Raise your hands if you’ve ever looked at the stack of books you bought impulsively and thought that you have nothing to read. Now put down our hands, people are staring.
One of the biggest afflictions in a bibliophile’s life is not knowing what to read next. It’s usually followed by ‘publishers using movie posters as book covers’ and ’the existence of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’. There’s little that can erase the image of Voldermort and Bellatrix’s love child (Spoiler), but we can sort out your reading list based on your movie preferences.
You’re welcome.
If you loved Mad Max Fury Road, then read The Handmaid’s Tale
On the face of it, the 2015 sci-fi action film has nothing in common with the 1985 classic by Margaret Atwood that nobody can stop talking about, but delve deep and you’ll see the glaring similarities. Bleak dystopian setting, fertile women being used solely for breeding purposes, and a badass female protagonist who is ready to take on the forces; Furiosa fans, The Handmaid’s Tale needs to be on your reading list faster than you can say ‘Witness me’.
DISCLAIMER: The book does not feature a man suspended on top of a modified monster truck, with an electric guitar that sends out flames. The world is not a fair place.
If you loved Pulp Fiction, then read The Sisters Brothers
Imagine Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic set in the wild, wild West (you know, the one with syphilis and cowboys). Feared assassins Charlie and Eli Sisters carry out contract hits for their crime boss. Through the book they journey to San Francisco in search of their next target. There’s gratuitous violence, humour and deep introspections about faith and human nature.
If you loved Mean Girls, then read Gilt
Katherine Longshore’s bestseller takes everything you loved about Mean Girls (drama, drama and did we mention drama?) and combines it with the intrigue of the Tudors. What? Yes. Proving that mean girls and excluding cliques existed years before man invented texting, Gilt will fill the Regina George shaped void in your life and take you on a journey filled with sparkly dresses, romantic balls and a world where being unpopular will cost you much more than a page in the Plastics’ Burn Book.
If you loved Dawn of the Dead, then read World War Z
Let us stop you before you bring up the 2013 adaptation of the novel by Brad Pitt. Yes, normally we appreciate a bedraggled Brad Pitt taking on a horde of zombies while still looking fabulous but the truth is that it doesn’t even come close to the novel by Max Brooks. Brooks’ novel is an oral history of the zombie war, featuring interviews of survivors from several countries, races and backgrounds. Fans of this genre will realise how rare it is to find a comprehensive record of Patient Zero in zombie pop culture and WWZ offers the much-needed insight into how different countries would respond to the pandemic and how the main villain can often be our basic human nature.
If you loved Up, then read The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Swedish author Jonas Jonasson’s comic novel The Hundred Year Old Man…follows the titular 100-year old man on a series of misadventures following his escape from his retirement home on his birthday. The heartwarming tale will make you feel all the emotions you went through while watching Up, or as it’s more commonly called ‘The Movie that Makes Grown Humans Cry Like Babies’.
