Help - I get overwhelmed in Waterstones

[AlexanderHamilton]

I really want to start reading again but recently everything I’ve tried I’ve not felt worth the money. I used to read loads as a teen/in my twenties often over & over again

Some of these books are ancient but if I list stuff I used to like can you make recommendations.

Agatha Christie
Heritage by Heather Hay
The Latchkey Kid & Yes Mama by Helen Forrester
Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter
The Choir by Joanna Trollope
Pride & Prejudice
Harry Potter
The teen lawyer series by John Grisham
No 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Just remembered I also liked several Nick Hornby books also David Lodge was it called Chsnging Places?

Didn’t like a book by Santa Monefiore I tried to read on holiday & coukdnt get through The Paying Guests by Sarah Walker.

I had 'readers block' a year or so ago. I was given a copy of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies and I really enjoyed it and have since read all of the authors books except one of them. Sophie Kinsella is an easy to read one if you want a bit of a laugh. Crime - Tess Gerristen is good plus I quite like Tony Parsons crime series. If you don't mind a bit of YA stuff then Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz and Cherub series by Robert Muchamore are addictive. Go to the library or a charity shop though if you don't want to pay out loads for books. Or The Works - 3 books for £5.

Oh if you liked Nick Hornby then Tony Parsons non crime books are quite similar - start with 'Man and Boy'.

Ooh - never read them myself but interesting fact. DS was one of 10 kids picked to review the entire Alex Rider series when they were reprinted about 4 years ago & he has a quote inside the back cover of one of them.

I go in the Works a lot & just stare at the shelves not knowing what to choose. I did try Tennison which was OK.

I never know which authors are good & which are trash. There seem to be tons of historical wartime Jennifer Worth copycat stuff on the shelves.

OP these are all I can think of, up late because of the heat, so not totally functioning:

• If you liked Joanna Trollope you may like Mary Wesley or Anne Tyler; Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet series

• for detective novels you could try Elly Griffiths's Ruth Galloway series; also Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs's series (awful covers but actually well written); Nicola Upson's thrillers (not to my taste but not bad of their kind); Anthony Quinn Curtain Call

• Nick Hornby fans often like David Nicholls; of chick lit books JoJo Moyes is a lot better than most; haven't read it but a lot of people rate Elinor Oliphant is completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Changing Places by David Lodge is a hoot. It's years since I read it, but the literary game if Humiliation played by academics, still makes me laugh.

If you enjoy police procedurals you might enjoy Alison Taylor's series set in Wales or Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe series.

If you like Agatha Christie, try Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers or Margery Allingham (who has just been reprinted, so should be easy to find now).

Ian Sansom's Mobile Library mystery series is quirky and might engage you if you like the No 1 Detective Agency books. Also Jasper Ffolkes Lost in Good Book and following.

Harry Potter is its own thing, but in terms of YA fantasy I really enjoyed Maureen Johnson's Shades of London series.

If you enjoyed Changing Places then you might enjoy Small World and Nice Work which continue in the same fictional world. The main characters in Changing Places become more minor ones in the next two books. They are all a laugh.

Also, please go to a library. They can recommend you books, and even if they don't have the ones you want on the shelves right then, they can order in what you are looking for. Many libraries now give you access to ebooks and audiobooks for free as well. Often you can join online, and then search the catalogue and order what you want yourself. Reading does not have to be expensive! (And local libraries need all the support they can get.)

Is Nice Work the one where the English lecturer shadows the Brummie manufacturer. I loved that one.

Yes! Once I had read North and South and Howard's End I got more of the literary in-jokes but I enjoyed it lots the first time.

I’m a huge David Lodge fan. If you like comic literary fiction, do give Alison Lurie a go, particularly her campus novels. Wonderful.

I recently enjoyed Big Little Lies.
If you enjoy that I'd also recommend Little Fire Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

I'm a big Ken Follet fan if you fancy a historical saga, The Kingsbridge books starting with Pillars of the Earth set in the Middle ages, or the Century Trilogy based in the 20th century (Starting with Fall of Giants).

Americanah was brilliant, really enjoyed that.