Definitely the first book that came to mind when I read your post.

That's Murakami. We're talking about Ishiguro.

I'm in the same boat. I've started it a few times and can just never get through it. It just meanders for too long for me to get invested.

Want something extremely weird? Check out Letters to Wendy's by Joe Wenderoth.

I recommend The Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel!

If you made it through this, good job. It gets better with repeated readings.

In-Universe, I think this work is Bilbo's Tales From the Elvish (see Return of the King), as narrated by Elrond to Bilbo during his long sojourn as Elrond's guest. Possibly added to from Rivendell's archives. Can you imagine Bilbo's delight and satisfaction of having access to such a library?

Once you're comfortable with it, and assuming you read through LOTR Appendices, Unfinished Tales is very accessible and fun, and a big addition to the whole work.

Then you face a major decision: the twelve books of Unfinished Tales. This is a mighty undertaking, and at first confusing. Again, it might be regarded in-Universe as the scattered and collected legends of the deep past, from many sources, some outright contradicting each other.

Tolkien's absolute genius takes on a whole new level with this kind of approach. There is even more world building, including really detailed discussions of language, Tolkien's most awe-inspiring ability.

A good way to start is to do what you are doing - stop looking at book socials and goodreads. I usually have several books going at a time. At night I read something lighter to fall asleep. Books that I don't need to pay that much attention to. Then I usually have a book of short stories going as well as a "heavier" book. I've done this forever - there are so many books I want to read, so it's just easier to satisfy that itch by reading multiple books at a time. Maybe try that?

If I have a pile of to-be-read books, I stay out of bookstores, unless it's a used one that I can find some weird stuff in.

You might enjoy Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Thank you very much, I was only aware of writing prompts sub, all of the answers here were helpful but let me know if I should remove my post ( I would take screenshots of the answers )

Hi there! This sub is for discussion around published literature and industry news. Your post would be more suitable to an r/writing related community which are dedicated to these sorts of topics. Thank you!

im glad there is another When We Were Orphan fan out there. I think it really works well at showing how childlike normative western assumptions of how the world works in compared to the messiness of reality.

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks has two narratives going in opposite directions in time, with both culminating with the same climax.

>it belongs to a different book.
>
>And then, the reveals to the mysteries feels almost senseless. The answers to every question are just told to use in the end by what amounts to a man stand

completely disagree i loved When We Were Orphans but I'm a big Ishiguro-head

Go on r/WritingPrompts and take inspo, write based on your life, and just write, it doesn't have to be good, just write.

Thee easy way to find this out is just to go read positive reviews.

Favorite book of all time. It’s literally banger story after banger story save for the two pages where he’s just throwing names at you

The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett might do the trick.

More philosophical than some of the stuff you said tho

My Education: A Book of Dreams by William S Burroughs.

The Box Man by Kobo Abe

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, a little more linear but very surrealistic

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

Now I don’t know how to help with this problem but I can let you know what I do and maybe that’ll help. For context, I read about 100-400 books a year and almost always have 300-600 books on my tbr list. I am a huge mood reader and for me, my tbr list is just to make sure I have a list of books that could interest me at some point in my life. Now that could be years down the line or a day from now but there’s nothing worse than being in the mood to read a book and you don’t remember the name. Life’s too short to not read what you want in the moment and sometimes the books on my list don’t fit the current vibe. That’s okay. Books are amazing and if you aren’t totally invested in a book it’s okay to put it down, maybe read some synopsis of the rest of the story, and pick up a different one. It’s like there are tons of tv shows and movies but when I’m watching a good one I don’t think about the other good ones I’m missing out on I just focus on this one. You’ll never be able to consume everything but you can make the things you consume fit the person you are in the moment.

When reading it is comparable to reading a textbook it’s really not that grand of a claim to say it’s objectively tedious

The Third Policeman by Flan O’Brien. It’s a funny book, but there’s something ominous about it that sneaks up on you as you read.

First of all: reading books and buying books are two seperate hobbies ;).

But I feel the same struggle. I have piles of unread books, every once in a while I try to completely finish all books before I buy new ones. The least amount of unread books since 2008 I had was 16. Now I am around 50 or 60 or so. It’s a neverending story (which is also a great book haha).

I used to set my Goodreads goal way to high, so I wasn’t enjoying reading anymore, I just wanted to finish. I am actually rereading a lot of books from that period, because I never really enjoyed them.

Reading is weird, I want to read slow, so I can enjoy, but I also want to read faster cause there’s so many books I want to read.

Yes I struggle too, I have alot of unread books but I feel an anxiety when I dont buy more. Its the anxiety of not owning the book that clutters my mind just as well as their content.

The book is a lot better than the movie imo and definitely has more horror elements.