Listed: 15 Books To Read If You Loved One Day

Whether you loved the book by David Nicholls or the Netflix series, I did the research for book comps so you don't have to...

Hello! I’m going to get to the book comps soon, but I do want to let you know how I came up with these book comparisons (i.e comps) to the iconic One Day by David Nicholls. I read One Day wayyyy back in February of 2011 and it remains my second favorite book of all time (if you’re wondering, A Little Life by Hanya Hanagihara is #1). And it also remains one of the hardest books to find comp titles for. As others have said over the years, One Day is a bit of a unique book because it combines friendship, love, humor, and yes plenty of angst and “bittersweetness,” all in an interesting structure - it begins in 1988 and continues on in time following the characters Dex and Emma every July 15 over the next twenty years. This structure works brilliantly and combined with David Nicholls writing I think this is why similar comps are so hard to find.

This little project initially started out with me looking for one comp for my larger book comps post (still working on that so stay tuned), but as I continued researching, I started finding many interesting comps that others have said are similar to One Day whether in storyline, tone, theme, etc. I started going down the deep rabbit hole that is One Day comps and I checked and cross checked article after article, book lists, and so many reddit threads. For every book I’m listing here, I first checked the synopsis and then read a few reviews or comments if available to determine if they seemed like they could be comps. I’ve personally read a few of these as well. So, just know that all of the books listed here are the best of the crop (in my opinion) as far as One Day comps go. In fact, after many hours of research, I ended up with 30 comps for One Day!! Of those 30, I starred six that were repeatedly mentioned in several articles/lists/threads. I will put a ⭐️ next to those titles in today’s list.

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• Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny - About the challenges of a good marriage, the delight and heartache of raising children, and the irresistible temptation to wonder about the path not taken.

• Normal People by Sally Rooney ⭐️ - A story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can't.

• Before We Were Strangers by Renee Carlino - A love story about a Craigslist "missed connection" post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City.

• Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher - About a celebrity who comes to town and sweeps a young woman - who is used to being overlooked - off her feet.

• Rootless by Krystle Zara Appeiah ⭐️ - Faced with a life-altering decision, married couple Efe and Sam find themselves on opposing sides, forced to confront just how radically different they want their lives to be. Then one day, Efe disappears.

• One Day in December by Josie Silver - Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.

• The Course of Love by Alain De Botton - a Romantic novel in the true sense, one interested in exploring how love can survive and thrive in the long term…a fictional, philosophical, psychological story that urges us to identify deeply with these characters and to reflect on his and her own experiences in love

• Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman - The story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera

• The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett ⭐️- A dazzling novel about the ways the smallest decisions give shape to our lives, charting a single relationship through three possible futures.

• Seven Days in June by Tia Williams - Seven days to fall in love, fifteen years to forget, and seven days to get it all back again...

• Yerba Buena by Nina Lacour - The morning Emilie and Sara first meet their connection is immediate. But soon Sara's old life catches up to her, upending everything she thought she wanted, just as Emilie has finally gained her own sense of purpose. Will their love be more powerful than their pasts?

• Anybody Out There by Marion Keyes - Marrying life's darker bits with wild humor and tender wit, this story is a strange and wonderfully charming look at love here and ever after.

• Starter for Ten by David Nicholls - The year is 1985. Brian Jackson, a working-class kid on full scholarship, has started his first term at university and it’s not long before he's fallen head over heels for the beautiful, brainy, and intimidatingly posh Alice Harbinson. Life seems perfect —but as his world opens up, Brian learns that all may not be as wonderful as it seems

• The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo - This love story between Lucy & Gabe spans decades and continents as two star-crossed lovers try to return to each other...Will they ever meet again?

• The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan - A story that explores love ask asks - Is it even possible to describe something at once utterly mundane and wholly transcendent, that has the power to consume our lives completely, while making us feel part of something infinitely larger than ourselves?

I hope you enjoyed browsing this list and possibly found some new to you titles if, like me, you were utterly consumed by the book One Day.