This thread is awesome! So many good titles are listed here that my reading wishlist keeps accumulating nonstop
I started reading novels when I was around 6 years old with
Harry Potter (Vietnamese translation)
, I barely remembered the story. I read the first three volumes in secrecy during my naps at school. Now I can only recall the excitement of catching up with their film adaptations and spoiling my peers' fun when I was a kid lol.
Actually, when I started schooling, I became interested in many forms of literature except for novels... partially due to the neck pain I had to suffer from having bent to read the thick books of HP inside my blanket.
Poems, short stories, dramas all fascinated me, but I had been really fearful of reading full-length novels until I was 13 years old. Probably only then did I find the first novel that I could wholly enjoy on my own, not out of school requirements, parental or peer pressure. It was Dumb Luck, a Vietnamese satire novel set in the late colonial period.
By the way, any literature that I read prior to high school was in my native language, Vietnamese. I only started reading in English in recent years.
Hence, classic novels that have become terribly trite for the native still remain as my favourite titles. Besides, I'm very omnivorous when it comes to books. There will always be a time when I can appreciate the most bizarre topics that I usually think I won't like. Actually I tried BDSM and even more notorious themes. For me, certain pieces were indeed enjoyable in some occasions. I'm pretty fickle and adventurous that way.
Now please let me name the classic titles I still hold dear to my heart first and foremost even though most of you must have read them.
1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, my intro to romance
2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, intro to sci-fi
3. Every short story by Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor - my favourite gothic styles (and current bias)
4. Cat's Cradle and
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
5. 1984 and
Animal Farm by George Orwell
6. Everything by Oscar Wilde - my Victorian crush with his witty satirical hollow artistry
7. Short stories by O. Henry - my favourite plot twists
8. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - my inspiration to painstakingly observe human psyche in social interactions
9. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien - adventures for my childish self
10. No Longer Human by Dazai Osamu (translated by Donald Keene)
These days, I like
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, more gothic style on psychology
. Probably, I'll read her other novels too, or revisit more Flannery's short stories.
Surprisingly (or not?), when I don't want to use my brain, I read commercial romance novels published by Harlequin. They are more repetitive than most chic lit, but some developed the romance well. Moreover, such repetition satisfied my thirst for particular tropes.
I also read lots of Chinese martial arts, magical fantasy and romance web novels translated into either English or Vietnamese. I simply chose stories by tropes and writing style according to my mood, but most of my interests are too niched to recommend for anyone else. Unless you like soul/body transmigration into multiple worlds with lethal missions, you probably won't bother with what I read to chill out.
Occasionally, I still read josei manga/manhwa, and some famous young adult titles, but I can't say they left any deep impression.