You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
What do you recommend, nothing hard to get into just good fun reading.
I loved the disc world series...
Currently reading empire of ants.... Quite enjoyable with some humour thrown in.
Thursday Murder Club series. Nothing taxing in them and quite fun.
Slow horses series of books
The Stranger Times series.
Came here to suggest Discworld and Thursday Murder Club
I really liked early Bill Bryson, very funny and easy to get into.
around ireland with a fridge.
^^^ Is a great book! 😀
And if you like them Bob Mortimers autobiography ‘And Away’ is a good read.
Roger Deakin and Robert Macfarlane
Catch-22
Project hail Mary by Andy weir . The movie is out next year so the trailer will give you some idea but it's great fun and an easy read .
French Revolutions - Tim Moore. Attempting to ride the tour de France route.
Rivers of London series. Supernatural things in modern London, being investigated by the Met Police's in house wizards.
Rivers of London series
Lonesome Dove series
Discworld and the Reacher series of books.
On that note, are any of the books that claim to be like Reacher actually any good?
Couldn't put this down literally. Fantastic read! Even better as an audio book narrated in his broad cockney accent!
The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.
The film isn't bad either but the book is better.
It's absurd, funny, touching, violent and easy to read.
And if you like them Bob Mortimers autobiography ‘And Away’ is a good read.
It’s a cracking read. I read that, then followed it with Bobs first fiction ‘The Satsuma Complex’, which was absolutely brilliant too. If you didn’t know who the author was, by the end of the first chapter you’d know that only Bob Mortimer could have written it
Like @mboy I couldn’t put Trading Game down. It’s a proper eye-opener of a book
Rivers of London books, Slow Horses series, and all of Bill Bryson’s books - he’s very funny, in a dry sort of way, I picked up one of his books in Waterstones years ago, and I was stood there giggling to my self from the first page I started reading, I promptly went and bought it.
Also, you learn an amazing amount from him as well, it’s a win all round, really.
Seriously light reading? Then try the Peter May trilogy based in the Outer Hebrides:
The Blackhouse (2009)
The Lewis Man (2011)
The Chessmen (2012)
Well, it was trilogy until
The Black Loch (2024)
As noted elsewhere on STW forums, Mike Carter's 'One Man and His Bike' is well written and interesting book about his cycling tour around Britain.
One Man and his Bike.
Bloody brilliant read about a journalist who decided to ride around the UK with no plan other than to get back to where he started.
Funny, inspiring, engaging, poignant…I couldn’t put it down.
I second (or third) the discworld series, the early Bryson books and around Ireland with a fridge, and will add the ascent of rum doodle, and the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
I read Jaws whilst on holiday. Interesting to see how the film was slightly different and the book was "of it's time!"
Anything by Nick Hornby but my favourites are About a boy and High Fidelity.
A classic recommendation which is easy to read and gripping as any modern thriller would be Tale of two cities.
The Odyssey,James Joyce.
^^^ Is a great book! 😀
And if you like them Bob Mortimers autobiography ‘And Away’ is a good read.
As is Teddy the dogs wee book. It even managed to make me cry.
Larry Correia Monster Hunter series
A Lee Martinez
Christopher Moore
The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch as mentioned a couple of times above. Do try and read them in order, I was hooked after the first one - what's not to love about body possession by a homicidal archiac entity called Mr Punch and the Met police
Mötley Crue, the dirt. Low brow, but probably the best book I ever read.
all the Sharp books.
I love the twisted sense of humour that recommended The Wasp Factory. Chapeau.
Came to recommend the Murderbot Diaries so will second that. Discworld is superb. Ned Boulting's writing is delightful as well.
I love the twisted sense of humour that recommended The Wasp Factory. Chapeau.
I recommend it for every "recommend a book" thread, hoping desperately that some poor fool falls for it.
Elmore Leonard - maybe not his later books, but The Switch, Swag, Rum Punch, Get Shorty, Out of Sight era stuff, or his Westerns, simple but very characterful.
One Man and his Bike.
Came to say this, after it was recommended in its very own thread on here some time back.
Otherwise, don't know if Irvine Welsh counts as easy reading - depends how au fait you are with Scottish colloquialisms.
John scalzi old man's war series
Elizabeth Moon trading in danger series
both military SF but good reading
Stephen King? He's massively successful for good reason - easy to read, great stories.
Stephen King? He's massively successful for good reason - easy to read, great stories.
...they often lack 'the fun' element though! 🤣
I recommend it for every "recommend a book" thread, hoping desperately that some poor fool falls for it.
Then you can follow up with Canal Dreams
Anything marketed as "young adult" will be books targeted at adults who don't read as much as they'd like (hiya!). As much as she's turned out to be the biggest witch of all, the Harry Potter series meets your requirements.
Random suggestion, I enjoyed the "... Study" series by Maria Snyder.
There's a lot of low-hanging fruit to be had. Pratchett as others have said, Douglas Adams I'm a massive fan of, these are predictable wins. Any irreverent author really, I loved Tom Holt's Portable Door run. I think I own almost everything Robert Rankin ever wrote. How about Jasper Fforde? Shades of Grey (no, not that one) and its long-overdue sequel were phenomenal.
Seriously light reading? Then try the Peter May trilogy based in the Outer Hebrides:
I enjoyed the Lewis trilogy (Black Loch was basically just a rehash of the same idea) but grisly murder and child abuse is a strange definition of "seriously light" 😀
The OP hasn't really defined "easy reading" though and it's a bit of a strange category. It's easy to read any book that you enjoy and hard to read any that you don't. You could take it to mean that it avoids anything too traumatic, but even that's a tricky one. The House at Pooh Corner is pretty easy to read but I still can't read the last few pages without crying. Something hideously graphic (but darkly comic) like Stuart MacBride's Logan McRae series is a much easier read for me, but might give someone else nightmares.
Also,
If you can grok a Weegie accent, my current favourite author is Chris Brookmyre. I'd suggest the Jake Parlabane series as a starting point.
You could take it to mean that it avoids anything too traumatic, but even that's a tricky one.
You make an exceptionally good point.
Watership Down is ****ed up. Whereas Lord of the Rings is a children's book (and The Hobbit is horsework to read as an adult, I had to shelve it about three chapters in as I could feel my teeth starting to dissolve).
The Sacred Art of Stealing is what got our eldest teenager to actually take an interest in reading, so yes, Brookmyre(at least his earlier stuff) is a good shout. Our youngest is currently devouring Jasper Fforde.
Young adult fantasy nonsense all seems to be paint-by-numbers slop, but Angie Sage gets a pass for the thoroughly entertaining Magik series.
Fever Beach leads us, in pure Hiaasen-style, into the depths of Florida at its most Floridian: a sun-soaked bastion of right-wing extremism, white power, greed, and corruption.
A lot funnier than the preview suggests.
Slow horses already been recommended, but the Reacher series is non brain taxing easy reads too that have enough to keep you turning the page.
Currently getting through the Jeffery Archer, Clifton Chronicles. Not a massice fan of Archer as a person but he tells a great story and the series is such an epic tale spread across decades.
Great shout on Carl Hiaasen, I loved his books when I was younger, and keep meaning to go back to them. Mick Herron also solid stuff, recommended.
The Sacred Art of Stealing is what got our eldest teenager to actually take an interest in reading, so yes, Brookmyre(at least his earlier stuff) is a good shout.
Brookmyre is a naturally funny man so that just pisses out through his prose. See also, China Meiville, innately charismatic. They're writing serious fiction but they just can't help themselves. (I can relate to this hard.)
Compare and contrast, Joe Abercrombie is a hilarious entertainer but I found his Blade trilogy to be a dour slog, I gave up in the end. Quite how the humour doesn't transfer to the page I don't know. Not his style? I'd climb over bodies if he were try something Pratchetty but I suppose that's been done to death by a hundred imitators by now.
Complicity by Iain Banks.
The Murder Bag (and the accompanying Max Wolfe series) by Tony Parsons - a more realistic, British version of Reacher.
Another vote for Rivers of London.
And if you're really into light reading with guilt-free dropping it if it's crap, Kindle Unlimited isn't bad VFM. There's a lot of self-published dross but there is also some decent stuff, most of it closer to novella than novel format. And if you hate a book, just return it and get another.
I've just finished The Business by Iain Banks - found it in one of those free library things. Decent, bringing some of his Iain M Banks humour and characterisation to his Iain Banks non-scifi stuff. Definitely recommend for easy reading.
Oh, and of course Iain M Banks stuff is generally great - fun, interesting, rollicking. Use of Weapons is a little disturbing at the end, but still good.
I normally avoid book clubby type books, but I just read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and am recommending to everyone that’s interested.
I also remember quite enjoying some Colin Bateman books in my early 20's, stuff like "cycle of violence", similar in vein to the early Elmor Leonard books, but anglo/irish rather than American.
And also blot on the landscape by Tom Sharpe.
Seriously light reading? Then try the Peter May trilogy based in the Outer Hebrides:
I enjoyed the Lewis trilogy (Black Loch was basically just a rehash of the same idea) but grisly murder and child abuse is a strange definition of "seriously light" 😀
Ouch, but fair point.
Michelle Pavers ghost stories are good, especially Dark matter, If that's not fun enough then Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
And also blot on the landscape by Tom Sharpe.
I was toying with the idea of suggesting Tom Sharpe.
Sharpe suffers a bit from Koontzitis, he's written some great stuff but he's written some absolute dross. I really enjoyed the Wilt series and I thought The Throwback was ace, but I read them when Victoria was still on the throne so YMMV, my memory may be untrustworthy.
Very funny of Thols to rec The Wasp Factory.
Some other books by Banks are good easy reads though: Whit, The Business, Crow Road are all great and not too taxing (or desolating, like The Wasp Factory).
I like some of Larry Niven's SF books, I find they quickly become intriguing so I want to keep reading: The Mote in God's Eye, Ringworld, Oath of Fealty.
The Godfather is one of the most underrated books I have read. Overshadowed by the excellent films, but the book has lots of detail and explanation that the film doesn't have time for.
The War at Troy by Lyndsay Clarke is the best book I have read about the Trojan War (apart form The Illiad of course). It covers all the reasons for the war going back generations as well as the war itself. it's a really easy, fun read, and very informative at the same time.