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Original poster

Book recommendations for 17 year old ds please.

157 replies

BertrandRussell · 21/07/2018 09:47

Ds has asked me to come up with 5 books he hasn’t read for the summer holidays. He’s a reader so all the obvious ones are gone. I’ve come up with Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog and The Kite Runner. Any ideas?

OP posts:
Danglingmod · 23/07/2018 07:38

Why is he doing A level if he doesn't read, Cider? Shock

CiderwithBuda · 23/07/2018 07:23

So wish my almost 17 year old DS would read! And he’s doing Eng Lit for A level! Currently struggling through Jane Eyre. Did Atonement too but hasn’t actually read the entire book!

I might try getting him to listen to some audio books though.

Original poster
BertrandRussell · 23/07/2018 07:11

But I think the 5 I am going to suggest to start with are A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, The Master and Margarita, Tales of the City,Scoop and The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist. Now thinking about the next 5.

OP posts:
Original poster
BertrandRussell · 23/07/2018 07:01

I am creating a fabulous list for both of us!

Just so people know- the Shardlake audio books are wonderful. Up until very recently we did a lot of long distance driving and Shardlake kept us all entertained.

OP posts:
OrlandaFuriosa · 23/07/2018 01:12

And of course Sherlock Holmes and Wilkie Collins..
And I agree Shardlake.

Porterhouse Blue?

MipMipMip · 22/07/2018 20:50

Forbidden City by William Nell. About the Tinnamon Square protest and massacre. Maybe intended for a little younger than him but one that really moved me when I was considerably older!

MipMipMip · 22/07/2018 20:47

Does he want fiction for pure enjoyment, something to stretch his mind, insight into other cultures? It's kind of hard without knowing what has after.

Also Life of Pi. I know everyone is rude about it these days but it's good.

And James Herriott.

paintingthegardengate · 22/07/2018 13:01

My DS enjoyed the Shardlake novels, recommended to him by his A Level history teacher.

OrlandaFuriosa · 22/07/2018 12:58

This is a wonderful list..I think I shall print it out, read the unfamiliar and keep it by me in down days. Just looking at the books reminds me of happy hours.

Bertrand, any reactions? What’s he interested in? We are light on maths and science, sport, let us know..

And have we said Dickens? Great Exoectations, David Copperfield are the two obvious bildesroman but my fave Bleak House, or the entry one, A Tale of Two Cities..alongside George Orwell, perhaps...

OrlandaFuriosa · 22/07/2018 12:52

Mipmipmip love it!

snickledon · 22/07/2018 08:17

Iain Banks non science fiction books. Wasp factory was my favourite teenage read. James Kelman - how late it was, Irvine welshs short stories (can't remember it's name but I think he's maybe done more than one). I also used to love horror like Stephen King and James Herbert.
I also worked my way through the books your "supposed" to read like Catcher In the Rye, the Bell Jar, 1984 etc.
I Am Legend is also a great book, a short read and a million times better than the film

MipMipMip · 22/07/2018 08:01

Shute. Nevill Shute.*Blush

MipMipMip · 22/07/2018 08:00

I came on to say The Once and Future King Orlando! Only I think read all of it.

Seconding Nevil Shite- great call.

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart (first in a trilogy)

The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.

LadyPeterWimsey · 22/07/2018 05:16

V pleased to hear it, Bertrand! Grin

Cel982 · 22/07/2018 01:02

God, Elizabeth Gilbert? Really?
Mine would only read her to annoy me.
**

The Signature of All Things is outstanding, though, and a million miles from Eat, Pray, Love. No, it doesn't exactly scream 'teen boy', but then most of the stuff I read at that age wasn't targeted at teenage girls either.

OrlandaFuriosa · 21/07/2018 22:55

I think it was at this age I first enjoyed your own History of Western Philiosophy. But I assume you read it to him as a bed time story?Grin
And your first volume of your autobiography, though I expect he knows your family stories.

The White Goddess, though not by you.

I also think that this was the age when I started to read historians and social theory, . In my day it was eg Christopher Hill, EP Thompson, Ladurie’s Montaillou, Asa Briggs, Willmott etc. How about Simon Schama, Sebag-Montefiore, Antony Beevor?

And now is the age to read Hardy if he hasn’t.

Tim Mackintosh -Smith’s travel stuff is delightful.
What about Utopia, Candide and Rasselas?

If he likes primary sources, Pepys 1660 and 1665 are jolly good, or an abridged Pepys and for scurrility Saint-Simon, again possibly abridged.

Prob too young for him in the first volume but if he hasn’t read it, the complete Once and Future King. The sword in the stone is young but the rest is harrowing, you will remember.

threestars · 21/07/2018 22:33

BrauTigan

threestars · 21/07/2018 22:31

At that age I really loved American authors - the grittier the better. so although I wasn’t a boy, I might suggest the following:
Paul Auster
Richard Brauigan (revenge of the Lawn - short stories)
S E Hinton (The Outsiders)
Charles Bukowski (very gritty, with poor view of women though. But great poetry and very honest writing)
East of Eden by Steinbeck.

itssquidstella · 21/07/2018 22:23

The Master and Margarita
Ham on Rye (or other Bukowski)
Any Hemingway, Faulkner, Capote
The Magus

OrlandaFuriosa · 21/07/2018 22:21

If he likes football, The Bromley Boys, now out in film. M

Despite being part of a v vbooky family, our child has reverted to norm.

OrlandaFuriosa · 21/07/2018 22:16

Yup, freakenomics, and any of the football economics ones if he likes football.

CuttedUpPears · 21/07/2018 22:11

I was the right age for Atonement then. If he likes war movies it might suit him.

HeyMicky · 21/07/2018 22:07

Oh, and

nick earls - zigzag street
John Birmingham - he died with a felefel in his hand

2 good Australian authors

HeyMicky · 21/07/2018 22:04

Anthony Boudain - Kitchen Confidential
John Niven - How to Kill your Friends
James Ellroy - LA Confidential
Douglas Coupland - Microserfs or Hey Nostradamus
Jay McInerney - Bright Lights Big City
Jonathan Kellerman - Alex Delaware series
Matt Beaumont - e
Freakonomics

LovingLola · 21/07/2018 21:57

Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies.

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