What book series should I read?

Read the dictionary and when you are done, quiz me on words and see if I can guess the meaning. That sounds fun I know. Make sure you read the Webster unabridged dictionary and get set and go.

A fellow by the name of Joseph Campbell said “follow your bliss”.

It’s hard to prescribe books for you not knowing anything about what types of things you like. Definitely follow the things you’re interested in, and revel in them!

I fell into a habit of buying all my books rather than using the library. I recommend against that.

So go to the library and “follow your nose”.

The only romantic book I think I’ve ever read is Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, and boy is it a good one. Oh – and a girlfriend made me read He’s Just Not That Into You (right before she dumped me). But it was great because the book made me entirely agree with her!

There are plenty of great, classic books dealing with “romance, love, and sex.” For starters you might try:

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë
Lady Chatterly’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Venus in Furs, by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
The Story of O, by Pauline Réage

@ipso, yeah absolutely I always go to the library and lend the books. I have never bought a book, I only get them as gifts.
But Yeah I will check out the book boys are from mars:)

10th grade? go for His dark materials. :)

@SmashTheState , I difinetley check them out
But I already have read P and P- Jane Austen, Thank you though

I just got into reading books like jane eyre and stuff so those are also good books and I learn alot from them too:)

@ninjacolin , what do you mean go for his dark materials? Is that a book or what?

it’s 3 books in “His dark materials.” the first of which is “The golden compass”
the movie was horrible, by the way. truly terrible and a shame.. compared to the book.

@ninjacolin , ah ok, Yes I have seen the Golden Compass-movie, But never read the book.
What about like 90210 or something like that, are there series books like that? :O

Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy gave me great pleasure when I read it at your age. There are love subplots but not much sex. A great story just the same. It is way better than the movies which were pretty amazing.

@Dr_Lawrence @ who’s age?

Good for you for being a reader, and for using the library! (It is much more “green” to borrow, not to mention cheaper.)

* “Wuthering Heights” is utterly dire, but it is a romance and referenced so often, that you should probably read it so you can speak to it when it comes up in conversation.
* Some series I read at your age were more along the lines of fantasy, and you might find you like another genre.
-“The Tripods Trilogy” by John Christopher are 3 books about people in Europe years after aliens take over. England started to make the trilogy into a television series years ago, and you can watch them on YouTube to see if it piques your interest.
-“The Chronicles of Narnia” series by CS Lewis
-“The Wizard of Oz” series by L. Frank Baum
-“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien

@Kraken I was referring to the age of the person who posed the question (16 or 17).

If your into texts that are a bit out there or a bit philosophical, then “Zen Flesh; Zen Bones” is a pretty good book to check it. Another one in this field would also be Sun Tsu’s “Art of War”.
If you prefer a bit more straight forward reading however, “The Day of the Jackal” was i book i enjoyed a lot, as well as “Of Mice and Men” and also “The Heart of Darkness”. These are all books that have given me a lot of enjoyment. Sorry if i didnt give a review, but i could go on and on about these ones and secondly ive only just got back from work and feeling a little tired. But i will give a review non the less if needed. Just expect to do a lot of reading, haha

You can read some of the books I had to read when I was in 10th/11th grade such as: “A child called it” – “This I Believe” – “Go Ask Alice” – “Speak” – “Massive”.

I don’t have the authors to the books but they are real simple to find.

Hope this helps!

Good grief, @IsthmusCrypticus, she said “Romance” books, and you suggest Art of War and The Day of the Jackal? lol :D
I admit I don’t know much about girls-oriented romance novels, but I know these books well and they are NOT that.

@GeorgeGee haha, yeah i know. I dont know of any romance books, but i still wanted to contribute somehow cause i like talking about books. I was hoping no one would notice

@IsthmusCrypticus LOL, it’s a challenge not to share your favorites with someone who has different tastes. Don’t give up though. Maybe Thesexier will put them on her reading list, whether she gets to them this summer or later in life.

Just thought of a book you might enjoy. “A Woman of Independent Means” by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey. I borrowed it from my sister (a high school English teacher.)

Well, I always recommend Tolkien, so let’s just get that out of the way. Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit. The Silmarillion. The Lays of Belieriand. Read them!

One of my favorite books of all time is Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “The Mists of Avalon”. I read it for the first time in 10th grade, and I’ve read it 17 times so far. It’s the story of the King Arthur legend, told from the perspective of the women in the story. Very romantic, very sensual, very very pagan. Yes, it’s long, yes, it’s very involved. You won’t be able to put it down. Srsly.

I don’t know what you’re into, but I like Star Trek. There is a set of two books, “Imzadi” and “Imzadi II”, that deal with the love triangle between Will Riker, Deanna Troi, and Worf. A very good read. Peter David grasped the characters so well. I love all his Star Trek books, but those are the romance-y ones.

There are a good many comedic books. A favorite of mine is “Why do men have nipples? Hundreds of questions you’d only ask your doctor after your third Martini”. The sequel is good, too – “Why do men fall asleep after sex?” They’re written by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldman, M.D.

Chocolat. yes, there was a movie with Johnny Depp. The book is really good. Love and sex and chocolate all over the place.

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. (same guy who wrote The Three Musketeers). It’s amazing what a poor French sailor will do for the love of a woman.

Two books that I just loved were The Good Journey and The Fiercer Heart by Michaela Gilchrist. They are historical fiction, based upon diaries of real people, and cover a time period of often overlooked American history, which is the 1830’s – 1850’s in the Louisiana Territory.

Another interesting read is Voices From a Century Before, by Mary Clay Berry. When one of the Field family houses in Kentucky was sold, they discovered several trunks of letters and notes in the attic that comprised daily correspondence between the Clay and Field families in central Kentucky. Graduate students at UK spent about 15 years reconstructing the correspondence in a sequential manner. The Clay families are those of Cassius and Brutus Clay. Mary Clay Berry, a descendant of both the Clay and Field families, took a segment of the correspondence and edited it both from a family history and national history perspective. The result is a view of history that’s very different than what you read in text books, and serves as a reminder that throughout time, human nature remains constant. Only manners, mores and technology changes.

My favorite love story is “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s not as depressing as it sounds. It’s about an older woman (60s, 70s? maybe older) whose husband dies. She takes you through their romance and life up till the death. Then a lover from her childhood tries to court her and help her overcome her grief because when you’re that old, you shouldn’t have to be alone.

It’s also not a shitty romance novel like how I described it… It’s actually very well done and very sentimental. My boyfriend read it and loved it as well.

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Oh! You should also read “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamant, and “The Birth of Venus” by Sarah Dunant.

AND and “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden.

I think that pretty much exhausts the supply of girly books that I like. ^_^

I went through a romance book period when I was right about your age. If you just want beach books (fluff) then you may want to check out Johanna Lindsay. Light reading, lots of (unrealistic) romance and sex. For more serious story lines (but not much more serious) try Kathleen E. Woodwiss.

A great series that is very well written is Diana Gabaldon’s series:

Outlander
Dragonfly In Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
etc.

Time travel, romance, sex, duplicity in that series.

Diary of Anne Frank Get the revised edition, which restores the sexual passages that her father expunged

@SmashTheState I don’t think it’s a good idea to recommend “The Story of O” to a tenth grader. It’s excellent, especially in the original French, but the subject matter (BDSM) could be traumatic to a young girl.

@Thesexier Douglas Adams’ “A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” and its sequels are hilarious; you’ll never want to be without a towel again.

two books for you: Go Ask Alice and the perks of being a wallflower… I read both when I was around your age, they are easy reads and both very good. Just started rereading the perks of being a wallflower yesterday and I couldn’t put it down.

Try The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd; I think you’ll like it. Also, many young women seem to love the Twilight series.

No one can tell you what books to read. I read a lot and have done so all my life, but when someone tells me about a book that they just loved and that I should read it too, I know almost for sure that I will have no interest in it. So if you are seeking others advice on reading, you are digging yourself a hole and you will end up hating it.

Go to the library or a bookstore and just browse until you find something you might like. If the book doesn’t catch your attention and make you WANT to read it, then don’t get it. At this point it should grab you by the end of the first page.

If you do get a book and you lose interest in it, DO NOT feel like you MUST finish it. You are under no internal obligation to do so. Just put it down and find another one.

You are reading for pleasure. It should be fun. Don’t waste time and punish yourself if you don’t like it.

@plethora

How sad, that you could determine simply by word-of-mouth that a book is horrible. I wonder how many incredible reads you’ve missed out on.

Thank you everyone, I will check out these books you all requested. I’ll let ya’ll know which one I will be reading and which one I liked.

If I may speak for most of us, you are a polite, inquisitive person with a thirst to read, and we are more than happy to share some of our favorite books with you. And YES, please do know what you end up reading over the summer. It might be something we haven’t read ourselves, and decide to pick it up based upon your recommendation.

@Pied_Pfeffer , Wow thank you, that was really sweet:)
And yea that could always happen:)

I saw that a couple of these books I’m about to recommend have already been mentioned, so consider it as a ‘seconding’ of sorts. As a self-proclaimed bibliophile, this is by far my most-favouritestestest thread ever! haha.

Wuthering Heights, Bronte – oh, man, Heathcliff is perhaps the guy who has ruined all my ideas of “real” love and such.

Memoirs of a Geisha, Golden – the movie was fantastic and they did well in trying to capture the imagery introduced in this novel, but by god, the book’s descriptions are so vivid that they could be tangible. soooo sooo great. beautiful love story.

When I was in 9th/ 10th grade, I started reading a series called “Sweep” by Cate Tiernan. I believe there’s 15 books in total, but they’re rather short (around 150–200 pages each), except for the last one. It’s mostly centered around Wicca and magick and all that, but it’s about a 16–17 year old girl trying to discover herself? But there’s enough “violence,” high school drama, romance and sexual tension that kept me interested, ha.

And as far as “romance” novels go, I really like Sherrilyn Kenyon’s earlier stuff (like Night Embrace, or whatever)... you know, before she started churning out a bunch of nonsense. Another favourite is Michele Jaffe; I’ve really only read 2 books from her series of sorts. But they’re written very well. Mystery, romance, and set in a historical period (Victorian? I think?) “Lady Killer” and “Secret Admirer”—and if I had to choose either or from her’s, I’d go for the first. :)

Anyway. happy summer reading!

@madeinkowloon – I loved ”...Geisha”, but I’d definitely call it a historical fiction describing exploitation of women before a love story.

@madeinkowloon , I think the Sweep one is interesting, exactly was I want:)
I’ll try and look for it:)

@Seek_Kolinahr haha good point. i just wanted to keep it as simple as possible, and a lot of the story did surround sayuri’s feelings for the chairman, so i went with that description instead :)

@Seek_Kolinahr My opinion relates to me only and is based on years and years of trying books that others have suggested. Everyone has their own taste in iiterature. Don’t think I’ve missed too many. There is rarely a time I am not reading something. So many books, so little time.

The way in which it does relate to @Thesexier is that if she is asking others what books to read, I would encourage her not to get discouraged if she tries a dozen books that others suggest and didnt like them. She is more likely to like what she picks herself. If she finds later that others recommendations are good choices for her, then more power to her.

@plethora No one is forcing her to read any of the recommended books. They were offered up based upon the preferences she offered, albeit some not on target (like mine), but close. If Thesexier chooses not to finish one, she won’t be punished, and we won’t be offended.

Some of my favorite books were discovered based upon recommendations. It feels like the person has given me a precious gem.

@Pied_Pfeffer I’m must be missing something here, seriously.

I can only make suggestions based on my own experience. My experience is that I am always more interested in books that I choose based on my own investigation, rather than on those recommended by others. There are plenty of people who feel like they “ought” to enjoy the books that other people recommend and that there is something wrong with them if they don’t. There are others who feel that they “must” finish a book once they have opened the pages and started it. I think that both of those approaches may lead to a person giving up on reading. (I know I would if I read only those books that others recommended or if I felt that I must finish a book once I started it).

So my suggestion to @Thesexier was not to hang her hopes on others recommendations and to try her own investigation. Whatever works for her.

@plethora Some of what you have to say in your latest post is spot on. I read “Message in a Bottle” which was loaned by a friend while I was stuck in a hotel room over a weekend in the middle of nowhere. It was either that or the tabloids sold a nearby gas station. My niece begged me to read “Twilight” while we were at the beach, and it turned out to be the most painful experience endured in quite a while. And oddly, I’ve recommended both books to people who were looking for something to read in both genres, with the disclaimer that I did not care for it.

It just seems that most research on books is based upon other peoples’ reviews. Even when I go to the library or bookstore and make a beeline for the section of interest (True Crime, for example), I find myself reading the reviews printed on the book jacket to find out if it might be something of interest.

I’ve recommended books that I’ve never laid a hand on, solely based upon what a person is interested in and based upon someone else’s review.

Kushiel’s Dart and the rest of the series are phenomenal—alternate history, sex, supernatural, politics, intrigue, spies, sex, bondage, great writing, romance, sex, I can’t say enough about it.

@unused_bagels , lol:D

I highly recommend the “His Dark Materials” trilogy. Lord of the Rings has already been mentioned, but I’ll second that too, along with the Hobbit. The Children of Hurin was also good, although significantly darker. I also loved Conn Iggulden’s series on Genghis Khan (Wolf of the Plains, Lords of the Bow and Bones of the Hills).

@FireMadeFlesh , I will def check them out:D