As someone who has been a committed reader my whole life, the main complaint I hear from non-readers is that reading is too boring. A lot of people also blame their low attention span, and some books take a while to build-up to the main conflict or introduce an exciting action sequence. For me, reading is like seeing a movie play out in my head. When a book is well written and easy to understand, it hardly feels like you’re putting effort into reading things. With that being said, if you are someone who wants to get into reading, but you’re struggling to find a book that holds your attention for long enough, here are some books that are easy reads that feel like movies. A couple of these books have movie or TV adaptations that have been announced, so there’s that too!
“Verity” by Colleen Hoover
Colleen Hoover is a good author to start with if you’re trying to get into reading and don’t know where to start. Some of her books, such as the insanely popular It Ends with Us deal with heavier topics, but Verity is not one of them. Verity is a romantic, suspenseful thriller about a woman who’s hired to ghostwrite for famous author Verity Crawford, who is currently incapacitated. As she grows closer to Verity’s husband, she slowly begins to uncover horrible secrets Verity has kept from everyone. But is it the truth? This book had me on the edge of my seat from cover to cover. It starts right in the middle of the action and doesn’t let up until the end. I would recommend that you not read this book at night and to not think too hard about what is happening.
“Weather Girl” by Rachel Lynn Solomon
This book was actually the inspiration for this article! I am currently flying through this book and am looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Weather Girl is about two employees at a Seattle news station, a meteorologist and a sports reporter, who are absolutely miserable at their jobs. Their respective bosses used to be married, and their ugly divorce has turned the news station into an extremely toxic environment. The employees, Ari and Russell, hatch a plan to get their bosses back together in order to get validation from their bosses and make the news station a better place to work at. This book totally reminds me of a 2018 Netflix movie, called Set it Up, with a very similar premise. It’s very sweet and also touches on topics such as Judaism and depression. I can’t wait to finish this!
“The Inheritance Games” by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
This is the first book in the Young Adult trilogy of the same name. After the death of billionaire Tobias Hawthorne, seventeen-year-old Avery learns that she is the sole inheritor of his estate, making her a billionaire practically overnight. The problem? Avery has never met Tobias Hawthorne. And she must live in his extravagant mansion for a year with Tobias’s scorned family members, including his four grandsons. This book reminded me of Knives Out in the way that it is twisted, mysterious, and exciting. The first book sets the scene for the remainder of the trilogy, and the third book comes out this August. I’m very excited to see how it ends!
Whether you are going through a reading slump and want something that will grasp your attention or want to start reading but you’re not sure where to start, hopefully, one of these books interests you enough to pick them up or look into books similar to movies or TV shows you like. Hope you enjoy it!