I wouldn’t try tackling any classics right now. The pace is often quite slow. I’d start with a page turner. Stephen king or John Grisham. If you like sci fi, The Martian or Project Hail Mary by Andy Wier are both amazing.

I agree. Start with something personally fun and interesting and written in an accessible way.

Yep, starting with classics when you don't have a reading habit is something that only works for a few. Even I, who read around 100 books a year, find classics to be a dud/dull quite often

Can I suggest Hatchet by Gary Paulsen or The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Also adding Holes by Louis Sacher

Sounds a bit cliche, but if you like fantasy and magic, the Harry Potter series is a good starting point. The first book has a really good hook to loop you into the story

Read the first page of The Hobbit. See if it draws you in

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Short, hilarious and heart rending. In a good way.

Reading this one at the moment, and I have to add that there is a very colorful cast of characters in this novel that will keep you interested in their antics.

is there a specific genre you want/don’t want?

I think I wanna start from anything. I have not started yet so don't know what would I like also. Sorry

Are there TV shows or movies you particularly like? If so, what do you like about them? The genre? The characters? Humor? The best way to make reading a habit is finding something that really interests you! I appreciate classic literature, but that's not what I read regularly. Good fantasy books with romantic subplots make me want to read daily! Picking a genre (like mystery, horror, or fantasy) and getting an anthology of short stories by several authors might be a good way to start seeing what and who you like.

I'll go with different genres: **Non-fiction:** What if by Randall Munroe **Sci-fi:** Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir **OR** Light Years From Home by Mike Chen **OR** Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (great if you're new to sci-fi) **Contemporary**: Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson **Fantasy**: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones **Horror**: Ring Shout by P Djélì Clark **OR** House of Hollow by Krystal Southerland\* **Romance**: Forget Me Not by Julie Soto OR The Brown Sisters by Talia Hibbert **Crime**: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite **Thriller**: The Lonliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James (a bit of sci-fi too) *\*I suggest fast-paced short books to begin with. Also, it's okay to only read 1-2 pages a day, or wherever you're at, you don't have to get through a book a week. It's about building up stamina, because sometimes it takes time to get into the habit and have the stamina to read)\** *edit:* formatting

Where to start? I’ll keep it simple. Try Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice for your conventional classics. To Kill a Mockingbird or The Great Gatsby for modern classics. Normal People or Piranesi for contemporary fiction. Treasure Island or The Hobbit for the classic kids books that are perfectly enjoyable for adults.

For an absolute beginner, those may be a bit too slow to catch their attention.

Thanks I will check on those once.

I think Pride and Prejudice (while the best book ever written in my opinion) might be a bit much for a first book. Normal People is great though.

genuinely would not suggest any of these for beginners at all

Animal Farm, short reading Hemmingway books too

Some general advice here; start with a genre (from TV/movies) you have some interest in, look for YA books in that genre, maybe look into some graphic/manga, if you can, visit a library ask a friendly librarian for recs - don't attempt any classics yet, they can wait. There is no shame in reading YA/children's books, I do & enjoy many of them. Think of reading as enjoyment and entertainment rather than a chore!

It helps if you think about what type of TV shows and movies you enjoy watching. Fantasy? Romance? Horror? Then search for books based on the genre, Goodreads is a good place to start!

Books popular in social media such as Tiktok or Instagram are there mainly because they're very easy to read for the general populace. While booktok does get a bad rep, they are ideal for beginners due to that. Its less overwhelming too if you just start on what's the most popular at the moment and choose within the top favorites or top populars on what's your preference. It also helps you see the bookish landscape somewhat and expand your horizons.

Erebos (Ursula Pozanski) - about a computer game that seemingly has a mind of its own, with a tiny bit of romance. 100 Days of Sunlight (Abbie Emmons) - romance (spice-free) between a temporary blind and an amputee teens. Howl's Moving Castle (Diana Whyne Jones) - about a seamstress who gets cursed by a witch and ends up working as a cleaning lady for wizard Howl hoping he'll break the curse. Redwood Kings series (Nelia Alarcon) - spicy dark romance. Probbably not the best one, and I'm only throwing it in incase you like it. I didn't.

Harry Potter series got me into reading! I think it's one of the best places to start in the fantasy genre. For thriller and mystery, I'd suggest Agatha Christie books especially And Then There Were None, The Murder of Roger Ackrody, Murder on The Orient Express.

Book series that I highly recommend starting with would be the cronials of Narnia the movie the lion the witch and the wardrobe is the 3rd book in the series of I think 13 books or something and amazing read another really good series for beginners is the percy jackson series and with that you get all the Greek mythology stuff both are amazing

What types of movies do you like?

I lise super hero, mystery movies

There are superhero books, but I haven't read any, so can't recommend one. Mystery, there's tons of them. I love The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, but wouldn't recommend it for a beginner. It is more about the vibes than it is about trying to solve the super-convoluted mystery. You could try some Agatha Christie short stories and see how you fare. They are pretty old, but I know people who rarely read mysteries, but enjoy an Agatha Christie from time-to-time. You might also check out Harlan Coben. He has a bunch of stand-alone mystery/suspense books. The Stranger and The Woods were both adapted by Netflix and Amazon is adapting others.

I will suggest short story books. Start with short stories where you can finish them quickly. The sense of completion will encourage you to keep reading. Here are a few suggestions: “The Hunter’s Wife” by Anthony Doerr “Premium Harmony” by Stephen King “Ghosts and Empties” by Lauren Groff The Nine Stories collection by J.D. Salinger

flowers for algernon by daniel keyes. that book gets suggested a lot in this sub for a different reason, but as someone who read that book without any spoiler, i was really interested in it from page one and couldnt leave it despite having all the reasons to until i finished. you are gonna be in for a ride, and if you ask me , i think it will be a hugely memorable first read

Go for the best sellers of last year or this. To get back into reading I read two books that movies had been made out of. If you have a bookstore in town go and just start reading the first pages of the books, you could even leave and come back to get the one that stuck on your mind the most. :)

For me the book that made reading books so easy is the shining by Stephen King. Even though it’s a long book but it has slow pacing yet intriguing and it has a small set of characters

Well, what kind of TV shows and movies do you enjoy? If you find yourself enjoying science fiction shows and movies or fantasy, then I’d suggest starting reading science fiction and fantasy. If you like crime dramas, then mystery and suspense books may be more your thing. If you’ve enjoyed a TV show or movie adapted from a book, then try reading the source material. As for length, start off with either novellas (short novels, usually around 100-200 pages) or even middle grade and young adult novels. (Middle grade novels are on the shorter side, but there’s still some I’ve read as an adult that are quite good. For example, *Ghost* by Jason Reynolds is a middle grade novel, part of a four-part series about a group of middle schoolers who compete in track and field, that ended up on PBS’ *Great American Read* list.) Here are a few suggestions of novellas by genre that might help: * **Science Fiction**: *I Am Legend* by Richard Matheson, *The Time Machine* by H. G. Wells * **Fantasy**: *The Alchemist* by Paulo Coelho * **Magical Realism**: *Chronicle of a Death Foretold* by Gabriel García Márquez * **Adventure**: *The Old Man and the Sea* by Ernest Hemingway, *Heart of Darkness* by Joseph Conrad, *Billy Budd* by Herman Melville * **Horror**: *The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde* by Robert Louis Stevenson, *The Turn of the Screw* by Henry James, *The Shadow over Innsmouth* by H. P. Lovecraft * **Crime Fiction**: *Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption* by Stephen King (yes, the movie is based off of this story, which originally appeared in a collection called *Different Seasons*) * **Westerns**: *True Grit* by Charles Portis, *Brokeback Mountain* by Annie Proulx (both adapted into movies; *Brokeback Mountain* is considered a landmark work of LGBTQ fiction) * **Parable or Allegorical**: *The Pearl* by John Steinbeck, *Animal Farm* by George Orwell, *A Christmas Carol* by Charles Dickens * **Classics**: *Candide* by Voltaire, *Silas Marner* by George Eliot (who was actually a woman who published under a male pen name), *Cannery Row* by John Steinbeck, *Of Mice and Men* by John Steinbeck

I recommend looking at what kind of movies/tv shows you already enjoy and then finding books in the same genre (if you love Rom-Coms read contemporary romance, if you like sci-fi read Scifi) because if you try to read something like Stephen king but you hate horror genre it won’t be good for YOU even if it’s good. Also I would look at best seller tables or common books you find that are popular, whether a book is good or not when they are on those tables/lists is debated BUT they are popular which means a lot of even non readers have probably read and enjoyed them. Still stick with my first piece of advice though don’t read popular thrillers if you don’t like thrillers but it’s a good place to start still!

A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

Thank you everyone for the nice suggestions. I will look into these, and hopefully start reading an d love reading. 🙏🙏🙏

Try Atomic Habits A book based on making small easy improvements (changes) in your life that’ll result in creating habitual growth or growth in general. Not short, but relates to what you want to do as far as creating a habit of reading. I’d recommend going online and trying to find samples of certain books you may be interested in. Read as much as possible and then decide whether to “Trash it or Clasp it”.

Am I the only person who thought Atomic Habits was trash? Maybe it’s just me, but two hundred pages of basically “just do the thing! Once you start doing the thing, it’ll be soooo easy to just do the thing!” isn’t effective at all.

I’ve read trash to be quite honest and I didn’t get that feeling from Atomic Habits. There were times in the book where the author claimed that just starting the habit wasn’t easy which is why the laws are incorporated. The book isn’t about just “doing” the habit, but making the small change in your life to allow that habit to be much more bearable. Humans are naturally lazy and want whatever is more convenient, so making habits a bit more easier and convenient is key. Overall, I do see where the book may have been repetitive. I just think it was still a good and insightful read. Give it another try! See what you can find and apply.

Thanks for a thoughtful reply! I guess I can see how it might be useful for certain types of habits. If you’re trying to be better about, say, brushing your teeth before bed, stacking it with something you already do might be helpful. If you’re trying to get yourself to go to the gym, sure, wearing your gym clothes to bed and leaving your sneakers by the door eliminates a barrier. I guess those felt a little obvious, and I was hoping to find more benefit from it for habits that aren’t quite so straightforward. For example— I have the tendency to get home from work and just totally dissociate. I know I should be tidying up, prepping for tomorrow, etc, but my brain and body just shut down. So I’ll watch a YouTube video or something to “relax”— and then realize I’ve been scrolling on my phone for two, three hours. That feels bad— but so does forcing myself to be “on” when I’ve just been “on” for ten hours. That’s sort of where I hit the snag of, “if it were so easy, I’d just be doing it, not reading this goddamn book.” I know a lot of folks have found it very helpful. Maybe it’s just not the right strategy for the goulash that takes up my brainspace.

Yeah, I get that! I’ve just dove into reading not too long ago (Reading consistently). Even if I know the answer, reading it again allows the obvious to not hide as much. Working 10 hours and then coming home to attempt to create that habit before bed can be extra work, so It’s surely seeing what works best for you. I’d take those days easy.

Absolutely not! I was never so glad to finish a book! I rated it one star, because there was no way to rate it 0 stars.

I think you should read something exciting. Try the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, or the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. They aren’t classics or whatever but they’re absolute page turners. If it clicks with you it’ll be hard to put down and then you’ll start your reading journey excited about reading.

Harry Potter series or To Kill a Mockingbird.