So. You want to improve your reading level. You currently read only “easy” stories – for example Colleen Hoover. But you want to challenge yourself. You want to read more.
Well, let me help you. I am compiling a guide for you here to help you get more advanced with your reading. I have sorted literature into different levels, and will give you suggestions for each level. This is not an all-encompassing guide, more like a guideline – obviously I don’t know every single author. I will try to stick to authors that are all also available in English, but if one or two sneak in that are not available in English, or your main language, I apologise. I encourage you to seek suggestions outside of this, too. A good place to get good recommendations and not just the same five #BookTok books over and over again are actually newspapers and magazines with a Feuilleton! You can also message me for some tips, or find other book blogs on tumblr. I am sure most are glad to help.
I am not sorting these books by categories like “Children’s books”, “Young adult” or similar, because I find that within those loose categories, books can vary wildly. Instead, I am focusing on complexity, length, necessary existing knowledge and other factors. Without further ado, let me begin!
Level 1: Books that are short, to the point, without complex vocabulary. There usually are no metaphors there, and if there are, you do not necessarily HAVE to dive into them, the story makes sense nonetheless. You do not need to have any pre-existing knowledge to understand them, either. They are also either stand-alones or can be read as stand-alones, so you do not have to commit to a long series.
Such books are:
Most books by Dyanna Wynne Jones, especially her Fantasy novels
Books by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Most books by Leigh Bardugo (although is STRONGLY discourage you from reading the Shadow and Bone trilogy, those books are messy, unimaginative and kinda sexist. She found her literary footing after that.)
Books by Michael Ende
Most books by Erich Kästner (his few excursions into adult literature are more complex and require some previous knowledge about the Weimar Republic)
Books by Alexander Kielland Krag
Books by Walter Moers
Most books by V.E. Schwab
Books by Axie Oh
Books by Naomi Novik
Books by Casey McQuiston
Books by Kai Meyer
Books by Marissa Meyer
Books by T.J. Klune
Level 2: Now we are coming onto books that, while mostly still short, use a bit more complex vocabulary and/or metaphor. So, you might be required to not take everything literally and do a bit of interpretation. Occasionally, you might need to do a quick Wikipedia read to get context for the book. The characters are becoming a bit more complex, too, but often the text itself explains character’s motivations/thoughts directly.
Books that fit that description are for example:
"Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata
“Swimming in the Dark” by Tomasz Jędrowski
“Kim Jiyoung, born 1982” by Cho Nam-Joo
Books by Phillip Pullman, in particular his “Golden Compass” Trilogy
“Iron Widow” by Xiran Jay Zhao
“Fire and Hemlock” by Dyanna Wynne Jones
Books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Books by Celeste Ng
“The last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle
Level 3: Now we are reaching books that use complex vocabulary, maybe you even need to look up a word or two (but this is how you expand your own vocabulary). The sentences are more complex, the stories are constructed in a more complex way (but still usually follow one narrative string), the characters are most of the time nuanced. You will need to pay attention to the subtext and do some interpreting of your own. Some of these books have the labels “classic” attached to them, but don’t let that scare you – in fact, for most classics, you will be able to look up information/interpretations online if you are struggling. We also have some books now that are either parts of a longer series or parts of a bigger canon (not all of them, some are still stand-alones).
Such books are for example:
Books by Agatha Christie
Books by Selma Lagerlöf (although I have to say, she very often uses metaphors, dream-sequences and similar narrative devices)
Books by Terry Pratchett
Andrzej Sapkowski’s “Witcher”Saga
“The Shadow land” by Elizabeth Kostova
Books by Joan Lindsay
“A hero of our time” by Michail Lermontow
“Sauhund” by Lion Christ
Most books/short stories by Nikolai Gogol
Some of Stanislaw Lem’s books, like “The Star Diaries”, “Tales of Pirx the Pilot”
Books by Hanne Ørstavik, particularly the books before “Love”
Books by Gerd Brantenberg
“Revolutionary Road” by Richard Yates
“Carmilla” by Sheridan Le Fanu
The “Sherlock Holmes” Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
Level 4: On this level, the vocabulary is advanced and the sentence structure is complex. The characters are multi-dimensional, complicated and explored on a psychological level.
The books want to say something, and often say it through the use of metaphors. You need to be attentive while reading, maybe even take some notes, if you really want to get to the bottom with your interpretation. Still, the books follow a (mostly) clear plotline and while there are occasionally some “non-realistic” elements in them like Dreams, they are still somewhat grounded in a fictional reality that mostly mirrors our own. Many of these novels are also long.
Jane Austen’s books
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s books
“Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte
“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte
“Agnes Grey” and “The Tennant of Wildfell Hall” by Anne Bronte
Plays by Friedrich Schiller
Plays by Henrik Ibsen
Most books by the Strugatzki brothers
“War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” by Lew Tolstoi
“Dracula” by Bram Stoker
“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
books by Jeannette Winterson
books by Charles Dickens
Short stories by Anton Tschechow
Books by Michail Bulgakow
Level 5: Now we have reached the territory of the truly advanced reader. These books are not simple by any stretch of the word. These novels are not always more complex than the ones on level four vocabularly-wise, but they require you to have pre-existing knowledge of other works of literature (they often make references). You need to pay close attention while reading, perhaps re-read passages multiple times. The structure of these novels is often non-linear and/or experimental. They are mostly not “realistic”, rely heavily on metaphors, symbols and signs within the text. They can be confusing at times. Often, they play with the language and experiment. The meaning of these novels is multi-layered, and interpretations can differ wildly.
Such books are:
“If on a winter’s night a traveler” by Italo Calvino
“The experiment” by the brothers Strugatzki
Almost everything by Karen Blixen (“Out of Africa” is a bit easier, though still very complex and there are many symbols in that novel, too)
Books by Jon Fosse
“The Key” by Junichiro Tanizaki
Books by Osamu Dazai
“Catherine House” by Elisabeth Thomas (okay, I was conflicted where to put this – the vocab is not that difficult, but the structure is very unclear and dream-like and it puts a lot of emphasis on symbols. Maybe it would be good to start your journey to Level 5 novels with this one, if you are not very confident in your reading abilities)
Books by Han Kang
“The futurological congress” by Stanislaw Lem
Books by Günter Grass
“The Man Outside” by Wolfgang Borchert
Books by Slavenka Draculic (specifically her novels, her essays have a different style, obviously)
Books by Sjon
Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe
Books by Vladimir Sorokin
Books by Angela Carter
“Kult” by Ljubko Deresch
Most books by Vladimir Nabokov
Tales by E.T.A. Hoffman
The differing factor between these last two levels often is the STRUCTURE of the novels. I am making this distinction because I have seen that quite a few people struggle with experimentalist/surrealist/non-linear structure.
Others of these stories have a more linear structure, yes, but require you to dig deep beneath the surface to find out the meaning of various symbols in order to interpret the story.
Also, pay attention to the language! Many of these authors, like Nabokov, play around with double-meanings, similar sounding words (homophones) and even more than one language.
I hope this guide helps. Obviously, it is not perfect, but it should give you an idea where to start and where to progress. It is important to have fun while reading, and there is no shame in jumping between the levels. But, you should challenge yourself: You are smart! You can understand difficult things! Yes, it might be hard at first, but precisely because of that you should keep trying. If you never challenge yourself, you will never get better.
I wish you all the best on your reading journey <3
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it's so fun for me every time this appears on my dash because not only did i walk past it irl several times, it's on what is widely considered the busiest bus route in europe
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It's so funny when people are surprised when others have a negative reaction to their posts that are like "we are so blessed to live today 🥹🥹" and spout some bs about how wonderful life is today because oh there's free information on the internet or whatever.
Bitch, the world is very literally burning, people have no money and gas prices are through the roof. Homelessness is on the rise. There's war everywhere. How about you shut the fuck about you privileged cunt. It's nice that you don't have any fucking problems but maybe don't rub that in everyone's faces.
inspired by the zagórski translation of the line "Печорины-сердцееды". Constance Garnett translates it as "lady-killing Petchorins", but Zagórski drops the literary reference entirely and instead makes it something like "hungover heart-eaters". "wyjadać" means to devour, but with a specific twist to it that i struggle to translate otherwise than. to eat out?? and "kacenjamer" is an archaic germanic word for a hangover that can also mean loud, chaotic, yappy noise. inaccurate though it may be, i have to say i enjoy this version tremendously...
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my professor’s take is that mary shelley is feminizing victor throughout the novel, as a way of flipping gender roles and putting a male character through female experiences.
evidence as explained:
victor is creating life. he is putting his health at risk (spends two years with little sleep or socialization) to bring life forth into this world
his illness after he is shocked by the creature coming to life is akin to both ‘hysteria’ and postpartum depression
he pretty much swoons, let’s be honest
henry clerval, a man who has been characterized as manly and heroic, has to chase after damsel-in-distress victor and care for him as he convalesces
afterward, he hides what he did and went through, for fear that others will label him crazy and emotional and not believe him. sound familiar?
Victor in general is more emotional than the other characters and is constantly tempering his reactions to not be seen as irrational
the book does not otherwise have central female characters
Also, Shelley’s mother died in childbirth. It’s interesting, then, that Shelley presents the creation of life as something horrific and damaging. She parallels Victor with her mother.
in conclusion, Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is one of the first examples of mpreg in English literature
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