I have just returned from a mini vacation... and since there was time for reading in it (i.e. on vacation), I did finish reading the book I have been reading for quite a long time.

I read slowly, so I'm very selective in my choice of books. It is especially a pity when the book does not go, then the reading is completely stretched out for a long time.

The last book I read was Shantaram.

A few words about the book (from Wikipedia): A novel by Australian writer Gregory David Roberts. The events of the author's own life served as the basis for the book. This is what Shantaram looks like in real life:

The main action of the novel takes place in India, in Bombay (Mumbai) in the 1980s. First published in Australia in 2003. It was released in Russia in 2010, by which time the total circulation of Shantaram had reached one million copies.

The protagonist is a former drug addict and robber who escaped from an Australian prison where he was serving a nineteen-year sentence. After some time spent in Australia and New Zealand, on a false passport in the name of Lindsay Ford, he arrives in Bombay.

The action of the novel is interspersed with a description of the experiences of the protagonist and philosophical reflections. Characters often express thoughts in aphoristic form. All the characters in the novel are fictional, but the events described are real. So, in Bombay, there is a cafe "Leopold" with marble halls, there really is a Bollywood film "Paanch Papi", in which the main character appears (and Roberts himself is easily recognized in it). In addition, there is a Prabaker excursion bureau in the city, opened by his brother, and if you wish, you can find yourself in the slums where Lin lived and see Rukhmabai, the woman who gave him the name Shantaram.

The book is really incredible and I read it voraciously. Based on the real story of the author, written in easy language, with a lot of facts, events, love and philosophical lines, it is not for nothing that Shantaram has so many rave reviews.

Let's move on to the next part of the post:

We have a list of TOP 100 books (mastrid) in our office, but we all know that, firstly, all these lists are relative, and secondly, not all of them are so exciting and easy to learn. The most popular of the list, of course, has already been read. Something heavy and very large, I'm not ready to read yet. Accordingly, I began to ask colleagues in the office: well, what should I read: interesting, not deeply historical and tragic, preferably useful, suggestive. Of course, unfortunately, the right answer flies out of my head.

My previous book was: L. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace".

At school, I read it only in a summary and delayed the moment of reading for a long time. And I don’t regret at all that I read it after 30. War and Peace is a wonderful work. Of course, military operations are not so interesting, but in general this is a fascinating novel that gave me a lot: reflections on life, equality, love, forgiveness, about what it means to be a good person for yourself and others, about self-sacrifice and much more .

So the next part is informative:

1984 - George Orwell

Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin

Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

Metro 2033 - Dmitry Glukhovsky

Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin

A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin

A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin

A Dance with Dragons - George R. R. Martin

The house where... - Mariam Petrosyan

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

Gadfly - Ethel Lilian Voynich

Twilight - Dmitry Glukhovsky

Insomnia - Stephen King

The Hungry Shark Diaries - Steven Hall

Perfumer. The Story of a Murderer - Patrick Suskind

Norwegian Forest - Haruki Murakami

Magus - John Fowles

The abduction of the swan - Elisabeth Kostova

Eleven minutes - Paulo Coelho

Terry Pratchett - The Hijackers

Dan Simmons - Hypirion

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

The Thirteenth Tale - Diana Setterfield

11/22/63 - Stephen King

35 kilos of hope - Anna Gavalda

Black City - Boris Akunin

Timeless. The Ruby Book - Kerstin Geer

Nowhere: A Novel - Neil Gaiman

Postcards from the Other World - Franco Arminio

Runaways - Neil Shusterman

Winds, angels and people - Max Frei

Dead Sea - Jorge Amado

Amendments - Jonathan Franzen

Demons in Paradise - Dmitry Lipskerov

A vague smile - Francoise Sagan

White Teeth - Zadie Smith

Five Quarters of an Orange - Joanne Harris

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote

Cat without embellishment - Terry Pratchett

Selected Days - Michael Cunningham

Happy people read books and drink coffee - Agnes Martin-Lugan

Final part:

To not be like this:

I'll start with myself:

1. Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts)

2. War and peace (L. Tolstoy)

3. A light breakfast in the shadow of the Necropolis (Jiri Groshek) - (the first part of the trilogy) - a light sarcastic, daring, intriguing novel, which is built like a bright mosaic, where Imperial Rome and modern Prague exist side by side, a fashionable film director and Valeria Messalina ...

In conclusion: I urge, help me find a book so that I can not tear myself away. it is desirable, taking into account the wishes described above, that it be like this:

When a person has free time, he may want to read. But what can be read so as not to tear yourself away from reading for a minute? What could be so exciting? Let's consider some aspects.

Reader Interest

Mostly people read for pleasure.. There are some exceptions, like reading technical literature or textbooks, but we won't talk about that. The most successful books are those that keep the reader's interest until the very last page.

BUT arouse interest of a person, here are such moments in the literature:

• Elaboration of heroes. An important aspect of fiction. It is interesting to read when you worry about the characters and imagine yourself in their place. The more the character's character is similar to a real person, the better.
• colorful descriptions. When the environment in the work is described in too much detail, this can harm perception. Balance is important here. But details and small details at the right time can really hook readers.
• Story line. A well-thought-out and well-planned storyline can make a book a best-seller even with bad characters.

Comparative analysis of literature

Characteristic	Cinema	video games	Literature
Story.	Cinema has been around for over a hundred years.	Video games began to become widespread about 30 years ago.	Literature has existed since the invention of writing - thousands of years.
Labor costs.	To make a film requires the coordinated work of several hundred people. The plot, scenery, actors, cameramen, special effects specialists and so on.	The production of any video game requires a team of one hundred people. Game designers, programmers, artists, marketers, beta testers and so on.	Writing a new fiction book requires two people - a writer and an editor.
Financing.	Budgets run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.	Budgets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What the user gets.	An hour and a half of leisure. A slight emotional upsurge if you liked the picture. You can only watch.	From an hour to several weeks of immersion in an interactive universe where you can influence the course of the plot and make decisions.	From one evening to months of reading and thinking. Imagination builds its pictures and its images. The reader is immersed in the world that he represents himself, in accordance with what is written.

The cultural significance of reading books

The Importance of Literature so strong in comparison with other cultural phenomena that their works are studied throughout the entire period of an individual's education, from kindergarten to university.

Neither cinematography, nor animation, nor architecture, nor fine arts, nor even music can be compared. Some of these phenomena, of course, take place casually in a comprehensive school. Specialized universities study their aspect in more detail, but this is not about them. This state of affairs clearly indicates that reading is the foundation of personality development.

What is literature

This ancient art has developed into a very versatile phenomenon. Consider the most main directions:

• historical- annals, magazines, chronicles. These are all documents confirming some events in the past.
• Documentary- a description of some events that actually happened.
• artistic- Description of fictional events in part or in full.
• academic- encyclopedias, textbooks, manuals, guidelines.
• Legal- constitution, bills, rules, charters.

1. Orson Scott Card - "Ender's Game" . The brightest representative of military fiction. The book tells about the fate of the brilliant boy Andrew Wiggin, who was brought up in a post-war society as a future military leader. The book was made into a movie of the same name in 2013.
2. Gordon James - "Why We Don't Fall Through the Floor" . A book for those who love physics and technology. Although it contains large amounts of scientific information, it reads like fiction. Describes the events of the Second World War from the standpoint of materials science. Very light weight and clear descriptions. Changes all ideas about surrounding objects.
3. Evgeny Zamyatin - "We" . Popular fantasy dystopia. The protagonist is one of the many residents of the State, which is separated by a wall from the outside world. All citizens are so standardized that their names are reduced to one letter, and society is almost completely equal and there is no free will.
4. Yuri Alkin - "The Price of Knowledge" . A fiction book that deals with the philosophical side of the issue of immortality and the causes of aging. The protagonist gets into a secret social experiment related to immortality. It will be interesting for those who like to think about what they read.
5. JK Rowling - "Harry Potter" . World bestseller. A series of novels that tell about the fate of a boy wizard. Movies and computer games have been made for each of the books. This book is about heroism, friendship, good and evil. It will be especially interesting for teenagers, but do not underestimate it. These novels are also enjoyed by adults.
6. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings . Fantasy about the adventures of the hobbit Bilbo. Movies have been made based on these stories and there is a whole culture. People from all over the world come together to participate in joint events dedicated to the author or the plot of the novel.
7. Mikhail Bulgakov - "Heart of a Dog" . A fantastic story about Doctor Preobrazhensky and the dog Sharik. The professor puts an experiment with the brain of a dog, turning it into a man. The story touches upon issues of morality, personality traits and communism. A movie was also made based on it.
8. Dave Wolverton - "On the Way to Heaven" . A novel in the genre of adventure fiction and cyberpunk. Extremely full of events and dynamics. It raises questions of the private territory of the individual, the meaning of some memories and morality. Connoisseurs of Isaac Aizimov and Stanislav Lem will especially like it.

The list can be continued endlessly, because many masterpieces have been written over the thousand-year history of literature. Therefore, what to read in order not to tear yourself away from the book depends entirely on your choice.

Below the video blogger Nastya Skripkina will talk about the best books in her opinion, from which it is simply impossible to break away:

And here Polina Martsinkevich will talk about the most interesting books she has read over the past few years:

Not all books are able to captivate the reader from the first pages and keep in suspense and ignorance until the very end. But these 10 books will definitely not let you stop reading even for a couple of minutes. They can be "swallowed" literally whole and until the very last line the reader will be in tension and ignorance.

1. The novel "Amsterdam"

writer Ian McEwan
Clive and Vernon - two bosom friends, successful, quite young and smart. Clive is a very talented composer and Vernon is an editor for a major newspaper. Their friendship seemed unbreakable, and upon learning of the death of a woman named Molly, who was their common love in the past, they enter into a strange agreement between themselves, which states that if one of them is struck by the same terrible disease that killed Molly, the second will order him euthanasia. But after several incidents, the friendship collapses, people who were once close to each other become enemies, and wanting revenge, they secretly order euthanasia for each other...

2. Novel "Collector"

writer John Fowles
Frederick Clegg is one of those people who are called the "gray mouse", he works as an ordinary clerk in a government agency and his only hobby is collecting butterflies. He is not interested in the people around him, no one pays attention to him, and especially Miranda, with whom he is secretly in love. But one day fate turns to Frederick "face", making the right bet on the races, he wins a huge amount of money.

He sends all his relatives to rest in another country, and he buys a good house in the rural wilderness away from people. He would live in peace, but he decides to kidnap Miranda, which he successfully does. The second part of the book is written on behalf of the kidnapped girl, who at first is afraid of Clegg, but then realizes how unhappy and insignificant he is, and pity for him awakens in her soul. What's next for her?

3. The story "The Multiple Minds of Billy Milligan"

writer Daniel Keyes
Billy Milligan is an unusual person, 24 different personalities coexist in his body, which are radically different from each other. Among them there are adults, and children, and creative subtle natures, and villains. Because of them, Billy cannot control his actions, most of the time he is not subject to himself, which is why he goes to jail for rape, but Billy did not do this ...

4. Detective "Broken Dolls"

writer James Carol
Jefferson Winter is the son of one of America's most notorious serial killers, and in order to get rid of such a "legacy", Winter becomes a detective, and not just a simple one, but a serial murder consultant helping the police solve complex cases. After all, he knows the logic of serial killers better than anyone ... A new case - a psychopath catches young girls and makes them a lobotomy, and Jefferson is obliged to find him as quickly as possible, because not everything that is broken can be fixed ...

5. Fiction "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

writer Douglas Adams
Arthur Dent was unaware of the existence of other civilizations until his house was decided to be demolished. He gets in the way of the bulldozer, but at that moment his friend named Ford comes, who reports that he is an alien from another world and very soon the Earth will be destroyed to build an intergalactic road. At the very last moment before the destruction of the Earth, friends manage to get into the ship of other aliens, where they are tortured for illegal entry, and then thrown into space, but even then they manage to escape. Since then, Arthur and Ford's incredible journey through the galaxy begins.

6. Detective "The One Who Wasn't"

writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (Boileau-Narcejac)
"The One Who Wasn't" is a classic detective story that attracts with its conciseness and ease of writing, and also doesn't let go until the very end. It happens in life that it seems as if you have found "your" person, you fall in love, start a family, but over time you realize that this is a complete stranger. And the further - the worse, at first you just hate this creature nearby, and then you wish him a speedy death. The same thing happened to the main character of this work, because of which he plots to kill his wife, but life is a complicated thing, and everything turned out to be not as simple as he thought...

7. The story "Remembering my sad whores"

writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The protagonist of the book has been running all his life from serious feelings, from family and children, it seemed to him more reasonable to pay for quality sex than to give his heart to someone. On the day of his 90th birthday, he summons a young girl with whom he falls in love. At that moment, he remembers and realizes his whole life, analyzes it and regrets that he fell in love on the "threshold of death" ...

8. The novel "The Maker of Angels"

writer Stefan Breis
The book The Angel Maker brings up the very popular topic of cloning, but it's not a common one. The protagonist of the work is a little boy with Asperger's syndrome, an orphan who is brought up in a monastery. No one expected that a genius would grow out of him, but very evil and cruel. He named his three children after archangels, but their behavior is close to diabolical - all the villagers are in fear of them. Who is to blame? Breins' work conveys to readers the essence of faith, social and humanitarian responsibility of a person to the whole world.

9. Detective "Snowman"

writer Y. Nesbe
Hole Harry is a Norwegian detective investigating the seemingly ordinary murders of married women. But his tenacious mind finds a connection between these murders and others that happened long before. All the women were killed at the time the first snow fell, they were all married, they had children, and there was always a snowman at the scene of the murder. Other detectives couldn't connect it together, but Hole understands that all these murders are the work of a serial maniac. Since then, his "hunt" for the killer, who was given the nickname "Snowman", begins.

10. The novel "The Thirteenth Tale"

writer Diana Setterfield
Margaret Lee is an ordinary seller in a bookstore, sometimes she wrote literary works, published some of them, but she never stood out in any way and nobody was interested in her work. That is why she was extremely surprised when she was approached by the popular writer Vida Winters with a request to write her autobiography.

Before meeting Vida, Margaret sincerely considered her works "thoughtless writings", but during her stay in her estate, she changes her mind. She finds a book by Vida Winters called "Thirteen Tales" from her father, but the thirteenth one is not in it. And Margaret will have to learn this complicated, but such an interesting story while writing her autobiography, which turns out to be the very unpublished "fairy tale".

I'm sure you missed a book that would captivate you so much that you don't want to return to reality. We decided to make your task easier and we ourselves compiled a list of books that you simply cannot tear yourself away from.

Arthur Haley. "The airport"

One of the best works Arthur Hailey. Explosion on board the aircraft. Emergency landing. The airport is cut off from the outside world by a snowstorm, landing is almost impossible. You probably think that this is the script of some blockbuster. But this is just one day in the life of a giant airport. A kind of microcosm in which people work, quarrel, quarrel and strive for success.

Alice Munro. "Runaway"

The book is a collection of amazing stories of love and betrayal, unexpected twists of fate and a complex spectrum of personal relationships. There are no banal plots and habitual schemes.

Khaled Hosseini. "Wind Runner"

I shed a lot of tears and laughed at this book. The author made me walk along the same streets Kabul on which the main characters of the book walked - boys Amir and Hassan. The book is very moving about their friendship, despite the fact that one of them belongs to the local aristocracy, and the other - to a despised minority. Each has its own destiny, but they are connected by strong bonds of friendship.

Tom McCarthy. "When I Was Real"

This avant-garde novel is unlike any other before or since. The protagonist, waking up in the hospital, receives a multi-million dollar compensation for damages and paranoid uncertainty about the reality of today. He spends a fortune to recreate the "real" pictures dormant in his mind. It all starts with the construction of an entire house, where a team of special people recreates the smell of fried liver, the sound of music from a pianist from above, and cats walking on the roof.

Jojo Moyes. "See you"

A sad story about an impossible love. main character Lou Clark loses his job in a cafe and gets a job as a nurse to a bedridden patient. Will Traynor was hit by a bus, and even though he was rehabilitated, he had no desire to live. How life will change after this meeting, none of them guess.

Clive Lewis. "The Chronicles of Narnia"

The book consists of seven fantasy stories that tell about the adventures of children in a magical land called narnia where animals can talk, magic surprises no one, and good fights evil. I am sure that the book will make you forget about sleep and will not let you out of its magical embrace for a long time.

Laura Hillenbrand. "Unbroken"

One of the top bestsellers of the decade, according to the magazine Times about a man who survived. The plot is based on an incredible biography Louis Zamperini, a boy from the street, from which an Olympic runner was raised. After he became a pilot during World War II. Having survived the plane crash, this man drifted on a raft in the ocean for a month and was eventually captured by the Japanese. But no one and nothing could break him.

Gillian Flynn. "Gone Girl"

The book is perhaps the biggest bestseller of our time. This psychological thriller contains so many unexpected plot twists that even the most sophisticated reader will be satisfied. According to the plot on the fifth wedding anniversary, disappears Amy- wife Nika Danna. The circumstances of her disappearance are highly suspicious. And injured Nick soon becomes a suspect.

David Mitchell. "Cloud Atlas"

A bright and exciting novel, the plot of which takes place in the middle of the 19th century. Your attention will be presented to six stories in which there is a place for betrayal and murder, love and devotion. Everyone will understand this book in their own way - it is like a mosaic from which different people put together completely different pictures.

George Martin. "Song of Ice and Fire"

This novel does not require a separate introduction. It is unlikely that there will be someone who has not watched the series of the same name or at least has not heard about it. The events of the book take place on the continent Verteros where there is a struggle for the throne. Royal intrigues, conspiracies and war haunt the reader throughout the novel.

Despite the abundance of e-books, tablets and audio formats, it is impossible to discourage a book lover from “rustling the pages”. A cup of coffee, an easy chair, the incomparable smell of book pages - and let the whole world wait!

Your attention - TOP-20 most interesting books. Read and enjoy...

• Hurry to love (1999)

Nicholas Sparks

The genre of the book is a love story.

It is generally accepted that only female authors succeed in romance novels. "Hurry to Love" is an exception in this specific genre. Sparks' book won the love of readers around the world and became one of his most popular works.

A touching and incredible love story between the daughter of a priest, Jamie, and a young man, Landon. The book is about a feeling that intertwines the destinies of two halves only once in a lifetime.

• Foam of days (1946)

Boris Vian

The genre of the book is a surreal love story.

A deep and surreal love story based on real events from the life of the author. The allegorical presentation of the book and the unusual plane of events are the highlight of the work, which has become for readers a complete postmodern with a chronology of despair, spleen, shocking.

The heroes of the book are tender Chloe with a lily in her heart, the author's alter ego is Colin, his tiny mouse and the cook, friends of lovers. A work full of bright sadness that everything ends sooner or later, leaving only the foam of days.

Twice screened novel, in both cases unsuccessfully - to convey the whole atmosphere of the book, without missing important details, no one has yet succeeded.

• Hungry Shark Diaries

Stephen Hall

The genre of the book is fantasy.

The action takes place in the 21st century. Eric wakes up with the thought that all the events of his former life have been erased from his memory. According to the doctor, the cause of amnesia is a severe injury, and the relapse is already the 11th in a row. From that moment on, Eric begins to receive letters from himself and hide from the "shark" that devours his memories. His task is to understand what is happening and find the key to salvation.

Hall's debut novel, entirely consisting of puzzles, allusions, allegories. Not for the general reader. They don’t take such a book with them on the train - they don’t read it “on the run”, slowly and with pleasure.

• White Tiger (2008)

Aravind Adiga

The genre of the book is realism, romance.

The boy from the poor Indian village of Balram stands out from his sister-brothers with his unwillingness to put up with fate. A combination of circumstances throws the "White Tiger" (approx. a rare beast) into the city, after which the fate of the boy changes dramatically - from falling to the very bottom, his steep rise to the very top begins. Whether crazy or national hero, Balram struggles to survive in the real world and break out of his cage.

The White Tiger is not an Indian "soap opera" about the "prince and the pauper", but a revolutionary work that breaks stereotypes about India. This book is about the India that you will not see in beautiful films on the TV screen.

• Fight Club (1996)

Chuck Palahniuk

The genre of the book is a philosophical thriller.

An ordinary clerk, exhausted by insomnia and the monotony of life, by chance meets Tyler. The philosophy of a new acquaintance is self-destruction as the goal of life. An ordinary acquaintance quickly develops into friendship, crowned with the creation of the "Fight Club", the main thing in which is by no means victory, but the ability to endure pain.

Palahniuk's special style gave rise not only to the popularity of the book, but also to the already well-known film adaptation with Brad Pitt in one of the main roles. The book is a challenge about a generation of people for whom the boundaries of good and evil have been erased, about the insignificance of life and the pursuit of illusions, from which the world is going crazy.

A work for people with already formed consciousness (not for teenagers) - for understanding and rethinking their lives.

• Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

Ray Bradbury

The genre of the book is science fiction, romance.

The title of the book is the temperature at which the paper burns. The action takes place in the "future", in which literature is prohibited, reading books is a crime, and the job of firefighters is to burn books. Montag, who just works as a firefighter, reads a book for the first time ...

A work that Bradbury wrote before and for us. More than fifty years ago, the author was able to look into the future, where fear, indifference to others and indifference completely replace the feelings that make us human. No unnecessary thoughts, no books - only mannequins.

• Complaint book (2003)

Max Fry

The genre of the book is a philosophical novel, fantasy.

No matter how hard it is for you, no matter how unsuccessful your life is, never curse it - neither in your thoughts nor out loud. Because someone near you will gladly live your own life for you. For example, that smiling girl over there. Or that old lady in the yard. These are the Nakhi, who are invariably by our side…

Self-irony, subtle banter, mysticism, an unusual plot, realistic dialogues (sometimes too much) - with this book, time flies by unnoticed.

• Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Jane Austen

The genre of the book is a love story.

The time of action is the 19th century. The Bennet family has 5 unmarried daughters. The mother of this poor family, of course, wants to marry them ...

The plot seems to be beaten to "eye calluses", but for more than one hundred years, Jane Austen's novel has been reread by people from various countries again and again. Because the characters of the book are etched into the memory forever, and, despite the calm pace of development of events, the work does not let the reader go even after the final page. An absolute masterpiece of literature.

A nice “bonus” is a happy ending and the opportunity to steal away a tear from sincere joy for the heroes.

• Golden Temple (1956)

Yukio Mishima

The genre of the book is realism, philosophical drama.

The action takes place in the 20th century. The young man Mizoguchi, after the death of his father, finds himself in a school at Rinzai (approx. Buddhist academy). It is there that the Golden Temple is located - the legendary architectural monument of Kyoto, which gradually fills the mind of Mizoguchi, crowding out all other thoughts. And only death, according to the author, determines the Beautiful. And everything Beautiful, sooner or later, must die.

The book is based on the real fact of the burning of the Temple by one of the novice monks. On the bright path of Mizoguchi, temptations are constantly encountered, good fights evil, and in the contemplation of the Temple, the novice finds peace after the failures that haunt him, the death of his father, the death of a friend. And one day Mizoguchi comes up with the idea - to burn himself along with the Golden Temple.

A few years after writing the book, Mishima, like his hero, made himself hara-kiri.

• Master and Margarita (1967)

Michael Bulgakov

The genre of the book is romance, mysticism, religion and philosophy.

The ageless masterpiece of Russian literature is a book worth reading at least once in a lifetime.

• Portrait of Dorian Gray (1891)

Oscar Wilde

The genre of the book is romance, mysticism.

Once thrown words of Dorian Gray (“I would give my soul for the portrait to grow old, and I was forever young”) became fatal for him. Not a single wrinkle on the eternally youthful face of the protagonist, and his portrait, according to the wish, grows old and gradually dies. And, of course, you have to pay for everything in this world ...

A repeatedly filmed book that once blew up a prim reading society with a Puritan past. A book about a deal with a tempter with sad consequences is a mystical novel that is worth re-reading every 10-15 years.

• Shagreen leather (1831)

Honore de Balzac

The genre of the book is a novel, a parable.

The action takes place in the 19th century. Rafael gets shagreen leather, with which you can fulfill your desires. True, after each wish fulfilled, both the skin itself and the life of the hero are reduced. Raphael's delight is quickly replaced by insight - too little time has been allotted to us on this earth to waste it so mediocrely on unaccountable momentary "joys".

A time-tested classic and one of the most fascinating books from the word master Balzac.

• Three comrades (1936)

Erich Maria Remarque

Genre of the book - realism, psychological novel

A book about male friendship in the post-war period. It is with this book that one should begin acquaintance with the author who wrote it away from her homeland.

A work filled with emotions and events, human destinies and tragedies - heavy and bitter, but bright and life-affirming.

• Diary of Bridget Jones (1996)

Helen Fielding

The genre of the book is a love story.

Light "reading" for women who want a little smile and hope. You never know where you will fall into a love trap. And Bridget Jones, already desperate to find her soul mate, will wander in the dark for a long time before the light of her true love dawns.

No philosophy, mysticism, psychological spirals - just a love story.

• The Man Who Laughs (1869)

Victor Hugo

The genre of the book is a novel, historical prose.

The action takes place in the 17-18 century. One day in his childhood, the boy Gwynplaine (who was a lord by birth) was sold to the Comprachos bandits. During the fashion for freaks and cripples that amused the European nobility, the boy became a fair jester with a mask of laughter carved on his face.

Despite the trials that fell to his lot, Gwynplaine was able to remain a kind and pure person. And even for love, the mutilated appearance and life did not become an obstacle.

• White on black (2002)

Ruben David Gonzalez Gallego

The genre of the book is realism, an autobiographical novel.

The work is true from the first to the last line. This book is the life of the author. He cannot bear pity. And communicating with this person in a wheelchair, everyone immediately forgets that he is a disabled person.

The book is about the love of life and the ability to fight for every moment of happiness, against all odds.

• The Dark Tower

Stephen King

The genre of the book is epic romance, fantasy.

The Dark Tower is the cornerstone of the universe. And the last noble knight in the world, Roland, must find her...

A book that occupies a special place in the fantasy genre - unique twists from King, close interweaving with earthly reality, completely different, but united in one team and reliably described heroes, vivid psychologism of each situation, adventure, drive and the absolute effect of presence.

• Future (2013)

Dmitry Glukhovsky

The genre of the book is fantasy novel.

The recoded DNA at the output gave immortality and eternity. True, at the same time, everything that used to make people live was lost. Temples have become brothels, life has turned into an endless hell, spiritual and cultural values ​​are lost, everyone who dares to have a child is destroyed.

Where will mankind come to? A dystopian novel about the world of immortal, but "inanimate" people without a soul.

• Catcher in the Rye (1951)

Jerome Salinger.

The genre of the book is realism.

In the 16-year-old Holden, everything that is characteristic of a complex teenager is concentrated - harsh reality and dreams, seriousness, giving way to childishness.

The book is a story about a boy who is thrown into the cycle of events by life. Childhood suddenly ends, and the chick pushed out of the nest does not understand where to fly and how to live in a world where everyone is against you.

• You were promised to me

Elchin Safarli

The genre of the book is a novel.

This is a work that people fall in love with from the first pages and are pulled apart into quotes. A terrible and irreparable loss of the second half.

Is it possible to start living again? Will the main character cope with his pain?