Reading for Beginners

What are some good books or authors for people new to reading as a hobby?

>pic unrelated

I don't mean books for toddlers, but light, enjoyable, relatively short reads for people who don't normally sit down to enjoy a novel. The only reading I ever do is from non-fiction, reference books, etc. I have a horrible habit of trying to start something like The Lord of the Rings before having to put it down for a few days/weeks making it awkward to pick up and carry on with again due to its length and tangential nature.

Joseph Conrad.

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Thanks anons. I've heard of a lot of the titles in that infographic so I'll probably start there.

Unfortunately I've never heard of Joseph Conrad. What is he most famous for?

Hmm, I started with Dan Brown. His books, although not the shortest, are a very easy read, full of action, mystery and thrill. It may not be as exciting anymore to an experienced reader, but it's perfect for newbies in my opinion. I wasn't much of a reader either, just like you, and I finished Da Vinci code in 2 days. I suggest you start with that one if that's your genre and if you like it, read the rest of the tetralogy

Sorry mate I posed the same list twice

Non-fiction starter: All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum.
Science fiction starter: short stories from Philip K. Dick.
Horror starter: short stories from H. P. Lovecraft.
Fantasy starter: The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
General starter: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Sorry, but other recommendations are too dense.

Let me point out why this "starter" infographic is wrong. The very first recommendation is Brave New World, a book which I love and know well that many of the people who say they read the book never did. Is beyond dense.

The recommendation is not exactly for beginners on reading, but on high class, cultured reading. Not the same.

Brave New World is not "beyond dense," though you might be

>The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
>The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Not reading anything at all would be better.

>BNW
>high class, cultured reading

>implying you actually finish the book

That sounds like fun, thanks. I might also look at Terry Pratchett or Redwall as I missed the boat on those as a kid.

Just put these on my list, I'll definitely read Lovecraft. I know who he is, but I didn't realise he was a short story author as opposed to a novelist.

>The recommendation is not exactly for beginners on reading, but on high class, cultured reading. Not the same.

That sums up what I'm looking for, yeah. I'm looking for something a little less obvious a recommendation than the fat stacks of Harry Potter books in every bookstore ever, but still something as easy/light (but better).

>many of the people who say they read the book never did
What
>Is beyond dense
Are you thinking of the same book? BNW is high school tier dystopian lit. It's not even that long, and the language isn't difficult at all. It's a great book for someone getting back into reading, I know because it was for me, back in like grade 11 when I had no problems reading it.

Try read Brave New World and you'll see for yourself if the recommendations in the infographic are dense or not. If they are then just go for

So you are the designated troll scaring people away from literature? Got it.

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I'll read it for sure, I've been aware of it for a long time along with 1984 but I haven't had the chance to read either. The last book I read was either Jurassic Park or something by Edgar Rice Burroughs, both were several years ago.

If you like sci-fi I'd highly recommend pic related

It's the book I read recently to 'get me back into reading' after a few years

Didn't that have a really long movie? I never saw it. How do the book and film compare?

I guess you are not the other guy so I am asking to you too, did you finish Brave New World?

You see there is a nice mountainous peninsula just east of italy...

The Heart of Darkness primarily (the inspiration for Apocalypse Now), The Secret Agent, Nostromo, etc.

The film has a bit of a cult reputation, but I enjoyed the book a lot more

Not read it yet, sitting in my stack

Not the OP, never read the book but I've suffered through the film and even fell asleep for a couple of minutes. I'm not a fan of film in general nor of Kubrick, so my opinion hasn't much of a value, but here it goes. The movie's fucking boooooring. I watched with this "artsy" girl. She was an obvious pseud, but since I'm less obvious pseud than she is, I somehow interested her. She invites me over to watch this movie, because "it's the best experience ever" Anyway, I come over, we pop half a pill (80mg), chat a bit and smoke some weed. When we start rolling she turn the shit on. There were at least 10 minutes of blackness. Nothing but black, then it starts with some monkeys doing monkey stuff. After 30 minutes of nothing some stone drops and something happens, I think, but your brain is so full of pointlessly long dumb shit, that you can't even notice. From there on I just tried to kiss the girl and fuck. She kept telling me to watch the movie so I gave up and dozed off for a couple of minutes. I woke up, there was some weird trip sequence and that was it. She let me sleep over, but we did not have sex. I dreamt of monkeys that night.

>"brave new world is a very dense, high-cultured piece of literature"
>actually it's not that bad, it's a fun read that's usually assigned to high schoolers and is a good starting place for someone new to literature
>"wahhh stop scaring people away from books :("
Are you serious?

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Best advice so far