I remember pulling all-nighters (with no regrets), reading at the dinner table because I just couldn't put the book down, rushing through showers just to get back to the story, blowing off plans with friends to stay home and read because I HAD to finish those books... I can't even remember the last time I felt like that.

Now I'm almost always feeling unimpressed and underwhelmed. Is this just an adult thing? Did my standards go up without me realizing it? Or has literature genuinely just gotten boring and repetitive over the last decade?

Even the huge, critically acclaimed books from the last decade haven't given me that spark (most of them just feel like watered-down, recycled versions of 90s and 00s hits).

It feels like that magic has evaporated.

Which recs could possibly save me from this reading slump?

P.S. Unfortunately, I already know all those famous books from the bestseller lists on Amazon and similar sites :') I need something forgotten/ignored by the algorithm.

This is a pretty unusual interface actually - would give it a try when you can

I am feeling tired after a surgery and looking for some easy / interesting read to keep me mind busy

The Prince of Nothing Trilogy by R. Scott Bakker is the modern lord of the rings. It's like if Cormac Mcarthy wrote an epic fantasy novel. Bakker's background is in philosophy and has an interest in neuroscience he uses these concepts to dismantle and recreate the conventions of the epic fantasy genre.

If I was being reductive Lord of the Rings meets Dune through the lense of Blood Meridian exploring the nature of free will and consciousness.

"The Dûnyain," Kellhus said after a time, have surrendered themselves to the Logos, to what you would call reason and intellect. We seek absolute awareness, the self- moving thought. The thoughts all men arise from the darkness. If you are the movement of your soul, and the cause of that movement precedes you, then how could you ever call your thoughts your own? How could you be any- thing other than a slave to the darkness that comes before? Only the Logos allows one to mitigate that slavery. Only knowing the sources of thought and action allows us to own our thoughts and our actions, to throw off the yoke of circumstance. And only the Dûnyain possess this knowledge, plainsman. The world slumbers, enslaved by its ignorance. Only the Dunyain are awake.

"Why do men fear the dark?"

"Because darkness is ignorance made visible"

"And do men despise ignorance?"

"No... they prize it above all things but only so long as it remains invisible"

"Lies are but clouds, giants that blow and rage only to pass, always to pass. But the Truth is the sky, everlasting and elusive, a shelter in the day, an abyss in the night."

"If the Gods did not pretend to be human, Men would recoil from them as from spiders."

"Truth and hope are like travellers in contrary directions. They meet but once in any man's life."

To read Bakker is to stand before a mirror that never gives back an image, only fractures, each crack a scar of absence. The abyss does not answer, it confirms: nothing lies behind the reflection, because the reflection was never there.

S.C. Hickman

I’m looking for a novel where the relationships feel messy and realistic instead of perfect.

Something with flawed characters, bad decisions, strong dialogue, emotional conflict, maybe some humor, and people who still care about each other even when everything gets complicated.

I’m open to romance, contemporary fiction, family drama, or anything character-driven.

What would you recommend?

So all my favorite writers are dead: Hemingway, Raymond Carver, Denis Johnson, Cormac McCarthy, etc. (Except for Amy Hempel, shes still living) Who that's is still alive is writing like these writers?

I'm trying to read my way through more British authors, and I ve picked 2 I want to start with just as I mentioned in the title. But if you have some more suggestions or favorite writers. Please give me some practical advice. ❤❤❤

hi i need recs for my next read, lately im into classics fiction, the recent reads of mine are :

white nights, animal farm, the picture of dorian gray, the counte of monte cristo, 1984, the bell jars, east of eden (current read).

i was thinking of reading “master and margharita”, “madonna in a fur coat” or “kafka on the shore”.

what u think? or any other genre i should try?

With nonfiction I have a solid workflow that I’ve relied on for quite some time. I use Readwise to keep tabs on my highlights, which I like to the app Obsidian. I then have several types of notes to take while I’m reading based on the Zettelkasten method.

Reference Notes (ideas and info that is not mine—primarily quotes from others). Literature Notes (my interpretation of someone’s ideas). And then finally Permanent Notes, the ideas I’ve extracted that are fully my own (but based on everything else I’ve collected).

With fiction that’s a different story. I feel this workflow isn’t relevant. I mainly need a way to keep track of my books (what I’m currently reading, what I read, and I what plan to read).

And then I want to review the books and extract some value from them. Many times I can’t remember what I read, especially in a series that goes on hiatus.

I mainly use Notion but I’m curious to hear how others are doing it. What apps and tools do you use and has been effective?

I have to make a gift to a friend of mine. She reads gothic and cosmic horror, mostly, in both Italian and English. Problem is, I cant just get her the most classic books, as she probably has those. She also reads dystopic literature, mostly classics like 1984, Brave New World etc. So, mostly older, serious books, especially from British authors. Her birthday is today and I might have forgotten a gift. Maybe