18 books like How to Do Nothing

What to read after How to Do Nothing — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison · 1970 · ★ 4.1 · 195p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Each night Pecola prayed for blue eyes. In her eleven years, no one had ever noticed Pecola. But with blue eyes, she thought, everything would be different. She would be so pretty that her parents would stop fighting. Her father would stop drinking. Her brother would stop running away. If only she could be beautiful. If only people would look at her. When someone finally did, it was her father,… Shares: Community pick

Mystic river Dennis Lehane · 2001 · ★ 4.2 · 496p · ≈ 16h · Moderate When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened -- something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to… Shares: Community pick

Prayers for rain Dennis Lehane · 1999 · ★ 4.1 · 478p · ≈ 15h · Moderate The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane delivers a shattering tale of evil, depravity, and justice that captures the dark realism of Boston’s gritty blue-collar streets.Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie wants to know why a former client, a perky woman in love with life, could, within six months, jump naked from a Boston landmark -- the final fall in a spiral of self-destruction. What he finds… Shares: Community pick

Red Dragon Thomas Harris · 1981 · ★ 4.1 · 415p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Red Dragon is a novel by American author Thomas Harris, first published in 1981. The plot follows former FBI profiler Will Graham, who comes out of retirement to find and apprehend an enigmatic serial-killer nicknamed "The Tooth Fairy". The novel introduced the character Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial-killer, whom Graham reluctantly turns to for advice and… Shares: Community pick

Wonderful adventures of Mrs. Seacole in many lands Mary Seacole · 1857 · 128p · ≈ 4h · Challenging Jamaican woman whose fame rivaled Florence Nightingale’s during the Crimean War. Seacole traveled widely before arriving in London, where her offer to volunteer as a nurse in the war was met with racism and refusal. Undaunted, she set out independently to the Crimea, where she acted as doctor and “mother” to wounded soldiers while running her business, the “British Hotel. ” Told with energy,… Shares: Community pick

Presumed Innocent Scott Turow · 1987 · ★ 4.0 · 431p · ≈ 14h · Moderate The novel that launched Turow's career as one of America's pre-eminent thriller writers tells the story of Rusty Sabicch, chief deputy prosecutor in a large Midwestern city. With three weeks to go in his boss' re-election campaign, a member of Rusty's staff is found murdered; he is charged with finding the killer, until his boss loses and, incredibly, Rusty finds himself accused of the murder. Shares: Community pick

The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst · 2004 · ★ 3.8 · 501p · ≈ 16h · Moderate It is the summer of 1983, and twenty-year-old Nick Guest has moved into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby--whom Nick had idolized at Oxford--and Catherine, highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions, who becomes both a friend to Nick and his uneasy… Shares: Community pick

The tenth muse Herbert Edward Read · 1957 · 330p · ≈ 11h · Moderate This book, first published in 1957, is a collection of Herbert Read’s essays on various topics. The essays explore many different subjects and themes, including art, literature, religion and philosophy. This title will be of interest to a variety of readers. Shares: Arts, Art, Essays

Sozialgeschichte der Kunst und Literatur Arnold Hauser · 1951 · ★ 3.8 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate First published in 1951 as Socialgeschichte der Kunst und Literatur, Arnold Hauser's comprehensive work explores the interaction between art and society. Through the detailing of social and historical movements Hauser provides insight into the origins of visual art. Shares: Arts, Art, Philosophy, Psychology

Kant; a collection of critical essays Robert Paul Wolff · 1967 · ★ 3.5 · 415p · ≈ 13h · Moderate This book analyses and explains the central passage of Kant's philosophy, the "Transcendental Analytic" of the Critique of Pure Reason. It proceeds in the manner of a textual commentary, discussing and explaining each section of the Analytic in turn. The purpose, however, is not merely to comment chapter by chapter on what Kant has written, but rather to reorganise and interpret his argument so… Shares: Essays, Philosophy

Flow Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi · 1990 · ★ 4.0 · 308p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be… Shares: Attention, Psychology

The idea of nature R. G. Collingwood · 1800 · 183p · ≈ 6h · Challenging The book propounds Collingwood's theory of philosophical method applied to the problem of the philosophy of nature. The book is divided into four major sections: Introduction, Greek Cosmology, The Renaissance View of Nature, and the Modern View of Nature. Shares: Nature, Philosophy

The Seven Lamps of Architecture John Ruskin · 1800 · ★ 3.8 · 206p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Beauty, life, memory, obedience, power, sacrifice, and truth – these are the seven lamps of architecture. In this illustrated edition, Ruskin explains that the value of architecture hinges on both “the image it bears of the natural creation” and “the impression it receives from human power.”First published in 1880, The Seven Lamps of Architecture remains a primary reference on design at the turn… Shares: Art, Essays, Philosophy

Life 3.0 Max Tegmark · 2017 · ★ 4.0 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate "How will artificial intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology--and there's nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who's helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial. How can we grow our prosperity… Shares: TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING, Social aspects, Philosophy

Essays Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1800 · ★ 4.2 · 274p · ≈ 9h · Challenging Welcome to the Essays collection. A special selection of the nonfiction prose from influential and noteworthy authors. This book brings some of best essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, across a wide range of subjects, including individuality, freedom, society and many more topics. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American philosopher and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.… Shares: Nature, Essays, Philosophy

A networked self Zizi Papacharissi · 2010 · 8p · ≈ 16m · Moderate "A Networked Self examines self presentation and social connection in the digital age. This collection brings together new work on online social networks by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines. The focus of the volume rests on the construction of the self, and what happens to self-identity when it is presented through networks of social connections in new media environments. The volume… Shares: Information Technology, Social aspects, Psychology

Yet again Sir Max Beerbohm · 1909 · 86p · ≈ 2h · Challenging This book is perfectly adapted and layout for a pleasant reading on a tablet, smartphone or computer. To improve your reading experience, this digital version has been edited and formatted according to the requirements of this platform. Shares: Essays

And Even Now Sir Max Beerbohm · 1920 · 150p · ≈ 5h · Challenging This book is perfectly adapted and layout for a pleasant reading on a tablet, smartphone or computer. To improve your reading experience, this digital version has been edited and formatted according to the requirements of this platform. Shares: Essays

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