My Top 5 Favorite Books
I have been a bookworm since my mom and I read Charlotte's Web together when I was six years old. Since then, I have read hundreds of books. Some I have completely forgotten or don't care to remember, while others have stuck with me for years.
I have a lot of favorite books. I love everything from Nicholas Sparks novels to the Divergent series, a trilogy I am proud to be hipster about. But there only a few books that have left truly struck me and allowed me to fall in love with their stories over and over again.
I am going to be sharing my top 5 most loved novels. These are by no means the only books I have fallen in love with, but they are the ones for which I have a special fondness and connection.
5. Looking for Alaska by John Greene
I jumped on the John Greene bandwagon right around the time The Fault in Our Stars was being made into a movie. I had watched the Greene brothers on YouTube and had heard John Greene discuss his books but for some reason had never felt the urge to read them. That changed, of course, when a million people were telling me how amazing he was.
I started with The Fault in Our Stars and I enjoyed it but didn't feel the connection some of my friends had with it. I moved on to Looking for Alaska and was immediately hooked on the John Greene craze. This story was just as quirky as TFIOS was but I didn't find it as predictable, and the characters were less annoying.
I don't want to give a summary of the novel because I don't think I could do it justice, and I think it's best to go into this book blind to its contents.
There is something about this book that has allowed me to read it numerous times over the two years since my initial read. I have read every John Greene book but one now and no other has made me fall in love like Looking for Alaska.
I'm just praying that they don't ruin the movie adaptation.
4. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Everyone knows Flynn because of the film Gone Girl and the novel that inspired it. I have read every novel Flynn has published and think Gone Girl is by far the weakest link. I read all three of her novels over my Spring Break last March and haven't been able to stop thinking about them since.
Dark Places is a creepy and demented murder mystery about a woman who's family was brutally murdered one night when she was a child, a murder she blamed on her brother. Years later she is convinced by a fan club full of murder-case buffs to revisit her testimony and the evidence surrounding the murders.
This book drew me in immediately and I am quick to point everyone in the direction of what I think is Flynn's strongest work. Sharp Objects, Flynn's other novel, is also a thrilling and engaging read but there is something about Dark Places that has stuck with me.
Both of these novels, however, made me stay up until 3 o'clock in the morning because I couldn't stop reading them and had to know how they ended.
3. Atonement by Ian McEwan
I read this book for my senior year of high school summer reading assignment as surprising as that may seem. I chose it on a whim and have loved it ever since.
This is another story that I think is best to go into blind. I will say, however, that the characters of this novel have stuck with me over time.
There is a deeper meaning in Atonement that goes beyond the false rape accusations and the war stories. I have even found one of my all-time favorite quotes from this novel: "Other people are as real as you."
This novel has the ability to connect to today and engage the reader without boring them, an area where many classics fall short.
2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
I always struggle with choosing my favorite book because this could easily be it. I love this Gone with the Wind for one reason: Kick-Ass Scarlett O'Hara.
The Civil War era was not a time when women were celebrated for being confident, independent individuals but that's exactly what Scarlett was. And that's exactly why I love her so much.
I first read this book when I was a freshman in high school and I though Scarlett was the most annoying character ever written. Five years later, however, I have a very different view of the heroine.
Scarlett knows what she wants and she doesn't care what she has to do or who she has to offend to get it. She cares about saving her home from destruction and keeping herself wealthy and happy, and she doesn't need a man to protect her. This is the beauty of the novel.
Sure, most young women can relate to the love story between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, and there is something so very tempting about a gentleman with an edge but that's not what makes this book a classic. It's a classic because it told the story of a woman making it on her own in a time when women thought they were put on Earth to serve men. Scarlett has a strength and character that was unheard of in her time and that strength and character inspires me everyday.
Everyone knows the quote "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" from the movie adaptation, spoken by Rhett Butler has he leaves Scarlett.
But my favorite quote is from the novel itself: "Burdens are for shoulders strong enough to carry them." It's a mantra for every woman who has ever suffered or had to fight herself. And it sums up exactly what I love about this book.
1. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Most people have read this series or seen the movies, but not everyone can say they've read them at least eight times each. I can say this because I am that obsessed with the series.
I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when I was in the fourth grade. But I didn't fall in love with them until two years later when I bonded over them with a new best friend.
I have read the series at least once every year since that time, and I have yet to get sick of them.
Each time I read them, I discover new things I didn't appreciate before or see things with a new view. This past summer, I read them again and felt completely differently about characters I used to love. For example, I hated Hermione and her know-it-all attitude, when in the past she was a role model and a beloved character.
I believe that every person should read the series at least once, which is why my mother is currently pecking away at Chamber of Secrets. I won't let her stop until she's reached at least my favorite installment, The Half-Blood Prince.
I don't think the movies do the franchise justice and I don't accept the opinion of people who have only ever watched the films. You have to read them to appreciate them or read them to have an opinion on the franchise.
After all this time, I definitely have an opinion on the franchise.
Photo Credit: Goodreads.com
I have a lot of favorite books. I love everything from Nicholas Sparks novels to the Divergent series, a trilogy I am proud to be hipster about. But there only a few books that have left truly struck me and allowed me to fall in love with their stories over and over again.
I am going to be sharing my top 5 most loved novels. These are by no means the only books I have fallen in love with, but they are the ones for which I have a special fondness and connection.
I jumped on the John Greene bandwagon right around the time The Fault in Our Stars was being made into a movie. I had watched the Greene brothers on YouTube and had heard John Greene discuss his books but for some reason had never felt the urge to read them. That changed, of course, when a million people were telling me how amazing he was.
I started with The Fault in Our Stars and I enjoyed it but didn't feel the connection some of my friends had with it. I moved on to Looking for Alaska and was immediately hooked on the John Greene craze. This story was just as quirky as TFIOS was but I didn't find it as predictable, and the characters were less annoying.
I don't want to give a summary of the novel because I don't think I could do it justice, and I think it's best to go into this book blind to its contents.
There is something about this book that has allowed me to read it numerous times over the two years since my initial read. I have read every John Greene book but one now and no other has made me fall in love like Looking for Alaska.
I'm just praying that they don't ruin the movie adaptation.
Everyone knows Flynn because of the film Gone Girl and the novel that inspired it. I have read every novel Flynn has published and think Gone Girl is by far the weakest link. I read all three of her novels over my Spring Break last March and haven't been able to stop thinking about them since.
Dark Places is a creepy and demented murder mystery about a woman who's family was brutally murdered one night when she was a child, a murder she blamed on her brother. Years later she is convinced by a fan club full of murder-case buffs to revisit her testimony and the evidence surrounding the murders.
This book drew me in immediately and I am quick to point everyone in the direction of what I think is Flynn's strongest work. Sharp Objects, Flynn's other novel, is also a thrilling and engaging read but there is something about Dark Places that has stuck with me.
Both of these novels, however, made me stay up until 3 o'clock in the morning because I couldn't stop reading them and had to know how they ended.
I read this book for my senior year of high school summer reading assignment as surprising as that may seem. I chose it on a whim and have loved it ever since.
This is another story that I think is best to go into blind. I will say, however, that the characters of this novel have stuck with me over time.
There is a deeper meaning in Atonement that goes beyond the false rape accusations and the war stories. I have even found one of my all-time favorite quotes from this novel: "Other people are as real as you."
This novel has the ability to connect to today and engage the reader without boring them, an area where many classics fall short.
I always struggle with choosing my favorite book because this could easily be it. I love this Gone with the Wind for one reason: Kick-Ass Scarlett O'Hara.
The Civil War era was not a time when women were celebrated for being confident, independent individuals but that's exactly what Scarlett was. And that's exactly why I love her so much.
I first read this book when I was a freshman in high school and I though Scarlett was the most annoying character ever written. Five years later, however, I have a very different view of the heroine.
Scarlett knows what she wants and she doesn't care what she has to do or who she has to offend to get it. She cares about saving her home from destruction and keeping herself wealthy and happy, and she doesn't need a man to protect her. This is the beauty of the novel.
Sure, most young women can relate to the love story between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, and there is something so very tempting about a gentleman with an edge but that's not what makes this book a classic. It's a classic because it told the story of a woman making it on her own in a time when women thought they were put on Earth to serve men. Scarlett has a strength and character that was unheard of in her time and that strength and character inspires me everyday.
Everyone knows the quote "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" from the movie adaptation, spoken by Rhett Butler has he leaves Scarlett.
But my favorite quote is from the novel itself: "Burdens are for shoulders strong enough to carry them." It's a mantra for every woman who has ever suffered or had to fight herself. And it sums up exactly what I love about this book.
Most people have read this series or seen the movies, but not everyone can say they've read them at least eight times each. I can say this because I am that obsessed with the series.
I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when I was in the fourth grade. But I didn't fall in love with them until two years later when I bonded over them with a new best friend.
I have read the series at least once every year since that time, and I have yet to get sick of them.
Each time I read them, I discover new things I didn't appreciate before or see things with a new view. This past summer, I read them again and felt completely differently about characters I used to love. For example, I hated Hermione and her know-it-all attitude, when in the past she was a role model and a beloved character.
I believe that every person should read the series at least once, which is why my mother is currently pecking away at Chamber of Secrets. I won't let her stop until she's reached at least my favorite installment, The Half-Blood Prince.
I don't think the movies do the franchise justice and I don't accept the opinion of people who have only ever watched the films. You have to read them to appreciate them or read them to have an opinion on the franchise.
After all this time, I definitely have an opinion on the franchise.
Photo Credit: Goodreads.com
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