as his fictional works.
Absolutely, and reading it today where cellphones and internet are omnipresent takes it to a whole other level.
The Guide is also excellent in other forms like radio and tv and each one is slightly different.
I scoffed at the idea of a comedy book until I my friend lent me one of Terry’s books. It was so funny, great jokes and great characters.
Good Omens (the book, by Gaiman and Pratchett) is also hilarious.
I love Good Omens. A friend recommended it to me as a comedy to read. I was skeptical having never read a comedy before, but it was hilarious and entertaining all the way through. The show on Amazon does a pretty good job of capturing the spirit of the book I think too.
Terry Pratchett is AMAZING.
What, what? :)
Terry Pratchett.
I always get Pratchett and Brooks confused. Too many Terrys.
All my life these are some of the only ones that make me laugh out loud consistently while still having a great plot, characters, and just overall excellent writing in so many ways.
He does a great job of writing a series that can be read piecemeal but pays off if you go through the whole things.
I’m also a big fan of the Myth Adventure series by Robert Aspirin. It’s more comedic, but has a similar vibe.
Myth Adventures rocks!
I purchased Going Postal in an airport. I ended up laughing out loud on a plane.
Read his “children’s” book Maurice And His Amazing Rodents and try not to sob. But also laugh, and fume, and learn.
Just don’t read the biography. I just finished it, and while it’s amazing it will leave you devastated.
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU PTerry. Just got both biographical books for fathers day. I entirely expect to be crushed, given how big a part of growing up his books were to me, and how devastated I was to watch his decline and eventual passing…
I’ve hardly been able to read his books since, which is awful.
My husband got both of those books and I hope to read them. A part of me feels that, if I read them, it will make everything more definite (if you know what I mean). Heck, I haven’t even read the Shepard’s Crown.
I’m with you, 100%. I haven’t read Shepherd’s Crown either, same reason.
Same, if I don’t read it there is always a new Discworld out.
I also highly reccomend the Myth books by Robert Aspirin.
Myth, Phule, and Thieve’s World. Though I will concede that Aahzimandius, no relation, was quite possibly the best character he ever created.
I personally call people coffee zombies because of the book where Skeeve has to clear his name at the interdimentional mall.
Bought the 5-book series based on your recommendation.
Someone needs to read better adult books.
Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremour ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, ‘To die will be an awfully big adventure.’
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. Kids’ books are rad.
I still maintain the best adaptation of that story was Hook.
Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams absolutely Nailed their roles, shout-outs to Julia Roberts and Bob Hoskins, they also nailed their roles, but got upstaged by the former two thespians.
Don’t forget about my boy Dante Basco. Dude nailed playing the insecure antagonist who later becomes friends with the main character years before Zuko.
I didn’t mention Rufio because I fell victim to a urban legend that Dante Basco died somewhere around 2010. I wasn’t aware of his legacy, since I have never seen Avatar: TLAB, or probably anything else he has been involved in.
Edit: looking it up, I have actually seen the entirety of The Boondocks, and Final Fantasy XIII. I didn’t recognize Rufio as Jigme, or the Cocoon Inhabitants. Not surprising since both of those were like two decades after he played Rufio as a teenager. He would have been 15 or 16 when he played Rufio.
As far as Goofy Movie, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Touched by an Angel, and Johnny Bravo are concerned, while I saw all of those, I never heard him speak. I can only assume his adult register came into full force after he left the set of Hook.
I’ve literally can’t remember seeing anything else he was in. I’m sure I saw some episodes of Highway to Heaven since I remember the show vaguely, and also The Wonder Years, but I wouldn’t have known that he was going to be Rufio at that point as I am not clairvoyant.
If you’re into magic treehouses in your books, you can ease the transition from kids books to adult books by going via the Fantasy genre.
Granted, there will be more swords involved than in a kids book…
The adult books in fantasy are just about as bad as regular fiction in regards to the image. There’s still war, rape, affairs, etc…just dressed up with magic and swords. Maybe the change of environment makes it seem more distant?
Read something that isn’t made by george
Hah, yeah, I quit ASoIaF 3/4 of the way thru the series because I got sick of nothing but people walking all over the continent to be met by fights, death, and misery. All the political intrigue was gone. It read like even Martin didn’t know wth he wanted to do and was just stretching it out for money and time. After the first 3 or four books the thing sucked. I read The Expanse instead. Fantastic series.
Even though I was a bit thonge in cheek in my post, there are a lot of great adult fantasy stories were nobody ever dies.
Did someone say magic tree house?
I’m an adult and proud that I don’t read this nonsense anymore. But what is the book where there is a magic tree house ? just so that I don’t read it mistakenly
It’s literally called Magic Tree House. It’s a series. The tree house is also a time machine and adventure becomes inevitable.
Avenue=adventure?
Yeah my bad, lemme fix that.
Arigato
High school English classes kind of beat the habit of reading out of me. I mean first of all there was this sense of new = not valid; To Kill A Mockingbird was the newest work of literature I studied in high school, written in the 60’s about the 30’s, everything else was 19th century or older. The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, Poe, the goddamn Bronte’s.
I stopped going to book stores. I stopped going to the library. Adult reading is like rubbing wood chips in your eyes. It’s dry and awful.
My grandmother handed me a book. A paperback novel called Utopia by Lincoln Child. It’s a kind of whodunit mystery thriller set in a futuristic theme park, and the main character has a teenage daughter who has an mp3 player. And that caught me off guard. Because I was a teenager with an mp3 player. This book was new. It was written by someone who was still alive, about characters who were my age and my generation. And the book was kinda okay.
I miss my gramma.
Man, same here. In Germany, all we did was read scripts for drama plays. There’s nothing more boring. We read only one enjoyable book, which was Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
Only recently have I started enjoying books again and it started with the Hyperion Cantos. I also read a shit ton of books with my little daughter, ranging from Toto the Ninja cat, over Stitch head and Amelia Fang to Harry Potter and Roald Dahl classics. It’s a lot of fun, especially since I get to do all of the voices. Sometimes we laugh so hard, it’s difficult for her to fall asleep :)
I recall two enjoyable books, both by Morton Rhue, being boot camp and the wave (and one that I liked but most people didn’t, kafka’s metamorphosis. Sure didn’t like having to interpret that though).
At least early on they tried making us read enjoyable books, as in modern books aimed at teenagers, they just… weren’t very good.
I think the peak of unenjoyment for me was Das Parfüm, which is technically somewhat modern. I tried reading it and was so bored I just couldn’t continue, ended up reading a synopsis somewhere and pretended to know what i was talking about.
At least it never killed reading for me because by the time school made me read books I was already reading fantasy novels in my free time anyway.
I recently read Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea books, really interesting in that first half are kids lit and the second half were written 30 years later for a grown audience.
Best of both worlds! Though I did find the kids books way more fun.
Yeah, you get to book 4 and you’re like "Is everything ok, Ursula?
I was prepared but I can imagine it was quite the surprise
Whoaaaaa! No way! I just finished the first one and loved it. Can’t wait to keep going. That’s so cool!
If you haven’t already check out the “shelved by genre” podcast. They just did the entire Earthsea series (over multi episodes) and the podcast is seriously hilarious and insightful.
I’ll try to remember that for when I finish the series
Don’t want to push it too hard, but they do two episodes per book. Best enjoyed by listening after you finish each book.
I read mostly three things: fanfics mostly on My Little Pony, literature for degree and scientific papers(mostly unrelated to degree).
This is why I read genre fiction rather than literary fiction. Sure, you and your book club can look down on me but until you’re reading a book that isn’t a variation on a theme of “unsuccessful professional moves back to coastal small town to look after their mother who has dementia”, yous can all get to fuck.
Sounds like someone is shaming people who like adult books, rather.
No, it’s just saying adult books have heavy topics sometimes
If I say i think apples suck im not necessarily shaming people that eat apples
The “you tell me who’s winning” pretty much shows that that’s what they’re doing though…
what do you think the “who” is referring to?
Where does it say “sometimes”? If it did, I’d never have commented
Assumption on ny part. After careful consideration I think I was in the wrong in my comment
Hm, yeah you are.
no it doesn’t?
This is basically the “everybody secretly likes pop music” reverse snobbery angle. It’s so difficult to imagine that other people have different tastes from you.
it’s not saying everybody likes kids books. it’s just saying you shouldn’t shame people who do.
Define “adult book”
I’ll grant that the stories can be better in kids books but adult books have better pictures.
Stop shaming people about reading kids’ books.
The kids can have those books back when you’re done and not one minute sooner.
I like the take that science fiction and fantasy is just a better form of fiction because you could take literally any fiction story about a mopey 30 year old who has to take care of their sick parent and a science fiction story has the potential to write an equally compelling story except this time there’s a killer robot on the loose or they’re on Mars or something.
All good stories are human stories, even science fiction. There’s nothing inherently better about setting your story in the “real world”.
“Human stories” are depressing and boring as fuck. I’ve already dealt enough with people dying of illnesses and being in shitty relationships and all that bullshit in my own life. I don’t need to be reminded of it by reading or watching a dramatized version. Put that shit in a metaphor the characters can solve their problems by blowing up.
The only reason people set books in the real world is to try to appeal to the sensibilities of reactionary realists. http://soulism.net
Interesting concept. It’s going to take me a while to get through this, but I look forward to trying. Thanks for sharing
Apparent tl;dr:
Soulism, also known as anarcho-antirealism, is a branch of anarchist thought that views reality and natural laws as unjust hierarchies needing justification through good work and the ability to be dismantled. Soulists extend this principle to reality itself, believing that our experiences, or consensus reality, are sculpted by society and cultural biases, rather than objective truth. By rejecting the objective existence of reality, soulists argue that we can reshape our perceptions to align with kindness, empathy, and respect for marginalized identities. This extends to supporting mental, racial, gender, and other diversities, while using the concept of “magic” as a means of influencing and understanding our perceptions of the world. In doing so, soulists aim to destroy the concept of an objectively true reality, promoting a more empathetic and inclusive societal framework.
Fascinating! Sounds like something I’d read about in Disco Elysium, honestly
