Recs if you like The Sorrows of Young Werther...

Based on the list/book published in 2006, general editor Peter Boxall.

puts beret on a jaunty angle ‘why yes i went to Oxbridge and go skiing on my holibobs with papa, why do you ask?’ takes a hit of tobacco flavoured vape, puts asterisk in margin of the obscure classic i’m ‘reading’

the list for people who want to look ‘well read’ and need some books to name drop - look no further if you have read them, more power to you, but this is explicitly about the people who claim to have read them but can’t read instructions on pasta

consider this a shopping list 🖤

Books for those who want to be well-read without the debt (created by someone with said debt)

Note: I will be deleting my PB account within the next two weeks, and I believe this list will be erased. Feel free to screenshot it if you see anything that interests you! ☺️ 3/17/2026

For when you need to wallow in melancholy and misery: a collection of pessimistic, cynical, downbeat, depressing, doom and gloom fiction for my disillusioned friends.

More to come!

Got the holiday blues? Check out my list Christmas with the Cranks!

a non-exhaustive collection of works

"a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly diary entries and newspaper clippings, and sometimes considered to include novels composed of documents even if they do not include letters at all. More recently, epistolaries may include electronic documents such as recordings and radio, blog posts, and emails."

Epistolary delivery: Books told in the form of letters, journals, diaries, texts, logs, etc...

Books that often get overlooked next to big author names or better known works by those authors.

So you want to diversify your reading list and thought about checking German literature. Should you check out the classical ones? Try some modern reads? Here's a list of every type of German book I really enjoyed or I heard are excellent - from the classics, to YA, to non-fiction

Things that are cult favourites, things that keep getting mentioned again and again

This is the compendium of books from the 2012 edition.

Not a list of dark academia books, but a list of books a character in a dark academia book would love. The melancholy, the classics, the literary, the slightly eerie.

tired of the seeing the same novels being recommended? here are 10 books that moved me and can do the same for you.

For when you want to curl up with a sad story that'll quietly break your heart, but may also remind you how beautiful life can be.

Behold: yet another of my 2 a.m. deep dives - this time into epistolary literature! The list starts with some of the earliest examples of the form and follows it into the present day, from stories told through letters and diaries to those built from emails, texts, transcripts, and other documents. Whether you’re a longtime fan or completely new to this genre, what interests you most about it?

(A quick note: I put this list together using Wikipedia, blog posts, and Reddit threads. I did my best to keep everything in chronological order, but a few mistakes may have slipped through - it was 2 a.m., after all. If you have any suggestions on what else I should add, I’d love to hear it!)

2026