Best Books to Start a Reading Habit
I’ve never been anything else but a reader. And because of my interest in books, and especially since I started this blog, I have had people ask me ‘What are the best books to start a reading habit?’
I don’t think you can force someone to become a reader, and I know many people who haven’t lifted a book since the day they left school. Which I think is a shame, as for me reading is one of life's great pleasures. Sometimes in school you are forced to read the ‘wrong’ books; they may be worthy, but are just the wrong book at the wrong time for you.
But since we live in an age where there is more competition for our attention span than ever before, wouldn’t it be good to fight back? Many people are raising young families and can see the amount of time children spend on their devices. Seeing mom or dad reading a book for pleasure can be just the spur that kids need to get them turning a page again.
And not just reading a physical book - audiobooks are just as valid a way of ‘reading’ a book. Some people have issues such as dyslexia, so reading isn’t a great option. Physical books, e-readers, audiobooks - there’s lot of ways to read.
I thought I’d have a go at listing those titles that in my humble opinion could be the best books for beginners to start a reading habit. I’ve divided them into sections as best I can, depending on genre. Ideally, you will pick something that you will have an interest in - that just makes common sense.
How to develop a Reading Habit Tips
But before we get into titles, lets begin with some tips on how to develop a reading habit (I talked in detail about this in my reading slump post)
Pick a Genre you’re interested in - Crime, horror, history - whatever floats your boat. There are people who say ‘You just have to read this’ but it might not be something that takes your fancy.
Use the format that appeals to you -
Audio - Great for driving, walking, and commuting. I do love a good audiobook. Kicking autumn leaves while walking through the park, sunning myself on a bench, doing a lap of the park on a crisp winter morning; my audiobooks accompany me throughout the year.
eReader - Handy for synching with the app on your phone - no more boring queues or staring at the ceiling in waiting rooms. And get an eReader with no internet browsing, for obvious reasons. An added benefit of eBooks is that when you become a person who (gasp) reads more than one book at a time, and you can shift between titles according to your mood. I do this a lot, especially between fiction and non-fiction. My brain sometimes prefers one over the other, and occasionally I’m a mood reader and nothing else but Stephen king will do. I keep a backlist of King books for those moments. You can also borrow books from you local library (always support your local library) via the libby app.
Physical copy - Some people argue that it’s easier to pay attention to the written word on a page, so it might come down to your individual preference. I have to admit that when one of my favourite authors releases a new title, I’m likely to purchase a physical copy. And one of life's great pleasures is always going to be bookshop and browsing. And hey, bookshelves look good from an aesthetic point of view, and you can swap books with friends, or donate to your local charity shop. I pick up lots of books that way.
Start small and set a goal - Begin by setting aside five minutes for reading. Keep doing that for as long as you want, then move up to ten minutes. Then perhaps one chapter. When the book get it’s hooks into ya, keep going and before you know it you’ll be happily stuck between the pages for an hour, and even get annoyed when you have to put it down to do some ‘life’ stuff like putting out the trash or talking to your family. When you start to enjoy reading, aim a bit higher, and maybe do a goodreads challenge for ten books a year.
Read everyday - It may seem obvious, but reading everyday keeps you ‘in’ a book. Even if I find I’m behind with chores or making plans to be with friends, I’ll still dedicate five minutes every day, because it keeps the characters and story fresh in my head. I find that if I’ve left a book for a few days, it begins to go a bit stale and can be hard to pick up the narrative again.
Replace a habit with another habit. - As discussed in this post on focus, do you really need to spend another ten minutes of pointless browsing on facebook or scrolling through obscure subreddits? Do you really need to watch yet another episode of that show on netflix? Are you addicted to the news cycle, or podcasts that tell you that the world is going to hell in a handbasket? Staring out the window on a train? That could be twenty pages or a chapter. Carve out some reading momments throughout your day and you’ll be amazed how they add up. Even reading on the big white telephone can add a few minutes of reading (just remember sitting on the toilet is not a leisure activity).
Find a reading spot - Maybe it’s a recliner or a comfy seat in a corner of the garden, but try and find somewhere that you can begin to associate with reading. I have a favourite window seat with enough light coming in that I use for reading, but I also have a bench in the park and a walking trail without distractions that's good for audiobooks. I also find restaurants and pubs are handy during quiet periods and if there’s a random conversation going on in the background, earplugs are my friend. Same for public transport and boring commutes. E-readers are great in the bath, just remember they don’t float!
Keep it short- No need to start with a thousand word door stopper, plenty of time for that when you build up a head of reading steam. Start small - there’s a great sense of achievement when you finish a book, and it also means you won’t risk getting bored if it’s too long, or overwhelmed because your progress is slow.
Now let's look at a few titles to get you started! Remember, this is very much a matter of taste. If you don’t like these titles, don’t be afraid to dump them and start something else. Give them a chance, but don’t turn it into an endurance test - reading is meant to be fun, after all.
Crime/Mystery
In my humble opinion, there’s nothing like a series of books to get you reading. You become immersed in a whole universe, you know what book comes next, and if you’re enjoying them, you have a feast ahead of you. For me, the Harry Bosch books by Michael Connelly are a great place to start.
Each book is a standalone case (though there’s usually more than one) as we follow our wizened detective Hieronymous ‘Harry’ Bosch around the winding hills, valleys, freeways and darkest corners of LA. Cases unfold slowly, with Harry delicately putting the ‘murder book’ together, always deliberate and tenacious in his investigations.
Connelly’s prose is so clear and visual; one of my favourite aspects of the books is just to luxuriate in his descriptions of LA, and this works just as well via audiobook as it does on the page. There’s no waffle here - every sentence and description has meaning. I often think there’s a zen quality to the writing, and I can lose myself in it for hours.
Although each book is a standalone, part of the enjoyment for me has been learning about Harry over the course of the books - his background, his motivations, and the relationships he develops. He’s a complicated man, which makes for a great reader/hero relationship. He also ages over the series, making him more believable.
Along with Harry, there are a cast of characters introduced over the course of the books - you have the ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ Mickey Haller, there’s intrepid journalist Jack McEvoy, fellow detective Renée Ballard, former FBI profiler Terry McCaleb and special agent Rachel Walling.
There are plenty of books to get stuck into, and I promise that if you are hooked after the first couple of installments, you won’t want to stop. I’ve previously compiled a list of Michael connelly books in order to help get you started. Definitely amongst the best books for beginners to start a reading habit and thank me later!
Thriller/Horror
I’ve been a constant reader of Stephen King since I was a child. I think I read my first book when I was eleven - 'Salem's lot’. I have to thank the kind librarian for letting me take it home (not so much for the nightmares, but buyer beware and all that).
So that’s nearly 40 years of reading Stevie. He’s one of the bestselling authors of all time, with an estimated $350 million in sales and 70 published books.
Must be doing something right
I’m suggesting his books because they have character, plot, laughs and of course shocks and thrills. I also know what I’m getting when I pick up a Stephen King book, and I'm generally not disappointed. In recent years, he has moved more towards crime writing with his Holly Gibney series, and been pretty successful at that too.
(If you’re interested, The Holly Gibney series order is ‘Mr Mercedes; Finders Keepers; End of Watch; The Outsider; If it Bleeds; Holly.)
Personally, I think the main reason why I love his work so much are his characters - they always seem so real; flawed, complicated and usually likeable. And he also creates some of the most despicable ‘baddies’ in literature. Once he’s established a bond between the reader and the character, he then likes to put them, and us, through the ringer.
I particularly enjoy listening to Stephen King audiobooks because his writing is just so strong. The images are clear, there’s plenty of dialogue and his writing has a great flow to it. I don’t enjoy audiobooks where there’s too much exposition or the pace is too laboured - I struggle to concentrate with those. Mr King is just pure story and character. ‘You like it darker’ was a recent favourite, read by the great Bill Pullman, so that might be a good place to start.
I’ve seen it said in literary circles that King is just a hack, churning out ‘low brow’ books. But the man himself has said that his writing is the literary equivalent ‘of a big mac and fries’ and he’s happy with that. For me he writes great yarns that you can completely lose yourself in, and not many writers can do that. If you look around my blog you’ll see that I read plenty of literary fiction - there’s many of them that can’t hold a candle to Uncle Stevie in terms of making sure you’re gonna keep turning the pages.
Where to start with Stephen King?
Where to start? The classics of course. You can read them in any order, and there’s any amount of them. ‘Salem's lot’ was my entry point, and that’s as good a place as any to begin. ‘The Shining’ ‘Carrie’ ‘Misery’ - there’s just so many to choose from. Once you start you’ll find it hard not to gobble them all down.
He also does a bit of a fantasy, so if that’s your thing, get onto the Dark tower series. I absolutely inhaled those books when I discovered them - but they are quite long, so one page, one chapter at a time.
‘It’ and ‘The stand’ are personal favourites of mine but a bit more on the hefty side of things at over one thousand pages, so take your time with those. But be prepared to completely lose yourself for hours in them, certainly amongst the best books to start a reading habit because King is simply one of the best writers around and incredibly prolific.
Fantasy
Before I read Stephen King, I remember another book series that absolutely consumed me. I must have been nine or ten, and was on holidays with my family in England. I was the oldest of four siblings, and it could be hard to get some ‘alone’ time. I seem to recall that my father would give me the car keys so I could lock myself away and read. I’m talking about the ‘Narnia series’, which at that time had an electrifying effect on my brain. It’s saying something that more than forty years later, I can remember being absolutely consumed by those books, and whole afternoons would literally disappear.
(I should say that I was an active child, I played with friends, sport etc but reading was my thing. I think for a lot of kids now that computer games have replaced books, but my heart always gladdens a little when I see a child reading a book with a trance like look on their face. I know that look all too well.)
The first book of that series was ‘The lion, the witch and the wardrobe’ and it was simply magical. This idea of a world within this world just blew my young mind. I also remember nursing a broken heart because of the loss of a character in this book; I was in bits for days. The first loves of books sure cuts the deepest.
I think this is also a perfect series if you want to encourage your child to read and make reading a habit - it's something you could certainly listen to or read together. Like I say, it’s magical, well plotted, wonderfully described, pacey with plenty of action.
Tolkien
When I was a bit older, I discovered Tolkien, probably when I was around 20 years old. I’m not sure why I held off reading the series for so long, but I eventually got round to it. I knew I was addicted to those books because I remember carrying them around with me (before eReaders) and reading it when I stood at traffic stops waiting for the green man. I literally couldn’t bare to be parted from those books.
I know someone who reads the ‘Lord of the Rings’ books along with ‘The hobbit’ every year. I don’t think he reads anything else - just savours them and goes slowly, and to inhabit those worlds is enough.
Fantasy for me is pure escapism. So whether it’s Narnia, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Dark tower series, Game of Thrones, His dark materials - it’s one sentence, one page, one chapter, one book at a time. Fantasy books are amongst the best books to start a reading habit because you can completely lose yourself in their worlds.
Whether it takes months or years, the journey is yours alone to take - and what a journey it can be.
Non-Fiction
If you’re struggling for motivation and to build a habit out of reading, what about some books on the subject? I’ve compiled a list of those that have helped me, including ‘Atomic habits’ by James Clear and ‘Stolen focus’ by Johann Hari.
Maybe there’s something topical that interests you - why not investigate it further? The opioid epidemic in the US is the subject of ‘Empire of Pain’ by Patrick Radden Keefe and it’s as unputdownable as some of the most engaging fiction books I’ve ever read.
Biographies and memoirs can also be a great entry as the best books to start a reading habit. I’m thinking in particular of ‘Educated’ by Tara Westover, one of the best memoirs I've read in recent years.
And let's not forget Geography & politics. If you have any interest in modern day current affairs, Tim Marshall's ‘Prisoners of geography’ and ‘The Power of Geography’ will explain the intricacies of modern day geopolitics in an engaging and accessible way. Highly recommended for developing a reading habit.
Science Fiction
‘The Martian’ and ‘Project Hail Mary’ by Andy Weir have become best sellers because they are high stakes thrillers, rooted in science and push at the boundaries of our imaginations.
Slightly different, and I suppose they can be considered scientific, historical and literary fiction in that they involve time travel, are ‘Sea of Tranquility’ and ‘The Glass hotel’ by Emily St. John Mandel, two books I enjoyed immensely. I love it when a number of genres are combined, and Mandel does it so well.
Historical Fiction
This is another of my favourite genres, transporting me back in time to another era. I love being immersed in the sights and sounds of another age, relying on the skilled imagination of an author to recreate it for me. Not only entertaining, but we get to learn something as well.
As much as I want to recommend Hilary Mantel's utterly engrossing ‘Thomas Cromwell’ trilogy, if you’re searching for the best books to start a reading habit, you might be intimidated by their huge size. I’ve heard the audiobooks are great, if that tickles your fancy. For me there are none better - I actually felt I was sitting on the shoulder of Thomas Cromwell as I read these books, and when I put them down there would be a moment when I had to acclimatise to being back in the modern day again. Yup, they’re that good.
‘Pachinko’ by Min Jin Lee was a slice of historical fiction I really enjoyed recently. ‘The book thief’ by Markus Zusak is a classic, set during Germany in WW2, as is ‘All the light we cannot see’ by Antony Doerr which is set in occupied France. Both incredible page turners whilst also very much rooted in a certain time and place.
Literary Fiction
Perhaps you had a love of literary fiction back in your student days, but it’s a genre you’ve neglected over the years. This is one of my favourite genres, and in my opinion there is nothing as pleasurable as disappearing into the luxurious sentences and descriptions of a lengthy work of literary fiction. To me, it’s like settling into a hot bath after a long, hard day.
My go to recommendation for developing a reading habit is anything by Donna Tartt, but in particular ‘The secret history’. Just take your time and read a chapter a day; you’ll want to make this one last as long as possible.
‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles was a recent read where I became completely immersed in another character's life in a fascinating period of time. I could have cried when I turned the last page of that one.
Something topical might interest you, such as ‘Yellowface’ by Rebecca F. Kuang, a literary thriller bestseller that looks at cultural appropriation and racial diversity in the publishing industry. With its distinctive yellow cover, it’s an easy one to spot on the shelf of your local bookshop.
Classics
People often have a tendency to ignore the classics, perhaps because they suffered a bad interaction with them at school (‘boring’), or they think they are irrelevant and difficult to read.
Nothing could be further from the truth. And speaking of truth, why not read about the ministry of truth in George Orwells ‘1984’, the purpose of which is to rewrite historical documents to suit party doctrine, and can make you believe that 2 + 2 = 5. This is a book with scary parallels to the present. And ‘Fahrenheit 451’ is another short dystopian classic about the burning of books.
Another personal favourite that’s beautifully short is ‘The old man and the sea’ by Ernest Hemingway, about an aging fisherman and his battle with a giant Marlin. Another wonderful shortish book I'm constantly recommending is ‘Siddhartha’ by Herman Hesse, a journey of spiritual self discovery that had a profound impact on my life when I read it.
Summary
Remember, reading is meant to be fun. If you find you aren’t enjoying a book, put it down and start another one. The book police aren’t going to be knocking on your door asking for you to write a paper on it. Nobody cares.
Once you start exploring your interests, your reading journey will take on a life of it’s own. Don't be afraid to push boundaries and explore ideas and new worlds.
If there’s one last bit of advice I can give you, it’s to read what you want to read, Not what you think you should read because it’s worthy, or is riding high in the best seller charts - read what you are interested in. Whether that is intergalactic space comedies, or medieval historical fiction, read whatever you want to read.
Go into your local bookshop with an open mind and browse, fill a bag with books, read, and most of all, enjoy. Dig out your library card. See where your reading journey takes you.
The best books to start a reading habit are the ones that you can’t put down.
I wish you many happy hours of reading pleasure.