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I have someone I want to collect a big box of books for over the next several months. She will be an eighteen-year-old girl who loves to read and has a lot of fantasy/YA/historical fiction on her shelf but seems to enjoy a variety of books. My plan is to visit used bookstores and keep an eye out for good books in good shape to add to the box.

Are there any particular recommendations you guys have? She has a decent number of books, so if it was trending among teenagers in the past few years, she has likely read it. I am looking more for older, classic, or lesser-known books that she might not have read yet.

Obligatory recommendation for Watership Down.

Mizal, have you checked out Ben's story Fleeing the Forest? It has some vibes of Watership down, and is similar to it in theme. I read Ben's story and really enjoyed it because it literally made me feel like I was reading watership down again. I think you'd really like it!

Classics:

Count of Monte Cristo

Toilers of the sea by victor Hugo. I recommended this one of Hugo's because she's probably already read or heard of Les Mis and Notre Dame.

Old Man and the sea: I only got into Hemmingway because of this book, it's short and sweet, but really profound.

Death in the afternoon Hemingway

Also Cannery Row by Steinbeck.

Sci Fi:

Hyperion Cantos: It's sci fi Chaucer!

The mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, it's really good!

Horror:

The fisherman by John langan. It's more supernatural horror as opposed to slasher horror but it's awesome

Funnily enough, there are 2 sea centered books in my recommendation

Dude I have a lot to say on my thoughts about it! And it's a great classic to have on your list! I also really like that it's high on your list, since it was one of the first classics I read when I got back into reading after joining a university program where I didn't really do much literature reading anymore after high school. It took me 4 months lol, but it's worth it. It pretty much jumpstarted my interest in reading back again.

Ok, so there's 2 right: the abridged and the unabridged. Well, the abridged version gives you the bare-bones story with many of the subplots missing, but the unabridged version has it all. Caveat: if you are busy with life and want to read the book in a short time frame so it doesn't take up too much of your time, read the abridged version. Although there are cool subplots left out, there are also some unnecessary dragging parts left out as well, so it's a mixed bag with the abridged. I still recommend reading unabridged, but if you find yourself torturously reading each word trying to stay awake in some of the slow parts(You'll know which ones I mean once I read it, especially since they come after a rather exciting and awesome part in the book), then pick up the abridged.

At its core, the COMC is a revenge story. The story stars Edmond Dantes, a returning soldier from a sea voyage who gets cheated by and taken advantage of by these 3 men. The main conspirators: Danglars, Fernand, and Villefort. They each have beef with him for various reasons which I'm not going to spoil. Since this was during 1815, it's important to know the historical context because Napoleon Bonaparte had literally just left Elba to start the 100 days period which ignominiously ends in his defeat at Waterloo and exile to St.Helena. Basically, Napoleon still has supporters throughout France, so Dantes is accused of being a Bonapartist and sent to jail.

The story excels at genre shifts(revenge conspiracy -> prison escape -> fake identities ->→ Secret wealth → Elaborate disguises → Manipulation of fate → Poetic justice → Ridiculously over the top plots -> Ruin of the betrayers → Revealing the truth → Moral reckoning) and its episodic nature is a key feature since the author wrote this in these mini serial type novels, so it ends on a cliffhanger and people are waiting for the next issue, kind of like a comic book.

This story is a lot more entertaining than other classics, not dogging other classics, but this story really has it all and is the godfather of so many prison escapes. I'm not joking when I say that COMC influenced Shawshank redemption pretty significantly

More than just being pulp fiction, the story also has significant religious elements and we see a lot about forgiveness and moving on at the end, there are some really poignant passages in that. The coolest part is how after his escape/revenge, he basically turns into a completely different person but there's still elements of the same person, and I think Dumas did a really great job with the character.

There's also really racy elements for the time, which probably shocked and scandalized readers like lesbian love affairs and hookah smoking. Definetly read the unabridged one.

I just watched the Count of Monte Cristo movie last night with a rare person who had no idea how the story went! I'll take your classic recommendations, but I don't trust male, 20th century sci-fi authors without evidence of normalcy.

How was the movie?

Ngl, that's fair. I mean Lovecraft was a raging anti-semite, and there have been some interesting characters over the years.

In that case, I would probably recommend Ursula K. LeGuinn's work. I started with the Earthsea cycle books of hers, but she also has amazing sci fi books. I really enjoyed "The Lathe of Heaven". I know Inception gets all the craze, but this book did really interesting work with dreams in 1973.

I also heard Left Hand of Darkness is a great work, but I haven't read it yet. It's on my list, so it sounds like it could also be amazing. I should have recommended LeGuinn first, she's one of the greatest authors in 20th century sci-fi period. Left hand of darkness does some really interesting and creative things, from what I've heard it was a really popular sci fi novel at the time, and even today is one of the best sci fi novels of all time.

I like the movie a lot and have watched it several times. I have not read the book though so cannot provide a comparison. A short story anthology I acquired recently has a story by LeGuinn. I will keep an eye out for her books.

This is why Bradbury is such a unicorn! He lived to 92, was pretty socially conscious, loved God and was only married to one woman, does not appear to have started a sex cult or ever raped anyone.

A normal sci-fi author man! I did not know that was even possible and will have to check his work out for myself too now.

https://short-stories.co/@raybradbury/there-will-come-soft-rains-6k8vr4xxlnmj

If you were more of a gamer, you might have come across this one at some point.

I liked that story, and it's less than 18 months away!

Robert Heinlein is a bit of a freak (nudist and big proponent of free love) but I've not heard of him being cancelled for anything. He is one of my favorite sci-fi authors. I highly recommend Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and All You Zombies.

For the really classic stuff, Bleak House is in my opinion (and in Gower's opinion!) the best Dickens novel, but for some reason doesn't seem as well known. Little Dorrit is another good one that gets overshadowed, they both do the usual Dickens thing of societal spoofing but both focus on female characters.

Firestarter is a very underrated Stephen King novel that's more of a sci fi thriller than horror, Ninja enjoyed it immensely.

And while they're more aimed at middle schoolers and I'm supposing any highschool aged person in your family reads like a high school aged person at minimum, I have always even as an adult enjoyed the Tillerman Chronicles. (Homecoming, Dicey's Song, A Solitary Blue, etc.)

1984 should be mandatory for everyone in America. And try to find her some of Ray Bradbury's stuff. Farenheit 451 is of course treated as the one most socially relevant, but the Illustrated Man and the Martian Chronicles are short story collections I just adore, Bradbury's prose has some poetic qualities that are highlighted in the latter especially. They're simple but tackle some complex themes around family and coming of age in a pretty nuanced way, I love them.

Katherine Paterson is another "juvenile" author who pumped out a billion books over the decades that I adore for similar reasons. Jacob Have I Loved, Of Nightingales That Weep, and Bridge to Terrabithia are a few that come to mind.

If she liked the Narnia books as a child, than Lewis's sci fi trilogy might be of interest.

Um...Joy Luck Club? Is that old enough to be a classic yet? And then Things Fall Apart and Kim to round out the racial diversity around here.

And if she is into LotR (of course she does right? She better?!) then The Children of Húrin and the rest of that trilogy are must reads, even Gower thinks so. Written by Christoper Tolkien with his father's notes and a lot of love and respect, and finished body before he died.

Finally (if she seems to like 19th century literature at all) then another recommendation I had from Gower, The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Who was a friend and contemporary of Dickens, and wrote what's considered to be the first mystery novel. It's all told epistolary style and charming as heck.

Edit: the original Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy if you want to just throw something classic but goofy and deranged in there.

Where do Oliver Twist and Great Expectations land in terms of best Dickens novels?

Oliver Twist is my favorite dickens, and I really enjoyed Great expectations.

I really need to reread Oliver Twist, it was the first one of his I tried and I was pretty young so some of it may have gone over my head. I remember being annoyed at Oliver himself for being so passive and the book not allowing him to do anything but be a victim seemingly. But of course the biggest payoff in a Dickens novel is usually the supporting characters, which is another thing I think I just didn't get at the time.

Great Expectations is one of my favorites, with the other typical picks like David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby.

I was just able to pick up a copy of Kim in excellent shape last night! I will add these to the list (and some to mine).