The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.
Few other sci-fi books do as good a job of depicting how a gift/library economy could work like in practice. It's quite a hopeful vision of where we can collectively go in the future.
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2026
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Anything by Le Guin is amazing. Have you read Left Hand of the Darkness? It explores themes of gender identity. Itβs my favorite of hers. The Word for World is Forest is also really good
I need to read The Word for World is Forest at some point. I've read the rest of the Hainish Cycle novels. Rocannon's World was pretty good, a nice exploration of setting but otherwise couldn't compare to Left Hand or Dispossessed, Planet of Exile was uncomfortably Pocahontas, but set up for City of Illusions which was really good, just not a "everyone should read it" like Left Hand and Dispossessed.
I have been approaching Le Guinβs work as a happy discovery any time one of her books crosses my path. I donβt want to actually check what she wrote because I fear the day I will have read everything from her. Like this, Iβll never know if there is still something from her out there for me
I love all of the books in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe and it's definitely my number 1. Mistborn, Stormlight Archive, Warbreaker, Elantris, all of them. I think it's worth looking into reading order. It doesn't matter too much in the earlier books, but there are some references that add to the experience. In the latest books, there are things that need to be understood from other books for it all to make sense, particularly between Mistborn and Stormlight.
Other series I really enjoy:
- Robin Hobb: Realm of the Elderlings anthology.
- Jim Butcher: The Dresden Files.
- Brian Mcclellan: Powder Mage series.
- Joe Abercrombie: The First Law series.
- James Islington: The Licanius trilogy.
- Robert Jordan: The Wheel of Time. This is what got me into Sanderson since he finished the series
Unfinished series:
- Scott Lynch: Gentleman Bastards.
- Patrick Rothfuss: The King Killer Chronicles
I've been reading his work.
Mistborn, Warbreaker and some short novellas in between. Now I'm halfway into The Way of Kings and loving it. Saving your comment for possible future reference!
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I read both mistborn and a large part of the stormlight series, though the latter I never finished because books were still coming out at the time. The first Mistborn book is great and can in my opinion even be read standalone if you don't want to commit to a whole series. I also just finished Yumi and the Nightmare painter which I found pretty good. I wished Sanderson would put out a second book to the Rithmatist
Gentleman Bastards and the First Law Series are two more series that I've had on my readlist for quite some time now. Kingkiller chronicles I remember also finding pretty good back when I read it, though I am a bit miffed that it still isn't a finished series.
The Licaniud Trilogy is the one with the book "The will of the many"? If so that's anothet series on my readlist. I am starting to think we have a pretty similar taste in books ;D
I love Sanderson, his books have great settings and magic systems, his female characters are well written, and he actually puts out books and finishes series
Brandon Sanderson is a genius, and I read through the entire cosmere in a little over a year after not reading a whole lot for years.
As for reading order, it doesn't matter quite as much as people sometimes say. There are two standalones that don't really work as a starting point (Sunlit Man and Isles of the Emberdark), but the rest works great. You can even start with Stormlight Archive if the sheer size of the books doesn't scare you off.
One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, long read, but probably one of the best books written.
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Definitely a Discworld book, but hard to narrow down which exact one.
Night Watch should take it, but to get the most you have to read the 4 or 5 books before it in the guards series. It works on its own, but a lot of the flavour will go over your head.
After that is a toss-up between Reaper Man and Small Gods.
Reaper Man - Death "loses his job" and becomes mortal for a few weeks and becomes a farmhand.
Small Gods - A God comes down to Earth to stomp around and inspire fear, but the church no longer believes in him anymore, just the power structure within the church, so he doesn't actually have any power and ends up stuck as a Turtle, only able to talk to the one guy who believes in him.
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Anna Karenina
Everyone needs to read it once in their lives. It's the best love story ever written IMHO
Barring that, people read any Russian classic. Their literature just hits different. Say what you want about the government, but the people are so beautiful in their complexity.
Einstein's Dreams
A series of short stories of what life would be like if time worked differently. One where there is no future. One where you can run to places in time. One where time slows and speeds up in different places.
A classic: Lord of the Rings (& The Hobbit first) Other: Ariadne & The witch of Colchis
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the ensuing (five-book) trilogy were my favorites as a child and I haven't felt the need to update that. If you enjoy absurd British humor with a side of sci-fi, it will be worth a read for you, too.
I felt the same way until I read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, also by Douglas Adams. I thought that and the sequel were even beter.
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Jude the Obscure. It's a tragedy. It's an old book, and a classic, but it isn't everyone's cup of tea. I recommend giving it a try of you like consuming tragedies as much as I do.
I can't name a favorite but I'm reading an interesting one now which is Wittgensteins Tractatus Logico Philosophicus. You really have to think about what he's trying to explain.
It was indeed interesting to read. I recommend following it up with his Philosophical Investigations, which completely breaks off from the Tractatus.
Thank you.
The Silmarillion has endured since my early teens. I've read it closer to ten times in the past 20 years.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It will make you laugh and cry... At the same time. A brilliant anti-war book.
It's very similar to Vonneguts, Slaughterhouse 5.
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I'd have two: 1st is a book that I'd recommend to read anyone, "1984" written by George Orwell And 2nd is a book that I would not recommend to read everyone, but I personally really really like, because it left an impression on me when I,ve read it: "So I'm a Spider, So What?" by Okina Baba, it just has all the moments that I'd like to see in a action adventure book at the time, a nice story, relatable mc, nice humor. Although ending kinda sucks so I js headcanon it.
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I had taken a pretty long break from reading for leisure. I read Lord of the Rings in high school and was convinced Iβd never find something that enjoyable ever again.
Then I read Dune and it really got me back into reading again. I also tackled the Mistborn trilogy and then the Stormlight Archive shortly after. There are also some other books by this same author that I picked up, such as Warbreaker.
Then I read the first 3 of the Red Rising books (I am waiting for the author to finish the series before I continue).
Then Dungeon Crawler Carl, and am now working my way through Wheel of Time.
Some of this was fueled by me swapping out my time I spent on Reddit to reading books and a lot of it was just enjoying books once I actually picked them up again.
All this to sayβ¦
Try Dune! If it feels confusing at first, just keep reading.
Or you can go into a more YA/easy read of Mistborn. Which is basically medieval fantasy. Think French Revolution era but with magic.
I read Dune this year and it was so good. Just unbelievably smooth prose with lots of complexity. I was only able to read the first two without needing a break for something else though
I really loved The Locked Tomb series, it's brilliantly written and does a good job leaving you as confused as the characters while also being aimed perfectly at my demographic.
Huge fan of Ursula K. LeGuinn's The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness. They're great sci fi explorations of politics and gender
My wife and I are both fans of Brandon Sanderson's work, very good for anyone interested in getting into fantasy (also popular for learning to read books in English).
When Women Were Dragons is a feminist fantasy novel that made me cry on behalf of the older women in my life and was just a really powerful book
I have more queer lit I can recommend, but it's probably not going to be what I'd describe as my favorite.
For nonfiction The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow is a fascinating book that left me feeling like we are capable of building a better society
- The Southern Reach Trilogy
- House of Leaves
- Lord of the Rings
- Narconomics
- The Library At Mount Char
The Southern Reach trilogy isnβt given enough credit. Vander Meer does an amazing job explaining the unexplainable and his prose is pretty fucking beautiful, despite its modernity.
House of Leaves, which Iβm in the middle of right now, is an all-consuming void and occupies my mind pretty much constantly. Which is cool, given the subject matter.
I've been trying to get so many people to read Southern Reach Trilogy. It's a fantastic slow burn that doesn't fill in too much and let's you think on it. I've actually gotten a friend to read House of Leaves before she's been willing to look at Southern Reach though. I have no idea what magic words I'm missing to sell it better.
Oh, also, if you enjoy House of Leaves you should check out Siderius Plugβs Immortality in Ninety-nine Endnotes I've heard good and similar things (though obviously much shorter and more hands on being a solo ttrpg). It's sitting on my stairs (where my books to read lay since wife filled our bookshelf) as my next "read".
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hiyodori's work has captured the entanglement of sapphic hatred, obsession and love in a way we havent found elsewhere. she writes about women in beautiful places who will inevitably destroy or complete each other.
Carrion Saints is her best and it will never let us go. it is focused, thorough, and very curious about what it would take to make someone hate you forever.
I've read "Player of games" by Iain M. Banks so many times I broke it and had to buy a second copy.
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- Ada, or Ardor, Nabokov.
- The Dispossessed, Le Guin.
- A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace, Martine.
A Memory called Empire is incredibly good! I feel Desolation doesnβt compare
I can't consider them separately π€·πΌ
Anything by Le Guin is soo good! Dispossessed is a particularly good one though. I read Lathe of Heaven earlier this year, and that was a fun ride.
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Catch 22, I read it like the bible.
Recently:
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Plainsong - just the prettiest book out there
-
Anathem - cool sci-fi
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Perdido Street Station - gritty sci-fi
Nostalgic:
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Lord of the Rings
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I, robot (light, good to get back into reading)
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Brothers Karamazov (since you like Russians)
Triggered by this thread:
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Left Hand of the Darkness, by Le Guin (scifi and gender identity)
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Dune, by Herbert (scifi and ecology)
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