Haven't read a book in a decade? Here are five great reads to get you back into it

You wouldn’t walk into the gym for the first time in five years and immediately load all the plates onto the bar and try to deadlift it, so why are you trying to read read such hard books?

Most people want to be a “better reader” according to this IPSOS poll from 2025. The wording’s a bit vague but I take that to mean people want to read more books.

We know that reading promotes empathy, makes you smarter, and helps you relax.¹ Even though it’s rarely the easiest option, it’s usually one of the best.

I think most people are reading the wrong books. Or at least, reading books that are too dense for them at the moment. It’s easy to bounce off a book that’s hard going.

We look down on popular books because like Fourth Wing or whatever Coleen Hoover read is doing the rounds on tiktok. But there’s no evidence that reading those books is any “worse” for you than reading War and Peace or For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Whatever you think of Tiktok and social media, it’s obviously done a lot for popular fiction, but I rarely see books that I’m interested in reading. When I try the popular booktok books, I’m usually disappointed.

But you’re someone who reads my newsletter! So you might also like some of the same books as me.

Here are five easy-ish books I would recommend to someone who wants to read more (yes I know you can find most of these somewhere on tiktok!). These are not necessarily my favourite books of all time (though Red Rising might be and I do love all of them), but are simply the books I think will help you read more.

Red Rising — Pierce Brown

Easy reading at its finest. My comfort series. I’ve read all six books (a trilogy and a soon to be finished quadrilogy) three times through.

This is my number one pick for people who find it hard to keep their attention on their book. If you can make it fifty pages in, it will pull you along for six more books with face melting speed.

Epic space battles, romances, rebellion, betrayals. It’s game of thrones in space turned up to eleven, then given a cocktail of steroids and meth.

I’ve read all the books in physical, plus listened to the audiobooks AND the graphic audio. If I had to pick one, it would be the regular audiobooks. Masterful narration.

But you can buy the paperback on bookshop.org and support a local bookstore.

Jade City — Fonda Lee

Take your favourite kung-fu movie, add in a magic stone that gives anyone who touches it super powers but also makes them crazy, and spoon in a huge dollop of gang warfare and you have this amazing trilogy by Fonda Lee.

Not just a fun read. Lee writes nuanced, deep characters whose actions always have a cost.

Great mix of fun and pathos.

You can find it here.

No Country for Old Men — Cormac McCarthy

I thought this one would be a snooze. NOPE. It’s fast and lean (apparently McCarthy’s signature style) and reads almost like a film script.

A man stumbles across a massacre in the desert and finds a satchel with 2.4 million dollars at the feet of a dead man. If only it were that easy!

This is probably a huge insult to McCarthy, but, it’s almost like Lee Child decided to write a serious Reacher novel. The pace and action of a great thriller, with some of the best, most poetic writing of the 21st century.

Short and sharp.

Warning: even the nicest characters are at best morally grey. Lots of blood, guts, and drugs.

Also, you can brag a little bit about having read this one.

I’ve never seen the film but it’s meant to be great.

Book Lovers — Emily Henry

Yep, I’m a romance bro when the mood strikes!

Just huge amounts of fun. A literary agent and an editor at a publishing who are arch enemies (and happen to be really hot), find themselves spending the summer in the same small town. And what do you know? Her client signs a contract with his publishing house and now they have to work together!

Henry is the queen of easy reading and this is, in my opinion, her best book.

Both characters have complex motivations and the plot doesn’t go exactly where you think it’s going to (within reason, it is a romance novel!).

I particularly love the book industry chat. It’s a great insider’s account of the inner workings of publishing.

If you haven’t read any of Henry’s work, start with this one.

Find out more here

The Blade Itself — Joe Abercrombie.

Joe just makes me laugh… You’ll not find a fantasy series with more fart jokes, I promise you that!

I read this trilogy on my gap year, in a heatwave, in a sixteen person dorm in Munich. It saved my life.

Like McCarthy, there’s not a single hero in site, but unlike McCarthy, you still want them all to win somehow… Even the professional torturer.

Character driven epic fantasy without insane page counts. There’s always a good subversion or twist.

Incidentally, I saw Joe speak in Birmingham recently and he’s even funnier in real life.

If you like this one, he’s got 12 other books that only get better!

Check it out here.

Frontier — Grace Curtis

OKAY I DID 6!

This is one for those of you who want a cosy read. Small stakes sci-fi with lots of humour and charm.

Curtis’ debut was a surprise hit for me last year. Hand sold by the amazing booksellers at blackwells in Oxford. It slapped!

It’s a bit more episodic than most modern fiction, but I like that. Chapters are mostly contained small stories with a macro plot. It makes for easy reading because you can put the book down after each chapter and walk away.

Read it if you don’t want big scale battles, but do want cooky characters getting up to mischief in a climate ravaged future earth.

Find out more here

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What did you think? Have you read any of these? Did you like them? Would you like a non-fiction version?

1. https://mhfaengland.org/mhfa-centre/blog/the-benefits-of-reading-for-self-care/