Does anbody have a difficult book they'd like to suggest?

Question

I am fourteen years old. I have an 12 grade reading level. I want to read a book that is actually challenging. I would prefer fiction......
I am just so bored with the books i have been reading. i want a challenge. i want to have to look up words in the dictionary. and i want to improve my reading to college level. so i need a hard book so i can get up to college level...

Answer 1

The four books of the Pendragon Cycle by Stephen R. Lawhead. They are a little more difficult. On Walden Pond is actually very good. You need to look for the subtle hints of humor written there by the author. This is what makes it a fun book.

Answer 2

Well, I had a college reading level, in grade 6 up from a grade 12 reading level in grade 5. I find older more classical literature has more complex words and themes in the story that stimulate the mind, and expand the vocabulary. I suggest you read older books because they are alot more complicated than newer literature and have many words that should require a dictionary..not all but many.

Many of the books I read at that time were as follows..

Robin Hood...by Paul Creswick

White Fang, The Call of the Wild and To Build a Fire and other short stories...by Jack London. Go here to read some of his short stories online he was a master of short stories and has many.. http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/

The Yearling...by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Kidnapped,Treasure Island and The Master of Ballantrae....by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Good Earth...by Pearl S Buck

The City of Endless Night....by Milo Hastings

The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales...by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

The Lost World and Sherlock Holmes series...by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Jungle Book and Kim...by Rudyard Kipling

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Conneticuit Yakee in King Arthurs Court ...by Mark Twain

King Solomons Mines..by H. Rider Haggard

The Chronicles of Narnia..by C.S Lewis

Anne of Green Gables series...by LM Montgomery

The Three Musketeers...by Alexandre Dumas

Dune series....by Frank Herbert

The Lord of the Flies...by William Golding

Emma and Pride and Prejudice...by Jane Austen

Jane Eyre...by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights...by Emily Bronte

Agnes Grey... by Anne Bronte

Le Morte de Arthur (translation)...by Sir Thomas Malory

Tarzan of the Apes..by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Collected Verse of Robert Service..by Robert Service

Tess of the d'Urbervilles..by Thomas Hardy

Bambi...by Felix Salten

Oliver Twist and David Copperfield..by Charles Dickens

The House of the Seven Gables..by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Rebecca...by Daphne Du Maurier

Life with Father....by Clarence Day

Moby Dick..by Herman Melville

Silas Marner.....by George Eliot

Answer 3

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Blackwater by Joyce Carol Oates
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
So Far From God by Ana Castillo
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Footprints of God by Greg Iles
The Grapes of Wrath
The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan

and, the two most difficult books ever written EVER:
The Urantia Book (no author)
Recognitions by William Gaddis (you cannot read this book without an English, French, and Italian dictionary -- at the minimum -- I'm saying that, and I speak French fluently, but there were words I was like "whuuuh?")

Answer 4

Here are some of my favorite classic fiction novels.

JRR Tolkien: Hobbit, TLotR
Jane Austen: Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility,
Bronte sisters: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights
Charles Dickens : A Tale of Two Cities
Fyodor Dostoevsky: Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment
George Eliot: Silas Marner, Middlemarch
Orczy: The scarlett Pimpernel
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee in king Arthurs Court
Oscar Wilde: Picture of Dorian Gary

Answer 5

The book of Romans written by Paul. It is the 6th book in the New Testament. Very challenging. Very fascinating. If you take in on, read it through a couple of times, then seek a good study. At the age of 14 you are capable of reading and understanding this book, but you will most likely need help.

Good luck. It looks like you have already received many good book titles from others.

Answer 6

For really really challenging ones, try Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, and Joyce. Those are about the "toughest" authors out there.

Unfortunately they're also kinda boring.

Try mid-level ones, like Victor Hugo, Toni Morrison, Charles Dickens...or read the unabridged versions of Moby Dick and Don Quixote. They will actually keep your interest and you'll have to run to the dictionary every once in a while.

I would suggest reading non-fiction for vocab and college readiness. Anything out of social sciences, religious studies, history, theoretical math, science--whatever catches your interest. It will give you a lot more to ponder and start you thinking the way college classes try to make you think.

Answer 7

I was like you at 14. It really depends on what type of fiction you're looking for. When I was 14, I read 'Crime and Punishment' by Dostoevsky and loved it, but it's a very dark book and if you want something that's happy I don't suggest it.

Something else I really got into, which most people hate, is Shakespeare. Once you get a grasp of the old english, the stories are very engrossing. I can see why his stories are 'timeless'.

Although many people love Dickens, he bored me to death. Many of the classics are good to start with. Good luck!

Answer 8

Anything by Jane Austen.
Also, you might want to try reading some literature from WAY back when. Stuff like Lysistrata and stuff like that. BTW that is a great story!
And, The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. You might have to read that in college any way so it could help to get it under your belt. Let me tell you that is a very difficult piece of literature. I couldn't even get through it!!

Answer 9

Dickens is a great classic literature novelist.
Right now I'm reading Bleak House. It is a difficult book. I've had to start over already to keep better track of all the characters he presents. I'm on page 200 of the 700 page book and I'm already up to 36 major characters. It's a lot to keep track of.

Answer 10

The Gormenghast Trilogy By Mervin Peake

A gothic extravaganza. Dense and disturbing. Beautiful.