# After Harry Potter--Finnegans Wake?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 21, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382 "2011-10-21T18:55:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/1 "2011-10-21T18:55:32Z")
Most of my sons have been big readers, and ambitious readers. My youngest, however, has never voluntarily read anything except all the Harry Potter books, numerous times, until they’re falling apart, as a matter of fact. (Although #7 fell apart after only two readings, his and mine, but I digress.)
I have tried and tried to get him interested in some kind of literature. He will read stuff on the internet about things he’s interested in, and his interests vary widely, but to sit down and read a book? No.
Over the years he has failed to get interested in Lemony Snicket, Hank the Cowdog, The Magician, Hatchet, Snow Crash, and a few others. He reads what he has to for school, and writes book reports (but they’re always late). For a long time he was happy to do read-aloud things and share in the reading, but he just didn’t really read on his own, for entertainment.
So a few weeks ago I was rereading (sort of) Infinite Jest (a book that is perfect for the Kindle) and he read some of it, not starting at the beginning but around 200 pages in I think, and it made him laugh. So my husband said something like, “If that’s what you want to read, you might as well read Finnegans Wake.”
So now he is reading Finnegans Wake. We’ll see how that goes.
This kid is perverse. I had to work up to it by starting with Dubliners, and even then I only got about 40 pages into it before realizing it was giving me a permanent daze. (Well it went away a few days after I ditched the book. At least, I think it did. The truth is I have never been quite the same.)
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### Author:  [@MobiusStripes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MobiusStripes)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/2 "2011-10-21T19:17:18Z")
As someone forced to read James Joyce in school, and not particularly liking it, I’m baffled.
What did he like about the Harry Potter series? The humor? The world/atmosphere?
Has he given Tolkein a chance?
I know you didn’t ask for recommendations but…
Snow Crash is cyberpunk. It wasn’t my favorite but I did really enjoy Neuromancer by Gibson, and Diamond Age (most of it) by Stephenson.
Classic sci-fi? Asimov’s robot series (starting with “Caves of Steel”), or the Foundation series.
I’m particularly fond of “Johnathon Strange and Mr. Norrell” by Susanna Clarke, though I can’t explain why as I find 19th century England to be entirely outside of my interest range, nor can I get through anything by Austen (the writing styles are often compared).
It sounds like he’s at least open enough to get books a shot. That’s great!
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### Author:  [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/3 "2011-10-21T19:36:58Z")
My tastes tend towards scifi. I recommend the Genellan series of books, the book Lucifer’s Hammer, the book Legacy of Heorot and the sequel Beowulf’s Children, and maybe The Mote in God’s Eye.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/4 "2011-10-21T20:24:23Z")
My God, you’re raising an English major.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/5 "2011-10-21T20:36:55Z")
How about the Narnia books? _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_? _Discworld_?
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### Author:  [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/6 "2011-10-21T20:38:07Z")
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was okay, but Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter was better.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/7 "2011-10-21T20:50:53Z")
Moved MPSIMS --\> Cafe Society
**twicks** , who barely made it out of _Ulysses_ alive
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/8 "2011-10-21T20:51:10Z")
Moved MPSIMS --\> Cafe Society
**twicks** , who barely made it out of _Ulysses_ alive
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/9 "2011-10-22T17:41:13Z")
Good lord, I don’t even have the strength to make it through Joyce.
EDIT: But by all means don’t tell him that! If he’s voluntarily reading, that’s good enough, he doesn’t need to be discouraged!
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/10 "2011-10-22T17:47:34Z")
> [@MobiusStripes](#):
>
> As someone forced to read James Joyce … I’m baffled.
Then it worked!
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/11 "2011-10-22T18:15:11Z")
Wait, some people read \*Finnegan’s Wake \*on purpose ? Without it being a college assignment or some form of deviant and unusual torture ? Well I’ll be.
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### Author:  [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/12 "2011-10-22T22:40:46Z")
How old is he?
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/13 "2011-10-23T02:10:03Z")
> [@jordanr2](#):
>
> How old is he?
He’s 16. He claims to find the work lucid.
Should I call in the shrinks?
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### Author:  [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/14 "2011-10-23T19:27:48Z")
I read _Crime and Punishment_ at 15. I gave up on _The Brothers Karamazov_ last year at 27 (mostly because I didn’t have the time to devote to it, but that’s beside the point). Teenagers can have amazing hubris because they’re not so weighed down by knowledge of a book’s reputation, and because they don’t yet understand all they don’t understand about a book. I say good for him, and don’t make a big deal out of it. If he stops after thirty pages, he’s still experienced thirty pages more of Joyce than most people.
I still haven’t come up with a perfect post-Harry Potter suggestion, but I’ll say that I loved the books and still haven’t warmed up to fantasy - there’s a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the fantasy genre in Harry Potter that appealed to me. In some ways Dickens reminds me a lot of HP, insofar as they have large casts of oddball characters, melodrama, moustache-twirling villains and good-vs-evil (albeit non-fantastical) plots.
Anyway, your son sounds like he’s resolved to make (painfully!) independent choices in his reading, so it’s not like you’ll get much say in it. 🙂
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### Author:  [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/15 "2011-10-23T20:14:41Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> He’s 16. He claims to find the work lucid.
>
> Should I call in the shrinks?
It made sense to me around that age, but I was reading with the help of various commentaries and such. Is he using other books to help make sense of it?
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/16 "2011-10-23T21:28:48Z")
> [@Sonnenstrahl](#):
>
> I still haven’t come up with a perfect post-Harry Potter suggestion, but I’ll say that I loved the books and still haven’t warmed up to fantasy - there’s a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the fantasy genre in Harry Potter that appealed to me. In some ways Dickens reminds me a lot of HP, insofar as they have large casts of oddball characters, melodrama, moustache-twirling villains and good-vs-evil (albeit non-fantastical) plots.
Definitely give \*Discworld \*a whirl. It’s like Harry Potter, but written by someone with actual wit ;). I’m most partial to the Witches ones (_Wyrd Sisters_, _Witches Abroad_, _Maskerade_, _Carpe Jugulum_) myself, but really they’re all quite good.
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### Author:  [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/17 "2011-10-23T21:53:07Z")
> [@Kobal2](#):
>
> Definitely give \*Discworld \*a whirl. It’s like Harry Potter, but written by someone with actual wit ;). I’m most partial to the Witches ones (_Wyrd Sisters_, _Witches Abroad_, _Maskerade_, _Carpe Jugulum_) myself, but really they’re all quite good.
Thanks! I just started a new job at a bookstore and I’ve been anticipating a lot of this question. _Discworld_ sounds like a good possible answer. And I really do need to try them - my friends love them and I’ve had to stop asking one for recommendations because she won’t say anything beyond “Have you read Pratchett yet???”
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/18 "2011-10-23T22:18:04Z")
_Finnegans Wake_ seems an impossible jump to me from where your lad is at. (IMO, obviously). Give him a shot at _War and Peace_ which is hugely readable and entertaining.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/19 "2011-10-24T05:02:39Z")
Try him on _Illuminatus!_ Co-author Robert Anton Wilson was a big Joyce enthusiast, and it shows.
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/after-harry-potter-finnegans-wake/600382/20 "2011-10-24T06:56:19Z")
> [@jordanr2](#):
>
> It made sense to me around that age, but I was reading with the help of various commentaries and such. Is he using other books to help make sense of it?
We have _Joysprick_ and _Skeleton Key to Finnegan’s Wake_. He doesn’t seem to be referring to them, though.
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