[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by medwatt

I started reading novels at 12. An aunt of mine had the entire Agatha Christie collection and I used to read one every week. Of course, I was in school, so I had to read other things too.
By the time I was 17, I had grown tired of reading those types of books. True, my overall vocabulary improved, learned how to expressed my ideas in more descriptive ways, but I discovered I wasn't musing over what I was reading. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was a book that was passionately recommended by a friend called "Kiss the Girls" by James Patterson. It was a terrible book. That was the last novel I read. Since then, I've moved onto philosophy (found it difficult at first), science fiction and popular science books. So, I'm open to suggestions of books worthy of reading that pose an intellectual challenge. As a side note, I don't care for books with religious themes as I don't believe its possible to sway someone's mindset once it has ossified.

Science Fiction & Fantasy is an excellent idea. But you said above "I've stopped reading fiction completely [...]".


As for books with religious themes, I don't really hold with sticking religion into my pleasure reads.
It would be a bad idea anyway, as there isn't a lot of good Jewish fiction around.

One book with "religious themes" (sorta ) which I believe everyone should read, is Terry Pratchett's Small Gods.