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Books for DS nearly 17

28 replies

Apileofballyhoo · 04/02/2025 19:25

DS wants to read more and spend less time on screens, so books are the obvious choice. We've had a bereavement this year and he's struggling a bit with concentrating so we are looking for books that are pretty easy to read but are still well written and quite literary. He found One Hundred Years of Solitude a slog but raced through Klara and the Sun. I'll read anything so I'm not much use to him, but I've suggested Life of Pi as I remember racing through that once I got past the first chapter. Also All the Pretty Horses, but he might struggle with the punctuation or lack of in McCarthy books. He doesn't feel up to reading anything particularly sad or bleak. All suggestions welcome!

OP posts:
GrumpySparkler · 04/02/2025 19:51

I'll preface these suggestions by saying it was a long time ago that I was 17, not a boy and don't have any teens I my life. But here it goes...

I came to suggest Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, but that probably falls in to the sad/bleak category. However, it is excellent.

Other suggestions:
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
DH loves Robin Hobb's books, Lord of The Rings/Hobbit books.
Phillip Pulman's His Dark Materials.

Get him to go and have a good nosey around your local library. Ours has it's own YA section as well.

Ddakji · 04/02/2025 19:49

Stephen King
Tolkein
Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series
George R R Martin

Tortielady · 04/02/2025 19:46

Has he read any Terry Pratchett? My DH got into his books when he was 26, and followed them right through to the last volumes. Death is in it; that is Death with a capital D, a benign figure who loves cats and has a job to do. If history (and time travel) is his thing, he might like Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St Mary's and her Time Police series.

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