books to make you fall in love with reading again (+ get out of a reading slump!)📚💕

If you're looking to get back into reading, I think I can help. Hello friends, welcome back to my channel. Welcome if you're new, my name is Megan. It's almost time for Meg to serve. And I get so many comments from people who are just starting to get back into reading and like finding BookTube and trying to look for book recommendations or also people who are just trying to get back into reading. And I thought I would do a video for you guys because I do a lot of videos of people who are like already reading a lot of books. But I am really, I think I'm someone who can help you get back into reading because that's what I did myself. Also, I think this video is gonna be great for those of you who are regular viewers and like in a reading slump. This could also be a get out of a reading slump list. I am someone who stopped reading. So I was a big reader when I was younger. And then I think around GCSE time, when I was like 15, 16, I stopped reading. I didn't read for a couple of years. I was too busy. And even though I think my reading was slowing down when I was at school, I think I was probably reading like, I don't know, 10 books a year. And I started reading again in 2018. I read 15 books in 2018. I then read 80 books in 2019. And then since 2020, I've been reading 100 to 150 books a year. So I am someone who stopped reading and got back into reading. And so I really feel like those of you who are trying to get back into reading, I can help. So in this video, I'm gonna be giving some book recommendations to help you get back into reading. And the way I've structured this is that when I think of books to recommend, I just think of the books that got me back into reading. Cause I'm like, oh, that was so good. That really worked for me. But like, some of these, I don't know if they are the number and recommendation to get back into reading. So I've kind of taken five books or series that got me back into reading. And then I'm also giving you some other recommendations that I think could work for like a similar purpose. So this is kind of like how I got back into reading, but also trying to give you some recommendations. So hopefully this will be helpful. The first book I have to mention, this is the book that got me back into reading. If I had not read this book when I did, I don't think I would have a BookTube channel. I don't think I would be reading as much as I did. Like this book kind of changed my life, honestly. But I intend to recommend it because this is not a book you think of to help someone get back into reading. It's really not. It's actually the antithesis of that. It's long. It's like, how long? 700 pages, 600 pages. It's a little bit dense, a little bit scary to get into, but this book changed everything for me. So I kind of have to recommend it off the bat, but it's insane because I don't think this is what I recommend to people, first off. But it is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. This book changed my life, but I'm so scared to recommend it or like even scared to reread it because obviously I've gotten a lot pickier now that I've read more and more. You read like, I am someone who, when I watch films, I'm either like, oh, that was five stars or like that was two stars, I didn't enjoy it. Like I give out mostly five stars to films on my Letterboxd because I don't watch a lot of films, whereas people who watch a lot of films are probably more nuanced, which is why now I'm like, oh, that was a 3.25 or whatever, you know. So I'm scared to reread this because I'm scared it won't hold up. But I'm also scared to recommend it because I haven't read it in so long. But really, I cannot describe to you the feeling that I had when reading this. I think I read this, I think I got this for Christmas one year and I read it in that kind of hazy period around Christmas and New Year, into the New Year. I think I finished it just in the New Year, but started it before that. I just was obsessed with it. I just fell into this book and fell in love with it. It's basically the story of a group of friends who are at a New England college. And the first line is, the snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation. I wanna reread it. This isn't top of my rereading list because I'm kind of terrified. But yeah, it's this group of friends, this group of kind of unlikely friends and it's all a bit fucked up. And one of them dies and it's, you know, dark academia, this kind of like, it's the progenitor. It's called dark academia before this, but this is like the iconic dark academia book. So I'm kind of scared to recommend it because it's big, it's intimidating. She's huge, but she's so beautiful. She's a mammoth, of course. But this book really got me back into reading. This is the book that got me back into reading. I don't even know what genre you'd call this. I guess it's just dark academia and fucked up and like there's a murder and it's just, I loved it. I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. I feel like I need to read more books like this. I feel like I now read a lot more like fun, quick genre stuff. But this book really changed everything for me. And I want a new Donna Tartt book. It's time to publish this one like every 10 years. And I think the Goldfinch came out in like 2013. So it's time. Do you know you have 30 minutes? Are you serious? 30, 30, 30, yes. Donna, it's time. We're running out of years, you know. She's 60, we've got maybe two more books, three more books in the Donna Tartt pipeline. So like hurry up, hurry up babes. What if she just never published another one? That'd be sad. But yes, I loved this. I think the writing in it was wonderful. I think the characters are so messed up. And the, I really loved the perspective that this was told from and the narrative voice. And I just loved it, I loved it. But a book that I'd recommend, if you're looking for like an intelligent, more literary kind of thriller, kind of something in that ballpark, a book that I think could be really good for getting back into reading is Bright Young Women by Jessica Noll. Because this is inspired by the Ted Bundy case and Ted Bundy victims. It's told from perspective. We have two perspectives actually. We have a sorority president of a sorority that there is a mass killing at. And then we're also following in the past the perspective of a woman who is missing, who the sorority president becomes friends with her friend. I don't wanna spoil anything. So I'm just gonna say that. But basically, yeah, it's a fictionalized version of Ted Bundy, even though he's never named. But I think it's gonna be good to get back into reading because it's got that true crime element and it's got that touchstone of a true case that we have a lot of cultural knowledge of. I think a lot of people know about Ted Bundy, have an imagery in their head, have an image of the time period in the 70s and this was taking place. And so I think that would be a really good taking down of a barrier to reading, reading something that's inspired by a true case, but does it in such an interesting way, never names him, really focuses on the victims. And this is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful book. This is one of the most read books in my patron discord. And almost everyone loves it. Almost everyone gives this book four or five stars. I think it's wonderful. I think it's really, really wonderful. I think it's paced really well. I think, yeah, just the centering of the victims in this is done with such care and such integrity and such thoughtfulness. So I think this could be a really good one to get back into reading because it's got that true crime element and kind of like, I think it's good to, I'm of the opinion that when you're getting back into reading it's really good to read something with a really strong visual image. And I don't like books when books are just based off an aesthetic, right? But I think when it's got a very powerful setting or a very powerful feeling that it's evoking or like imagery, I think it's very important to go for that when you're trying to get back into reading because I think there's a powerfulness to that that you can immediately connect to. Am I making sense? Who knows? The next one is a series I'd recommend. If you're looking for a fantasy series to pour into, I think fantasy series are really good because like you get connected to this other world, you get connected to these characters. But I want to recommend a series, some series to you that aren't very daunting because I think a lot of fantasy series are very intimidating. When you look at like the Greenbone saga with Jade, what's the first one? Jade City, Jade War, Jade Legacy, or you've got The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin or you've got Robin Hobb's whole universe or you've got Brandon Sanders' whole universe. A lot of fantasy is quite intimidating. So this series, this first series, I also see as incredibly pivotal getting me back into reading. I have vivid memories of reading this on holiday and I've reread this since and it completely holds up. And it is the Bear and the Nightingale series. This is not the series, the editions that I read. This is special editions I got after. But this is the Bear and the Nightingale series by Katherine Arden. You've got the Bear and the Nightingale, The Girl in the Tower, and The Winter of the Witch. And this is basically following, in the first book, a young girl called Basya. We see her being born. This one, she's a child and this one, she's more like an early teenager. And then this one, she's like a late teenager becoming a woman. And we follow her being born in basically a world that is old Russia. And we're following her, learning about the magic of the house spirits and the forest spirits and the winter king. And this is just a very strong visual image like I was talking about before. This little, and this one, it's really set in Basya's little village that she grows up in. And the snow and the cold and the poverty and the little hearth that they all sleep on above the oven, her family. And it just has this wonderful, wonderful magic to it. And it's really very accessible. It's really the main reason I'd recommend this. Like, it's not scary fantasy. It's very accessible. And I love this series. This series for me is one of the best series in the way that it grows. Basya's magic and the world grows with Basya. In this one, she's very little. We're just in her village. And the magic is small. Then in this one, we travel to a nearby city and she's a bit older and the magic is growing bigger. And in this one, it's really about like her magic expanding and kind of like viewing the whole world through the eyes of this magic. And I just, I love, love, love, love this series. I love Catherine Arden's writing. Catherine Arden, I've since read her most recent release which is The Warm Hands of Ghosts which is another book I'd really recommend. It's probably one of my favourite releases I've read this year. But something she's so great at is making her writing style embody the historical period that she is writing about. So in this one, God, I've been yapping by the way. We've got a lot of books to get through, but let me hurry up. Embodying the historical period she's talking about where in this one, it embodies that old Russia, that lushness, that kind of old magic told through fairy tales passed down through families. I love it, I love it. But if you're looking for another accessible series, probably one of the most accessible, accessible fantasy series, this one is like YA. It's sold as YA, but if we're all honest with ourselves, these characters are not teenagers, they are adults. And it's a little bit more mature YA, I would say. But in my opinion, you cannot go wrong with Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. You just can't go wrong with it by Leigh Bardugo. In this, we're following this group of, do I have to say thieves? They're not really thieves. They're like this gang basically who go, who do heists. They do heists. You've got Kaz Brekker and the whole gang. And it's set in this kind of like Amsterdam inspired world. This series is so good. It's so good, it's so good. The characters are wonderful. It, you know, it's been popular for a reason and I'm still so mad that they freaking did the awful Shadow and Bone Netflix show in my opinion. And like made the crows be in it, but then the show was bad because it was Shadow and Bone and Shadow and Bone is bad. And then the show's been canceled and now we're not gonna get a Six of Crows show because they were just like lurking in the first couple of series waiting for their story to happen because their story can't start until Shadow and Bone's finished because of certain events. So yeah, but this series, you can't go wrong. It's so readable in my opinion. I mean, this is the famous, I think the TikToker, no shade, but I think the TikToker who was like, why are there so many words on the page was talking about this book. Girl. Okay. Why are the pages so filled with so many words? Like what the fuck? But I just, I mean, look at these people. Look at them. Oh, I love them. It's just easy to pour yourself into. It's a great cast of characters. It's written really well. I would say it's a really, really accessible fantasy series. Now, believe it or not, before I started getting back into reading, I'd never read a thriller. When I was reading when I was younger, I was reading a lot of books that like my English teacher would recommend me. So I read like The Book Thief, The Kite Runner. I was reading a lot more literary stuff. Now I'm all genre, baby. I'm all genre fiction. And so I wanted to recommend a couple of thrillers that I think are really good if you're looking for a thriller to get back into reading. And the first one is the one that got me into thrillers. I actually did a video on my earliest videos is reading my first thriller ever. And I just had so much fun with this one. And it is The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. It was my first ever thriller. Little keys. I remember being like so excited. I had keys on the spine. This is about a young nanny who answers an advert to look after some children. And the book opens with her writing letters to a lawyer, begging for him to represent her as she promises she did not kill anyone. It is so good. It's really good. I still think it's one of Ruth Ware's best. I absolutely loved it. I gave it five stars when I read it. These are all like five star reads for me pretty much that I recommend. Yeah, every single one of these books is a five star read for me. Some of my favourites. That opening up with that epistolary format. And it's like, it opens up with her writing and discarding letters. So it's her like trying to figure out how to appeal to him and how to write to him. It's so, so good. And it's got this wonderful Gothic atmosphere to it. Where's it set? I feel like it's set in this, yes, the Scottish Highlands in this isolated house. And her previous book, The Death of Mrs. Westerway is good. But I feel like in this one, she was trying to, with that book, trying to work out how to write like a really goth. And I feel like she manages in this. I loved it. I think it was a great thriller to start with. Obviously I'm a bias because I started with it. But I really enjoyed it. Two other thrillers that I think are great starter thrillers for different reasons. First is The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager. I just have a, I don't have a dust jacket for this. But this one I would recommend. It's my favourite. One of my favourite Riley Sagers. My other favourite is probably a bit of a, you know, divisive one. Whereas this one I feel like is one that everyone could enjoy and read. And this is set at a summer camp. And our protagonist was in a summer, in a summer camp dorm, I guess, with three other girls. And they all went missing one night and were never found at the camp. And she, years later, goes back to be like a, we don't have camps, what's the name? Like a helper? I don't know what the name is. Camp counsellor, is that what they're called? I don't know. At the camp and wants to try and find out answers what happened. And this I recommend because it has got a super strong atmosphere. Like the turn of the key. That summer camp is one of the best summer camp. I mean, like it's a very, I don't know. I guess for you Americans, it's probably quite a lot of you go to camp because you're off school for like 10 years every year. But it's not a thing we have, but it felt very, very vivid. And I just think it's a really great thriller. I think the twists in this are absolutely wonderful. You won't guess them. There's Gagatron, the twist right at the end. I love a last page twist. I really do like it. Like a last, like it leaves a thriller on an open note. Like a little bit of a, you know, little bit of a shoulder. Leaves it on that. I really enjoyed this. One of my favourite Riley Sagers. And then one I read recently that I think is just a great beginner getting into reading thriller is None of This is True by Lisa Jewell. This is about a podcast. These two women bump into each other. One's a famous podcaster and they bump into each other and they are birthday twins. And the other woman comes to her and says, I want you to tell my story. Now, I do want to say some of the, I spoke about this more in the video where I read it. Some of the like morality about what this book is saying is questionable. I believe the author was trying to come down on the right side. But there is some like, there is some of that going on. You know, some like thriller-y, skirting the border of what are we saying here. However, I think the podcast element of this is great. I read this in an evening. I saw, I don't, can't remember another book I've done that with. It is compulsively readable. If you're looking to get back into reading and just want a quick thriller, this is it, baby. This is it. I started it at 6 p.m. and finished it I think at midnight and I just could not, or 11 o'clock, and I just could not put it down. I just sped through it. Do I think it's the best book ever? No. Do I think it is unstoppably readable? Yes. So many people who I follow, like I follow a lot of like influencers who don't really read and they're reading this or like reading it in a day. It's just unputdownable. I really feel like it's a perfectly crafted thriller in terms of pacing. And the audio book for this is great as well. I would recommend the audio book, but I don't think it's like a must. I think you probably could read it physically. We're gonna get into some must audio books in a second actually. There is a little bit of a difference where like in the audio book it is a podcast, whereas in the book it's like we're looking back on a Netflix series about the podcast being made. That's interesting, there's a little bit of a difference. But yes, I think the compulsively readableness of this is wonderful. Speaking of audio books, I wanna shout out the audio book that got me listening to audio books. I remember I was trying out, it was Scribd at the time, now it's Eberrand. It'll always be Scribd in my heart, but let's not talk about it. We're just an audio book platform. I've been trying it out. I think I'd listened to a few audio books, but hadn't loved them. And then I listened to this and it is really what made me fall in love with like listening to audio books. And I really think that audio books can be a great way of getting back into reading. For some people who maybe find reading physically difficult, I follow some people also who just listen to audio books now. And that's how they got back into reading. And the audio book I wanna mention is Sadie by Courtney Summers. I need to do a reread of this. Actually, I have like a reread priority list and it's this and some books that are later on in this video. So I'll tell you about them also. But yes, this one is about a girl called Sadie who has gone missing and it's a podcast about Sadie going missing. So we're reading from her perspective in the past and we're reading from the podcast perspective as she's gone missing and her sister was murdered. And that's really what spurred her on to go look into things. And yeah, we're following this podcaster as he kind of interviews people from Sadie's life. And the full cast audio book of this, oh, it's impeccable. Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular. If you're gonna do a podcast, do it like this. It sounds like it's a podcast. It's got a full cast. It's got sound effects. Oh, I loved it. It really just immerses you in it. And this book is wonderful. I don't wanna say too much, but it's got one of my favorite slash least favorite, depending on how you look at it, endings of a book ever. Like I didn't own this physically. I was just listening to the audio book when I read it. And I vividly remember sitting on my bed and finishing the book, finishing the audio book and just being like, I immediately ran to my mom. I was like, mom, you have no idea what I've just read. You have no idea what I've just listened. Let's not talk about it. But yes, I absolutely, absolutely adore this book. One of my top books I wanna reread. Now some other audio book recommendations I would recommend if you're looking to maybe try audio books. A favorite, another one, a full cast is Daisy Jones and the Snakes. I think this is also a book I read pretty early on when I was getting back into reading. People recommend this all the time for audio books. I actually read this physically. When I first read it, I didn't listen to the book. I have since reread it via the audio book and the audio book is great. I would maybe recommend dual reading it because basically this is told exclusively through interviews with the band, Daisy Jones and the Six, about what happened when they were a band and why they broke up. And the audio book doesn't say everyone's name before they start talking. It does at the start, but then you have to remember who everyone is. And sometimes there's just people I'm like, who are you? Who is she? Where did you find her? So I would maybe recommend a dual. It's actually very interesting. I don't wanna spoil anything, but I had very different readings of certain situations when I read it physically versus when I read it audibly, which is very interesting. I think I totally read some things differently because it's just people speaking and these people are all trying to hide things. You know, it's this band and they broke up and they never spoke about why they broke up and there's a lot of messiness as there would be. It's based on Fleetwood Mac, basically. It's very interesting. I had very different readings. I had very different understandings of certain situations when I read it physically versus audio, but I would recommend the audiobook for this. I think it's one of the best full cast audiobooks out there. And then I just have to give a little plug. I won't talk about this too much because I'm just saying this because it's my favourite book ever slash favourite series ever. The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter audiobook by Theodora Goss is incredible. It's done by one woman. This is not full cast, but this woman, what an incredible, what an incredible audiobook narrator. I love, this is basically, I could talk about this book for 10 years. I really have to try and contain myself. It is the story of female versions slash daughters of men from classic Victorian literature. So we've got Mary Jekyll and Diana Hyde. We've got Catherine Moreau. We've got Justine Frankenstein. We've got Beatrice Rappaccini. And it's them and a found family solving mysteries with Sherlock Holmes in Victorian London. It's got that atmosphere to it. Catherine is writing the book and the girls chime in with little like script writing formats of their opinions. I love it. I mean, I'm so passionate about it. I'm just containing myself. However, if you're gonna read this series, this book, listen to the audiobook. The audiobook narrator is incredible. For one woman, she does an incredible job of the accent, of putting you in this, with these girls, like feeling like you're sitting around a table with these girls. It's absolutely wonderful, but I'm gonna try and contain myself because yeah, I could go on about that forever. And then finally, I wanna mention some mysteries because like I said, I started with thrillers and then I got into mysteries and mystery is now my favourite genre. I love, love, love mysteries. The first mystery I ever read, I ever read was Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Another one to listen to the audiobook with. I don't know if I'd recommend the audiobook. I do tend to listen to them for Christie's, but they're okay. But this is obviously an iconic, iconic, iconic murder mystery. And I really enjoy this one for reasons that I'm gonna explain it to you and you may enjoy it, you may not enjoy it. So let's see, shall we? There's a murder on the Orient Express, essentially. Someone is murdered on this train and they're snowed in. Everyone on the train is snowed in together. And most of the book is Urquhara conducting interviews with every person on the train. Now, you may enjoy that, you might not. Okay, that's what you need to know. Some people find that incredibly boring. I find that so interesting because you're just sitting down with each character and hearing their side of the story and trying to piece together where there's holes in different people's stories and trying to link it up. And this is an incredible twist. This is, you know, this is a twist that goes down in history. Ah, that's history. It's a twist that goes down in history. It's a wonderful atmosphere. Snowed in on this train. It is so, so, so good. Two other mysteries that I think if you're looking to get into mysteries, I'd recommend. This book, I pretty much, well, this is another one of my favourite series ever. You know. This and The Strange Case of Agamemstow and Baron Nightingale. Maybe my top three series, I don't know. Maybe that's something I'm forgetting, but I'm, you know, they're up there. And this is a book I recommend to people in my life who aren't readers all the time because it's like the most popular series in the UK. And it is the Thurston Writers Club original spread. I mean, I know I'm synonymous with this book, but if you, I mean, if you haven't heard of this book, you really are trying to get back into reading. So I don't think, have you been living under a rock? This one, we're following a group of elderly, retired people at Retirement Village and they try to solve murders together. And this series is just incredible. It's a perfect mystery. The heart that this series has, the comedy, the fun, like humor that this series has, impeccable, impeccable, impeccable, impeccable, impeccable. I love it. So did it. Again, this is another series I'm going to try and contain myself because I've gone on forever. But I love it so much. And there's a reason that I think it's so accessible and so popular. This is like, I don't think it has quite the same draw worldwide, but in the UK, this is like the most popular book, the most popular book, the most, you know, taking out the library, top of the charts every year in the book sales. And it's just got such compassion, but such humor and a great mystery. It's a wonderful, wonderful combination. And then a little, little twist, little twist is a more speculative mystery and it is Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. I think this would be a really fun one to read if you're just getting back into reading. I'm following a woman who witnesses her son kill someone, stab someone outside their house. And she's like terrified, you know, what, how did that happen? My lovely teenage son. And she goes to bed and wakes up and it's the day before. No, it doesn't again, it's the day before that. It's the day before that. She's going back in time and she realizes she has to try and solve what's happening. She has to try and figure out why that happened and make a change that it doesn't happen. And it's so good. Another one with such heart to it. Another one, you know, the love of a, really examining the love of a mother I thought was done so, so well, but a great mystery. It's so fun going back in time. It's so interesting because she's going back in time, but if she wants to like confide in anyone or get anyone's help, she has to explain the situation to them. And she only has that day with them because then she's going back in time and then she hasn't told them in that timeline. So then she has to like, you know, she can't, she doesn't have anyone's help. She's on her own in this. And it was just such, such, such a fun, fun mystery. So there we have it everyone. That is, I really, really yapped a bit there. But those are my recommendations for if you're looking to get back into reading. I thought that was gonna be a lot speedier than it was. I was like, that's not that many books. And then I've just, they're all like my favourites. So I have to really contain myself and talk about them. But if you're looking to get back into reading or if you're looking for books to get out of your reading slump, I think these are perfect, perfect recommendation. I cannot recommend them all enough. Let me know what you thought if you've read any of them. If you're a long time viewer of my channel, you probably have read quite a few of them. And thank you so much for watching. And I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.