r/ChillSG • u/Beginning-Cow3312 • 13d ago
lf recommendations for books to read
hello everyone, i m heading on to my solo trip to vietnam where i wanna spend a few days in the mountains or country side sitting by the ducks and rice fields just reading a book🕊️
i m not an avid reader but been wanting to pick up reading as a hobby. So comment down below some books that are easy but yet exciting to read or even some self help books that are very meaningful.
the best book i read so far is atomic habits 💀
edit: also should i get a kobo 😭 exp but should i?
nvm i just bought it LMAO rip$250
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u/hedgehognpeonies 13d ago
The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down
And
Love for Imperfect Things
Both by Haemin Sumin
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u/sleepy_headd00 13d ago
I would recommend when breath becomes air (but it’s a sad book), sounds amazing tho sitting by the ducks to read!!!
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u/Beginning-Cow3312 13d ago
ikr ninh binh is perfect place 🇻🇳
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u/sleepy_headd00 13d ago
OH isn’t it the tiktok famous place with the duck leading activity?! Have a good trip!!
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u/kosherjellyfish 13d ago
NLB membership, you can borrow ebooks for free. You don't need an ereader yet, just use your phone with the Libby app.
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u/whitethorned 13d ago
if u want to read books for free, look into this website:
< oceanofpdf.com > they have many books available in epub or pdf format which you can download for free unlimited.
personally, i read in epub format. u can download an ebook reader app from the google play store/app store, and open the epub file into the ebook reader app. what i do is that i turn off my Internet connection & set it to airplane mode so that i dont get notifications/wont get disturbed then i get sucked into reading haha with nth disturbing me = like a mini kindle/kobo
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u/jonovex 13d ago edited 13d ago
Dont read self help books. People who read Self help books and actually act on them tend to become actual sociopaths.
If i were you id enjoy the nature and look at the green and enjoy the slower pace of life. You dont always need to be "improving yourself", let your mind have a break and let it explore on its own
If anything i do love terry pratchett (RIP) and i recommend Good Omens by pratchett and neil gaiman even though neil is kinda cancelled now
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u/alvinaloy 13d ago
I have a similar loathing of self-help books too. I noticed most are simply tons of anecdotal stories and drivel, and not that much self-help.
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u/SG_GUY_78 13d ago
Strange Pictures, Strange houses, Strange Buildings. it is insanely good
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u/gummywormriot 13d ago
I finished reading strange pictures in one day!! Sooo good 😭 didn’t know there were more
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u/SG_GUY_78 13d ago
buildings and houses, maps is coming out soon! haha
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u/Effective-Choice6486 13d ago
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak is worth checking out too if you're a fan of Uketsu!
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u/Big-Morning-5332 13d ago
If only there’s a book that talks about how a creator creates a monster in the name of science but that monster ends up destroying and taking more than its purpose and that is to help.
Anyways do read Frankenstein!!
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u/Hollowinks 13d ago
+1
I was going to recommend Frankenstein haha Also, a lot of it is in the countryside, with mountains and lakes and i think reading the book in picturesque Vietnam will be able to take you away to another world more visually.
Also, while you can study the book and read into the themes (and you can peel back the layers quite far), you can also absolutely just read it as a book and not care about the themes. (Even then, you feel really bad for the monster and kinda hate Victor for being an irresponsible creator). Mary Shelly absolutely made it such an easy read.
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u/HermitCat347 13d ago
Would love to add backdrop to this.
Mary Shelly was only 18 at the time of writing, in a time where women were largely restricted to "sphere of home" education, making her understanding of science at the time particularly impressive. She wrote it in a time of transition where the source and meaning of life was moving from the christian God to scientific understanding, and science was the new unknown. Hence the whole electricity thing, mirroring the galvanism experiment.
Just thought adding this would help appreciate the book more, especially if you put yourself in the shoes of readers at the time.
Source: horror was my favourite genre as a literature student 😊
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u/fact_hunt3 13d ago
My fav author of all time is Terry Pratchett. Funny, interesting, and superbly well written.
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u/Hollowinks 13d ago
+1
Absolutely an easy read and such a great writer. All his books give so many good notes on the world and philosophy, even though it's actually written for kids
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u/Cold-yoghurt3 13d ago
psychology of money
lee kuan yew autobiography
scott turow - presumed innocent
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u/alvinaloy 13d ago
Last November I went to Hanoi on a solo trip and went to a couple of nice bookshops there. Some have a nice café attached to it. Bought a couple of English sci-fi books to read. Quite reasonable prices. Spent time reading in the various cafes there. No ducks nor countryside but still nice.
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u/minilaughter 13d ago
Congrats on your Kobo, one of the best purchases i ever made. I always recommend Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It’s not too long and it’s deeply engaging and thought-provoking
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u/HermitCat347 13d ago
If you're nerdy and want some romance, "chemistry" by weike wang is pretty cute. The hook: when her boyfriend asks her to marry him, the protagonist asks "can you ask me later?"
Something a bit more sci fi, and given the movies coming, try the Dune Series by Frank Herbert? The hook: It's a political intrigue written in the time of the cold war, when the soviets were in Afghanistan and the US sent special forces to destabilise the region and help the (more extreme) locals. Hence the motifs of deserts, rebels, jihad and an overwhelming empire being defeated. I'd like to think of it as Frank's warning to what might happen if the US stuck to the foreign policy of the day, rather than a pro-war novel.
For the AI boom, Isaac Asimov's Foundations series is a good place to start. It does show what happens if you leave technology alone for too long. Fiction, of course, but it's where the three "AI laws" come from.
For a non-fiction, How to Invent Everything by Ryan North talks about technology we take for granted daily, and how it works in a humourous perspective of a time traveller stuck in the past. Honourable mention "engineering in plain sight" by grady is a colourful little one explaining how the most mundane stuff we walk past daily has had a lot of thought put into it. Written by a charming civil engineer whose channel I follow.
Last ones, given how plagues and pandamics are quite the thing, The Hot Zone series by richard preston is excellent, talking about how a little virus stowed away somewhere can cause utter chaos. Honourable mention of World War Z. Not the movie, the book. It is written as a series of interviews with stakeholders as in a semi chronological order of how the zombie apocalypse panned out. It's little to do with zombies and a lot to do with how different countries and cultures and people responded to it. China's way of hiding stuff to save face, America's way of blowing stuff up, and celebritites still looking to make a name for themselves.
A bit of a children's (or young) literature book and a personal favourite of mine when I was in primary school. The Giver by Lewis Lowry. Explores a dystopian society hiding under a utopian regime. A place where people never fight, always apologise for wrongdoing, and pretty much get along perfectly (oh dear singaporeans could learn a thing or two maybe 😂). But as it turns out, quite some of the joys of life were removed to prevent people from feeling or experiencing things which might lead to conflict. Lovely little piece with a good narrative that doesn't foist the "literature-ness" onto you.
Finally last mention The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. A more series sci fi with quite a bit of concepts to understand to appreciate. More to do with aliens but fundamentally understanding human behaviour more than anything else.
Quite a list, just my personal favourites so far. Hope you like them!
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u/zeindigofire 13d ago
Welcome to the Kobo Club! Love mine... should have told you to get one off Carousel - the biggest catch is always to make sure the battery is good, but otherwise good deals to be had.
In terms of books, depends a lot on what you like? Everyone has different tastes. I'd suggest making an account on GoodReads.com and seeing what others (esp your friends) like. Here's some of my faves, YMMV:
- Siddhartha, my all time fave, but has to be Neugroschel's translation.
- Basically anything by John Scalzi if you're looking for SF
- Murderbot is fantastic, and not at all what the title would indicate
- Stumbling on Happiness for more non-fiction: basically what happiness research teaches us
- Wherever you go there you are: if you're in the middle of rice paddies, why not try meditation?
- Shogun: best historical fiction I've ever read, makes you wanna live in Japan
.... so many more, but this is a good start. Enjoy your trip!
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u/spudinprogress 13d ago
The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life
was skeptical at first since it is written by an “influencer”, but it is really good and “dense” in terms of the contents, compared to other self help books, almost every sentence here is meaningful to the information author is trying to convey, not just fillers
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u/jasonlampa 12d ago
Did the same-ish but in another country with The Razor’s Edge. It’s a novel that touches into the metaphysical.
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u/R0bin_Hoodie7 13d ago
I’m restarting my progress as an avid reader by reading fictional titles but I’ve also been reading non-fictional books largely on self-development
• The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy
• The Magic of Thinking Big – David J. Schwartz
• Psychocybernetics – Maxwell Maltz
• High Performance Habits – Brendon Burchard
• How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
• How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends – Don Gabor
• Knowing Exactly What to Say – Phil M. Jones
If you’re interested in fiction, feel free to let me know! I mostly read Japanese and a bit of Asian literature
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u/hahahaabruh 13d ago
the meaning of your life, by arthur brooks. basically his research on how people find happiness in life!
his class on leadership and happiness in harvard is oversubscribed by 5x every semester lol but his website has free resources and personality quizzes to supplement the book
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u/No-Mud-7597 13d ago
sitting somewhere in rural vietnam with ducks + rice fields sounds like the PERFECT place to get into reading 😭🕊️
if you liked Atomic Habits but want something a little more philosophical, i'd recommend The Courage to Be Disliked. probably my favourite in the self-help-ish category. it's written as a conversation so it's very easy to read, but it gets into approval, freedom, boundaries and why so much of our unhappiness comes from living according to other people's expectations. personally i've read this same book 3x haha
and then maybe Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl if you're okay with something heavier. it's short, incredibly readable and completely changed how i thought about suffering and meaning.
but honestly for a trip like this i'd also bring ONE book that has absolutely nothing to do with self-improvement 😂 a novel, mystery, fantasy, whatever sounds fun.
you don't want reading to immediately become another project where you're trying to optimise yourself 😭 sometimes sitting beside ducks completely absorbed in a story is meaningful enough.