Books like 'Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent'
Readers who enjoyed Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent by Mircea Eliade also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary 20th century action / adventure classics coming-of-age journey bildungsroman
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Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLiving by their wits in the steamy slums of Bahia, a gang of orphans and runaways, led by fifteen-year-old "Bullet," spend their time stealing from Brazil's rich and privileged until public outcry demands their capture...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age journey 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children -
![Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card]()
Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsWelcome to Battleschool.Growing up is never easy. But try living on the mean streets as a child begging for food and fighting like a dog with ruthless gangs of starving kids who wouldn't hesitate to pound your skull into pulp for a scrap of apple. If Bean has learned anything on the streets, it's how to survive. And not with fists. He is way too small for that. But with brains...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure aliens audiobook boarding-school -
![Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst]()
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe perennially popular tale of Alexander's worst day is a storybook that belongs on every child's bookshelf.Alexander knew it was going to be a terrible day when he woke up with gum in this hair.And it got worse...His best friend deserted him. There was no dessert in his lunch bag...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure book children children-books comedy -
![Corduroy by Don Freeman]()
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsHave you ever dreamed of being locked in a department store at night? The endearing story of Corduroy paints a picture of the adventures that might unfold (for a teddy bear at least) in such a situation. When all the shoppers have gone home for the night, Corduroy climbs down from the shelf to look for his missing button...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure animals anthropomorphism audiobook book -
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![Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card]()
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsAndrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure aliens audiobook book -
![I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman]()
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 69 ratings"As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker."A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered... if indeed there were crimes.The youngest of forty - a child with no name and no past - she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted... -
![The Body by Robin Waterfield, Stephen King]()
The Body by Robin Waterfield, Stephen King
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsFrom Different Seasons The Body, as a media tie-in for the movie starring River Phoenix, Kiefer Sutherland, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman and Jerry O'Connell...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book contemporary -
![End of the Game and Other Stories by Julio Cortázar]()
End of the Game and Other Stories by Julio Cortázar
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsEnd of the game is one of the most important collections of stories of the second half of the 20th century. Engaged in transgressing the laws of conventional narrative, in these eighteen stories Julio Cortázar combines intertextuality, an unpublished use of the colloquial and endless game to bring the reader into a particular universe where nothing is what it seems... -
![The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Álvaro Mutis]()
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Álvaro Mutis
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMaqroll the Gaviero (the Lookout) is one of the most alluring and memorable characters in the fiction of the last twenty-five years...Categorized as:
classics journey 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies comedy contemporary -
![Iza's Ballad by Magda Szabó]()
Iza's Ballad by Magda Szabó
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen Ettie's husband dies, her daughter Iza insists that her mother give up the family house in the countryside and move to Budapest. Displaced from her community and her home, Ettie tries to find her place in this new life, but can't seem to get it right... -
![Água Viva by Clarice Lispector]()
Água Viva by Clarice Lispector
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA meditation on the nature of life and time, Água Viva (1973) shows Lispector discovering a new means of writing about herself, more deeply transforming her individual experience into a universal poetry. In a body of work as emotionally powerful, formally innovative, and philosophically profound as Clarice Lispector’s, Água Viva stands out as a particular triumph...Categorized as:
classics journey 20th-century action-adventure adult book contemporary female-author -
![Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar]()
Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsHoracio Oliveira is an Argentinian writer who lives in Paris with his mistress, La Maga, surrounded by a loose-knit circle of bohemian friends who call themselves "the Club... -
![Hourglass by Danilo Kiš]()
Hourglass by Danilo Kiš
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDanilo Kiš was one of the most artful and eloquent writers of postwar Europe. Of all his books, Hourglass, the account of the final months in one man's life before he is sent to a concentration camp, is considered to be his masterpiece... -
![The Black Stallion Returns by Walter Farley]()
The Black Stallion Returns by Walter Farley
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn this, the second book in the series, the heart-stopping adventures of the Black Stallion continue as Alec discovers that two men are after the Black. One claims to be the Black’s rightful owner and one is trying to kill the beautiful steed. An Arab chieftain proves his ownership of the Black and takes him away, but Alec is determined to find his horse again...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure animals anthropomorphism audiobook book -
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![Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume]()
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsLife with his little brother, Fudge, makes Peter Hatcher feel like a fourth grade nothing. Whether Fudge is throwing a temper tantrum in a shoe store, smearing mashed potatoes on the walls at Hamburger Heaven, or trying to fly, he's never far from trouble...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children children-books -
![The Truce by Mario Benedetti]()
The Truce by Mario Benedetti
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratings'Perhaps that moment had been exceptional, but still, I felt alive. That pressure on my chest means being alive.' Forty-nine, with a kind face, no serious ailments (apart from varicose veins on his ankles), a good salary, and three moody children, widowed accountant Martín Santomé is about to retire. He assumes he'll take up gardening, or the guitar, or whatever retired people generally do... -
![Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield]()
Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAfter Jimmy is blinded in an accident with a firecracker, he has to relearn all the things he used to know. With the help of a determined therapist, he learns to read Braille and to use a cane. Then he's given the chance to have a guide dog. Learning to work with Leader is not easy, but Jimmy tries harder than he ever has before...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure animals book children children-books -
![Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan]()
Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsFour gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan’s centennialIntroducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India “the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story...Categorized as:
classics journey 20th-century action-adventure anthologies children children-books contemporary -
![The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin]()
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsBook Three of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea CycleDarkness threatens to overtake Earthsea: the world and its wizards are losing their magic. Despite being wearied with age, Ged Sparrowhawk -- Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord -- embarks on a daring, treacherous journey, accompanied by Enlad's young Prince Arren, to discover the reasons behind this devastating pattern of loss...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children -
![The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt]()
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHelen DeWitt's extraordinary debut, The Last Samurai, centers on the relationship between Sibylla, a single mother of precocious and rigorous intelligence, and her son, who, owing to his mother's singular attitude to education, develops into a prodigy of learning...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult book -
![Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb]()
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA major classic of 1930s literature, Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight (Utas és Holdvilág) is the fantastically moving and darkly funny story of a bourgeois businessman torn between duty and desire.'On the train, everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice ...'Mihály has dreamt of Italy all his life... -
![Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary]()
Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsRamona tries her hardest to be brave and fearless, but now she has her own bedroom it's sometimes a little difficult to be brave - you never know what could be lurking under the bed...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children children-books -
![Crimson Rivers by Jean-Christophe Grangé]()
Crimson Rivers by Jean-Christophe Grangé
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA horrifically mutilated corpse is discovered wedged in an isolated crevice. The highly-regarded but unpredictable ex-commando Pierre NiTmans is sent from Paris to the French Alps to investigate. Meanwhile, Karim Abdouf, a young Arab policeman, is trying to find out why the tomb of a young child has been desecrated... -
![The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa]()
The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSet among a community of cadets in a Lima military school, it is notable for its experimental and complex employment of multiple perspectives. The novel was so accurate in its portraiture of the academy that the academy's authorities burned one thousand copies and condemned the book as a plan by Ecuador to denigrate Peru...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure adult book contemporary -
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![On the Road: the Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac]()
On the Road: the Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe legendary 1951 scroll draft of On the Road, published as Kerouac originally composed it IN THREE WEEKS in April of 1951, Jack Kerouac wrote his first full draft of On the Road—typed as a single-spaced paragraph on eight long sheets of tracing paper, which he later taped together to form a 120-foot scroll... -
![Upper Fourth at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton]()
Upper Fourth at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe girls are in a higher form now. This year there is the tension of exams for the first time, but there is all the fun of the summer term as well - and the high spirits of a lively and imaginative form of girls...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age europe british-isles united-kingdom children-books fiction boarding-school -
![The Transall Saga by Gary Paulsen]()
The Transall Saga by Gary Paulsen
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsMark's solo camping trip in the desert turns into a terrifying and thrilling odyssey when a mysterious beam of light transports him to another time on what appears to be another planet. As Mark searches for a pathway back to his own time on Earth, he must make a new life in a new world...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure apocalyptic book children contemporary -
![Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren]()
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAstrid Lindgren's story of feisty, red-haired Pippi has been given a sparkling new translation by award-winning Tiina Nunnally and engaging pictures by acclaimed Lauren Child.Pippi Longstocking was first published in the United States in 1950, and has been translated from the original Swedish into ninety-one languages... -
![Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives by Dan Millman]()
Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives by Dan Millman
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsTold with drama and insight, this novel begins when Dan, a world champion gymnast, meets his powerful 96-year-old mentor Socrates, an all-night gas station attendant. Guided by this wise old mentor, Dan learns new ways to see the world and live life to its fullest... -
![My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George]()
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsEvery kid thinks about running away at one point or another; few get farther than the end of the block. Young Sam Gribley gets to the end of the block and keeps going--all the way to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and his wits as his tool for survival... -
![Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter]()
Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDon Carpenter's Hard Rain Falling is a tough-as-nails account of being down and out, but never down for good?a Dostoyevskian tale of crime, punishment, and the pursuit of an ever-elusive redemption. The novel follows the adventures of Jack Levitt, an orphaned teenager living off his wits in the fleabag hotels and seedy pool halls of Portland, Oregon...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond]()
The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe Room on the Roof is a timeless coming-of-age novel that will resonate with a whole new generation of readers. Written by renowned author Ruskin Bond when he was just seventeen, it is the story of Rusty, a teenage Anglo-Indian boy who is orphaned and has to live with his English guardian in the stifling European quarter of Dehra Dun...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure book children contemporary -
![The Giver by Lois Lowry]()
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 102 ratingsThe Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children -
![Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl]()
Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsDanny’s life seems perfect: his home is a gypsy caravan, he’s the youngest car mechanic around, and his best friend is his dad, who never runs out of wonderful stories to tell. And when Danny discovers his father’s secret, he’s off on the adventure of a lifetime. Here’s Roald Dahl’s famous story about a 9-year-old boy, his dad, and a daring and hilarious pheasant-snatching expedition...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure animals audiobook book children -
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![Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson]()
Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTwenty-five year old Frances Field wanted desperately to get away from her guardians' dull London townhouse. Unforeseen circumstances finally gave her the chance to escape. She decided for the first time in her life to go off on her own, to a quiet fishing village in Scotland...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age bildungsroman romance contemporary fiction historical-fiction war -
![Lanark by Alasdair Gray]()
Lanark by Alasdair Gray
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis work, originally published in 1981, has been hailed as the most influential Scottish novel of the second half of the 20th century. Its playful narrative techniques convey a profound message, personal and political, about humankind's inability to love and yet our compulsion to go on trying...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure adult book contemporary -
![I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch]()
I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsArrested and imprisoned in a small Swiss town, a prisoner begins this book with an exclamation: "I'm not Stiller!" He claims that his name is Jim White, that he has been jailed under false charges and under the wrong identity... -
![Fifth Formers of St Clare's by Enid Blyton]()
Fifth Formers of St Clare's by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe St. Clare's girls are now in the fifth form, shortly to go up into the sixth, but they are not too old for tricks and escapades, jokes and excitement. Especially amusing is French girl Antoinette who, like her sister Claudine, doesn't always understand the ways of St. Clare's...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics 20th-century action-adventure boarding-school book british-isles children -
![Son of the Black Stallion by Walter Farley]()
Son of the Black Stallion by Walter Farley
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhen Alec receives the Black Stallion’s first son as a gift, he believes his dreams have come true, but Satan’s savage arrogance makes him dangerous and unpredictable. Still, Alec is resolved to gain the fiery colt’s trust, even if he must risk his life to do it...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure animals anthropomorphism book children -
![Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber]()
Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHere is the stunning international bestseller in the tradition of Watership Down but with a dark, original twist. Unique, daring, and unforgettable, it tells the story of an ordinary family who accidentally threaten the security of a hidden civilization as intelligent as our own--a colony of ants determined to survive at any cost... -
![Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson]()
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 85 ratingsJess Aarons' greatest ambition is to be the fastest runner in his grade. He's been practicing all summer and can't wait to see his classmates' faces when he beats them all. But on the first day of school, a new girl boldly crosses over to the boys' side and outruns everyone.That's not a very promising beginning for a friendship, but Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children -
![The Gift of Numbers by Yōko Ogawa]()
The Gift of Numbers by Yōko Ogawa
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWinner of the Yomiuri Literature PrizeWinner of the Honya Taisho (The Booksellers Prize)Winner of the Sugaku Shuppan-Sho (from the Japanese Academy of Mathematics)A Japan Foundation Selection A publishing phenomenon in Japan--and a heartwarming story that will change the way we all see math, baseball, memory, and each other She is a housekeeper by trade, a single mom by choice, shy, brilliant,...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age journey 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult aging -
![Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke]()
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsA boy. A dragon. A quest.Firedrake, Ben; and their furry friend, Sorrel, are in search of the mythical place where dragons can live in peace forever. Together they embark on a journey that takes them to magical lands where they meet marvelous creatures - and one ruthless villain... -
![Collected Poems, 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott]()
Collected Poems, 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThis remarkable collection, which won the 1986 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry, includes most of the poems from each of Derek Walcott's seven prior books of verse and all of his long autobiographical poem, "Another Life...Categorized as:
classics 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary fiction literary -
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![The Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kiš]()
The Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kiš
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAn entrancing, otherworldly collection of short stories from one of Europe's most accomplished 20th century writers, new to Penguin Modern ClassicsA counter-prophet attempts the impossible to prove his power; a girl sees the hideous fate of her sisters and father in a mirror bought from a gypsy; the death of a prostitute causes an unanticipated uprising; and the lives of every ordinary person... -
![Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury]()
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsRay Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. Dandelion Wine stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author's most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small-town summer in 1928...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children -
![A Heart So White by Javier Marías]()
A Heart So White by Javier Marías
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn alternate cover of this ISBN can be found here.Javier Marías's A Heart So White chronicles with unnerving insistence the relentless power of the past. Juan knows little of the interior life of his father Ranz; but when Juan marries, he begins to consider the past anew, and begins to ponder what he doesn't really want to know... -
![The Twins at St Clare's by Enid Blyton]()
The Twins at St Clare's by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSchooldays at St Clare's are never dull for twins Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan in Enid Blyton's much-loved boarding school series.In audiobook, one the twins is simply not having it. St Clare's is beneath them, and they're determined to cause a stir. But life at St Clare's is not as easy as they thought...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure boarding-school book children children-books -
![Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, Book One by C.D. Payne]()
Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, Book One by C.D. Payne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsSix months in the life of the world's most dangerous teenager.Youth in Revolt is the journals of Nick Twisp, California's most precocious diarist, whose ongoing struggles to make sense out of high school, deal with his divorced parents, and lose his virginity result in his transformation from an unassuming fourteen-year-old to a modern youth in open revolt...Categorized as:
bildungsroman coming-of-age 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children comedy -
![The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann]()
The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA group of forest animals unite to help each other to safety in this classic tale of tolerance, cooperation, survival, and friendship. When bulldozers enter Farthing Wood, the animals must escape before their homes are destroyed. They promise to stick together and protect each other—but then they get caught in a fire and nearly drown crossing a river...Categorized as:
classics journey 20th-century action-adventure animals anthropomorphism audiobook book
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