In the past we have had occasional threads where dopers inquired about specific books they might recommend to younger folk of various ages - whether kids, relatives, friends, students, etc. I thought it might be interesting to turn that around somewhat, and share some titles/authors that we have enjoyed after being turned on to them by younger readers.
I’ll start. Right now I’m devouring The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn. Not a work for the ages, but definitely a worthwhile pageturner for anyone who enjoys a good mystery/thriller - especially if you like SF along the lines of Star Wars. My son reads tons of SF/fantasy. I feared most of it was not exactly my cup of tea. So I was somewhat hesitant when he told me “You’ve got to read this book.” He was right. Two of the most recent novels I’ve read were Brown’s DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons. IMO, Icarus stands up favorably to either of them. Not great lit by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely an enjoyable quick read.
Anyone else?
I’ll also toss in that as my kids have gotten older I have been enjoying reading along with their English assignments in school. I strongly recommend it to anyone who has teenage kids, relatives, friends.
My daughter and I just finished Hamlet. I appreciated the incentive to read it again, and enjoyed discussing it wit my daughter - hearing her point of view. I think it reinforces reading as a lifelong activity. And it never stinks to have something else to talk about with your kids. Many schools have similar English reading lists, so I have enjoyed discussing lit with my many nieces and nephews during family gatherings. For example, we all agree that we have read all we care to read about yams! (Can you guess what book I am referring to?)
Me too. Excellent book. Very creepy in a way but a wonderful, short read. In fact, my book club read it after one of the member’s daughter had talked about it. Everyone enjoyed it.
A teenage boy in my local library recommended Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy to me, when we were comparing notes over the BBC’s Big Read Quiz.
I am eternally grateful to him, I would never normally have even picked them up, but they are absolutely wonderful - I don’t think anyone saw me for a week while I was reading them, I was that engrossed.
I spent several summers working at a camp and read whatever the kids had with them. Some of them were new discoveries (Harry Potter) and others were things I hadn’t read in roughly forever (Stuart Little is coming to mind). I really enjoyed reading their stuff and they seemed to like that we could talk about them and just the nod that came along with me obviously approving and enjoying what they were doing.
I actually managed to get my 61-year-old father to read the novelization of The Death And Life of Superman by Roger Stern. (For the record, I’m 28 - but a very young 28.) I just asked him about it, and he’s about 3/4 the way through (he’s reading a couple of books at the moment), but he finds it a little hard to follow with all the neo-Supermen and other heroes and villians. Of course, it is an adaption of a comic series…
I’m planning on reading it again as soon as he’s finished…
My father’s more into stuff like Patrick O’Brian’s Master And Commander series; seafaring works and other history-based works…
IIRC, Ella is cursed with obedience. But there’s a part in the trailer where she goes to jump over something, someone yells “Stop!” and she freezes in midair! I call bullshit on that.
Other than that, it looks okay.
