# When "for fun" books are unexpectedly profound



## Stephen T. Harper (Dec 20, 2010)

Sometimes we read books because we have to, like for school, that turn out to be much more fun than you thought they'd be.

And sometimes you pick up a book expecting fun, escapisim and entertainment, but it turns out to be incredibly edifying, moving, or thought provoking in some way.

I can think of two, right off.  Catch-22, still the second funniest book I've read, it also really puts a lot of the stupidity of the world into such profound relief that you come away with eyes wider open, at a minimum. But yeah, really entertaining too.  And Lord of the Rings, which, when you first read it as kid, for a lot of people turns into much more of spiritual experience than they expected.

What books surprised you with what you took away from it?


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

Unfortunately, you stole mine. =) Lord of the Rings was one of the books I picked up just to give myself a reasonably thick book to read during Jury Duty (this was long before the movies were popular). I had read it as a kid, but didn't get 90% of the big-bang of it. But re-reading it as an adult was a deeply satisfying thing. It was emotional and moving, but still fantasy and magic.

Without a doubt, three of the best books I've ever read. And they were written so long ago, yet hold that same thrill and magic for me.

If that doesn't count, due to the fact that it has been used, I'll go with Robert A. Heinlein's Tunnel in the sky. It was the first "for fun" book I ever read that left me thinking about the political ramifications of technology... something deep and profound for a 14-year-old.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Most of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" books are like that to some degree for me, with _Night Watch_ and _Jingo_ probably being the best examples. Even most of the lighter books in the series have moments of poignancy or insight that make them more than just escapism, even though Pratchett's multiple layers of humor make them excellent as escapism.

Vonnegut's _Slaughterhouse 5_ is one I'd put in a similar category as _Catch 22_: both are books which I read for _pleasure_ if not for fun, but I went into each of them expecting something more than escapism, so their profound impacts were not unexpected for me.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

I had to read _Rebecca_ by Daphne Du Maurier for school when I was in eighth grade. Being a real nerd, I generally enjoyed most of the books I had to read for school, but _Rebecca_ stands out from the pack. Suspenseful, yet written in a poetic, incredibly descriptive style that makes me feel like I'm having a vivid dream.


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## Jay. (Jan 1, 2011)

purplepen79 said:


> I had to read _Rebecca_ by Daphne Du Maurier for school when I was in eighth grade. Being a real nerd, I generally enjoyed most of the books I had to read for school, but _Rebecca_ stands out from the pack. Suspenseful, yet written in a poetic, incredibly descriptive style that makes me feel like I'm having a vivid dream.


Sorry if I'm a little off topic but just wanted to say that I loved this book! I read it several years ago because a once favored band of mine based a song off it.

jay.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

The Hogfather


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## scottnicholson (Jan 31, 2010)

Most of Dr. Seuss


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## Glen Krisch (Dec 21, 2010)

Dan Simmons has a way of working his genius into what other authors would craft into mundane plots.  Song of Kali, Children of the Night, The Terror.


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## TheRiddler (Nov 11, 2010)

Hmm profound to me means a book that I think about, long after ending it. So in no particualr order:

Private Peaceful

First Casualty - Ben Elton. I picked it up expecting another Ben Elton 'comedy' book, but instead we get an insight into life in the trenches.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist - really not what I expected, but thought provoking

5 People you Meet in Heaven - can't recommend this book enough, a bittersweet look at a theory of what heaven might be.

and a qucik shout out for The End of Marking Time - just finished this and the highest compliment I can give it is that I've been unable to start reading another book yet (which is annoying as Wheel of Time is next on my list!). The story sounded promising, but I wans't expecting to be moved or provoked so much - thansk CJ


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## Tom Schreck (Dec 12, 2010)

Is is EXACTLY what I look for (and try to write). Robert B Parker was excellent at working in a social theme to a mystery plot. I don't thin it is that hard to do and makes a book more than merely a cops and robbers tale.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Vonnegut's _Breakfast of Champions_ did it for me. It was assigned reading in high school and after the first page or two, I decided it was hilarious and my teacher was playing with me. Instead of just entertaining me, it showed me that the world is much more interesting than I previously thought, there are MANY more ways of looking at that world than I thought and that humor can be a powerful tool when used well.

'Twas a lot for a 16yo to grok all at once.


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## Joel Arnold (May 3, 2010)

Geoffrey said:


> Vonnegut's _Breakfast of Champions_ did it for me.


I read this at about age 16, too, and started it because it seemed hilarious - and like you, it also opened up the world for me a bit.


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## Stephen T. Harper (Dec 20, 2010)

Great responses.  More books to read now.  I've been hearing about "The End of Marking Time" a lot, too.  That's an Independent author, yes?

I think Scott Nicholson hit the spirit of the question on the head with "Dr. Seuss."  The Lorax, Yertle the Turtle...  Well said, sir.


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## sandynight (Sep 26, 2010)

Gone With The Wind 
To Kill A Mockingbird


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## AnnetteL (Jul 14, 2010)

Most of mine have already been mentioned (Catch-22, Mockingbird). I was surprised to find myself loving East of Eden. On Seuss, one of my favorites since childhood has been Gertrude McFuzz.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet--LM Montgomery's Rilla of Ingleside. It's the last of her Anne books, really about her daughter and what life was like on the home front during WWI. Started out as a book I liked for the humor and other fun parts. Now I love it for the deeper lessons.


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## caseyf6 (Mar 28, 2010)

My daughter won a preview copy of "You Know When the Men Are Gone" by Siobhan Fallon.  She saw it and thought "hey, Army wife...Mom's an Army wife...why not?" and gave it to me.  I read it out of curiosity and for fun, and it has immensely touched me and made me think.

It comes out January 20-- the author has a book signing locally on the 25 (I hope she doesn't feel like I'm stalking her).


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## Stephen T. Harper (Dec 20, 2010)

Annette said, "I was surprised to find myself loving East of Eden." 

This is an awesome book.  One of my best reading experiences was when I was teaching creative writing to high school students as an elective.  We finished something early and had time left over in the semester, so I asked them what they would like to study.  A lot of them had taken my English lit class the year before and loved "The Grapes of Wrath."  So I was excited when they asked for more Steinbeck.  I had never read East of Eden, so we started it blind as a group.  Long story short, an awesome book, and a great teaching and learning experience (that went both ways.)  

Also, if you saw the movie with James Dean - it has almost nothing to do with the book.  The film covers the last hundred pages of an 8 or 900 page epic.  Great, great book.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Joel Arnold said:


> I read this at about age 16, too, and started it because it seemed hilarious - and like you, it also opened up the world for me a bit.


The strange thing with this was that I'd been an avid reader forever but I never noticed I never even tried to read anything slightly outré. (this was in 1982) I had vaguely heard of Kerouac but never thought I'd care to read him. I never even heard of Williams S. Burroughs ... even musically I hadn't yet discovered David Bowie, Talking Heads, B-52's, Sex Pistols, etc ...

Vonnegut was one of the major springboards that started me looking around outside my mainstream, white bread Mid-Western farm town life. I already knew I didn't want that and there had to be more but I had no idea where to look. Kurt Vonnegut helped me live up to my full cynical, Gen-X slacker potential


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## Thalia the Muse (Jan 20, 2010)

> Kurt Vonnegut helped me live up to my full cynical, Gen-X slacker potential


LOL! Douglas Coupland did this for me.


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## ejkolodziej (Oct 28, 2010)

I really got into henry james when i was in college. I thought the stories and the way they were written were so unique. 

Liz ^_^
www.vampyrekisses.com


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## TheRiddler (Nov 11, 2010)

STH said:


> Great responses. More books to read now. I've been hearing about "The End of Marking Time" a lot, too. That's an Independent author, yes?


It's by CJ Wells, who populates these very boards.

It's been described (sadly not by me) as 1984 meets Prison Break - if that helps at all


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## Capri142 (Sep 25, 2009)

To Kill a Mocking Bird....I expected a good read going  into the book....the book changed the way I think about people 

 Of Mice and Men....same as above


  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand....I may niot agree with all of her politics but there has not been a book that has made me think about my own political philosophy as hard or as long as that one did/has.


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

Terry Pratchett, most definitely. I picked up _Hogfather _ merely for fun, and I was hooked. (The only one of his books I can't stand is _Night Watch_.) Another book that had an unexpected effect on me was Max Hastings' _Armageddon_. I started reading it only because I was a bit bored and wanted to look at some pictures (it is my husband's book). It lead me to a long journey of discovery, and not only it changed the way I look at some parts of the history but it served as painful reminder how lttle I've ever tried to question many things I have been thought - although I should have known better.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

anguabell said:


> Terry Pratchett, most definitely. I picked up _Hogfather _ merely for fun, and I was hooked. (The only one of his books I can't stand is _Night Watch_.) Another book that had an unexpected effect on me was Max Hastings' _Armageddon_. I started reading it only because I was a bit bored and wanted to look at some pictures (it is my husband's book). It lead me to a long journey of discovery, and not only it changed the way I look at some parts of the history but it served as painful reminder how lttle I've ever tried to question many things I have been thought - although I should have known better.


Which just goes to show, there's no accounting for taste: _Night Watch_ is probably my favorite of the 3 dozen or so Discworld books.


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## Tip Toeing (Jan 15, 2011)

I like authors who tilt the world just enough that I view it differently. Kurt Vonnegut did this for me in high school and shortly after, but I read his books in such quick succession that they sort of ran into each other. Still _Cat's Cradle_ sticks out for me.

As an adult, I've been drawn to memoirs and history. _Wild Swans_ by Jung Chang fed that hunger but has also stuck with me so strongly that it's vividly come to mind in various social and political arenas. It's one of my all-time favorite books.


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## Tom Schreck (Dec 12, 2010)

I LOVE your expression "tilt the world"...I'm stealing it.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

AnnetteL said:


> One that hasn't been mentioned yet--LM Montgomery's Rilla of Ingleside. It's the last of her Anne books, really about her daughter and what life was like on the home front during WWI. Started out as a book I liked for the humor and other fun parts. Now I love it for the deeper lessons.


This has to be my favorite of all LM Montgomery's books. I love all the Anne and Emily books, but there's something so compelling about Rilla's voice and how she grows from a silly girl to a mature young woman during the four years of WWI--it's very nicely done.

@Jay~
That sounds like an interesting song!


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## Five String (Jun 6, 2010)

I'd like to turn this around to books I thought were supposed to be profound (like, boring, a chore to read, I don't really understand them, "classics" etc.) that ended up being real page turners. 

The first was Far From the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy. I couldn't put it down. I ripped through it in no time, the way I'd read a sci-fi action adventure type thing. I'm not sure how profound it was, either. Just a really good story about real people that drew me right in.

The second is going to provoke some reactions, as it always does when it comes up on these boards, Wuthering Heights. Granted, some of the characters were kind of psychotic, and if they were real people I'd have no sympathy for them. Heathcliff especially. I never figured out how he got the rap as a romantic ladies man. But again, the book was a total page turner. Profound, too, I guess.

Along the lines of "for fun" books that are unexpectedly profound, the last book of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Last Olympian. Really intense, really moving, really sad, really uplifting. I think in a hundred years people are going to look at Riordan like they look at Dickens now. He's really got it going on.


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## Thalia the Muse (Jan 20, 2010)

I agree that Wuthering Heights is quite the page-turner! It's a very vivid book. I also think that Moby-Dick is a cracking adventure story. Cannibals with filed teeth! Whales attacking ships! Floating around on a coffin! And Vanity Fair is funny and scandalous and highly entertaining.


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## Stephen T. Harper (Dec 20, 2010)

Five String said:


> Along the lines of "for fun" books that are unexpectedly profound, the last book of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Last Olympian. Really intense, really moving, really sad, really uplifting. I think in a hundred years people are going to look at Riordan like they look at Dickens now. He's really got it going on.


That's very interesting. I've never read those books (I suppose for the exact reason why I started this thread ). But I've never heard anyone say something like that about them, either. Worth looking into. Thanks.


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## AJB (Jul 9, 2010)

A friend bought me _The Mouse and his Child_ by Russell Hoban. I was surprised by the gift, as it's clearly a children's book. Children definitely enjoy it (mine did), but it's got some really profound messages for adults, too. I loved it.

Amanda


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

I thought the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was pretty profound, with it's funhouse mirror look at life. One part that stands out is the Babel Fish, which by eliminating all barriers to communication caused more and bloodier wars than anything in the history of the universe.

The Discworld books are highly profound. I have to agree that Night Watch was among my favorites of the series. Pratchett does a materful job of mingling humor with seriousness. With some authors, this can be jarring, but Pratchett makes it work. My least favorite books of the series are the wizard books, but they are all good books.


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## Five String (Jun 6, 2010)

As for Far From the Madding Crowd and Wuthering Heights being page-turners, it's amazing how much more refreshing a book is when you are not forced to read it or to find and accept someone else's interpretation of it.

Not to ignore the last post, but I find YA books generally fall into the category of this thread. I look at what my daughter reads and I really wish they had stuff like that when I was her age. The other series I wanted to mention is Chronicles of the Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver. I thought it was going to be a run of the mill kid's eye view of history type thing. The books are very rich, and very dark.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

Has anyone mentioned Lois Lowry's Giver? The term YA made me think of it. Deceptively simple prose about a futuristic society that seems perfect . . . at first.


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## CNDudley (May 14, 2010)

Tip Toeing said:


> As an adult, I've been drawn to memoirs and history. _Wild Swans_ by Jung Chang fed that hunger but has also stuck with me so strongly that it's vividly come to mind in various social and political arenas. It's one of my all-time favorite books.


Wow, Tip Toeing. I loved WILD SWANS but really wouldn't put it in the "for fun" category. More like being run over by a semi, emotionally. Yeesh. You must also like Zhang Yi Mou movies? TO LIVE just about did me in.


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## TheRiddler (Nov 11, 2010)

Five String said:


> I'd like to turn this around to books I thought were supposed to be profound (like, boring, a chore to read, I don't really understand them, "classics" etc.) that ended up being real page turners.


The Color Purple


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## Stephen T. Harper (Dec 20, 2010)

Five String said:


> I'd like to turn this around to books I thought were supposed to be profound (like, boring, a chore to read, I don't really understand them, "classics" etc.) that ended up being real page turners.
> 
> East of Eden. Very long, a lot to think about, but no chore to read.


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## Stephen T. Harper (Dec 20, 2010)

KateDanley said:


> I had that experience with Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book. I picked it up, just for a fun read, but found myself by the final page profoundly moved.


Gaiman is a terrific storyteller. I remember reading his Sandman graphic novel a few years ago and being very surprised when the tears came. The chapter about Sandman's sister, Death. It was pretty profound. And unexpectedly so.


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