If you’re anything like me, you probably read a lot of books and forget a lot about them as well after reading them (also see: being ADHD)
Is there one specific book whose plot, characters, setting you just can’t get out of your mind and still think about today even when in the midst of another book?
For me, it’s 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I think due to the sheer volume of this book (clocked in over 1000 pages) I was so invested in Tengo and Aomame’s stories that it’s quite impossible to forget them quickly. This is also why I prefer long novels, because they stick around in my memory for longer!
So what book is still stuck with you?
The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante still stays with me. I was very reluctant to start the books, that’s why I bought just the first one in the beginning (My brilliant friend), but I fell in love instantly with Ferrante’s prose and story and of course I read the rest of the series as well. Few months have passed since then and still my mind is there, in Napoli. I’ve read few other books afterwards, but none of them managed to catch me like these books did.
Road work by Stephen King
Project Hail Mary just by virtue of not having any romance side plot (and only one shittily written sex scene but what good is a chicken salad without that one ingredient you wish they’d leave out but never do). Not gonna lie bar is pretty low this year I’ve had some bad picks, 37 books so far and about 9 good ones
Crime and Punishment. It was 3 books ago and I’m still thinking about it.
Klara and the sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
It’s been months….and yet the We Were Liars hangover still lingers……
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen,
Remains of the day,
Harlem Shuffle.
All great books
Interestingly since you mentioned long books lingering longer, mine is a shorter novella “A Short Stay In Hell”. The way the author captures time and eternity was really striking. A story that gets in and gets out but manages to leave such an impressive mark in my opinion. Highly recommend
Poppy War series by RF Kuang.
For me How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu and Kindred by Octavia Butler. Both were the kind of book where I finished and just needed to stare into the distance and process for a while, I don’t think I’ll be emotionally ready to read them again any time soon but I’m certain I’ll revisit them at some point.
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree.
I’ve always loved the high fantasy DnD feel, but I didn’t realize until this book that high fantasy slice of life is the coziest shit in the world to me. I think about that shit all the time.
I haven’t listened to his next one, Bookshops and Bonedust, yet, but I’m super excited.
The Troop
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.
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