An enthusiastic reader must surely agree that it's stupid to limit the number of books you can talk about, especially when that number is as low as ten. Also, sometimes lists just ain’t enough. These books are special and deserve more than just a mere mention, so here goes:
To Kill a Mockingbird
– Harper Lee
A book so sublime I can’t even begin to find
words to describe it in a way that will do it justice. All I can say is, if I had to pick just
one book as my favourite, (which is excruciatingly hard) it would be this one.
Mortimer Says Nothing
– Joan Aiken
This is a children’s book that mom
brought me from a library well over a decade ago. I read it just that
once and haven’t seen it anywhere ever since, but it’s stayed
with me all these years. It had three
hilarious short stories of a young girl and her raven Mortimer who says only one
word: "nevermore". It was only years later that I read Poe and realized Joan
Aiken's not just a great children’s writer but also a sneaky genius.
The Black Magician
Trilogy – Trudi Canavan
It's been quite a few years since these books too, and I still feel extremely privileged to have read them. I’ve enjoyed several great books after this trilogy, but unless I read it again and find I've changed my mind about its awesomeness, I can safely say this is my
favourite fantasy series so far.
The Bartimaeus Trilogy –
Jonathan Stroud
My favourite fantasy series after TBMT. The story has some of the grimness you can expect to find in fantasy, but it also made me laugh and laugh and laugh. And cry a little bit on
the last page. It's a book in which the numerous footnotes are the best part. Like this one:
We communicated with pithy, rather monosyllabic thoughts: viz. Run, Jump, Where? Left, Up, Duck,* etc.
*This latter was an observation I made on the edge of a lake. Nathaniel unfortunately took it as a command, which resulted in our temporary immersion.
The Stepford Wives –
Ira Levin
The most intriguing book I’ve ever had the good fortune to read. Which is
remarkable considering it’s just a little novel with crisp, straightforward writing,
ordinary characters, and a simple story that’s perfectly easy to understand
except for the one little bit that leaves you guessing. It moves fast, is freakishly gripping, and, quite frankly, gave me chills by being unnaturally mind-blowing. Based on this book, I’d say this
guy is to writing what Tesla is to science.
A Tale of Two Cities –
Charles Dickens
Dickens is one of those writers who I thought wrote unreasonably wordy stories and was relevant in this century solely as a tormentor of high school students
like me. That was before I read this book. Typical Dickensian writing, but somehow strangely fascinating and, over time, quite wonderful. It has plenty of epic lines and gives us Sidney Carton, one of the most beautiful human characters
in the history of fiction.
And Then There Were
None – Agatha Christie
Remember all her novels in which you know the murderer
is the one who’s introduced as the nice person with absolutely no apparent motive
or opportunity to be a killer? This one is different. It was my first Christie book,
so obviously everything else by her seemed drab in comparison. It’s a murder mystery that's thrilling even if you've read it before.
Oh, The Places You'll Go! – Dr. Seuss
If anyone else had written something like this, I may have
dismissed it as preachy garbage and mentally slapped the author for being annoyingly self-righteous and filling people’s heads with
pseudo-motivational gunk. But this is inspiring and uplifting in a way that doesn't make you feel like you've accidentally stumbled into a cult of stoned yoga-doing hippies.
Maskerade – Terry
Pratchett
Many people might say that this is far from being the best
book in the Discworld series, but to me, it's the best of them all (though I should probably mention that by "all", I mean the few books I've read from that vast collection). I don't recall laughing that hard and that much with any other book, and the phantom's letter is a stroke of sheer brilliance from an otherwise generally brilliant writer.
Ahahahahaha! Ahahahaha! Aahahaha!
BEWARE!!!!!
Yrs Sincerely,
The Opera Ghost
"What sort of person," said Salzella patiently, "sits down and writes a maniacal laugh? And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head. Opera can do that to a man."
And he takes a dig at Sherlock Holmes as well:
“Well, I think," said Nobby, "that when you rule out the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, ain't worth hanging around for on a cold night wonderin' about when you could be getting on the outside of a big drink.”
The Bunnies' Get
Well Soup – Joan Elizabeth Goodman
This was one of my favourite books when I was little, and though I outgrew it long, long ago, I'm still (and shall always be) extremely fond of it. It's a sweet, simple story with splendid illustrations by the author and a recipe for the Get Well Soup that I used to wish mom would make instead of laughing at me for being naive enough to believe it was a real recipe.
Ten books/series done! *drumroll*
But I'm not done yet.
Here are some authors whose books would have been on the list if I had had the ability to choose just one of their works:
Neil Gaiman – If there’s one person who can make me fall in love with words, it’s him. He makes darkness in any form enchanting, can really mess with your head, and leaves you feeling like you're not the same person you were before you read him. Also, he gave us what might just be the best piece of advice in the world: the best way to deal with anything life throws at you is to "make good art".
Best speech ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plWexCID-kA
Roald Dahl – One of
those rare writers who has produced equally fantastic works for both children
and adults. If you didn’t read his books growing up, I truly feel sorry for
you. But hey, it's never too late to start!
Oscar Wilde – The
most quotable person that ever was and ever will be. Clever,
funny, outrageous genius, that guy. He's someone I earnestly wish I could have met! I’m sure I’d have loved him. We would
have gotten along wonderfully, I think. Or he would have hated me for not being supremely awesome. But Wilde being Wilde, I'd have gladly accepted (and even treasured) his condescension in place of love from a few other people.
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Oscar_Wilde/
Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle – I don’t need to explain, do I? It’s elementary, dear (your name). Of course,
if you’ve actually read the entire series, you would know Holmes never said
that – not even with "Watson" in the bracket, I mean – in any of the books. True story, non-readers.
Lewis Carroll – His writing can be analyzed at so many levels. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass may be children’s books, but they seem relevant to almost any context, such as politics, philosophy, drugs, math, religion, history, etc. So surreal but scientific, whimsical yet logical, silly yet sensible. But you
don’t have to take my word for it. Just ask any of the hundreds of people who
have referred to it in their writings, screen adaptations, general musings, and so on. Also, the Jabberwocky is a marvellous poem – one of my favourites.
Here's an interesting link that discusses the Alice books:
http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/alice10.html
Giovanni Guareschi – My Home, Sweet Home is a really cute collection of short stories about the everyday adventures of an Italian family, and the Don Camillo series is an absolutely delightful collection that's fun to read but also deals with serious issues and often takes on a satirical form. It revolves around two main characters: Don Camillo, a priest with very normal human tendencies, and communist mayor Peppone, DC's nemesis whom he's forced to work with every once in a while. One of the main highlights for me is a very cool Christ (with a rather wicked sense of humour) who DC communicates with mainly through the crucifix in his church, often venting his frustration and receiving (not altogether unhelpful) advice and gentle admonitions.
"Down with capitalism!" said Comrade Rondella.
"Death to priests!" roared Peppone, looking Don Camillo straight in the eye.
As Don Camillo raised his cup he gave Peppone an eloquent kick in the shins.
I've written more than I thought I would, so I shall end with just a list of ten authors I'd have liked to write about but won't, which is sort of what I was supposed to do in the first place:
Beatrix Potter
Roger
Hargreaves
Enid Blyton
Richmal Crompton
Dav Pilkey
L. Frank Baum
P. G. Wodehouse
Demetri Martin
Goscinny and Uderzo – Asterix Series
These books are amazing on multiple levels even though all of them work around the same basic concept of Gauls drinking magic potion and beating the crap out of Romans and anyone else they want to beat up. They have tons of clever puns everywhere, starting right from the characters' names, include wonderful illustrations, successfully make Caesar seem quite the douchebag, and contain several highly memorable and quotable lines.
J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter Series
Many people my age seem to think it’s no longer cool to say they enjoyed Harry Potter. Sure, we've all read books since then that make us feel like our reading habits have evolved, but people who read them as young kids can't deny the magic of the alternate universe it created. It’s even more untrue than saying you never really enjoyed anything about the Backstreet Boys.
Yeah . . . I can't just do a normal list with no explanation at all. Not when it comes to books. But hey, I'm finally done. For now.
