The Ultimate Flowchart for Finding Your Next Book

Ah, summertime (in the northern hemisphere at least!). That blissfully balmy time of year where school’s out, vacations are scheduled, and the beach beckons.

Sunshine and family make great company, but something there’s nothing better than diving into a rich, immersive story. The only thing between you and enjoying a great read is the leap of faith it takes to open the cover! Now, we’ve done all the heavy lifting for you.

This infographic is loaded to the brim with authors and books that call to all types of readers. The best part about it? Most of these paths lead to multiple books for you to choose from – each with a quick word to describe the story that lies between its covers.

Easy on the eyes, user-friendly, and guaranteed to leave you satisfied; give this infographic a go, and let’s find you a book to sink your teeth into this summer.

Summertime! It is the season when most of us can devote more time for fun. And more time for books.

Books make satisfying companions when you bring them along on your summer excursions. Bill Gates, for instance, likes to bring a duffel bag stuffed with books with him when he goes off for vacation. Barack Obama loves to read his books in the sun by the beach.

This ultimate summer reading flowchart from The Expert Editor will have you well prepared for selecting your next book, wherever you may go. Whether you prefer thrillers, biographies, or poetry, we’ve got you covered!

On the list of classic fiction, we have Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, both of which feature strong female lead characters. While both have been made into movies, these classic books will never be replaced by movies because the details and nuances inherent in the books often are missed in the movie versions. Because not all the scenes and fine points from the books can be included in the movie for practical reasons such as time (a movie that goes on for more than 2 hours at a time will often become tedious), subtleties and aspects of the plot can be sacrificed.

In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth’s love story with Mr. Darcy plays a central role, but the stories of Elizabeth’s four sisters are also told. The troubling way that women are made inherently subordinate in society at the time underlies the entire story. Wuthering Heights was not popular nor did it receive any praise when it was initially published, but after its initial publication, the public has since embraced the dark themes of revenge and violence make up this story. The most controversial character for the Victorian audience was Heathcliff. Bronte first published Wuthering Heights under a male pen name because during that time, no one would believe that a woman had written a novel with such dark, raw themes.

Unlike Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a classic novel that received almost universal acclaim after it was first published. This story is set in the early to mid 19^th century, and is about an orphan named Pip who grows up to become a gentleman. The story involves crime, guilt, revenge, and reward. Its colorful, enthralling characters will keep you entertained for a long time.

Crime and Punishment is one of the great Russian classics, and also involves the theme of crime, guilt,  and later on, redemption, by a woman’s love. Like Wuthering Heights, the characters in this story are compelling, and their psychology and motives can often be easily inferred. Although some of these characters are destitute and driven to desperate measure because of poverty, such as Sonya, the prostitute, a theme in this story is that money is not everything, for what is wealth, when you cannot live in peace?

Perhaps no time as ever been more applicable than now for the themes of Orwell’s 1984. This dystopian story hauntingly refers to a society based upon fear and hatred. We are now way past the year 1984. The election of President Donald Trump was made possible because the people who voted for him were completely fine with racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and hatred. The internet and social media can follow us whenever we visit a site, and track our private information. In a way, “Big Brother” takes the form of corporations looking to control our minds by finding ways to sell us things that we don’t really need. Our private information can be gathered at a whim by law enforcement agencies. Although you’ve probably already read 1984, it is always worth another read.

1984 is a novel that is often read in school, followed by essays and papers on the material. One of the best ways to ensure that your academic work is in top form is to have it professionally edited or proofread.  With options such as thesis editing, business editing, and book editing, your work will come across polished and strong.

If you are going for adventure, and ancient Greek literature such as The Iliad and The Odyssey don’t rock your boat, there is The Hobbit, where you will become immersed in the world of Middle Earth. If you like pirates, you will love Treasure Island, for this book itself has been responsible for many pirate cliches.

Do you like science fiction? We’ve picked out two Kurt Vonnegut novels, The Sirens of Titan and Breakfast of Champions. If you love irony and black humor, Breakfast of Champions will keep you satisfied, with its themes of mental illness, social and economic callousness, free will, and suicide. The Sirens of Titan also explores the theme of free will, as well as life purpose, and the story centers around a Martian alien invasion of Earth.

Perhaps you are the kind of person who loves to be on the edge of your seat, immersed in a thriller. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is a psychological thriller, told from the first person point of view of three different women: Rachel, Anna, and Megan. There is a destructive male character in the story, who is discovered later on, but ultimately, the women defeat him in the end.

The wide scope of variety in this reading flowchart will ensure that you will experience a diverse, exciting array of many flavors of literature. Summer reading is best savored by beginning early enough so that you can have time to finish all the books in this flowchart!