I’ve seen this going round the blogs and thought I’d do an adapted version for book lovers. I’m anxious right now, and I imagine a lot of you are too. So I’ve focused on comforting or cathartic books and interactive fiction recommends to help people relax and unwind.
5 Comfort Reads
- Soulless by Gail Carriger. A brisk, no nonsense young woman navigates a Victorian London populated by the supernatural set, as an octopus themed secret society plots in the shadows…
- Close Encounters of the Furred Kind by Tom Cox. A cosy, adorable non fiction book about a man and his four cats, moving to Devon. Sweet, funny and poignant.
- One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters. Historical detective fiction with the cheerful, practical Cadfael, a monk and former crusader, out to solve the mystery, save the girl, and get back to his herbs.
- The Thrift Book by India Knight. A beautifully illustrated book detailing how to be greener and thriftier, written by a self aware and funny author who pokes fun at her own wealth and privilege.
- Threshold by Ursula le Guin. A beautiful coming of age story in a fantasy framework, featuring a fierce woman with an abusive stepfather and a gentle man with a hectoring smother. (Also known as The Beginning Place).
5 Apocalyptic Reads
- The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben H Winters. A charming yet dark police procedural set in a world where the asteroid Maia is going to hit Earth in six months time…
- The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham. An apocalyptic sci-fi with an environmental twist, as invading aliens begin melting the polar ice caps to flood us out…
- The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula le Guin. An unassuming man on an overpopulated Earth is using drugs to prevent himself from ‘dreaming real’. A doctor begins manipulating him to improve their world, with unintended consequences…
- Dr Bloodmoney by Philip K Dick. A 1965 sci-fi classic charting a world post nuclear apocalypse, with an ambitious travelling salesman, malevolent psychic and guilty professor converging…
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Set in a dystopic future where the world is ravaged by lack of resources, and most people exist in the virtual world of Oasis…
5 Interactive Fiction
- Some Distant Memory by Galvanic Games. In a world devastated by ecological disaster, you play a professor desperately searching for resources to save her colony.
- The Mask of the Plague Doctor by Choice of Games. You play a doctor, sent to the quarantined town of Thornback Hollow, tasked with ending the virulent Waking Death plague. (I appreciate this may not be to everyone’s taste right now, but I found it very cathartic).
- What Remains of Edith Finch by Giant Sparrow. As Edith, you explore the ancient and labyrinthine Finch house, and learn more about the supposed curse haunting this tragic family.
- A Study in Steampunk: Choice by Gaslight by Hosted Games. One of the finest I’ve ever played. A delicious mixture of Sherlock, steampunk, supernatural and political elements.
- Fallen London by Failbetter Games. A free browser game based on cards where you play a character an alternative Victorian London with gothic overtones.
What are you reading to relax right now?
