There are so many books in the world. If you’re interested in “becoming a reader” or just want to read more, chances are you’ve taken a scroll through booktok or found some forum where people are weighing in. You’re probably getting recommendations for Sarah J. Maas or Rebecca Yarros and other epic fantasy novels that have cult-ish followings. While there’s nothing wrong with that, here are the books I would personally recommend as the best books for beginner readers (broken down by genre).

Wait a clock tick. There are book genres?

If you’re familiar with book genres, you can keep scrolling.

If you’re not, welcome! There’s no judgement here (though you might find some elsewhere). For the most part, book genres follow the same logic as movie genres or show genres. While this is NOT an extensive list, and there are a TON of sub-genres within all this nonsense, this should get you started.

• Mystery – This is pretty self explanatory. There’s something to solve. Sometimes with some detective or police presence, sometimes not.
• Thriller – While similar to a mystery, there’s often some sort of scary deadline or chase or serial killer or something like that. Sometimes, thrillers can go psychological as well.
• Romance – Truthfully, I don’t read much (AKA any) romance. There’s a level of love and relationship, and these books are often accompanied by a “spice rating” for the amount of…sexy scenes that might be in a book.
• Sci-Fi – Another semi-self-explanatory one. Sci-fi books are science fiction, so there’s often something with space or time travel or something like that.
• Fantasy – These books have levels of “unreal” to them, whether that’s monsters, magic, other worlds…
• Historical Fiction – This one speaks for itself. Authors generally take a significant event in the past, and write a historical account around that. Could be a “based on a true story” or “inspired by” kind of thing too.
• Gen Fic – Honestly, this is where I place a lot of the classics. There are also a lot of books marked as “Gen Fic” that don’t necessarily fit in the other genres.
• Young Adult – These can generally be any of the other genres listed here, but have a protagonist 18 years old or younger. (I’m pretty sure. It might be 21 or younger?)
• Memoir – This is a story about a person, generally written by that person, about a time in their life with some sort of lesson involved.
• Autobiography – This is a factual account written by a person about their life from beginning to end.
• Biography – A factual account written about a person’s life, from beginning to end.

The Best Books for Beginner Readers

Mysteries & Thrillers

There does tend to be a lot of overlap between these genres, so we’re batching them for recommendations. It’s usually my first set of recommendations because who doesn’t want to read a book that they just can’t put down? Also, if you’re looking for more, be sure to check out my Books with Irresistible Plot Twists.

• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Keep Your Friends Close by Lucinda Berry (My QUEEN of psychological thrillers.)
• One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner
• Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
• The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
• Run by Blake Crouch – This one might also qualify as sci-fi, but the stress of it from start to finish would totally put it as a thriller for me.

Sci-Fi

I tend to not read quite as many sci-fi. However, I also know that whenever I do read from this genre, I’m reminded of how much I enjoy it.

• Recursion by Blake Crouch
• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Fantasy

This might be my second most-read genre. I tend to prefer more of the magic fantasy than the monster fantasy, so do with that what you will. Also, so sorry that most of these are series. It’s just how the best are made!

• Shades of Magic Trilogy by VE Schwab
• The Mirror Visitor Series by Christelle Dabos
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
• The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis – Go for the whole series if you can, but at least read Chronicles if you can’t (or aren’t interested).
• Grishaworld Series by Leigh Bardugo

Historical Fiction

Another one where I don’t spend a ton of time, but am always reminded what a beautiful genre it is.

• Ken Follett – I can’t personally vouch for him, but my dad loves his work.
• Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
• The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

Gen Fic

The “catch-all” genre of books! It’s possible that these could fit into other categories, but this is where I’d categorize them.

• Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutano
• Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

Young Adult

Truthfully, this is my guilty pleasure. These books are super easy to read, low effort, and generally exactly as you’d expect.

• One of Us is Lying Trilogy by Karen M McManus
• Five Survive by Holly Jackson
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Memoirs

This is heavy to start with for beginner readers, but there are some fantastic memoirs out there. It might also help you to read a book about/written by a person you admire!

• Taste by Stanley Tucci
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
• Bossypants by Tina Fey

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