Top 5 Books for the Uninspired Reader
If you consider yourself a reader, you’ve likely experienced a sense of burn out when it comes to reading and even more likely, you’ve probably felt a mild resentment towards any book in general. One can only spend so much time reading books for classes before they find reading exhausting and, to some degree, repulsive. That being said, I believe that this can be cured with just the right book. Throughout the past few years the more I’ve had to read for class, the less I’ve wanted to read but once I finally found something I wanted to read that feeling was gone. At some point I realized that, no matter how burnt out I was feeling, the right book was always the one on my bookshelf and was almost never the one that I was supposed to be reading. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t read your textbooks, I’m saying that when you do read them and if you find yourself in a slump because of it: these are some books you might want to turn to.
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Our generation has an interesting relationship with John Green. We all know the person to have had the John Green phase in the eighth grade (in my case: me). As we grew up, we potentially changed our once romanticized ideas of his texts. That being said, I still love him, everything from his podcast and YouTube videos to his impressive body of work. His most recent book: The Anthropocene Reviewed is his first work in novel non-fiction. The book began as a podcast where he discussed and reviewed the little things in the current geological age: the Anthropocene. This was anything from Diet Dr. Pepper to Sunsets, from The Penguins of Madagascar to his own signature. In the novel, he weaves beautiful, short essays on the topics that always leave me either intensely relating to his perspective or astounded by my new knowledge. Because it was written between 2020-2021, reading it now is ideal as it provides a perspective unique to the past couple of years. Reading this made me wish John Green was my best friend. Seeing as he is a 44 year old, relatively famous man and that I am a teenage girl whose claim to fame is the school newspaper, not only would this best friendship be very creepy but also very unlikely. So instead, I made this book my best friend. It’s consoling, funny and as I read it I felt unbelievably human, perhaps more than I’d ever felt before. The fact of the matter is, John Green stories always feel deeply personal, they feel as though he wrote them for one specific person except the magical thing is: that person is always you. Because of all of these factors, this book feels like the warm hug we all need after so many years.
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
As much as our generation has a strange relationship with John Green, it has an excellent relationship with Hank Green. He probably helped you pass at least one science class or maybe you listen to his podcast but most likely, you follow him on TikTok. His book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, is the first book of a duology, its sequel being titled A Beautifully Foolish Endeavour. The story follows twenty-something graphic designer April May as she stumbles across an 10 foot statue of a robot that she can only assume is an art piece at 3 AM in New York City, and maybe not-so-coincidentally finds herself drawn to creating a faux-news video about it with her friend Andy. The story follows a group of friends as they try to solve a mystery all while being unstable twenty-somethings spending most of their lives online. The thing is: I usually would completely disregard a book like this. Nothing about reading about online fame or social media or alien robots is usually appealing to me. That being said, the minute I picked this up, I couldn’t put it down. As I read I realized that, even though the story is interesting and characters are easy to become emotionally attached to, the real star of the show is Hank Green. With such a strong writer’s voice shining through, he balances making the book his own while not completely projecting himself onto any of the characters. My love of Hank Green caused me to keep picking the book up and reading and reading and reading despite difficult scenes, annoying character choices and the occasional scientific jargon. I cannot say it enough: if you love Hank Green and you’re looking for a fun, easy read, this is the book for you.
Educated by Tara Westover
Tara Westover was born into a mormon household off the grid in Idaho. They twisted religion into something it’s not in order to live a life of conspiracy and fear somewhere in the middle of nowhere. So much so that Tara Westover herself didn’t have a birth certificate until she was 10 due to distrust of doctors and their affiliation to the government. But now I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve always loved memoirs. I love hearing people tell stories but even more so I love it when they tell their own stories. Memoirs are one of the most vulnerable pieces of literature, the good ones are chock full of hard-to-fake personality that makes it so, even if the story isn’t all that incredible, the book is full of engrossing. Westover’s life story is so brilliantly brave that even if it weren’t for her spectacular wit and occasional humour, the book still would be one of the best I’ve ever read. If you’re looking for a light, easy read, I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. But if you’re looking for a reminder of why storytelling is important and why you love them, this is the book to read.
The title is a reference to the fact that Westover hadn’t stepped foot into a classroom until she was 17 because of her family’s insistence that she be homeschooled (the whole Illuminati controlling public education idea). Now, however, she’s earned her doctorate of history from some of the best school’s in the world. While this story is one of fear, distrust and eyebrow-raising religious conspiracy, it’s also one of hope and encouragement. It’s a story of heartbreaking trauma and heartwarming success and just how far escaping can get you.
Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood
Moving away from prose we have Gatwood’s lyrical poetry. In her second anthology, Gatwood continues her exploration of femininity, some poems from her first book New American Best Friend appearing revamped in the text. She touches on what it means to be a woman in a world made for men, as well as the art of being a teenage girl. The poems read as small book reports on her own childhood diary reflecting on growing up and the internal misogyny characteristic of a misogynistic society. And of all of the poetry I’ve ever read, none else has inspired me to write quite like hers has. Her stories straddle the line of heart-wrenching and hilarious with an occasional optimistic spin. She dives into her childhood with vulnerability and fearlessness, telling tales that need to be heard in the ways they need to be told, offering a new and much needed perspective that is more shockingly relatable than anything. She has the ability to create a story that feels nostalgic to everyone whether or not they have, have not or have yet to experience what she writes about. I recommend this for the uninspired. Uninspired writers absolutely need to read it, if only to have something to write about. But the general uninspired as well. Anything from a reader’s block to living in constant dread or dissatisfaction can be aided with this text.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Truthfully, this is one of the only books I’ve read in under two days and probably one of the first times I’ve ever experienced the feeling of genuinely not being able to put a book down. Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom’s second novel is the perfect novel to pull you out of that stubborn literature funk. The story follows a widower and amusement park repairman, Eddy, as he tragically dies before being sent to heaven. Most of the time, afterlife is such a subjective idea, stories about it feel hard to read and disagreeable. Albom uses popular religious beliefs in conjunction with fiction to create a realistic afterlife that, despite religious or spiritual belief, makes you want to believe in the afterlife. The idea is all in the title: after death, you meet five people important to your life, parents, loved ones and complete strangers whose lives were important to your’s. The text itself is relatively short, as is characteristic to Albom texts and quite an easy read. One thing I appreciate greatly in texts is when you don’t need to do a full annotation of it or get every little nuance to understand and enjoy the story. This book does that. I recommend it if you’re looking for something simple yet sophisticated. It’s emotional and moving with a good amount of humour but it's not too much work to read. Basically, if someone were to come to me for the exact advice that this article is offering— which books will get them out of their reader’s block— this would be the first I’d offer.
