Books like A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again
A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again by David Foster Wallace reads as witty, cerebral. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.
What A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again is like to read
A collection of essays where Wallace turns his hyper-attentive, footnote-laden intelligence on American leisure—state fairs, cruises, television—finding absurdity and existential unease beneath consumer spectacle. Best for: fans of essayistic nonfiction,readers who enjoy digressive, self-aware narration,literary nonfiction readers.
Both Flesh and Not
David Foster Wallace · 2012
A posthumous grab-bag of Wallace's nonfiction—tennis, grammar, fiction's nature—delivering his signature restless, footnoted intellect rather than narrative payoff.
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Pulphead
John Jeremiah Sullivan · 2011
A close nonfiction relative — matched on how it reads, with steady pacing.
Consider the Lobster
David Foster Wallace · 2005
A collection of deeply researched, digressive essays that use forensic attention and moral inquiry to interrogate American culture, from lobster ethics to talk radio to language politics.
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slouching towards bethlehem
Joan Didion · 1967
A cool-eyed, precise dissection of 1960s California counterculture and social fragmentation, revealing the moral emptiness beneath the era's utopian promise.
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How to Be Alone
Jonathan Franzen · 2002
A sharp, erudite set of essays probing solitude, technology, and the private self amid modern public culture, blending personal reflection with cultural critique.
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The Empathy Exams
Leslie Jamison · 2014
A close nonfiction relative — matched on how it reads, with unhurried, immersive pacing.
Meatless days
Sara Suleri · 1989
A dense, allusive memoir that circles rather than narrates, weaving personal grief for family members into the fractured political history of Pakistan; the prose rewards close attention with its wit and elegiac undertow.
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How to write an autobiographical novel
Alexander Chee · 2018
A close literary relative — matched on how it reads, with steady pacing.
The disappointment artist and other essays
Jonathan Lethem · 2004
Runs the same vornate current through a different story, at steady pacing.
Let us now praise famous men
James Agee · 1965
Runs the same vornate current through a different story, at unhurried, immersive pacing.