People who claim that “print is dead” have never experienced the joy of reading a book during a rainy day. With the stormy season well underway, snuggling with a book under gloomy skies proves a more relaxing pastime than slogging through floods.
Of course, picking a book for a rainy day is just as fun. However, with a plethora of books available, grabbing just one (and the perfect one, at that) is torture. Who wants to read a 1,000-page novel for just one day? You can’t just pick any book.
To help you decide, here are a bunch of suggestions you can fiddle through during a rainy day:
And Then There Were None
Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery
While Arthur Conan Doyle is the detective story king, Agatha Christie is unabashedly the queen. Her short but sweet novels are both accessible and genre-defining. While the former had Sherlock Holmes, Christie’s claims to fame were the soft-spoken Hercule Poirot and the dainty Miss Marple. Aside from Poirot and Marple, Christie’s And Then There Were None remains one of the most popular standalone novels in the mystery genre.
Invited by a mysterious benefactor, ten people find themselves stuck in a manor isolated off the coast of England. One by one, each person is killed through suspicious circumstances. Pressed for time, they have to find out which one among their numbers is the deadly killer.
But the hunt isn’t easy. As the investigation continues, they discover that every person in the party isn’t as clean as they purport to be.
Pet Sematary
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Horror
Gloomy nights aren’t exclusive to detectives. Sometimes, the creatures of the night want to play, too. Do you remember those dark blackout nights when you were a kid? The only way to entertain yourself was to tell ghost stories in the dark. Reminiscent of those times, the horror genre brings a new kind of thrill for those who prefer tense rainy days over relaxing ones. As always, Stephen King is the undisputed ruler of the genre.
Pet Sematary is one of the creepiest short entries in King’s vast library. Moving into their new home in Maine, the Creed family tries to adapt to the new environment. Neighbored to a friendly old couple, life was great. However, when they discover that their house is right beside an old Indian burial ground, things get eerie. Curiously named the Pet Sematary, the ground holds a terrible power that threatens to wake up when the Creed’s family cat dies.
Sputnik Sweetheart
Author: Haruki Murakami
Genre: Literary fiction
Rain can bring the most somber of moods. The gloomy dark can easily have us contemplating our own existence in the grand scheme of things. Rather than running away from it, facing it head-on brings the most profound realizations. Through magical realism, Haruki Murakami can eke out the most heart-wrenching weird tales that grip from page one.
Similar to Murakami’s more popular Norwegian Wood and 1Q84, Sputnik Sweetheart is a love triangle wrapped in a magical detective story. K falls in love unrequitedly with his classmate Sumire, an aspiring writer. However, Sumire is in love with another older, better-at-everything woman, Miu. Soon, K contemplates confessing his own love for Sumire. Before that could happen, a distressed Miu calls from Greece with troubling news that Sumire has disappeared.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Genre: History
Being stuck at home on a rainy day also affords you the opportunity to learn more about this world. Our history as a species can enthrall just as much as your everyday paperback thriller. Offering stories from ancient times to current affairs, there’s always a particular flavor of history for everyone.
Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens is a sweeping tale from the beginning of our species to what we are today. More than just simple storytelling, Harari asks why. Why do we believe in different religions? Why did the Old World triumph over the New World? Why does racism and slavery exist? Inspired by numerous disciplines, Sapiens provides the most concise history of humankind from day one.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Author: Mark Manson
Genre: Self-help
Some people use rainy off-days to catch up on their backlog of entertainment. Meanwhile, some use the day to improve themselves. If you’re one of the latter, why not go for a self-help book? Designed to be widely accessible, the self-help genre puts out books you can binge-read in a single sitting. Often, even a single book can help you get a step up in life, correct past mistakes, and feel better about yourself.
Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is a counterintuitive take on the genre. Whereas other books sing platitudes, Mark Manson tells you to just not care. Despite its bombastic title, the book isn’t just a provocateur. Its teachings draw heavily from Stoic and existentialist philosophy. Ultimately, Manson teaches you that some things just aren’t worth caring about.
Autumn
Author: Karl Ove Knausgaard
Genre: Memoir
Sometimes, sweeping tales of history are just too much for one off-day. Opposite these towering accounts, the memoir genre puts the spotlight on individuals who want to share their side of the story. Compared to textbook history, memoirs are deeply personal. Sometimes, they don’t even have to be about anything. Just having that company on a rainy day is enough to stave off the gloomy loneliness.
Karl Ove Knausgaard is a master of the biographical work. His magnum opus, the My Struggle series, shines a bright light on an ordinary life akin to Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Apart from his multi-volume epic, Autumn starts off Knausgaard’s four-volume love letter to his unborn daughter. Composed of short entries written every day over the span of three months, Knausgaard intimately details everyday objects—apples, wasps, the sun—just as how he wants to show them to his daughter when she is born.
