16 Books That Every Introvert Needs to Read

Introverts will relate to Cheryl Strayed's need for a solo journey to find herself and face her demons in her novel Wild.

Stephen Chbosky's narrator in Perks of Being a Wallflower is quiet, introverted, socially awkward, and completely brilliant.

Junot Díaz's novel The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao contains elements of magical realism, and tells the story of a overweight Dominican boy who is a hopeless romantic growing up in New Jersey. He's a quirky and unlikely protagonist who loves to read science fiction and fantasy books, and is obsessed with what he believes to be a family curse.

The character of Kathy in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go contrasts with the extroverted Ruth, and introverts will appreciate her as an observant — sometimes passive and even detached — narrator.

While the main character of Andy Weir's The Martian didn't necessarily choose to be isolated from the world, introverts will enjoy his depth as a person, and response to his solitude.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a poignant novel about two characters who feel they must hide who they really are from a world that can't or won't accept them.

Walden details author and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau's experience living in a cabin in the woods, and is a reflection on life when experienced in a simpler, more natural setting away from society.

Poet Emily Dickinson was a notorious recluse, and many of her poems reflect her sentiments about people, as well as her reservations about confronting the outside world.

Everyone deals with their introversion in different ways. The protagonist in Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl escapes people in the world and her anxiety by channeling her emotions into writing fanfiction, finding it easier to interact with people in the online community more easily than those in her actual life.

The titular character in Jane Eyre is a classic and relatable introvert; someone who is content to get lost in literature and a quiet world of her own making rather than deal with complicated human interactions.

Quiet is an introverts guidebook; the New York Times bestseller draws well-researched conclusions about the personality of introverts, and the importance of understanding them.

Stieg Larsson's wildly successful Millenium series began with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and features a protagonist named Lisbeth Salander, an extremely introverted and sometimes hostile woman who prefers to keep to herself and struggles to interact with other people.

In Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch, a young boy who lost his mother is transplanted into a world he doesn't understand and where no one understands him, and where the one thing he has left to cling to is a painting that reminds him of his mom.

Twin siblings, once inseparable, deal with the loss of their mother in different ways as the two pull away from each other, and as one pulls more into herself. Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun is a perfect read for YA fans seeking an introvert to relate to.

Into the Wild is a true story about a young man with a desire to escape the life he had in order to travel alone in the Alaskan wilderness. The novel explores themes dealing with isolation from society and transcendentalism.

Sherlock Holmes is another famous literary introvert, with eccentric and quirky qualities. Book-lovers and introverts alike will both love the stories and relate to the chararacter of Sherlock Holmes.