Famous People's Book Pick: 10 best books after Harry Potter

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Accio something good to read!

Is there life after book 7?

Believe it or not, there is. Here are 10 books guaranteed to get you out of your post-Potter rut and back into a great reading experience.

Enders Game By Orson Scott Card

(sci-fi, children books, children books series, teens)

"There are basically two types of people when it comes to Ender's Game: those who obsessively love it and those who haven't read it yet.

The story focuses on Ender Wiggin, boy wonder, who is shipped off to Battle School at a tender age with the unenviable task of learning how to save the earth from annihilation by approaching aliens. Peer pressure, military training, psychology, and the true nature of humans are only a bit of what Card addresses in this taut, intensely plotted book. In addition, it's got one of the most astonishing surprise endings ever, so don't peek, you'll hate yourself if you do.

Card went on to write multiple sequels to Ender's Game and even a parallel series, Ender's Shadow, that tells the story of Ender from another character's perspective. Every book in both sets is "

The Chrestomanci Series By Diana Wynne Jones

(children books, teens, sci-fi)

"It drives me crazy that hardly anyone reads the Chrestomanci books. They are everything a rollicking good fantasy should be: intelligent, witty, totally unpredictable and filled with quirky, likeable characters.

The Chrestomanci series consists of five books: Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Conrad's Fate, Witch Week, and The Magicians of Caprona. The scientific theory of multiple parallel universes form the basis for the books; each person exists as a different manifestation of him or herself in each universe; all except, that is, for the Chrestomanci whose job it is to govern the universes and attempt to repair the damage that high-spirited youngster's create larking about between the worlds.

Each book has an entirely different tone and feel but all are unfailingly delightful."

The Day Of The Triffids By John Wyndham

(literature and fiction, sci-fi)

"What would happen if nearly every person in the entire world went completely and inexplicably blind overnight? How would the few people left with sight help all of the blind--or would they? Now, just to up the ante, enter huge, mobile, carnivorous (read: maneating) plants.

Sounds freaky? That is The Day of the Triffids in a nutshell, a classic science fiction novel that is as intelligent and thought-provoking as it is terrifying. I'd recommend it for Potter lovers of high school age and up; make the younger set wait a few years since some bits, while well written, might be too much for young readers."

The Bartimaeus Trilogy By Jonathon Stroud

(children books (Ages 9-12), children books, adventure, sci-fi, teens)

"It's a pity that Jonathon Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy--The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate--were released right at the height of Potter mania because, in all honesty, they feature writing and plotting superior to that of the Harry Potter books.

All three books focus on the young magician Nathaniel and the all-powerful, sassy dijinni, Bartimaeus, that Nathaniel summons and desperately tries to control. While all of the characters in the book are well-drawn and believable and the plot is riveting (particularly at the conclusion of The Amulet of Samarkand--fantastic!) it's the high-spirited relationship between Nathaniel and Bartimaeus coupled with Stroud's sophisticated and perfectly nuanced writing that made me fall in love with this series."

Dune By Frank Herbert

(sci-fi, sci-fi series)

"Dune is certainly the best written, most densely plotted and intelligent science fiction novel ever. Herbert's portrayal of the metamorphosis of the young and inexperienced Paul Atreides into the Kwisatz Haderach, Maud'Dib,and the savior of Arrakis is engrossing. An entire literature class could be taught out of this book alone, not to mention the five sequels Herbert wrote before his death. Herbert's son has carried on the torch, producing an impressive collection of Dune sequels and prequels (including one, Paul of Dune, released last week) but none of them even faintly compare with the stellar original."

Artemis Fowl By Eoin Colfer

(children books (Ages 9-12), children books, adventure, sci-fi, teens)

"The books are at once light-hearted and dark, one chapter making readers double up with laughter and then abruptly sobering them up with deeper issues in the next. I confess, I cried at the end of The Arctic Incident and over one particular scene in The Opal Deception (of course I'm not going to tell you what it was; read it yourself! Then you won't think I'm such a sap). "

The Discworld Series By Terry Pratchett

(fantasy, fantasy series)

"These books--all thirty-six of them, and counting--are pure comic genius. Start with the first two, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic and just see if you can't stop reading them (or laughing, incidentally)."

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy By Douglas Adams

(literature and fiction, sci-fi)

"If I had to pick one book everyone should read, embarrassingly enough, I'd probably pick this one. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe, and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish; and Mostly Harmless, are cult fiction extraordinaire. You'll see why if you read them: their quirky humor, eccentric characters, and outlandish plotlines are almost ridiculously endearing."

The Secret Of Platform 13 By Eva Ibbotson

(children books (Ages 9-12), children books, sci-fi, teens)

"Before you start screaming that Ms. Ibbotson is a plagiaristic, I should tell you that The Secret of Platform 13 was published in 1994, three years before the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. The more of Ms. Ibbotson's books you read, the more you'll know that you aren't the only one who has been paying them close attention."

Doomsday Book By Connie Willis

(sci-fi)

"Connie Willis is an absolute genius of a writer. If you appreciate wit, intelligence, emotion, and a hefty dash of factual history and science in your leisure reading, you'll be right at home with any of Connie Willis' outstanding works.

Doomsday Book is a highly realistic and emotional account of the Black Death;"

To Say Nothing Of The Dog By Connie Willis

(literature and fiction, sci-fi)

"To Say Nothing of the Dog (which takes its name from the subtitle of Jerome K. Jerome's comedy classic Three Men in a Boat) is a light-hearted fling and one of the funniest damn things I've ever read."