Lockdown reading list
Last night, I tweeted that I’d finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and that it had such a profound effect on me that I didn’t feel like the same person I was when I started it.
I asked for novels that had had a similar effect on others. When I woke up, there were so many replies! Partly as a service to those who replied, and partly because I delete my tweets every 30 days, I’ve collated the recommendations into a list.
I’ve removed some, either because they’re non-fiction (which I know I didn’t specify, but it’s my list, so my rules), because the tweeter must have given an incorrect title (and no author), or because they merely listed their favourite books, rather than ‘life changing’ ones. Some books were recommended more than once. Apologies if I missed any.
- 84k by Claire North (@cmplxtv_studies)
- A Gentleman In Moscow – Amor Towles (@allis_land)
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (@johnny_boy1988)
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (@Speedgonzaeles)
- A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris (@capaldi_phil)
- Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (@MarianTaudinCha)
- Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton (@ZephanieP)
- Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes (@TheWayneGibbons)
- Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard (@johnny_boy1988)
- Libra by Don DeLillo (@Amy_Futures)
- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (@TaraMcEndo)
- Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa (@JasonOshima)
- My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent (@mamamialia)
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (@lauranissen)
- Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler (@lauranissen)
- Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban (@sharplm)
- Suttree by Cormac McCarthy (@ChrisWalsh05)
- The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne (@1jorobson)
- The Dark Tower series by Stephen King (@MrCarlsonsClass)
- The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold (@TheWayneGibbons)
- The Overstory by Richard Powers (@Czernie)
- The Power by Naomi Alderman (@lauranissen)
- The Passage by Justin Cronin (@GlenviewMath)
- The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall (@e_lewisc)
- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (@erikasmith)
- The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks (@raymondsoltysek)
Can’t get to the library? Not so bothered about copyright? Try ZLibrary.
Aaron Davis 12:28 pm on April 7, 2020 Permalink |
👍 Lockdown reading list
Doug Belshaw 10:34 am on May 3, 2020 Permalink |
One of the benefits of setting my tweets to auto-delete every so often is that I’m forced to document interesting threads which I begin. After a great response to my books thread (saved here for posterity) last night I asked:
Most of the responses were fantastic, although a few strayed into just ‘favourite films’ territory. So what follows is a lightly edited version of the list, with links to both IMDB and (where available) Common Sense Media recommended age ratings:
12 Monkeys (1995) — 17+
1984 (1984) — 16+
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) — 12+
A Beautiful Mind (2001) — 14+
A Clockwork Orange (1971) — 17+
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) — 13+
Akira (1988) — 16+
Annihilation (2018) — 16+
Back To The Future (1985) — 10+
Being John Malkovich (1999) — 16+
Bicentennial Man (1999) — 11+
The Big Lebowski (1998) — 17+
Blade Runner (1982) — 16+
The Blues Brothers (1980) — 16+
Boiler Room (2000) — 18+
Brazil (1985) — 17+
The Breakfast Club (1985) — 15+
Bruce Almighty (2003) — 14+
The Butterfly Effect (2004) — 18+
The City of Lost Children (1995) — 16+
Cloud Atlas (2012) — 16+
Contact (1997) — 10+
Dark City (1998) — 16+
Delicatessen (1991) — 16+
Divergent (2014) — 14+
Donnie Darko (2001) — 17+
Dune (1984) — 13+
The Elephant Man (1980) — 14+
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) — 16+
Fantastic Planet (1973) — 13+
Ferriss Bueller’s Day Off (1986) — 12+
Field of Dreams (1989) — 12+
The Fifth Element (1997) — 14+
Fight Club () — 17+
The Fisher King (1991) — 16+
Gattaca (1997) — 14+
Ghadi (2013) — (not rated)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) — 13+
Good Will Hunting (1997) — 15+
The Goonies (1985) — 10+
Groundhog Day (1993) — 11+
Heathers (1989) — 16+
Highlander (1986) — 18+
The Hunger Games (2012) — 14+
Inception (2010) — 14+
Interstellar (2014) — 12+
The Invention of Lying (2009) — 15+
Jacob’s Ladder (1990) — 16+
Jaws (1975) — 13+
Just Mercy (2019) — 13+
Layer Cake (2003) — 17+
Life of Pi (2012) — 12+
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) — 17+
Logan’s Run (1976) — 13+
Lone Star (1996) — (not rated)
The Lost Boys (1987) — 16+
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) — 15+
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) — 15+
The Maze Runner (2014) — 13+
Memento (2000) — 17+
Minority Report (2002) — 15+
Moon (2009) — (not rated)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) — 15+
Pi (1998) — 16+
Planet of the Apes (1968) — 12+
The Princess Bride (1987) — 8+
Raining Stones (1993) — (not rated)
Rear Window (1954) — 12+
Robocop (1987) — 17+
The Sandlot (1993) — 8+
Schindler’s List (1993) — 15+
Seven Samurai (1954) — 13+
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) — 15+
Short Circuit (1986) — 10+
The Sixth Sense (1999) — 14+
Source Code (2011) — 13+
Soylent Green (1973) — (not rated)
Stalker (1979) — (not rated)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006) — 13+
Summer Wars (2009) — 12+
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) — 15+
Time Bandits (1981) — 9+
Total Recall (1990) — 17+
True Romance (1993) — (not rated)
The Usual Suspects (1995) — 17+
Vanilla Sky (2001) — 17+
V For Vendetta (2005) — 18+
Waking Life (2001) — 17+
Westworld (1973) — 13+
Although there’s no way I’d show it to children, the epic Magnolia (1999) remains one of my favourite films. Also, anything by Jean-Pierre Jeunet is usually refreshingly weird. You could also try out MUBI for obscure films that will change your view of reality.
Oh, and to get hold of all of the above, definitely don’t click here.