Looking for Good Books Told in First-Person POV

[miyabyaofb]

Hello all!

I have a very particular reading recommendation request. I am looking for some good books to read aloud, told in first-person. I have read the following books and really enjoyed them.

The Book of Jhereg by Steven Brust
World War Z by Max Brooks
Day by Day Armageddon by J. L. Bourne
Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile by J. L. Bourne
Het Madden, A Zombie Perspective by Calvin A. L. Miller II
Feed by Mira Grant
Deadline by Mira Grant
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (I've also read Catching Fire and Mockingjay - they were alright, but the first book was the one I liked the most.)

Even though I have an obvious preference for zombies and sci-fi, I wouldn't be against extending into other genres. The audience is just myself and my fiance, so we're fine with violence/language/sexual content/whatever. I'm basically just looking for good stories told in first-person point of view that alternate between being funny and thrilling/suspenseful/action-packed.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[ATDrake]

From the look of some of the listed books that I've tried (Brust, Grant), perhaps you might enjoy what TV Tropes calls the "First Person Snarker" POV.

If so, then you might like to give a try to this series which has the 1st book currently on free promo: Mike Resnick's The Chronicles of Lucifer Jones, which is the 1st person POV of a rather unrepentant con-man traipsing his way across 1930s colonial Africa and having satirical adventures (told as 1 tale per chapter, so seems like it would be good for short read aloud sessions) where occasionally he even manages to come out on top. The Tarzan spoof is hilarious and worth at least a look, IMHO. A little low on the action, maybe, but high on the humour, with some funny moments via deadpan dialogue usage.

For supernatural action with suspense, Charles Stross' The Laundry series of Lovecraftian bureacracy tales about a secret agency trying to stave off the forthcoming Cthulhupocalypse has 1st person narration and a good deal of humour (often a bit dark, mind you) in between the scary thriller bits. You can try some of the short stories free online at Tor.com and via the author's website (has links to the Tor stuff) before deciding if you'd like to try the novels. "Overtime" is probably the most representative and very funny indeed. It was a Hugo award nominee and reasonably standalone, so you don't need to read the previous stuff and it won't spoiler you for anything important.

For more in that sort of vein, but lighter and spoofier, Nick Pollotta's written a bunch of tie-in novels to a roleplaying game which are actually surprisingly rather good and funny (you'd never guess they were spinoff books rather than an "original" X-Files-ish spoof). If interested, you can use Fictionwise's weekend coupons (often found in the Deals forum here) for fairly substantial discounts on the Bureau 13 series. You can get a taste of what the entire series is like by reading the opener for Book 1, which was originally published as a standalone short story before becoming the prologue for the novel. These have more action/adventure bits and comedy than the Stross Laundry books.

Hope this helps, and welcome to MobileRead!

[Apache]

There 12 more in the Vlad Taltos Series by Stephen Brust. He also has 6 in the Khaavren Romances.
If you want to try Mysteries take a look A Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout.
Spencer Series by Robert Parker.
The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour. (Not a Western)
Starship Troopers by RAH.
Apache

[dwig]

You might consider Old Man's War by John Scalzi

[DiapDealer]

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale & Oryx and Crake
Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books
The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Altered Carbon By Richard Morgan
Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Lots of Heinlein books
A Clockwork Orange
Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series
Robin Hobbs' Farseer Trilogy
Hombre by Elmore Leonard
Rothfuss' Name of the Wind (jumps in and out of first person).
Roger Zelasny's The Chronicles of Amber
Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun
Jim Butcher's Dresden series
Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, Slapstick, Breakfast of Champions
Lots of Carol Berg's work is first-person
Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim books
Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe books
Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger series
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafón (mostly first-person, anyway)

Sorry... I'll stop there... I love first-person narratives.

[miyabyaofb]

Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone!

I have read The Handmaiden's Tale and A Clockwork Orange and enjoyed them both, and I really liked Slaughterhouse-Five. I'm going to put all these suggestions on my reading list and see what I like.

Thanks, everyone!

(Oh, and I would not refuse any additional suggestions, if anyone else would like to contribute.)

[BenG]

The Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser

[aecardenas]

Originally Posted by miyabyaofb

Hello all!

I have a very particular reading recommendation request. I am looking for some good books to read aloud, told in first-person.

The suggestions made by DiapDealer are really great, so I won't really add my own to that remarkable list.

I'm actually just kind of curious...your request was for POV material, but also material that would potentially be 'read aloud'. That part intrigued me more than the POV book request itself.

Do you and your wife read aloud books to each other? I've never actually done that, and it sounds interesting. I mean, i've read books aloud to my kids, but that's par for the course. But your situation seems to harken back to olden days when folks actually read poetry and novels aloud to each other or to the rest of the family.

Sorry, don't mean to be nosey, but just curious as to the experience of reading aloud amongst loved ones, in the privacy of one's own home.

[Musashi]

11/22/63 by Stephen King.

[miyabyaofb]

Originally Posted by aecardenas

The suggestions made by DiapDealer are really great, so I won't really add my own to that remarkable list.

I'm actually just kind of curious...your request was for POV material, but also material that would potentially be 'read aloud'. That part intrigued me more than the POV book request itself.

Do you and your wife read aloud books to each other? I've never actually done that, and it sounds interesting. I mean, i've read books aloud to my kids, but that's par for the course. But your situation seems to harken back to olden days when folks actually read poetry and novels aloud to each other or to the rest of the family.

Sorry, don't mean to be nosey, but just curious as to the experience of reading aloud amongst loved ones, in the privacy of one's own home.

No, it's alright. You're not being nosy - I did make a bit of an odd request, so I kind of expected someone to ask about it eventually.

It's actually me and my future husband. I'm not really sure how it started, but I believe it was with me reading him a passage or two of something I really liked, maybe a short story or something, and now it's become a habit for us. My fiance also has ADD, so while he enjoys books and stories, he doesn't usually have the patience to read long books on his own. With me reading the books aloud, he gets to just relax and wind down while listening to a few chapters of a good story before going to bed each night, while I get to put my acting skills to good use.

My fiance specifically made the request for books in first-person because it feels like it's someone telling a story - this was one of the things he liked most about the Vlad Taltos books. It was like Vlad was sitting down with you at a bar, telling you about one of his latest adventures.

I do like your comparison of our situation to the olden days. I'm a teacher-in-training (and future librarian!), so reading aloud is one of my favorite things to do, but your comment is interesting because it makes me realize that reading aloud really can go beyond academic settings, and sometimes just be entertainment. Interestingly enough, my fiance and I don't watch as much television now that we've begun reading at night, so it really is one of our primary forms of entertainment now.

And once we have kids, I'm sure I'll attempt to keep the reading aloud going for as long as they'll let me, and maybe try to get them to read aloud to us too. I can see it now - all gathered in the living room, reading the classics and contemporary works, maybe even encouraging the kids to act out their favorite parts. It'll be awesome.

[Penforhire]

Seems like most of Charlie Huston's books are written in this POV. I'm thinking of the Henry Thompson series, Joe Pitt series, and stand-alones The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death and Sleepless.

[elemenoP]

When my (now-)husband and I were dating, I read him parts of Life of Pi and we both enjoyed that. (and it's first person POV. The beginning is a bit of a slog but then it gets exciting.) Sadly, I never read anything else to him! But my daughter and I read to each other all the time!

Another "first person snarker" is the Bartimaeus Trilogy written by Jonathan Stroud.

eP

[yekim54]

Originally Posted by Musashi

11/22/63 by Stephen King.

[ +1 ]

[aecardenas]

Originally Posted by miyabyaofb

No, it's alright. You're not being nosy - I did make a bit of an odd request, so I kind of expected someone to ask about it eventually.

Interestingly enough, my fiance and I don't watch as much television now that we've begun reading at night, so it really is one of our primary forms of entertainment now.

And once we have kids, I'm sure I'll attempt to keep the reading aloud going for as long as they'll let me, and maybe try to get them to read aloud to us too. I can see it now - all gathered in the living room, reading the classics and contemporary works, maybe even encouraging the kids to act out their favorite parts. It'll be awesome.

It does sound fun. Imagine...using the imagination for entertainment rather than have a bunch of specific concrete images broadcast in your face all night long, which is what we do most of the time when we watch TV.

Good choice. I applaud you.

[morriss003]

In the historical fiction genre, there are a series of novels written by Lindsey Davis about a detective in ancient Rome c60-70 AD. The first novel is 'Silver Pigs' which has nothing to do with farm animals.