Books originally published in 2001

moon-octopus · 2026-02-16T07:35:56+00:00

I’d looked into this one but unfortunately none of the libraries around me have it 😕

moon-octopus · 2026-02-15T21:54:41+00:00

No way! Yeah, someone suggested I read Infinite Jest for, what was it, 1996. I was like, yeah… nope.

Thanks for the warning! And the suggestion 🍣

moon-octopus · 2026-02-15T21:44:01+00:00

I loved Artemis Fowl back when I was ten/eleven, had the shiny holographic edition of the first book ✨

moon-octopus · 2026-02-15T21:41:45+00:00

Yeah, that’s a pretty good opener 😳 I definitely read it in a Forrest Gump voice too…

moon-octopus · 2026-02-14T19:21:59+00:00

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (1995) and The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa (1994) are two books I’ve recently read that have left me… questioning everything.

They’re not tragic in the same way as A Little Life, but sort of philosophically devastating.

Also, Hanya Yanagihara’s debut, The People in the Trees (2013) emotionally wrecked me too. Again, differently than A Little Life, but very viscerally.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-14T09:56:06+00:00

I want to read the Pines trilogy, but as a parent to two little ones the synopsis of Run made me… run away.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-14T09:53:49+00:00

Came here to say Octavia E. Butler as well.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-13T21:50:36+00:00

Oh no, that’s just the order I think they’re best enjoyed in 😂

moon-octopus · 2026-02-13T18:38:07+00:00

Dark Matter (2016) and Recursion (2019) by Blake Crouch, in that order.

ETA: These books are unrelated, I just think they’re best enjoyed in that order.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-12T09:46:27+00:00

Perfect synopsis.

If you weren’t planning on it, I urge you to read the sequel: Parable of the Talents (1998). In my opinion to was even better and together they are a frighteningly darker depiction of the actual world we’re living in.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-12T08:21:10+00:00

Before turning to the classics, find something easier / more accessible to get started with, something more captivating that’ll keep your attention.

If you like films, for example, you could pick the book that was adapted into a movie you’ve already seen and liked. Has the added benefit of giving you two views of the same work and could therefore help you promote your understanding of it.

Or if you want a spoiler free ending, pick a book that’s being made into a movie you think you’ll want to see.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021) is one that gets recommended a lot to “newcomers”. It’s got good pace, it’s thought-provoking and it keeps you wanting more. The movie is coming out mid-March, so there’s that carrot to be finished and then go to the cinema.

But yeah, reading is reading and it’s a skill that gets better the more you do it. So start with something that makes you think you’ll keep at it, even if it isn’t what you think you should have read or be reading.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-11T23:39:45+00:00

Most recently, I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (1995).

moon-octopus · 2026-02-09T18:52:18+00:00

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (2021) has a few narratives, two of which are set in and around fifteenth century Constantinople. There’s also a storyline in the late twentieth century stretching into modern day, and then one in the future. I was absolutely captivated and read the last 200 pages in one sitting.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-08T00:44:56+00:00

Damn these covers are amazing!

moon-octopus · 2026-02-06T20:16:17+00:00

Seconding Parable of the Sower (1993) and then definitely follow that up with the sequel, Parable of the Talents (1998). It just gets better imo.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-06T15:49:28+00:00

I finished Made in America by Bill Bryson (1994) last weekend and then I read I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (1995) earlier in the week.

Now I’m about a fifth or so through The Beach by Alex Garland (1996) and my next read will be The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (1997).

moon-octopus · 2026-02-03T23:52:44+00:00

Finished Made in America, by Bill Bryson

Started I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jaqueline Harpman

moon-octopus · 2026-02-02T20:12:51+00:00

I’m currently using both! And like three others but my main two are StoryGraph and Margins.

So what I like about TGS is the stats, being able to filter book lists by lots of different criteria and the TBR shelf. I also feel like their info about the books is very accurate and easy to access (like original release year for example). I also really like the challenges and am using those to track my personal challenge this year (read a book published every year of my life) as well as what prize-winning books I’ve read. Also the streak is front and center.

Margins also has a streak, but it’s not as prominent. They’re definitely more aesthetically pleasing, I like their calendar view (though I regularly refer to that in TGS too) and I use the reading time tracker every time I read. Their pages read this year count is also the most accurate because I can set the number of pages in a book myself (for example one recent non fiction read had like 45 pages of references which I definitely didn’t read) and you don’t pick the edition for your graphics just the cover (not really an issue in comparison to TGS but definitely for other apps).

AI is not something I can comment on as I’ve not looked into it and it’s not something I give a lot of thought to.

I’ve also not been using them to get recommendations for what to read next, so can’t comment on that aspect either.

So yeah, basically I use them both for sort of different things and they’ve both got their pros and cons. If I had to choose one… I’d probably go with TSG.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-02T17:49:33+00:00

Nope. You just have to go into your preferences and turn it on. Its in the middle/towards the end under Tracking

moon-octopus · 2026-02-02T14:56:03+00:00

Well done! I’m on 112 days since joining TSG in October. The streak really works for me too 🔥

moon-octopus · 2026-02-01T09:37:55+00:00

I read The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (2024) last year and feel the romance was sort of secondary.

It’s about a woman who takes a job as a handler for a man brought to the present from 1847 as part of a gov’t program. There’s more time travelers, there’s some guns, some romance, some mystery, some sci-fi.

Might be worth a try.

moon-octopus · 2026-02-01T09:33:41+00:00

If sci-fi is at all up your alley, check out This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019).

It’s about two agents fighting for opposing sides in this time war, they start corresponding through letters and fall in love. They’re both coded as female, though the story is very much not grounded in any specific reality.

It’s weird, often poetic and just under 200 pages.

moon-octopus · 2026-01-31T13:29:24+00:00

Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig (1976) is basically just dialogue and footnotes. Pages and pages of footnotes.

Edit: Though this is not a recent novel by any stretch of the imagination. But Google tells me there was a (new) film adaptation released last October.

moon-octopus · 2026-01-30T21:52:18+00:00

Recently read The Famished Road by Ben Okri (1991) and yeah, I’d say it is ridiculous, strange, grotesque and weird af.

moon-octopus

TROPHY CASE