Everyone’s got a pastime they enjoy, filling it with watching TV, playing video games and more. For some of us, including me, we fill it by getting lost in the world of reading books. Whether you’re a seasoned reader or have been trying to pick up the habit of reading more, we all wonder what to read next. With that, we’ve compiled a list of our personal favourite books to accompany you for your next reading session.
1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Contents
This novel is filled with British humour, but it also includes mice, dolphins, and other fantastic creatures. Aside from that, Englishman Arthur Dent and his extra-terrestrial buddy Ford Prefect, from a small moon near Betelgeuse, go on a crazy adventure across time and space after narrowly avoiding the death and destruction of the planet to make room for an intergalactic highway. They are forced to read Vogon poetry, which is regarded to be a kind of excruciating torture, and they are nearly swept out of an airlock into the cosmos. Eventually, they make their way onto a massive spaceship.
They then nearly escape near the conclusion of each chapter after multiple near-death encounters. Throughout the novel, they team up with Zaphod Beeblebrox, the galaxy’s ex-president, Trillian, the only other surviving earthling, and Marvin, a melancholy robot, to find a solution to the issue of life’s meaning.
2. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Nora Seed, a miserable and desperate woman isolated from her family and friends, is thrust into this enigmatic way station. Nora just lost her job, and her cat is no longer alive. She prepares a farewell message and overdoses on antidepressants, believing she has no reason to continue. Instead of waking up in paradise, hell, or endless nothingness, she finds herself in a library full of books offering her the opportunity to live an unlimited number of different lives.
She may select books off the shelf and begin a new existence with the help of Mrs Elm, her old school librarian. From running a rural bar with her ex-boyfriend to working as a researcher on an Arctic island to performing in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans, she’s done it all.
3. Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-ju
Kim Ji-young, Born1982, Cho Nam-eye-opening Joo’s books, depicts how South Korea’s degrading policies and cultural standards significantly influence the lives of Korean women. This easy work jumps immediately into the narrative of Kim Ji-young, the heroine, about how sexism causally influences the lives of most Korean women. This storey focuses on the difficult realities that women, especially Ji-young, must endure in circumstances of sexual assault, unjust sexism, familial pressures, and loss of self-identity.
Kim Jiyoung has faced a barrage of degrading criticism from both men and women throughout her life, positioning her standing as inferior to males. From family relatives chastising her for sharing her younger brother’s food to chauvinist employers dismissing her as an unskilled and unreliable employee, she has faced a variety of challenges.
4. 1984 by George Orwell
1984 has always stood the test of time as a book worth rereading every decade or so, yet it reads more like a premonition from half a century ago than a novel. Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novel, works for the Ministry of Truth as a censor, updating history to match the government’s constantly shifting alignments in the current day. Working for the Ministry, Smith is ruled by Big Brother’s omnipresent presence, which monitors its citizens’ every action and thought. In 1984, the screens are watching you, and your neighbours aren’t above tattle-tattle if it means getting a leg up on the Ministry.
Glow-in-the-dark displays track our every motion in the year 2020. They gather and share our information, organise our social media postings in their own manner, set trends, and fund a remote presence and addiction with money we don’t have. The Ministry observing your every move isn’t even the most terrifying aspect of 1984’s dystopia; it’s being deprived of your words, voice, and ability to think.
5. Demian by Hesse
Demian, like all of Hermann Hesse’s great works, had an uncommon and fascinating tale, which the 40-year-old author composed in the heart of the First World War. The book discussed religion, belief, and progress in such a profound way that it seemed as if Hesse wasn’t writing at all, but rather chatting directly with the reader. The novel’s narrator, Emil Sinclair, is a German adolescent migrating from the warm, comforting light of his childhood world to the much frightening world of maturity. He meets Max Demian, who protects him from Kromer’s bullying and teaches him about diverse worldviews.
In Sinclair’s Jungian fight between the darkness and the light, Demian is nearly a doppelganger, a shadow self. Through Demian, Sinclair learns about the people who have the Mark of Cain. These people are unique; they are unable to find fulfilment in the typical social setting and must seek significance elsewhere.
6. It’s Not About the Burqa by Mariam Khan
Khan, a British activist, has compiled an anthology of varied and razor-sharp pieces that speak directly to the complicated realities of Muslim women in the West. It’s Not About the Burqa is prepared to change all of that by taking one of the most politicised and misunderstood terms connected with Muslim women and Islamophobia. It’s a timely collection of articles written by 17 renowned Muslim women, including entrepreneurs, activists, journalists, and authors. These writings highlight Muslim women’s perspectives, problems, and tales, as well as how we connect with our Muslim identities and the narratives that have been established without our permission.
