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What to Read? 3 Best Books To Read For A Beginner, Veteran and Expert from Each Genre – Part 6

What to Read? 3 Best Books To Read For A Beginner, Veteran and Expert from Each Genre – Part 6
Books have a preferred writing style that makes comprehension easy for readers who have mastered a certain level of fluency in reading a language. One of the secrets to acquiring knowledge is to read. A lot. Picking up a book and reading the words is the easy part. Reading to understand is much harder. The key is not simply to read more but rather be selective about what we read and how we are reading.

If a book is too hard, you become frustrated and discouraged; a book that’s too easy is boring. Knowing your reading level is the key to match yourself with the most appropriate yet, challenging books. The best way to grow as a reader is by reading text that’s not too hard and not too easy, or what some call the “independent” reading level. A right book at your level is a book that stretches your reading skills just a bit — not so much as to make you frustrated but enough to continue your growth as a reader.

This post’s main objective is all about that – breaking down books into 3 distinctive levels (Beginner, Veteran and Expert) for all genres imaginable. We’ve collected suggestions from a group of passionate readers at Reddit, covering over 100 genres – so we’ll be breaking these large compilations into smaller posts covering 10 genres each. Do take note that one’s selections and definition of different reading levels may differ from one to another, but it’s definitely a great reference.

In this sixth post, we’ll be covering genres from Philosophy, Fantasy, Religion & Literature, Nostalgia, Science, Southern Gothic, Canadian Literature, 19th Century British / Irish Literature, Italian Classic Literature.

First postMurder Mysteries, Out to Sea, World War 1, Graphic Novels / Comics, Southern Gothic, Science Fiction, Philosophy Texts, Children’s Books, Western and Horror.

Second postHistorical Fiction, Existential Narrative (fiction & non-fiction), Apocalyptic / Post-Apocalyptic, Magical Realism, Existentialist Philosophy, History of Esoterica, Stream of Consciousness, Coming of Age, Dystopian and Romance.

Third postClassic American Novels, True Crimes, Southern Gothics, Indian literatures, Epic Poetries, Cities / Urban planning, Argentinian Literature, Non-Fiction Physics, Books Spanning a Full Lifespan or Multiple Generations and Horror.

Fourth postUrban Fantasy, Coming of Age: Stories of People in Their early 20s-30s, Russian Realism, Poetry, British Literature, Post-modernism, Military History, Enlightenment Based Literature, Fantasy and Steampunk.

Fifth postHistory, Fantasy, Scottish Fiction, Epic Fantasy Series, Science Fiction, World Building, Historical Fiction, Seafaring, Hard Science Fiction and Post Humanism.

We hope this compilation helps you in a lot of ways regardless of your reading levels, and do stay tuned for the continution of this “Post Series”.

Philosophy

01.ONE
Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “Philosophy Books” of All Time
Source: Goodreads

  1. The Republic by Plato
  2. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  3. Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
  4. Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
  5. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

Books for Beginners

Philosophy

Republic by Plato
Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes
What is Philosophy? by José Ortega y Gasset

Books for Veterans

Philosophy

Metaphysics and Ethics by Aristotle
Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals by Immanuel Kant
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

Books for Experts

Philosophy

Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre

Fantasy

02.TWO
Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “Fantasy Books” of All Time
Source: Goodreads

  1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
  2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
  3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
  4. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
  5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Books for Beginners

Fantasy

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Books for Veterans

Fantasy

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Books for Experts

Fantasy

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Fellowship of the RIng by J.R.R. Tolkien
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

RELIGION & LITERATURE

03.THREE
Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “Religion and Literature Books” of All Time
Source: Goodreads

  1. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
  2. In the Shadow of World Literature: Sites of Reading in Colonial Egypt by Michael Allan
  3. Postmodern Belief: American Literature and Religion Since 1960 by Amy Hungerford
  4. Religious Experience and the Modernist Novel by Pericles Lewis
  5. The Gospel in Gerard Manley Hopkins by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Books for Beginners

Religion & Literature

Night by Elie Wiesel
Gilead by Marilynn Robinson
Devotion by Ros Barber

Books for Veterans

Religion & Literature

Deep River by Shusaku Endo
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
Therapy by David Lodge

Books for Experts

Religion & Literature

Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Silence by Shusaku Endo

Nostalgia

04.FOUR
Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “Nostalgia Books” of All Time
Source: Google

  1. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  2. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
  3. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
  4. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
  5. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Books for Beginners

Nostalgia

A Month in the country by J. L. Carr
Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
Coming Up for Air by George Orwell

Books for Veterans

Nostalgia

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

Books for Experts

Nostalgia

The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley
All Souls by Javier Marías
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani

Science

05.FIVE
Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “Science Books” of All Time
Source: Google

  1. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  3. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
  4. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
  5. Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Books for Beginners

Science

QED by Richard Feynman
Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman

Books for Veterans

Science

Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
Div, Grad, Curl, and All that: An Informal Text on Vector Calculus by H. M Schey

Books for Experts

Science

Cybernetics by Norbert Wiener
Quantum Computing since Democritus by Scott Aaronson
Road to Reality by Penrose

Southern Gothic

06.SIX
Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “Southern Gothic Books” of All Time
Source: Google

  1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  2. Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
  3. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
  4. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
  5. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Books for Beginners

Southern Gothic

Deliverance by James Dickey
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Books for Veterans

Southern Gothic

Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
The Confession of Nat Turner by William Styron
Stories by Flannery O'Connor

Books for Experts

Southern Gothic

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Canadian Literature

07.SEVEN
Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “Canadian Literature Books” of All Time
Source: Goodreads

  1. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
  3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
  4. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  5. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Books for Beginners

Canadian Literature

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
Billy Bishop Goes to War by John Gray, ‎Eric Peterson

Books for Veterans

Canadian Literature

Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Books for Experts

Canadian Literature

Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

Fantasy

08.EIGHT
Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “Fantasy Books” of All Time
Source: Goodreads

  1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
  2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
  3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
  4. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
  5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Books for Beginners

Fantasy

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
The Emperors Soul by Brandon Sanderson
Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Books for Veterans

Fantasy

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkin

Books for Experts

Fantasy

The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
The Magic of Recluse by L.E. Modesitt
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

19th Century

British / Irish Literature

09.NINE
Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “19th Century British / Irish Literature” of All Time
Source: Goodreads

  1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
  2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
  4. Middlemarch by George Eliot
  5. Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Books for Beginners

19th Century British / Irish Literature

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Books for Veterans

19th Century British / Irish Literature

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Books for Experts

19th Century British / Irish Literature

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Persuasion by Jane Austen

Italian Classic Literature

10.TEN

Click on the book cover for a larger version as well to know the full title and author.

The Top 5 Most Picked “Italian Classic Literature” of All Time
Source: InstantlyItaly.com

  1. La Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri
  2. Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
  3. Il Principe by Niccolò Machiavelli
  4. Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
  5. Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis by Ugo Foscolo

Books for Beginners

Italian Classic Literature

Our Ancestors (Trilogy) by Italo Calvino
The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello
La Locandiera (aka The Mistress of the Inn) by Carlo Goldoni

Books for Veterans

Italian Classic Literature

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
Ossi di Seppia (aka Cuttlefish Bones) by Eugenio Montale

Books for Experts

Italian Classic Literature

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Canti (aka Songs) by Giacomo Leopardi
In this sixth post, we’ll be covering genres from Philosophy, Fantasy, Religion & Literature, Nostalgia, Science, Southern Gothic, Canadian Literature, 19th Century British / Irish Literature, Italian Classic Literature.

First postMurder Mysteries, Out to Sea, World War 1, Graphic Novels / Comics, Southern Gothic, Science Fiction, Philosophy Texts, Children’s Books, Western and Horror.

Second postHistorical Fiction, Existential Narrative (fiction & non-fiction), Apocalyptic / Post-Apocalyptic, Magical Realism, Existentialist Philosophy, History of Esoterica, Stream of Consciousness, Coming of Age, Dystopian and Romance.

Third postClassic American Novels, True Crimes, Southern Gothics, Indian literatures, Epic Poetries, Cities / Urban planning, Argentinian Literature, Non-Fiction Physics, Books Spanning a Full Lifespan or Multiple Generations and Horror.

Fourth postUrban Fantasy, Coming of Age: Stories of People in Their early 20s-30s, Russian Realism, Poetry, British Literature, Post-modernism, Military History, Enlightenment Based Literature, Fantasy and Steampunk.

Fifth postHistory, Fantasy, Scottish Fiction, Epic Fantasy Series, Science Fiction, World Building, Historical Fiction, Seafaring, Hard Science Fiction and Post Humanism.

We hope this compilation helps you in a lot of ways regardless of your reading levels, and do stay tuned for the continution of this “Post Series”.