Books

Top 5 book antidotes to our miserable times

The author of Abject Quizzery: The Utterly Depressing Quiz Book picks the best reads for when you need a dose of optimism

Independent Bookshops Alliance

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A beautifully written, timeless story about the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s.

Men Like Gods by HG Wells

If you’ve had your fill of dystopia, here’s a future where everyone is clever and happy. Mr Barnstaple takes a holiday and discovers a world in which humankind has it all figured out.

Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker

The scientific case for optimism. The world might seem like a total mess but we’re actually making steady progress making it a better place for all of us. The good guys have already won.

How To be Right in a World Gone Wrong by James O’Brien

A funny-as-hell, thoughtful and very readable guide about how to deal with people who have been drip-fed a diet of low-level hatred by the likes of the Daily Mail.

Right Ho, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

If you need cheering up, anything by PG Wodehouse, but one of the best-ever paeans to optimism in the English language is in Right Ho, Jeeves when Gussie Fink-Nottle puts straight “the fellow with a face rather like a walnut” who said the world was in a terrible state. “Don’t talk rot” advises Gussie. “It is a beautiful world. The sky is blue, the birds are singing.

Karl Shaw’s Abject Quizzery: The Utterly Depressing Quiz Book is out on November 5 (Old Street, £12.99)

Support the Big Issue

For over 30 years, the Big Issue has been committed to ending poverty in the UK. In 2024, our work is needed more than ever. Find out how you can support the Big Issue today.
Vendor martin Hawes

Recommended for you

View all
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel review – a depth of feeling like a punch to the guts
Books

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel review – a depth of feeling like a punch to the guts

Clear by Carys Davies review – a wonderful, poetic reminder that no man is an island
Books

Clear by Carys Davies review – a wonderful, poetic reminder that no man is an island

Top 5 books about early modern witchcraft, chosen by author Ramie Targoff
Books

Top 5 books about early modern witchcraft, chosen by author Ramie Targoff

Why walking is such a great way to see, sense and stake a claim in the world
Books

Why walking is such a great way to see, sense and stake a claim in the world

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know