A Reddit user recently joined the r/askgaybros forum with quite the conversation starter: “I wanted to know which were the greatest books you had read with the topic of love,” the user wrote.
Related: These 10 books were challenged for their LGBT content (and are thus awesome)
And you’d better make sure you don’t have any overdue fees at your local library — because commenters named books you’ll wanna check out immediately. Here are their recommendations (lightly edited for clarity):
A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara
“I mean, it’s not completely all about love but arguably one of the best books I’ve read IMHO.”
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Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
“It’s a book that got me through some dark times. For sure not for everyone. Very slow-paced.”
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
“But don’t wait a huge romantic story: It’s about non-reciprocating love and familial love for an adoptive father.”
Related: One of China’s most famous novels has been remade into a steamy gay Taiwanese film
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
“One of the best descriptions I’ve read of how falling in loves feels like.”
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Martin Eden, Jack London
“About falling in love and coming out of it.”
Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman
“After I saw the movie I purchased the book, and IMHO, it’s better. Their love story isn’t fast, you feel like Elio or Oliver, there are a lot of references to philosophy which I liked, but in general it’s heavy reading.”
And finally…
“All Jane Austen”
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jwin
I can’t believe the Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller or Aristotle and Dante discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Saenz aren’t on here. Song of Achilles is a masterpiece.
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ducdebrabant
I wish they made it possible to report these scamming posts.
JorgeTurner1659
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Kangol2
So many novels left off this list, but A Little Life, like Yanigahara’s first book, conflates gay male experience with child sexual abuse. It’s pretty disturbing.
jjose712
I’m not into romances (gay or straight) and in fact i hated Call me by your name, but it’s curious that the list is not exactly filled with gay novels, because apart of A little life (which is a dubious gay novel) and Call me by your name (Oliver ends married to a woman, sorry for the spoiler, and Eliot spends the whole novel having sex with his girlfriend) the rest are not exactly gay or even gay adjacent
dhmonarch89
Maurice by E.M. Foster
ducdebrabant
Forster. I thought the movie was much more satisfying than the book. The leading character emerged somehow as much more interesting and sympathetic.
MacAdvisor
Off topic, but I have been trying to remember the title of a trashy gay-lit novel from the ’80s and I ask you help. It is about a nice young man who loses his job, become an escort to pay his bills, particularly keeping his housekeeper, eventually opens a night club. I think he is pictured swinging from a chandelier on the cover. Ring a bell with anyone?
nitejonboy
That sounds like Rupert Everett’s novel, ” Hello Darling, are you working ? “.
Dunnedin
The Mary Renault series?
jcoberkrom
I love “lists” made up by people without a clue.
WashDrySpin
Here is a GREAT book
Nirvana is Here
Heywood Jablowme
Are you sure any actual gay adults made this list? It looks like a bunch of literary-minded teenage girls made it.