I have gone off reading violent thrillers or books where suspense is too high.

Ian Fortytwo

Ian Fortytwo

A Poet, Writer and eclectic Reader.
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I cannot really explain why, other than they raise my blood pressure and make me angry. And most of my life I have had anger issues, it is only recently that I have tied the two together. So over the next few months or longer I am going to try an experiment of reading lighter reads.

This is where I can use some help of finding science fiction or fantasy or any other genre, books that don't contain violence nor where the suspense is too great.

I'm going to trawl some of the classics Dickens, Hardy etc.

Thank you in advance for any help received.
 
I like travel books for that.

Chris Stewart about his life in Spain - starting with Driving Over Lemons.

Footlose on the Appalachian Trail is a good one.

One Foot after the Other by Kate Humble - a series of walks she has been on and odd thoughts

Deric Longden's Cat series starting with The Cat Who Came in From the Cold. I'd avoid his two about the death of his wife and about his mother - they have a darker side.

Chris Pascoe - Confessions of a Cat Sitter and A Cat Called Birmingham.
 
This will be an interesting thread to keep an eye on. You might enjoy some of the titles in The Makers And Finders series of literary history by Van Wyck Brooks.
 
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Ian Fortytwo said:
I cannot really explain why, other than they raise my blood pressure and make me angry. And most of my life I have had anger issues, it is only recently that I have tied the two together. So over the next few months or longer I am going to try an experiment of reading lighter reads.

This is where I can use some help of finding science fiction or fantasy or any other genre, books that don't contain violence nor where the suspense is too great.

I'm going to trawl some of the classics Dickens, Hardy etc.

Thank you in advance for any help received.
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Flying Dutch by Tom Holt This is wonderful off the wall funny comic fantasy novel about Dying Dutchman and his crew Living in them our era and trying to undo the effects of an Immortality elixir made by an alchemist . They mistook it for a beer chaser. Living for ever is only on their problems. I won't say anymore other then to say, it laugh out loud funny, and laughter, is also good antidote to thrillers. :)
 
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I know the feeling. I find Ursula le Guin good for this. Her books aren't entirely devoid of conflict, but she plays it quiet and thoughtful rather than ratcheting up the tension or descending into thud and blunder. Also Jasper Fford's "Thursday Next" series: the level of general silliness makes it hard to take the villains' nefarious plots too seriously.
 
I don't think you will find much of Hardy light and restful. Some awful things happen to some of the characters because other characters are incredibly selfish or else annoying hypocritical and so I can't recommend Hardy as a means of lowering your blood pressure. Although if you want to grind off a layer or two of your tooth enamel he may be your guy.

Dickens goes for the whole range of human emotion, including tragedy and melodrama, but at least there is a lot of comic relief along the way.

Classics, though, do not, as a whole, tend to be happy books.

Some light reading from comparatively modern authors like James Harriot (as Danny recommends) or P. G. Wodehouse might be more of a boon to the old BP.
 
Wodehouse is the answer. The second would be James Herriot. They've already been mentioned but it bears repeating often and loudly.

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding is wonderful.

Asimov's Azazel stories would be perfect if you can get hold of them.

Harry Harrisons Stanless Steel Rat books could work.

The Retief stories by Keith Laumer.
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
Classics, though, do not, as a whole, tend to be happy books.
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One major exception: Anthony Trollope! Gentlest author of the 19th century by a very long way. I think it was "Doctor Thorne" where midway through he addresses the reader to say, "Look, you and I both know this story is going to have a happy ending, so don't get too upset."
 
don't contain violence or the suspense is not too great......... i guess it depends on your tolerance
as for syfy... try heinlein, specially the jjuveniles, arthur c clarke,
try sherlock holmes
for me books normally decrease my stress, so...
you could try litrpg... it depends on your suspension of desbelief but since most of them happen in a virtual environment...
 
Vince is correct: the answer is P. G. Wodehouse.

But also try John Mortimer's Rumpole books, Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, Pratchett's Discworld books, Twain's Roughing It, or A Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. Which is nothing, if not an eclectic mix.
 
Despite quite a lot of action, I find Jack McDevitt to be oddly calming. The same goes for Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe. Something about the writing style. Arthur C Clarke never goes overboard.

I agree that Wodehouse is your man.
 
Ian Fortytwo said:
I am going to try an experiment of reading lighter reads
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I remember trying this many years ago, it soon palls and you're like "Ok, now it's time for blood and guts"

(Try listening to Rick Astley, Michael Buble and Kylie Minogue for a few weeks and see if you get a craving for hard rock!)
 
I'd also second Wodehouse. Hardy is seriously miserable stuff if you ask me.

I've heard that Becky Chambers' science fiction is pretty conflict-free, but contains interesting ideas.
 
What about slower epics such as the Helliconia series by Brian Aldiss?

A second for Douglas Adams, although with a name like Ian FortyTwo, i dare say you've read THHGTTG several times. There were some pretty good Red Dwarf novelisations that would be worth a read.

How about the older Star Trek Books?
 
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