It seems like nowadays reading is more of a task than a hobby. While I personally am a book fanatic, most people tend to use their free time watching an episode (or three) of a new favorite show.
With nice weather quickly approaching (fingers crossed), staying indoors and binge watching Netflix, Hulu, or HBO may not be the best activities for the season. But when you’re in need of something entertaining while you’re sunbathing on the beach or relaxing outside on campus, a book is a much better companion. Sit back, unplug, and pick from this list of books based on the shows you can’t get enough of.
(Photo via @sarahgargano29)
If you love “Stranger Things”
Paper Girls follows a group of young, misfit women who encounter things just as strange as the Netflix series’ kids. If you’re looking for more of a thriller that’s even closer to your favorite show Dean Koontz’s The Door to December is eerily similar to the plot of Stranger Things.
If you secretly wish you were an inmate on “Orange is the New Black”
A World Apart by Cristina Rathbone is a non-fiction account of the author’s fight the justice system and the heartbreaking stories of female inmates and their experiences of being in prison. Many of the women are locked up for nonviolent offenses, and this book explores the issues behind the U.S.’s prison system.
If “Black Mirror” is too real for you.
While this series hits scarily close to home, it’s a good way to reflect on all of the ways we allow social media to influence us. If you were engrossed by the futuristic vision created in the show, Moxyland by Lauren Beukes is a nice reading choice. The book follows four narrators in a world where social media and the internet is everything, and if you mess up, an isolate disconnection is just around the corner.
If you balled watching “13 Reasons Why”…
Reading the book is another way to get your fill, but since the show is based off of it you have a few more options. Mental health is a tricky subject to cover in a book without glorifying, romanticizing, or misunderstanding it. Two good books that have a nice grasp on this are Slyvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, since it echoes some of her own struggles with her mental health, and She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb who follows a young woman’s problems with self-esteem, suicide, and past experiences.Â
If you were inspired by “Girlboss”…
You could read the actual Girlboss book or take a peek at the wide range of books featuring rad women running different industries and companies. In the Company of Women by Grace Bonney, and Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In offer useful advice and profiles of women who are just as inspiring as they are intelligent and ambitious.
(Photo via @lib_bart)
What other books have filled your TV void? Let us know in the comments below!
