Where do you start with reading literature?

Various authors have found their way into the discussions on the recent Beastcasts and each time it has left me feeling a little self-conscious about how little of a grasp I have on the written medium; both contemporary and older. I have read very few books during my limited time on this planet, most coming from English class assignments. That's not to say I don't read; I read plenty of stuff whilst perusing the web and I'll dive into the occasional comic book/graphic novel. I just very rarely take the time to read traditional novels (or the non-fictitious equivalents) and I feel like I'm lesser because of it. The written medium is often considered to be where storytelling is at its best and several of my favourite films and games have been created by people who were heavily influenced by a particular book or author. As someone who aspires to work in the industry as a visual artist, I feel as if I've been neglecting one of the most valuable resources when it comes to not only expanding what I can draw inspiration from but also simply discovering more genres and tropes that I like. It might not turn me into an academic like Austin but I would at least hope that it helps me grow as a person, if only slightly. Which brings me to the topic of this thread.

Where do you start with literature? I know that is a very broad question with no exact answer but I'd love to hear from others about how they first broke into reading books. There's so much choice that it can very daunting from the outside. Do I start with classic literature, going back as far as Shakespeare? Should I begin by looking into genres I find interesting in other mediums (e.g. horror, science fiction, noir etc). Would I be better off starting with more contemporary fiction and then tracing back the strains of influence? Perhaps non-fiction is an easier route into a hobby of reading? I'm completely open to suggestion and any particular recommendations. As far as I'm concerned, if this motivates me to read a few books before the end of the year then that's still more than I would have otherwise.

Start with genres you like. There's no need to jump into the deep end first with the biggest names in literature - just find what you enjoy. Goodreads has tons of "best of" lists with accompanying text that might help you whittle it down. When you do find something you like, branch out slowly from there. For example, say you find yourself enjoying the fun, swashbuckley fantasy writings of Scott Lynch. Maybe for your next fantasy novel, try something tangentially related but in a different sub genre - maybe urban fantasy, for example. Initially at least, I'd stick to bestsellers, recommendations, and "best of" lists for genres because randomly searching out books on Amazon can lead to a lot of independent stuff - some of which is good, don't get me wrong, but 99% of which is going to be just straight up garbage.

Also, don't forget your library. That's the best place to dip your toes into everything and anything. Grab a bunch of books, read a chapter from them, and if you like 'em, keep reading. And don't be afraid to ask your librarian or other patrons for help finding stuff. That's what they're there for.

I'm very similar in my engagement with literature. I've had my moments where I've engaged with novels on my own free time reading some classics like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Treasure Island.

What are you interests? Movies you like, for example, you can go back to novels or authors that have influenced your tastes in other media. I enjoy film noir movies, Raymond Chandler co-wrote a few of my favorites, so I read a few of his novels. They are fairly short, easy reads, oozing with that hard boiled detective style, if you're into that. I'd look into a genre I enjoy, find the influential authors and go from there.

Non Fiction can be even easier to find topics based on your interests. I'm sure there must be someone you might be interested in reading the biography of or historical period you'd like to learn about. I recommend Bruce Campbell's If Chins Could Kill, if you're interested in the gory details of the production of an independent horror movie the late 70s midwest.

Honestly, you can't really do it wrong. Whether your first novel is a Goosebumps book or Finnegans Wake, just go with what looks interesting.

You mentioned horror and sci-fi... maybe start with a Ray Bradbury short story anthology, as he was extremely good at both genres. Asimov as well, although he was more strictly sci-fi. Stephen King and Clive Barker are always good entries into horror (and King even did a noir-inspired novel, to include your third example). My recommendations skew contemporary as that's where my tastes lie, but you can't go wrong with classics like Dracula or Frankenstein, either. In fact, they both hold up amazingly well.

This is all very YMMV, though. Literature is as subjective as anything, and you won't know what you like until you've tried it. Experiment and have fun.

The fact of the matter is that "literature" is just too broad and too deep to make any kind of comprehensive starter pack style list of books to read. Or at least if you did make that "comprehensive beginners guide to literature" list it would take you years and years to read it. So, just dive in and read something from a genre you're interested in. Go google some list of popular books in that genre, pick one, and then google a list of unusual or unappreciated books from that same genre and pick one from that list too. That should give you an idea of the breadth and depth available to you in any direction you choose read in. There's a bunch of those types of lists for Sci-Fi, which has a long history of being both a populist genre and a progressive one, so I bet you'll be able to find plenty there to dig into.

I'll take the liberty to suggest: The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe. Which is a) short, b) mind-bending c) and terrifically well written in so many ways.

Graphic novels are one of the best imo. They mix great storytelling with great artwork.

Kurt Vonnegut

People and Literature are both too diverse for there to be a one size fits all solution to this question.

With that said I will five one answer, which is that you might be the sort of person who would find reading more engaging if you had the tools to interrogate it. With that in mind this book is a really good one for giving you a few different ways of looking at a text and drawing out its themes, if you don't mind a little basic academic writing.

I'd second Kurt Vonnegut as a good choice, as his writing tends to have fairly self-evident themes, and the prose is nice and easy to read. Charles Dickens is also fairly easy to think about in terms of themes and suchlike, although he is less easy to read. Some people love his writing so you might be one of them. Heart of Darkness is a really great novel, and although it's not necessarily easy to see all of its themes, it is quite dense with them; it is a short book.

If you're interested in tropes, can I recommend you try and get into spy fiction? The three biggest cold-war authors were John Le Carré, Len Deighton and Ian Fleming and they can be interesting to read together. John Le Carré wrote rather down-at-heel, realistic-feeling novels, whereas Fleming wrote James Bond and they aren't much more sensible than the films. Len Deighton is somewhere in between. It's interesting because they all have tropes that they use a lot within there own work, but there are also tropes that cross over between authors that are used slightly differently. Le Carré, for example, often deconstructs the stereotypical James Bond-esque spy. You could move on from these to more modern thrillers like the Bourne books I suppose and see what remains.

You could also try reading some crime fiction for similar reasons. Agatha Christie in particular might be interesting to you as a lot of fairly typical tropes that are used nowadays originate with her. I'd really recommend And then there were none which is a remarkably nasty and nihilistic crime story.

At the end of the day, there are a huge number of ways you could try and get into reading, but no one can say what will work to keep you interested, or if you even will be. The only rock-solid piece of advice I can offer is not to jump in with Dickens, Austen, Melville, Bronte, Shakespeare or any other "classic" literature just because its in the canon, unless it specifically appeals to you. There's no quicker way to put yourself off reading.

I've always enjoyed just walking into a second hand book store and picking up random stuff based on how cool the cover is. I really miss having those stores around.

I don't care much about "literature", I just read trashy pulp a lot. Anyways, that'd be my recommendation. Don't worry about what you should be reading, just pick up something you think might be interesting and read it, and then repeat. Check goodreads and/or amazon for related titles for stuff you like. That's what led me to Joe Pulver, Laird Barron, Thomas Ligotti, Charles Stross, Jim Butcher, etc.

Oh, and read the discworld series. All 41 of them. Especially the watch ones and Small Gods.

On the last podcast I think China Mieville (Perdido Street Station), Haruki Murakami (Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World) and Margaret Atwood (Year of the Flood) were mentioned.

I'd say all three of those fall into the category of 'modern authors who are respected in literary circles, but also write science-fiction'. If you fancy any of those three I'd go with Mieville's The City and The City (Perdido is a monster, so not a great place to start, but The City and The City is a quite straightforward detective story with a great sci-fi hook), Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland is very readable and definitely features some plot elements that will really appeal to videogame fans, and Atwood's Year of the Flood is part of the Oryx and Crake series, so I'd start with that one.

All those three are fantastic books, but as others have said, starting with what you think you 'should' read can be really off putting. Suggesting a new reader start with China Mieville for instance might be akin to giving someone who's never played a videogame before a copy of Dark Souls. You could always find a genre you like and look as some best of 2015/2014 lists to see if anything jumps out at you.

Seconding Vonnegut and Mieville.

You should definitely not just pull out Shakespeare and "start from the start", as it were. You're much better off seeing Shakespeare live or listening to an audiobook than just reading it. There's a ton of allusions, jokes and innuendo that aren't at all obvious to a modern audience, and a good performance brings that all out.

Read stuff you like the sound of, not stuff you feel you should read. If you develop a taste for reading and then get curious about the classics, that's great! There's a ton of excellent stuff out there to explore. But don't turn it into a chore for yourself, that won't help at all.

Paradise Lost of course. Just kidding... sort of. But honestly, I think short stories are an amazing way to get into the groove of reading, because there's an amazing selection (which you can often find online by googling the title followed by "pdf") and they don't require the commitment of starting a 200+ page novel.

Stuff like Asimov's "The Last Question" and Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" show the range of style and genre which short stories have, and they're both must reads for anyone who is interested in literature in my opinion. I also really like Willa Cather's "Neighbour Rosicky" which is something more pleasantly pastoral and of course Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper". I'm not a fan of the formatting in that last one, but it's the best link I could find on short notice.

I guess I really like short stories because I can read them in one sitting, and spend the rest of the day/evening/whatever thinking through everything. They're also always a pleasure to reread for me, due to their short nature, whereas I almost never reread novels. Try them out, I'd love to hear what you think!

As for novels, I feel like you'd probably like David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas", but make sure you don't ruin it for yourself by seeing the movie. My personal favourite types of novels are James Ellroy's crime fiction. His novel, "The Black Dahlia" is a nice starting point since it's his most well-known and praised work. But I truly love "The Big Nowhere", which is surely my favourite novel of all time. It depicts the socio-political landscape of post-war America so well, with amazing characters and writing, it just makes me sad I can't be a part of the novel's world. If you like the sounds of crime fiction but want a short story starting point, Dashiell Hammett has written plenty which are excellent (I like "The Big Knockover" and how it trails into "106,000 Blood Money"... or maybe that's the other way around. I should reread them both), and of course you should probably read "The Maltese Falcon" because it's a novel which zips by with style and gusto.

Side note - another novel which zips by nicely is Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", a sci-fi classic. "Snowcrash" by Neal Stephenson was also mentioned by Vinny once I think, and it's really good in a video-gamey kind of way, and anticipates a lot of things which have and are coming to fruition in games. I don't adore the actual writing style, but it is full of amazing moments, and should be checked out by anyone who likes games and sci-fi.

If you like gothic stuff, tell me because I can recommend lots of gothic stuff, I just didn't because I'd probably never stop. To make it clear, I can't handle anything remotely scary when it comes to movies or games, but gothic literature is just so damn good. (I know I said I wouldn't recommend something but if you like the idea of gothic read Bram Stoker's "Dracula" which is a great and classic novel, or start lightly with Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" or so many of his other short stories. Although they can sometimes take their time in getting going just a tad, "The Black Cat" doesn't really suffer as much from this and will give you a good sense of what he's about - which btw is usually straight up murder).

Also, if you want a challenge, you should definitely read Milton's "Paradise Lost". I'm not religious in any way, but found it engrossing and it really opened my mind up. It does take a lot of effort and commitment, however, if you study it you will find that it is incredibly rewarding (if you want to go down this path, this edition edited by Alastair Fowler is amazing and full of amazing annotations which will help you really understand every possible aspect of what's going on). Milton himself is a champion of a writer, probably taking the crown in my opinion as the best writer of all time, just for his range of contributions to the genre (one of the first to write politically, many glorious poems and sonnets, a genuine genius - by that I mean like actually a super-genius - and of course the writer of one of the greatest epics in literature's history).

Sorry about the wild tangents and overloading of information, but I hope that some of this has been interesting and that you find something that you like. I guess it's a testament to the wild range you can find in literature. I didn't get into poetry because I don't know how much you'd be interested, and there's lots to recommend there as well. If you ever want more recommendations, have questions, or just want to talk about something you've read I am always super up for it!

Edit: Made the links work like they should and I have no idea how I forgot Murakami but @chris86 took care of that. His writing is pure bliss and tranquility oftentimes.

Never ask what you should read. just explore

There is no wrong way to do it, like anything they best way is to pick something and dive in! if you don't like it thats fine and try something else.

I used to an avid reader in my younger days and always had 3-4 books piled high on my night stand, but life happened and I lost time to read as much as I wanted.

About a year and half ago I got an iPad and put the Kindle app on it, and i've been reading again! it's great. Still nowhere near the level I was at but still it feels good to be back into it.

You can start with some "classics" from the olden days that are acclaimed up the wahzoo, your Lord of the Rings, Dunes, Neuromancer, Games of Thrones and what have you, then move onto the more more modern stuff that will give you a grounding and you will see how genres progressed or just pick something thats big right now and grab that, The Martian is great.

Another options is grab some of the more recommended books from franchises you already are familiar with. There are so many Star Wars books to devour. I'm getting back into reading Star Trek books. If your interested the "Destiny Trilogy by David Mack" is a great jumping on point.

Go to amazon or a local book store and see if anything catches your eye.

Or if you wanna keep it Giant Bomb-y there was a bookclub thread here a while back if you can find it, or Drew, New Dan, Danny and Mary did a bookclub podcast after reading Sphere, You could start there and see where it takes you.

I am trying to follow a list I found online. So far it's going pretty good, with me having read almost the entirety of the Sherlock Holmes collection, with three other books lined up for this month. God, reading is great, huh?

Here is the list I'm following. It's not something I follow religiously, but I do like a challenge. Just choose one theme on here that interest you. That should help you narrow down your search.

One way to go is oldest to newest. That means you should start with the Sumerian wisdom text 'Instructions of Shuruppag', written in 2500 BC.

"You should not have sex with your slave girl: she will chew you up"

Pretty great advice tbf.

Lots of good advice in here. I have one other, slightly different suggestion. Try reading the book version of a movie that you enjoyed. You already know the story is something you like. Sure, you know what's going to happen, but now you have the chance to visualize the story the way you want to, and not through the lens of a filmmaker. Things don't always (probably more often than not actually) happen the same way in the book either. One caveat though: books that had movies made about them are typically a better bet than novelizations of movies which are often mass-produced crap spewed out to capitalize on a movie's success.

This is also great advice! It can also give you a greater appreciation of the original version you liked, by going into more depth on certain things that don't play well on screen.

At the beginning of the book

Thanks for all the fantastic responses! It sounds like the general consensus is that I should start with genres I know I like and branch out from there, as opposed to forcing myself to read classical literature first. I've also made note of many of the authors mentioned in the this thread so that I can look into them later.

Now, as for actually reading these books, is there any disadvantage to using a Kindle primarily? I don't really have the space to start collecting books and I won't always be near my library. What is the selection like on the Kindle? Could I use it read most of the books already mentioned in this thread?

@sunbrozak: The Kindle is pretty amazing. It's no substitute for the feel of paper in your hands, but it has adjustable fonts, a staggering library of just about any text you could want, and you can get a backlit model that will save you a lot of grief. It's definitely worth a look.

Yeah, the paperwhite is so nice. It's the third kindle model I've owned, and I love it. Well worth the price as books are generally cheaper and you don't have to move several 100lbs boxes of books if you ever move house.

@sunbrozak: Note that it's not that classic literature doesn't matter or isn't worth reading; most of my favourite and most memorable books are classics. They're much harder to dive in to, and frequently harder to finish, because they were written for the people of those times for whom those books were more palatable. That said, books are classics because they are timeless; these are the books that stand out from the pack that have been able to move most people for decades or centuries. Whereas with more modern fiction they are easier to break into but your chances of finding a dud, or one that you don't learn anything from, are much higher.

That said, if I hadn't been forced to read classics in school I probably would have never been able to stick with them, but boy am I glad they made me.

To sum it up, try reading stuff that seems fun and will get you into reading, then try and make goals of books that are a bit harder but will be more rewarding.

This applies to old genre fiction as well, but take a look at some "essential reading" lists from sources you think you might respect, then do some research on the titles and writers who seem to appear the most and try to understand what people get from reading them. That gives you a starting point for deciding if you want to tackle a certain writer or work.

My second piece of advice is to seek out the shorter works by a writer you're new to. If they have a collection of short stories or novellas it gives you a chance to test the water before jumping into something too alienating. If you want to try Dostoyevsky, read Notes from the Underground and some of his short stories before Brothers Karamazov. For Thomas Mann, you can try Death in Venice and other stories before Magic Mountain (1500 pages?), Joyce has Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist to prep you for bigger more experimental stuff like Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Etc, etc. This is especially good if a writer continued to write short stories throughout their career because it gives you a feel for how their style changes over time without having to read all of their books in order. That can also help you decide which books of theirs you'd like to tackle if you find yourself liking a certain period of their work. If you find that you absolutely despise a writer after reading just a couple of short stories, you probably know you don't want to bother with their more imposing works. The only exception I'd make is writers whose short stories are considered significantly inferior to their longer works. I read a bunch of Nabokov short stories a few years ago and never found the things I love from his novels there.

Lol definitely don't start with Shakespeare. It's interesting to read but not really the most enjoyable to most modern readers. English has changed too much in the last few centuries so it doesn't really flow very naturally for most modern readers.

19th century english stuff however, still reads perfectly. For a wonderful grasp of character building try Charles Dickens. For the most sublime use of language, try Jane Austen. Or my personal favourites, because I get the same emotional response from their writing as I do from playing Dark Souls (yes really), try either Ann Radcliffe or Mary Shelley.

Honestly, it just depends on what you want to read genre wise. If you aren't crazy about reading then don't jump into classic literature, maybe find a modern author you like. I am a big HP Lovecraft fan but I can't always recommend his works to people because not everyone can get through his writing style; its not bad its just not for everyone.

As someone who's at a university training to become an editor/publisher/writer, I'd recommend starting with something a bit more accessible to ease yourself in - that's what I did. I didn't read as much during high school at it was only after high school I picked it back up.

A Kindle is a great choice in terms of space, price, portability but, personally, I can't read on it at all. Something to do with the screen makes me unfocused and I've always liked having a book in my hands because I can flick through it and use it for stuff a lot quicker. It's a great choice though, especially if you're starting out - most books are cheaper and easier to get. If you live near a thrift store, check there as well! Almost a quarter of my collection comes from thrift stores.

Classics are classics and they're going to always be there for you - I certainly haven't read many classics and it's something I'll one day tackle. The ones I did in read in high school I'm glad I read and if I wasn't forced to read any of them, I'd probably still be at my first university. They're sort of antecedents to a lot of modern literature today but a lot of these can be really hard to read without context or understanding of how language has changed or an understanding of their importance. Build up to those and give them a crack when you're ready but don't push yourself - they'll be there for you when you're ready.

Try starting out with a book that has a plot that interests you - makes you go 'what the hell is this about?' or even just a book they turned into a movie you like. Short story anthologies are a great place to start as well, as they'll give you a taste of an author; a lot of big literary magazines still publish anthologies. In terms of some modern stuff I'd recommend:

• Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami (probably most accessible, start there and get onto his weirder stuff)
• Remainder by Tom McCarthy (it got me to quit my last degree and rediscover my love of writing/reading)
• Replay by Ken Grimwood (trust me on this one)

As others have said read what you like, because that is the only way you will ever get past the first book.

But, here are some tool for reading lit, but making it enjoyable.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/03/best-classic-books-_n_3379404.html#gallery/300833/0

http://io9.gizmodo.com/10-books-that-will-change-how-you-see-history-1687648942

I read about subjects I like and would like to know more about. And I have read some classics. I like Charles Dickens a lot.

Since buying my first e-reader during last year's Black Friday (A Kindle Paperwhite) I increased my reading time by a significant amount. Turns out having to bother with a reading light and holding a heavy book actually were discouraging me from reading more, as silly as that sounds.

As for actual books, if I don't have anything specific in mind I usually pick one by going through Time's All Time 100 Novels list. If I find out a movie I enjoyed was based on a book I try to read it as well.

I wasn't a massive reader until I found Douglas Adams and I realised the words themselves could be amusing and bring as much to the table as the story or themes on their own terms. Just like cinematography is important to a film. Some jokes and concepts just don't work when you cant read the words.

Before that id tell myself why would I read a book which will take me hours when I can watch a movie (this is especially true of the classics, which have all pretty much been turned into movies).

Now I ask myself if I'm missing something by just watching the movie.

I read a bit but my tastes generally stay within humour and classics with some fantasy thrown in on occasion, the most literati I get is probably Pynchon.

I don't keep up with modern authors, which is probably a poor decision on my part but I don't have the time to keep up and from the outside looking in it all seems so self-serious.

@sunbrozak:

I was working on a longer write up, but that quickly turned into a crazy long post (I'm an English major) so I decided to make a list instead. If you have a specific question, feel free to ask. If I was going to talk about everything myself, I would be here all day.

Generally speaking, start with the more contemporary stuff. Personally speaking, most of my favorite literature falls under the British Literature Post-1945 time period anyways. There's great stuff in every era, but some of the old stuff becomes more of a hassle, especially works that were written in Middle English and anything earlier than that.

My Short List of Fiction (Bold ones are works I really recommend)

• Early British Literature:
  • Beowulf (Caveat: This is really, really old!)
  • Othello
  • Hamlet
• 17th to 19th Century British Literature:
  • Frankenstein
  • Northanger Abbey
  • Jane Eyre
  • A Christmas Carol
  • Jekyll and Hyde
  • The Master Builder
• American Literature:
  • The Scarlet Letter
  • Moby-Dick (Caveat: Super long; talks a lot about whaling, oil, and boats)
  • Emily Dickenson (Not fiction, but still some of my favorite writing from early American literature time period)
  • The Glass Menagerie
  • To Kill A Mockingbird
  • American Gods
  • No Country For Old Men
  • Slaughterhouse Five
  • Cat's Cradle
• Miscellaneous World Literature:
  • Madame Bovary
  • The Metamorphosis
• British Literature Post-1945 (It's an English Major thing) and othe:
  • Animal Farm
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four
  • The Remains of the Day
  • The Edible Woman
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • The Satanic Verses (Caveat: Kinda for crazy people)
• Miscellaneous and Other More Contemporary Literature:
  • Super Sad True Love Story
  • Never Let Me Go
  • Oryx and Crake / The Year of the Flood / MaddAddam
  • 1Q84 (Caveat: Super long)
  • Atonement
  • Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
  • Battle Royale
• Non-Fiction:
  • Nothing to Envy
  • Missoula
  • The Devil in the White City

Literature is a tough nut to crack in terms of how to get into it, and it is especially difficult to recommend what direction to take. From what I gather, you yourself are unsure of how to proceed, perhaps partially because you don't yet know what you don't yet know. On the one hand, you seem interested in genre fiction, and on the other hand you seem to be at least curious about the "higher" works of literature such as those by Shakespeare. My recommendation? Try both.

For genre fiction, there have already been a number of recommendations in this thread, and I have admittedly read only a slight amount of these works. I would echo the sentiment however of jumping up to more "literary" authors in the given genres, such as Vonnegut, Asimov, Tolkein, and others. You could also consider modern translations of epic poems, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are frequently cited in all of literature, and kind of fall aesthetically in a similar space with genre fiction. Also, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett are worth reading, as others have mentioned in this thread.

Now in terms of the more classically literary side of things, people have already made excellent recommendations in regards to short stories, and I would also suggest those as a jumping off point. Another way of getting into literature is perhaps to take slight peaks at authors you may be interested in. Rather than read all of the Merchant of Venice by Shakrspeare, you could first read Shylock's famous monologue from the play, and chew on that for awhile, before deciding if you want to read the entire play. Reading famous or well liked parts of books and talking about them is something which my reader friends and I like to do while hanging out or drinking. Most recently, my friend read a passage from Ulysses to me, and we chit chatted about it. It's a lot less pretentious than it sounds, and it's quite fun. I swear.

Anyway, you could also try reading poetry, which often comes in small, but dense packages. Poetry also often comes in unreadably difficult forms, but you frequently see very interesting turns of thought in a very short space. Consider something like Lyrical Ballads, which is a bit more approachable (although it begins with Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, which is quite challenging in my opinion, so maybe skip that initially). If you want to read something that is short, but will melt your mind, try reading Carrion Comfort by Hopkins, or What the Thunder Said by Eliot. Sometimes, reading something very challenging, and working your way through it slowly, or just being amazed and frustrated by something is fun, and can inspire you to read on, or at least it does for me.

My recommendation overall is that you shouldn't be afraid to dip your toes into more challenging works, but just see where your interests take you, and what you end up liking. Once you know what you like from all the initial small steps, then you can dive in head first into the bigger stuff. Have fun!

If you really are brand new to literature as a medium I have a couple of suggestions. First, start with works that are well-known and highly celebrated. This will ease your anxiety about not being in the know, and give you a large selection of quality pieces. You may not like some of them (and that's fine!), but most literature of a certain caliber will have enough going on under the surface to warrant thinking about afterwards anyway. Its also important to realize that author's change and grow along with their writing, so disliking one book or poem does not mean you will automatically hate everything they write.

Second, I'd recommend starting with either short stories or novellas. They let you dip your toes into an author's body of work without having to commit as much of your time on an unknown, but are usually fairly complete experiences. As mentioned on the Beastcast, it is a lot easier to jump into something like Notes from the Underground than The Brothers Karamazov. If you are intimidated by the language or density of a piece, novellas are also a great way to see if you are equipped to handle that kind of material yet (and if you aren't, you'll get there eventually!).

So, for a few novella suggestions that span countries and time periods:

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
• The Man Who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton.
• Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevesky.
• A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov.
• The Alienist by Machado de Assis.

Genre fiction can be great, but its easy to fall into the trap of reading a lot of garbage because it happens to fall into your pet genre. God knows I've read more than my fair share of trashy fantasy novels. While I'd highly recommend reading stuff out your normal purview, going straight for the most acclaimed works of your favorite genre is worthwhile too. If you like Sci-fi, for instance, there is no harm in jumping directly into the work of Asimov, Bradbury, or Douglas Adams.

This post ended up being a lot longer than I intended. Whoops.

The kindle is perfectly great. I have one and I love it but I also pick up paperback books especially when I have a sense that it's something I may want to hand off or lend to someone else in my family.

Lots of good suggestions here so I'll save you from pouring over another list from a stranger. What I will recommend though is find a good reading environment that works for you. Now that could be as simple as laying down on the bed or couch at home but that may not be the case if you've trained your brain to associate those spots with other things that could distract you (like I can't read on the couch in front of my TV because I'm constantly tempted to fire up a game or watch a show if I'm there). Varies for everyone and can change over time. These days I have an actual dedicated reading space and can read there or on my bed but when I was younger I'd read on the subway, read outside on steps, read at the park, library, etc..

Also don't feel like you have to read quickly to enjoy a book. Read at the pace where it makes sense.

Finally I'm a big proponent of the idea that if you aren't connecting with a book after a modest amount of effort then put it down and find something else to read rather than trying to force your way through it. I know some people might come to a contrary point of view on this subject, and I do think there's a value in struggling with certain texts, but if you're just reading for your own benefit I don't think it makes a lot of sense. Sure, your life might be enriched by reading a particular text but at the same time you're never going to get through everything that's out there so you may as well use that time to get into something that does connect with you. That's not to say forget that book. On the contrary, sometimes you need other texts to sort of prime your mind to make that earlier book accessible or just need your life to be in a slightly different place.

Also if you can find a friend or acquaintance or forum to discuss your reading that can be really great too.

@sunbrozak: Not to shill for Amazon or anything, but it looks like Kindles are on sale today on their site.

You might want to check out Mortimer J Adler's "How to Read a Book", which is a classic defence of intelligent, thoughtful reading of classical works of literature, philosophy, and technical and scientific disciplines. It includes an exhaustive list of works that could be considered "canon", at least from an admittedly (and unashamedly) Eurocentric perspective.

If you want to just read more, and there is nothing wrong with that, just read about the genre fiction you like and establish who the "go to" authors are and try some of them out. If you want to get into "the classics" honestly just start with the Iliad and the Odyssey and work forwards. Literature is a dialogue across oceans of time and space - missing the earlier stuff means you will be missing important references and critical aspects of later discussions.

These responses make up a novella on their own, and some of the suggestions (like 'just start reading from the beginning of time') sound like a good way to quickly get turned off of 'literature' altogether. What if you actually took a free class by MIT literature professors, self-paced or on an actual course schedule?

Self-paced archives of MIT courses: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/

Upcoming free MIT courses, moving on a schedule: https://www.edx.org/course?search_query=literature

The structure of a course guided by a professor seems like a much more manageable way to get the fundamentals under your belt before you decided to start tackling new material entirely on your own, given how inexperienced with older material you appear to be. It will be very valuable to hear from an expert how you should think about what you are reading, as much as it will be to simply be exposed to the most influential literature out there. Hope this helps!

@sunbrozak: I'm a librarian so my opinion is quite biased. That said, if you're planning on reading ebooks, you should check with your local library anyway as most of them have online ebook lending services in addition to print that don't require you to come to the library. OverDrive (that link will let you search for a participating library near you) is the most common library ebook service and they have a partnership with Amazon so they're Kindle compatible, if that's your preference. Also, depending on the age of the literature you're going for, you can find a lot of classics in the public domain (i.e. out of copyright and therefore free; try Project Gutenberg). What I'm saying is, never pay for a book you only plan to read once! There are so many great ones out there that even if you have to wait in line with the library service you can read a few others while you do.

Something that has helped me out recently is to switch between reading books and playing video games. I'll finish a game, then move on to a book, and so on. The list that I am using for books is the Pulitzer Prize in American History, as I've discovered that I'm becoming a 'young historian' as I'm getting older. I tried reading fiction a lot over the years, but it does not have the same appeal to me as non-fiction books. I try to balance everything by watching movies at night to help expand my imagination, instead of TV programming and/or sports like I used to. Being a religious person, I read the Bible every morning, which makes my day much, much better. When I find a book at the local library, I also save a lot of money, which is a huge benefit. When I was in my 20's, I read a few books, but not on a constant level. I finished up 4 years of graduate school last year in which I had to read somewhere around 100 books over that time, but that's higher education with a specific purpose, something that might not be your desired level of intent at the moment.

I also want to mention that you should feed your desire to read by actually getting started. Make it a priority if you need to, because that way, it will mean more to you. Keep a list of the books that you have read during 2016, and then at the end of the year, look over what you've accomplished. I believe reading books gives you an exciting way to learn about new things and also teaches you how to write your own material. You might find, too, that you want to try literature from different centuries, which means you will begin to understand historical context (language and customs of the times, for example), which is a skill that will help you with interpretation and judgments about different people and their actions.

I want to encourage you to keep at it and find a system that works. It's well worth it to find a way to enjoy reading books.