I just came to say that “the ideal of amount of rape for me would be none” literally made me laugh out loud. I hope you find a good read!

Check out r/romancebooks, there are tons of threads of people recommending romance books that meet different tropes/requirements! 

If you might like historical romance, I recommend checking out Sarah Maclean, her books reliably don't have any non-consent issues.

Seeing a lot of The Kiss Quotient so just going to warn you, &gt;!in one of the love scene(s) the male lead performs a sexual act on the heroine after she tells him not to. He basically says “Stop thinking,” and does it anyways. She never says yes. !&lt;

Just because &gt;!there isn’t forced penetration doesn’t mean it isn’t sexual assault.!&lt;

Edit to add: Many people who have read this book disagree with my viewpoint and interpreted things differently. Specifically, the scene I have in mind. The rest of the book deals with boundaries quite well, but I will keep my own opinion up because if I had it, I assume some others will too. It is entirely possible that I am a little too over sensitive to this topic.

Anything written by Jasmine Guillory! Also Alyssa Cole's Reluctant Royals series! Both are primarily romance but have their fair share of sex that is VERY consensual! I also really liked Not the Girl You Marry by Andie Christopher.

Andie J. Christopher

Jack Nolan is a gentleman, a journalist, and unlucky in love. His viral success has pigeon-holed him as the how-to guy for a buzzy, internet media company instead of covering hard-hitting politics. Fed up with his fluffy articles and the app-based dating scene as well, he strikes a deal with his boss to write a final piece de resistance: How to Lose a Girl. Easier said than done when the girl he meets is Hannah Mayfield, and he's not sure he wants her to dump him.

Not the Girl You Marry

I truly believe that it's such a prevalent theme because women have internalized misogyny and slut-shaming from such a young age that they cannot enjoy sexual fantasy unless they displace the guilt by making the woman "not to blame" through force. The fact that we don't push back against it or explore that desire in more cerebral ways blows my mind. It's so unhealthy, and I feel like at least 70-80% of women experience it to some degree.

Avoid Diana Gabaldon books at all costs, lol.

{Spoiler Alert} by Olivia Dade is a new book I loved about a woman who is fat, a fan fic writer and cosplayer for a Game of Thrones-esque show. It is a fun read that also deals with family acceptance and dyslexia and has lots of enthusiastic consent.

ugh it's such an issue, so prevalent. I use the StoryGraph as an alternative to Goodreads because it's amazon owned, and they incorporate content warnings so you can search for new books that don't have r\*pe/sexual assault

Honeymooners

Rosie Danan's The Roommate is incredibly fun!

I highly recommend anything by Mariana Zapata and Julianna Keyes. Also L.B. Dunbar is great and tends to write sexy romances that involve adults in their 40s-50s.

i hate that it's so freaking common. there are several series i won't touch for this reason.

Try Mariana Zapata. Wall of Winnipeg, under Locke, and Kulti are some of my favs.

Virgin River by Robyn Carr. I’m about 80% through it, so far pretty good!

Robyn Carr

Virgin River

Love Lettering by Claybourn. It’s on the Romance side and the way the consent is done is so sexy

Kate Clayborn

'Lyrical and engrossing . . . bursting with humour' - Entertainment Weekly The thing is, the letters don't always tell me truths about myself. Sometimes they tell me truths about other people. And Reid Sutherland is - was - one of those people. In the last year, Meg Mackworth's beautiful hand-lettering skills have seen her rocket to social media fame, and now she has a booming business crafting stationery for the stars. But she has a secret: sometimes, she just can't resist hiding messages in her work. Slightly unprofessional, maybe - but harmless. Right? Analyst Reid Sutherland and his gorgeous fiancée had their future mapped out. Until he noticed a pattern in his wedding invitation that made him think twice. When Meg looks up from her desk one day and sees Reid standing in front of her with no wedding ring, holding the invitation she created, she thinks that her career is over. But her life may be about to begin . . . Escape into a beautiful world of craft and romance that will grab hold of your heart and never let go. Praise for Kate Clayborn 'Clayborn is a thoughtful, very talented writer' - BookPage 'Hilarious and moving and sexy' - Buzzfeed 'A warm and lively romance' - New York Times 'Clayborn's characters are bright and nuanced, her dialogue quick and clever, and the world she builds warm and welcoming' - Washington Post 'A layered and memorable love story . . . smart, sexy and sublime' - USA Today

Love Lettering

Throne of Glass series and A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah j Mass. it’s technically adult fantasy but there are some really great sex scenes in every book. And also just a great series!

Ugh, I know what you mean lol.  Everyone was raving about a book a couple years ago... I bought it, and within the first chapter it just gave off rapey vibes.  Thought it might subside.  It didn't.  It escalated.  I don't think I could even make it past the second chapter, it was disturbing on a whole new level.  

I liked A Court of Thorns and Roses... The main theme isn't erotic, it's more of a fantasy/action genre I think.  But there is romance, steamy scenes, and it's all sweet and consensual.

If you like comics I suggest checking out anything in Iron Circus’ “Smut Peddler” series of anthologies. It’s all very consent-based, Spike (the editor) has no tolerance for playing with that kind of kind. If you like femdom some of the other erotica titles (Iris &amp; Angel, Yes Roya) might be worth checking out as well!

I dont have anything that is just a romance in mind. They are usually and bit awkward for my taste lol the discovery of witches however offers LOTS of love scenes to fill your fancy and anytime there is sex it is VERY much mutual. 

Good luck on this one!

I’m sorry are there ladies that are into rape....?

"Call of the Highland Moon" , "Dark Highland Fire" , and "Wild Highland Magic" by Kendra Leigh Castle. 

These are a trilogy. I read the first book 'cause it said it was about werewolves but I didn't know it was an erotic book but by the time I got to the first "scene"  I was halfway so I kept reading and I actually liked it so I got the rest.

Kendra Leigh Castle

"Castle is a rising star! Call Of The Highland Moon thrills with seductive romance and breathtaking suspense. This is an author to watch!" --Alyssa Day, USA Today bestselling author of Atlantis Awakening A Scottish Highlands werewolf fleeing his destiny ... Gideon MacInnes is a werewolf from the Scottish Highlands. He loves the haunting beauty of his home, but runs away to upstate New York, grappling with his destiny of being his clan's next alpha. As a snowstorm closes in, Gideon is attacked by rogue wolves working for an enemy he never imagined existed. He stumbles, wounded and bleeding, to collapse on the doorstep of Carly Silver's tiny romance bookstore-ironic, as she's never been very good at relationships with men. A warmhearted woman, looking for a new pet ... Thinking he's a dog, she takes him home, treats his injuries and wakes up to find a devastatingly handsome naked man in her bed. Trapped together through the raging storm, Gideon discovers that he's found his mate and Carly has to choose between becoming a werewolf, charged with protecting humankind from the inhabitants of an evil otherworld, or giving up the one man she's ever truly loved ...

Call of the Highland Moon

Kendra Leigh Leigh Castle

Gabriel MacInnes has led a charmed life. A Highland werewolf of Alpha lineage, he'd always thought that, as the second son, he would never have to worry much about responsibility. But with his Pack now squarely in the sights of an ancient and rediscovered enemy, everything has begun to change. Exiled from the Drakkyn realm, on the run from the dragon prince who claims her as his own, the last thing Rowan an Morgaine wants is to deal with a bunch of overbearing shifters in the middle of nowhere. But when her hiding place on Earth is discovered, and with blood the only thing that can restore her waning power, the fiery demigoddess has little choice but to accept Gabriel as a protector ... As the Earthly and Drakkyn realms converge, Gabriel and Rowan must decide how much they're willing to sacrifice for fate...and for one another. What reviewers are saying about Kendra Leigh Castle: "Ms. Castle develops likeable characters, adds danger-filled mystery to a steamy romance, and keeps reader's interest to the revealing end." -Darque Reviews "A great, fast-paced tale. Castle's world-building is superb and leaves readers wanting more." -Romantic Times "Fans of straight up romance looking for a little extra something will be bitten." -Publishers Weekly "This fresh and exciting take on the werewolf legend held me captive until the last page. I'll definitely be watching for more stories from Kendra Leigh Castle." -Nina Bangs, author of One Bite Stand

Dark Highland Fire

"With a strong, compelling plotline, engaging dialogue, an intriguing cast of characters and toe-curling sexual tension, WILD HIGHLAND MAGIC is a joy to read from start to finish."—Romance Junkies When Scottish Highland werewolf Catrionna meets the gorgeous, tortured Bastian, her long suppressed animal instincts kick in-and she must have him. And she'll take on every demon that torments him, with or without his help. Growing up in America with a father who hates his own nature, Catrionna MacInnes has always tried desperately to control her powers and pretend to be normal. Now her father has brought her and her sisters to Scotland to reunite with the pack they fled years ago. Bastian an Morgaine has found sanctuary among the MacInnes werewolf clan but no relief from the soul-searing curse that haunts him. The minute Cat lays eyes on Bastian, she knows she's met her destiny. In their first encounter, she unwittingly binds him to her for life, and now they're both targets for the evil enemies that are out to destroy their very souls. PRAISE FOR CALL OF THE HIGHLAND MOON: "Sweeping readers along from upstate New York to the Scottish Highlands, Call of the Highland Moon tells a werewolf tale with a mysterious origin. Ms. Castle develops likeable characters, adds danger-filled mystery to a steamy romance, and keeps reader's interest to the revealing end." darquereviews.blogspot.com "A great pick for readers who like their supernatural romances funny, seductive, and light on gore." wordcandybooks.blogspot.com "Nice and steamy. Props for good writing and an interesting world." kristiej.blogspot.com

Wild Highland Magic

The Boss by Abigail Barnette is basically the anti fifty shades, as in, the author wrote it to show how a healthy bsdm relationship would look like cause El James did not

I’m thinking in this age I could get rich writing romance novels where the woman is always on top and moaning.

Emma Holly. Try Prince of Ice and The Guardian first. Steamy!

If you want to read an erotica, try Unbound by Cara McKenna. Omg, I love it so much.

Neal Lozano

A balanced, practical, thorough, and easy-to-follow guide to deliverance and freedom. From a well-respected pastor whose message is accepted by all denominations of the church.

Unbound

Colleen Hoover

After Tate Collins and airline pilot Miles Archer agree to a no-strings attached relationship, they both have trouble sticking to the plan.

Ugly Love

The sexist book ever written is “The Butcher” by Alana Reyes. 
But what would I know about ‘sexy’.  😂

I'd also love some of the same kind of books, but I'm male

This seems to come up a lot around here. Either new posts or in the comments section.  Sad that so many authors have some kind of rape fetish. It annoys me wife that she cant read the books of several of her favorite fantasy writers because rape plays so much into the plot.

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang and the Bareknuckled Bastards by Sara McLean are personal favourites of mine.

Helen Hoang

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well he can't feel big emotions like love. He thinks he's defective. His mum knows that his autism means he just processes emotions differently, and goes to Vietnam to find him a wife. As a mixed race girl living in Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place, so when the chance to travel to America to find a husband arises she jumps on it. And though she finds herself falling for the man, he says he can never return her affections. With Esme's time in the US running out, Khai is forced to learn he's been wrong and that there's more than one way to love.

The Bride Test

A court of rose and thorns. While not explicity a sexy book(as in the book is more about its own plot, rather than being heavily invested in sexy scenes), characters are open about sexuality . The book is what i call edubational book, came for the hot stuff, stayed for the story and its nice plotline

I thought “changing his game” by Megan Erickson, “naughty little wishes” by Nina crespo, and “one night of trouble” by Elle Kennedy were very good

Love story by Erich Segal OR Tell me what you want by Megan Maxwell. Hope you like them.

If you like historical romance, I really liked Bringing Down the Duke and Duchess Deal!

I would definitely recommend Jackie Collins for the most part her books are strong sensual women who enjoy sex and the majority of sex scenes are about female sexual gratification

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, that is one sexy book.

Out of Eden by Anne Rice. What a wonderful writer!

Lauren Blakley is a good author to check out. Bonus points if you have audible, she has several options in the Plus Catalog! 

I love her books because she makes a point of including "enthusiastic consent" i.e. During a make out session that's heating up, the guy asks the woman if this is what she wants and she nods, he'll follow up with "I want to hear you say yes" - characters use condoms and/or have the safety talk. Even the characters that are into light BDSM (using a scarf to tie her hands, hair pulling, occasionally spanking) always practice safe conduct and talk about boundaries and how the woman is in control even as she relinquishes control to her partner.

This is f/f but my favorite is The Ladies Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite!! Very specifically talks about boundaries and eases into intimacy, also just a wonderful story!!

I love Penny Reid, and consent happens in her books!

Deeper by Megan Hart was pretty good and as far as I can remember it’s a consensual steamy novel. I may be wrong but from what I remember it was good!

The problem is a lot of the romance novels involve a very dominant partners especially in supernatural romance. Thus that means in todays light it could be seen as rapey.

"Club Sin" series by Stacey Kennedy. Hear me out, I started reading light BDSM Romance for the same reason. I need clear consent in my fantasies. This series is soooooooo good.

Normal People by Sally Rooney.
It's not erotica per se, but it does get steamy, while very consent focused.
Same with Conversations with Friends, by the same author.

Sally Rooney

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the celebrated author of Conversations with Friends comes "a stunning novel about the transformative power of relationships" (People), hailed as "a masterpiece, pure and simple" (Minneapolis Star Tribune). "Among the vast cohort of new millennial novelists, none are connecting with readers as intimately, or generating as much excitement, as Sally Rooney."--Entertainment Weekly WINNER OF THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARD * WINNER OF THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD * LONGLISTED FOR: THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE * THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE * THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION * THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE * THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He's popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her job at Marianne's house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers--one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they're both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other. Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship. Praise for Normal People "[Rooney] has been hailed as the first great millennial novelist for her stories of love and late capitalism . . . [she writes] some of the best dialogue I've read."--The New Yorker "Arguably the buzziest novel of the season, Sally Rooney's elegant sophomore effort . . . is a worthy successor to Conversations With Friends. Here, again, she unflinchingly explores class dynamics and young love with wit and nuance."--The Wall Street Journal, "12 Best Books of Spring" "Keenly observed, deeply perceptive, and psychologically acute, Normal People brims with disarming insights into how men and women wrestle with sex, class, popularity, and young love."--Esquire, "Best Books to Read This Spring"

Normal People

I feel you! Try the Gamble Brothers by Jennifer L Armentrout. She’s got a few romance along with other things. On a side note, the Lux series by her is amazing and I would give it a read at some point!

Jennifer L Armentrout, or J Lynn for most of her adult novels, writes the most wonderful love stories with an amazing amount of sexiness, cuteness, comedt with a good balance of mystery tension and even action. The {Wait For You} series is my personal favorite! All of the men are swoon-worthy, and J Lynn has a wonderfully fun and refreshing writing style.

Also, {Easy} by Tammara Webber is a very wonderful read. It does, however, begin with an attempted rape, and it is a little difficult to read. The novel deals with her trying to cope with the traumatic experience while also getting her failing econ grade up around her busy schedule as a music instructor/college student. Her love interest is one of the most gentlemanly romantic counterparts in a romance novel I have ever read, and the story does get very steamy at some points. It's been a few years since I've read it, but I reread it more than once!

Edit: a comma

I want to know who IS into rape novels so I can avoid them. WTH? I like to read steamy, consensual sexy stuff. I like Emilia Finn and just found Natalie Neverman, she’s new but good if you like first person and some crime drama. I mean... how do you go wrong with pro tournament fighters and hot cops? Pippa Grant is pretty good if you like a giggle.

Agreed. Try hockey romances. Some are steamy some are not. M8ne are steamy but different 'normal tropes

Check out the podcast "Ravage Love." Every week, two feminist icons read and discuss a new romance book. Sometimes the books are weird and kooky, but sometimes not. They are almost never rapey. The hosts rate the spiceyness level.

Damn you would think those wouldn't be hard to find, but I guess even having to sort through something like that could be or rather would be a trigger.

Anything by Anne Rice. Her other aliases, maybe not so much.

Last Kiss Goodnight by Gena Showalter. There are special ops alien agents and fighting. It has family and animal abuse the main character has to battle and triumph over at her familys circus and it's set in a kinda futuristic earth but mostly in nornal settings. Also just ignore there's a sequel I think it's trash because lack of character development.

The Kiss Quotient 
The Right Swipe 
The Bride Test 
Party of Two

Some of my favorites are:
The Bride Test by Helen Hoang, 
The Playbook Series by Alexa Martin, 
You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria, 
and Not the Girl You Marry by Andie J Christopher.

This is just fabulously, absolutely, perfect...*ly f##d up* - I feel ya! I have a couple of suggestions, yet they STILL have some rapey content (though it’s referenced as ACTUAL SEXUAL ASSAULT rather than “romance” and is not entirely integral to the plot line). Does that sound ok? Also, are you reading them or listening to audiobooks, &amp; do you have an age preference... *god why does everything sound so rapey now?!?*

try out fanfiction. on AO3 you can filter out whatever you don't like. you can filter by what is popular in order to get higher quality writing.

Reading some of the replies to this thread it seems you should just give up on romance novels honestly

You want porn from a female perspective, you want fnafic.

Trying out erotic/romantic fiction, and the first few books I picked up were a little rapey for my liking. The ideal amount of rape for me would be none. 

Any suggestions?

Sexy books for ladies not into rape?

Basically all of Jane Austen.  I was an English major, and still couldn't "get" her, and then tried again in my 30's and binge-read all of her books.

I have experienced this not just with books, but also with t.v. shows and movies.
Anyway, for me, it was Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. I started reading the book when I was 21, but the slow pace of the plot, and the conversations felt really boring. I put it away and didn't go back to it until two weeks ago (now 32). It has been a great ride, and now I am enjoying all of the long and deep conversations between Raskolnikov and Porfiry. I'm glad I decided to pick it up again.

Catch-22 hits different after you've had some experience dealing with the absurdity of bureaucracy as an adult.

*Life of Pi*. Tried at 12, read at 20.

Also, Hemingway. Read *The Old Man and the Sea* in school at 13 and hated it; read *The Sun Also Rises* in college and liked it.

*Norwegian Wood* only took me about six years.  DNF at 18, read and really liked at 24.

Love this, and I'd also extend the same idea to the reading method itself. A book which bores you in one format will open doors for you in another - don't read a book out of its wrong format for you.

For example, I'd given up on reading a hard copy of The Silmarillion more times than I can count. But on trying it as an audio book, in an atmospheric 'in the beginning' biblical kind of tone, I lapped it up.

And vice versa, I recently tried The God of Small Things as an audio book. Its choppy timeline was hard to follow in that format and I kept losing my sense of place. Switching to reading the novel, though, I was blown away.

Loved Frank Peretti a decade ago, struggle to get into his books now.

 Terry Pratchett was wasted on me as a youth - I think every time I read a book of his again I pick up some new subtlety

The Hobbit. I tried it at 13 and just couldn’t even thought I loved LoTR. In my 30s I tried The Hobbit again and was in love with the gentleness and storytelling.

The Great Gatsby.   I couldn't relate very well in highschool.  I am afraid that a lot like Pepi La Pew, a lot went over my head.

The Book of Three series.   Listening with my kids as an adult I got a lot more out of the lessons that Terran learns on his journey to learning about himself and being an adult.

To Kill a Mockingbird - read as a teenager. Nice book. I liked it. Focused on the relationship between Scout and Jem, I saw a quaint story about the old south, and I marveled at the injustice. 

Read it as an adult - I see Atticus Finch’s struggle to raise two kids without their mother; trying to balance a professional job and fatherhood; trying to be someone his children can see as a model; trying to expose them to the injustices of the world without breaking their spirits at such a young age.

Much better book as an adult.

One hundred years of solitude. I had to read it for school when I was like 13 and totally hated it, mostly because of the repetition of names and the magical realism. Six years later, I picked it up one day during January when I was really bored and I loved it, in fact it became my favorite book for a while

I was really bored with "Brave New World" when I was a teen but I think I might give it another try. Same with a lot of Ray Bradbury books. They're always on those "read before you die lists" but I haven't been able to get into them.

Aldous Huxley

Brave New World predicts - with eerie clarity - a terrifying vision of the future. Read the dystopian classic that inspired the Sky TV series. EVERYONE BELONGS TO EVERYONE ELSE Welcome to New London. Everybody is happy here. Our perfect society achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Now everyone belongs. You can be happy too. All you need to do is take your Soma pills. Discover the brave new world of Aldous Huxley's classic novel, written in 1932, which prophesied a society which expects maximum pleasure and accepts complete surveillance - no matter what the cost. 'A masterpiece of speculation... As vibrant, fresh, and somehow shocking as it was when I first read it' Margaret Atwood, bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale 'A grave warning... Provoking, stimulating, shocking and dazzling' Observer **One of the BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World**

Brave New World

I read Catcher in the Rye in my early 40s for the first time. Verdict: 🙄

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

Read it at 17 and honestly couldn't even finish it because I didn't really understand the voicing.

Read it again at like 29 and it healed a big rift inside of me.

The Great Gatsby. 

I have no clue why high schools make teenagers read it.

Jane Eyre - tried to read it when I was a teen, didn't make it a quarter of the way through. Went back to it in my mid twenties and loved it.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I liked it in my early 20s but just thought of it as kind of goofy and absurdist- in my 30s that absurdist humor hits differently and feels a lot more wise lol

A Prayer for Owen Meany.  I read it when it came out.  I was in college.  I re-read 25ish years later.  I recalled being inspired and intrigued when I read it the first time, but on the later re-read it just seemed a bunch of broken people milling about then it ended with a bunch of people who were broken in a different way.

Books that help younger adults gain better perspectives on succeeding in life (Outliers, The Millionaire Next Door, etc.) are probably not that helpful for adults closer to retirement.

Grapes of Wrath. Read it at 18 for class and thought it was super boring. Reread it at 37 and understood it

I first remember that happening for me with *Huckleberry Finn*. For some reason, when I had to read it for a high school class, I found it so boring and couldn't get through it. But then when I was assigned it again for another class in college, just about 4 or 5 years later, I loved it and thought it was adorable.

It has NOT happened yet with *Heart of Darkness*. I've tried to read that a few times, wanting to like it, but I just can't get past the first few pages. It's still so boring! Maybe I'll try again when I'm 40 or 50.

The Gunslinger (and the rest of the DT series).  I picked it up when I was 13 and starting out my lifelong  love of SK.  I was really annoyed that it had a western theme and was nothing like anything else I'd ever read by him.
When I picked it up again in my 30s it turned out to be the best series I'd ever read and, IMO, SK's masterpiece.

Catcher in the Rye. Read it when I was 32 or so. Could not relate to any of it. Told a colleague about my experience and he said I should have read it when I was a late teenager.

The little prince.
Im high school, i read it as a boring story about a lonely man and a lonely alien prince guy that the main character probably just hallucinated in the desert.
But reading it now as a 30 yr old, it's a bunch of parables and vignettes filled with observations on life, and yes, still a strong overriding theme of solitude and estrangement, with so many occupying their own tiny worlds with the environments entirely of their choosing... it's really deep

*The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock* is often taught in 10th grade.   It is an odd choice for high school, being about a timid man worried about aging.   

On the other hand, I heard *Piece of My Heart* in 9th grade and could not understand what all the anguish was about.  

Eventually, both made a lot more sense.

The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time). I tried to read the first book probably 5-6 years ago and thought it was massively boring, I only got through the first 100 pages and gave up. Then I started reading more fantasy and recently gave WOT another shot, now I’m on book 8 and loving it.

I've only read one book of Doris Lessing's and was mildly bored with what should have been a topic of interest to me. Her writing is more mature, it's been 6 years now so I really should get back to her. What's your favorite Lessing read?

Amitav Ghosh's "Sea of Poppies" was too much for me (3 yrs back) I couldn't finish it but the same author's other book - "The Glass Palace" was amazing. I loved the flow of the book and it was my last read for 2020.

Amitav

Ghosh

The Glass Palace Begins With The Shattering Of The Kingdom Of Burma, And Tells The Story Of A People, A Fortune, And A Family And Its Fate. It Traces The Life Of Rajkumar, A Poor Indian Boy, Who Is Lifted On The Tides Of Political And Social Turmoil To Build An Empire In The Burmese Teak Forest. When British Soldiers Force The Royal Family Out Of The Glass Palace, During The Invasion Of 1885, He Falls In Love With Dolly, An Attendant At The Palace. Years Later, Unable To Forget Her, Rajkumar Goes In Search Of His Love. Through This Brilliant And Impassioned Story Of Love And War, Amitav Ghosh Presents A Ruthless Appraisal Of The Horrors Of Colonialism And Capitalist Exploitation. Click Here To Visit The Amitav Ghosh Website

The Glass Palace

I think for me it was probably To Kill A Mockingbird. I didn't read it when I was a teenager in high school, it wasn't one of our required reads (I'm in Canada) but I think I remember it being available to read from the English department. I read it in my late 20s, 28/29 years old. I think I remember liking it but I also just remember thinking that the themes seemed rather obvious to me, that I already thought and behaved in a way similar to Atticus, and thinking "yeah....? why wouldn't you treat others with respect and dignity and empathy?" 

I didn't get a whole lot of "new" ways of thinking and viewing the world out of reading it. I was already thinking that way. I went through a lot of bullying and shit when I was young so I was already pretty empathetic towards people who were in similar situations or who had been "othered" or who had faced some form of discrimination. I grew up in a small community that was probably 99% white but I never had any issues with people who were of different race. My family had exchange students from other countries over the years so that probably helped too. Maybe I would have gotten a bit more out of it at a younger age but it wasn't some big revelatory story for me.

Almost any book we read for school was the wrong time. For instance, I love Shakespeare plays and sonnets, and I find Dickens novels enchanting now that I read them (or watch the plays) for fun. The only exception is Dostoevsky, whom I love now and loved in school.

To Kill A Mockingbird. I tried reading it at 14 and didn't get halfway through. I read it last year, 10 years later, and adored it. What a book.

I've definitely experienced it the other way round. Reading 'Hot Milk' by Deborah Levy in my early twenties was wonderful, but I've since tried to reread it and it doesn't have the same impact now I'm older and more settled in my life.

Little House on the Prairie. Loved it as a kid. Hate it as an adult.

I got crying of lot 49 because my English teacher told me I wrote like Pynchon. I didn't read it until I hit my 30s, this was also where I figured out it was kind of an insult (lmao.)              

Book's great, just super confusing and takes a lot of diligence to catch what he's trying to say.

The Dispossessed, by Urusla K Le Guin. I struggled to read it in my early teens, but it ended up being life changing when I read it in my late teens

Wait, you like Doris Lessing too? Been looking for others! Did you read Mara and Dann?

I find this is the case with Dickens. It’s a waste to read him in high school, I could appreciate him a little in college, but I fell in love with his writing in graduate school. I devour his works now (late-30s).

I could not give less of a shit about thomas pynchon now that I'm thirty and I thought he was the greatest thing ever when I was 21.

The Sun Also Rises. I hated it as a teen, loved it as an adult.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera. Tried to read it when I was fifteen. I thought it was, indeed, unbearable. I finally read it in my late twenties.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being ...just didn't click with me the first couple times I tried to read it. Then one day I picked it up again and it was (at the time) my favourite book.

To Kill a Mockingbird, I just couldn’t relate to the story at all in my 20s, in my 30s I just can’t stop raving about it.

Mine was Harry Potter. I thought it was boring and couldn’t get into it when I was younger. But read a few in my twenties and really appreciated them!

Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet.

My grandfather was a huge fan of Pessoa’s and after he passed when I was 15 I started reading several of the books my grandfather left. He had written lots of comments on the margins and this was a way for me to still have a “conversation” with him even though he wasn’t there anymore.

I tried my hardest to read the Book of Disquiet but just couldn’t move on from the first few pages.

Two years ago, when I was 32, I suffered through a very rough period of my life. I decided to pick up the book and read it in one weekend. Then bought myself a new copy and wrote down my comments on the margins.

The book basically saved me.

The Little Bookshop of Paris - its about a man in his 50s or 60s going out with his apothecary bookshop in a houseboat to say he loved the woman that left him. I kept getting really annoyed with the waxing poetry of the past and the rosecolored lenses given to his nostalgia when the truth was much cleaner and purer. I also could not understand why the man was such a coward when he had YEARS to fix the thing haunting him for so long. 

I explained all this to my 50-something coworker and she got it immediately. "You'll understand when you're older," she said. 

I'm 24. If i ever end up like the MC in the book I'll slap myself.

Catch 22

Read it at 13. Couldn't understand it. Hated the main character. 

Read it at 20. Hated it. Couldn't stick through it till the end. 

Read it at 32. Pandemic. Maybe my mood shifted.  So absolutely hate that book.

For me it's a lot of the classics. The older, more formal writing style and more complex use of English made them seem boring as a child, though I enjoyed the simplified themes of the stories they told (Dracula, Island of Dr Moreau etc). Since growing older and reading more and more over the years and developing a love for the nuances of written language and the poeticism found in the way older writers would set a scene means that I adore these stories now, and love to revisit them on occasion in their original forms.

I read "Animal Farm" at 8 years old thinking it was just another talking animal book. It made me physically ill, depression, anxiety, stress: for three days.

George Orwell

With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life in this hardcover edition. “Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be. Lionel Trilling said of Orwell’s masterpiece “1984 is a profound, terrifying, and wholly fascinating book. It is a fantasy of the political future, and like any such fantasy, serves its author as a magnifying device for an examination of the present.” Though the year 1984 now exists in the past, Orwell’s novel remains an urgent call for the individual willing to speak truth to power.

Animal Farm

started Titus Groan in high school since I'd heard it was so good, and ... it was the most boring shit imaginable. I thought, 'People like this? Does anything ever HAPPEN??' Resolved to give it another try 10+ years later because maybe not all those people who loved it could be completely wrong, and ... I was absolutely fascinated. I loved the characters, the slow destruction of a world, and even the endless descriptions of dust motes falling through sunlight (Mervyn Peake was a man who clearly loved his dust motes). The book hadn't changed -- I had.

I imagine all of the ancient, dense novels I read in high school English class will magically become more interesting to me when I'm 40 lol

The Great Gatsby. Read it in high school for required reading and didn’t connect with it at all. Read it again about a decade later and wow, totally got all the loneliness and outsiderness Nick feels. And the phoniness, pretense and idolatry we gravitate to in early relationships.

The Pale King by: David Foster Wallace. I tried to read it for the first time as a freshman in college, having never read David Foster Wallace before. I made it maybe fifty pages into a six hundred page book. But then, nine or so years later, I gave it another try after having read six other DFW books. This time I raced through the book, entranced. One of the best books I read in 2020 and it literally changed how I approach my own writing. So glad I gave it another shot after almost a decade.

David Foster Wallace

The "breathtakingly brilliant" novel by the author of Infinite Jest (New York Times) is a deeply compelling and satisfying story, as hilarious and fearless and original as anything Wallace ever wrote. The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has. The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions -- questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society -- through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time. "The Pale King is by turns funny, shrewd, suspenseful, piercing, smart, terrifying, and rousing." --Laura Miller, Salon

The Pale King

Howard's End. Didn't really take it in when it was a school book. Read it ten years later and was blown away.

I read Good Harbor by Anita Diamant when I was in my 20's and I remember telling my mom that I couldn't fully relate to the characters because they were in their 50's.  I'll have to try it again when I get into my 50's.

Around 18 or so I enjoyed Chuck Palahniuk books. Now at 30 I find them repulsive. On the flip side, I just read through the entire Harry Potter series for the first time in my life and thoroughly enjoyed it.

1984. Couldn't get through it when I had to read it for school, read it in my twenties and enjoyed it. Although I still wouldn't put it on the pedestal a lot of people have for it.

Lord of the Rings. Devoured the trilogy at 20. Read Lord again at 68 and was like, meh. Might just be me but fantasy does not wear well after many decades on this planet.

Jacob Have I Loved. I grew up in a very narcissistic family and admittedly hated this book when I was a preteen.

I read it again in my 30s and woo shit. I felt every word. One of my favorite books now.

Clive Barker's *Imajica* \- On my first read, I got a few hours in and put it down; there was something almost off-putting about the riot of unbridled creativity.  

Perhaps a year later, at the urging of my wife, I started over again and the book swallowed me whole.  I read it in 2-3 days.

One of the all time great fantasy epics, IMHO.

Fedro (plato), beyond good and evil (nietzsche), moral's genealogy (nietzsche), the tree of knowledge (maturana and varella), some scattered texts from russell and wittgenstein and the divine comedy are all books from my teenage years that made me an young adult. Although i rarely read philosophy now, i use this intelectual foundation when i read about finance, when i study im med university or even when i am playing sc2. It became part of my thought process.

Read the LotR trilogy as a teen, but loved the movies more.  Now (at 33) I'm the opposite,  especially after reading the Silmarillion.

Got about halfway through Crime and Punishment at 20, restarted it at 21 and LOVED it.

Read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy last year and....I think it's going to grow on me as I get older.  In general I thought it was amazing, just not an easy read.

Cormac McCarthy

With an introduction by Philipp Meyer. The wrath of God lies sleeping. It was hid a million years before men were and only men have power to wake it. Hell aint half full. Set in the anarchic world opened up by America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is an epic and potent account of the barbarous violence that man visits upon man. Through the hostile landscape of the Texas-Mexico border wanders the Kid, a fourteen year-old Tennessean who is quickly swept-up in the relentless tide of blood. But the apparent chaos is not without its order: while Americans hunt Indians – collecting scalps as their bloody trophies – they too are stalked as prey. Since its first publication in 1985, Blood Meridian has been read as both a brilliant subversion of the Western novel and a blazing example of that form. Powerful and savagely beautiful, it has emerged as one of the most important works in American fiction of the last century. A truly mesmerizing classic.

Blood Meridian

I tried to read Emma by jane austen at 16 and it was too young but at 20 it was amazing. With Atonement, I couldn't get past where Robbie gets accused...it just made me so mad that I threw the book across the room. However, after I saw the movie I was able to finish the book because I realised it was part of a larger whole.

Jane Austen

In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.

Emma

I think I missed the window for Wuthering Heights. Tried it in my late 20s and found it annoyingly melodramatic. Would have loved it as a 16 year old.

It might not be super profound but John Green’s Looking for Alaska was mine. I read it when i was too young to understand  how empty the characters felt, why they were behaving how they were behaving, and how strongly loss can effect you. I reread it recently and now that I am at a more similar age range to these characters it hits way harder and speaks to how i feel about the teenage experience in modern times

Great Expectations. Read it in highschool and even though I usually loved the novels we read, this one bored me to death and I couldn't follow the plot at all. Read it again about a year ago at 25, and Pip is such a well-written, relatable character. The plot is really good too, even though I knew the story already I found myself really invested in it.

The Bell Jar. I first read it in high school and thought it was awful. Grew up, went through some stuff, dealt with major depression and read it again. By the end I was hugging it to me and crying. You never know when something will show up exactly when you need it to.

Tried reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath in middle school and did not understand it honestly. Don’t think I even finished it. I just read it last year as a 27 year old and very much connected with the main character. I’ve struggled with depression and mental illness quite a bit in my life, but what I really connected with was how she described society’s expectations for women and the experience of being a woman in general.

Sylvia Plath

A realistic and emotional look at a woman who falls into the grips of insanity written by the iconic American writer Sylvia Plath “It is this perfectly wrought prose and the freshness of Plath’s voice in The Bell Jar that make this book enduring in its appeal.” — USA Today The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that Esther’s insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

The Bell Jar

10 years ago.."Your Erroneous Zones " by Dr.Wayne Dyer was kinda "foreign" and it did not resonate with me at that time...that book changed my life... Opened me up to even more 
brought me towards the teachings of  Eckhart Tolle ...today

Wayne W. Dyer

THE RECORD-BREAKING, #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – OVER 35 MILLION COPIES SOLD The first book by Wayne Dyer, author of the multimillion-copy bestseller Pulling Your Own Strings and national bestsellers There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem and Wisdom of the Ages, a positive and practical guide to breaking free from the trap of negative thinking and enjoying life to the fullest. If you're plagued by guilt or worry and find yourself unwittingly falling into the same old self-destructive patterns, then you have "erroneous zones" – whole facets of your approach to life that act as barriers to your success and happiness. Perhaps you believe that you have no control over your feelings and reactions – Dyer shows how you can take charge of yourself and manage how much you will let difficult times and people affect you. Or maybe you spend more time worrying what others think than working on what you want and need – Dyer points the way to true self-reliance. From self-image problems to over-dependence on others, Dyer gives you the tools you need to break free from negative thinking and enjoy life to the fullest.

Your Erroneous Zones

Charles Dickens is a gift my younger self gave to me by finding his books uninteresting. Something about these novels utter sincerity left me skeptical I'd draw much from them. Downloading and enjoying his complete works for 99 cents on my kindle has been a highlight of my current decade. What a world we live in. 

I found Doris Lessing (and Iris Murdoch!) entirely compelling in my 20s and that opinion has never changed. :)

Pretty much all self help. When I was a teen my dad tried to push it on me and I thought it was a crock of crap. When I hit like 22 it really sunk in and I've been reading it ever since.

Sunset Song by  Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1203812.Sunset\_Song](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1203812.Sunset_Song)

It's a novel about the life of a girl and young woman growing up in a Scottish farming community before the first war. As a 15-year-old boy who loved science fiction, action and detective novels, I hated it. I hated it with a passion. I remember thinking "Jesus Christ, nothing ever happens."

Out of curiosity, I picked it up again in my thirties. I loved it. And I found it to be packed with incident. It's one of my favourite novels now.

Pride and prejudice for me. Thought it was a bore a few years ago, read it a few months ago and was completely invested an squealing at the love confession.

When I was a kid I didn't like anything that had to do with fantasy or make believe. I grew up in a rough neighborhood. My interest were to learn about gangs and people that were living under similar circumstances as myself. My favorite book was Always Running and Monster. After reading all sorts of bios from people with that background I began to feel numb to it and reading became dull.

Fast forward to my late 20s early 30s, I finally watched a Harry Potter movie and loved it so much that I had to read the books to see what the movie left out. I instantly became a Harry Potter fan after rejecting it for most of my young adult life. I let myself believe in magic, wizards and monsters and it has shattered the bias that I have had for fantasy written books.

The 10th Kingdom. I tried to read it middle school, but couldn't do it. I tried in high school and it was a much better read then.

The Great Gatsby. Tried in my early 20s - gave me nothing. I read it 6-7 years later and loved it.

Ahh Doris! Xoxo. You briefed me for the descent into hell.

Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym. I tried it in my early 20s, but I was bored with the slow pace and pastoral setting. In my 30s, I can appreciate these things. Rereading it gave me a sense of peace and comfort.

Eragon, tried it around ten and couldn't get through the first couple chapters. Tried again at 16 and loved it, it's one of those that I find something new about it every time I read it

A Canticle for Liebowitz. Read in high school and though I finished it, I was lost. Reread it in my thirties and LOVED it! Post-apocalyptic, and therefore somewhat depressing, but still well done and enjoyable to read.

The Magician by Raymond E. Fiest. I tried reading it when I was 24. Now, 32, I finished reading it and I loved it.

Colm Toibin

"The Magician opens at the turn of the twentieth century in a provincial German city where the young boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative, conventional father and a Brazilian mother, exotic and unpredictable, who will never fit in. He hides both his artistic aspirations and his homosexual desires from this father, and his sexuality from everyone. He longs for the charismatic, beautiful, rich, cultured young Jewish man, but marries his twin sister. He longs for a boy he sees on a beach in Venice and writes a novel about him. He has six children. He is the most successful novelist of his time. He wins the Nobel Prize and is expected to lead the condemnation of Hitler"--

The Magician

A while ago I started Sartre's Nausea but put it down and thought to myself that I will enjoy this one day, but not now. Only time will tell if I was right.

I read The Fountainhead when I was 12.  It turned me into a jerk.

Asimovs Foundation was awesome in my teens, sadly not so much now. On the other hand, the first time I read Terry Pratchett (Discworld) I did not like it, now I love it.

I was huge into chuck palaniuk in high school. I’m unsure how I’d see his books now

i get the sentiment and i’m sure it applies in some areas but this is way too broad an assumption

there have definitely been books i’ve read and have felt they’re beyond my present life experience but they didn’t necessarily bore me, they just felt dense and out of reach. but i could still get something from them

the power of now by Eckhart tolle. I tried to read it at maybe 15 and I couldn't get past the first chapter. Then I read it again last year being in my early 20s and it was mind-blowing and ground breaking

I’m glad I read Lolita, Atlas Shrugged, On the Road and a bunch of other novels told from the perspective of monsters, early. I think they gave me a feel for how earnestly people can believe their own bullshit that has served me well all through my life thus far. I found Austin to be a better read the second time around as a reader who is older than the characters. I feel like I missed the whole point of her books when read as a teen. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights were better read as an adult too. I think its ok to go back and read any half decent book you read as a teen and discover all the depth you missed then (apologies to anyone who got it the first time ).

Doris Lessing said “the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty - and vice versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.” What books (if any) was this statement true for you?

Ernest Hemmingway said that "All good books have one thing in common- They are truer than if they had really happened". What is your such good book?

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