3 books if you only read scifi & fantasy, and 3 other books you should read anyway

POSTAL ADDRESS (if you're kind enough to send me a letter or something!)

Tim Hickson
PO Box 69062
Lincoln, 7608
Canterbury, New Zealand

Script by meeeeeeeee
Video edited by Lalit Kumar

The artist who design my cover photo:

Stay nerdy!
Tim

[HelloFutureMe]

Absolutely fascinated with discovering this thing called 'other genres'. What was the best book you read this year?
~ Tim

[jelenajanjic]

The most horrifying thing is, I knew the title of every book Tim mentioned in his booktok slander just by those descriptions
That's the true horror

[mentanoia]

i will allow your booktok slander in the intro only because it’s true

[wasx]

As a Korean I really appreciate all the Eastern recommendations! My family doesn’t think of Japan too highly so I’ve been trying to branch out into Japanese literature to bridge that gap. Sorry for how long this comment will end up being, but these are all works that I feel helped me become a better writer so I hope it’ll be somewhat useful!

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai is a really good, depressing read in the same vein as Crime and Punishment, with incredible character work and a style that’s simultaneously detached and personal. I also read a lot of Murakami this year, and Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is really good at weaving together multiple plot threads, so it’s definitely something I’d recommend reading to become a better writer. If you want short stories, I really enjoyed Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories, which is an anthology of Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s work, and it’s really incredible how he’s able to focus in on just one moment; “In a Bamboo Grove” is a fun, witty story of one murder told by multiple characters and “The Life of a Stupid Man” is a depressing story of one man’s life told through multiple moments. He’s a master of voice, if nothing else.

As for Western work, I really think Neal Shusterman’s Unwind and Scythe series were the best I read this year. They’re a more grounded kind of SciFi that takes a hot real world topic like abortion or euthanasia and turns it into something fantastical to explore, and the character work is just stellar.

[pwykersotz]

I think your joke of raskalnikov and the multiverse of sadness might be the first laughs that story has ever generated. Well done!

[Wingedmagician]

I’m so glad I took your recommendation on Children Of Time. Wow. That was one of the best audiobook experiences I’ve ever had thanks.

[rhythm_ux]

If you hit a million, I'd love to see you release a collection of your short stories and poetry paired with illustrations from artists that you really love working with.

[UdyKumra]

Station Eleven is definitely my novel of the year. It’s basically if a literary fiction author wrote in the sci-fi apocalypse genre, and it was BRILLIANT.

[zam]

I find myself needing a base of YouTube authors that are basically good humans

You definitely belong on that short list
Thank you and your cat boss

[pranavbhagwat]

Loved the non Western book recs! For a million subscribers, I wonder if you could do:
1. A short story handoff, this is common in comics where using the same characters, a writer writes a story, then passes it to the next writer who writes the next story leading from the previous one and so on till it ends.
I think this could be an interesting challenge for you and your writer friends/peers on Youtube! To be clear, the output could be a single story or a collection of interconnected short stories.

2. Since you've started interviewing authors, maybe you could interview one(or more!) of the authors you mentioned in this video? I think it'll be fascinating to see!

As always, great content, I look forward to see you in the future! :D

[Dominic-Noble]

"Just as many dicks as wings" killed me dead 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[bolter_rules]

Gideon the ninth! Tamsyn Muir is my new favourite author, and she's out of New Zealand. "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" how could you not read it after that tag line.

[passthecrablegs]

My best book this year was Project Hail Mary, hands down. I’m absolutely obsessed with Andy Weir’s ability to combine real-life science, funny, snarky characters, and an inherent optimism in humanity’s potential, to make compelling, seat-grippingly tense stories.

[levydeat]

Here’s a short story that literally changed me and I read it 6 years ago and still think about it all the time: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

[wondersteve]

Banks is a real treasure that can take quite a bit of wrapping to get your head around sometimes, but an absolute favorite of mine. If you need to be sold on at least trying his work, look up the names the ships give themselves in his stories.

[gabbzjohansson]

Thank you so much for these reading recommendations! ❤
I always get so happy whenever I hear you recommend books. Cause I really want to expand my writing and take it to a new level.
So this video was like an early Christmas present to me.
Thank you again 🙏

[axelpettersson]

The best thing I read this year was Children of Time as recommended by you. It was my second ever sci-fi, the first being Dune.

[ababblingbrooke]

Listening to you talk about writing really reinvigorates my desire to write, when it otherwise feels burnt out. I might actually finish the story I'm working on because I have your videos to get me excited about writing ^u^. Thank you for being you, and making content, and oh my gosh preemptive congrats on one million subs! 🙏❤

[TheOmaga]

Congrats on getting your short stories published!!! That's awesome and you got so many out there! It might not be what you wanted but it's incredible progress and I'm off to go read them.
I've been around since your first OSP collab but I've stuck around because of the quality of these videos. You've grown so much in your analysis of stories and yes I'm an internet fan but I think that your dedication and effort will speak for itself in your writing too. But I really respect your efforts to succeed on your talent and hardwork than just your channel's popularity. I don't think that will be your case either way. When you really love something you end up being good at it because you are willing to put the time and effort to become good at it, and I think that's what you will do 🙂

Love the book recs. Time to update my book list 😀

[e.matthews]

Congratulations on five published stories Tim!! That's fantastic and we're all delighted at your newfound and well-earned confidence!!
I'm rereading Malazan this year and finishing Bakker's Second Apocalypse series (holy moly what an incredible ride) but must get into the Culture soon!!