Often when I tell people that I love to read, they ask me what my favorite book is. As any avid reader knows, this is a rather tough question. In no particular order below, are the books that I will always return to time after time hungry for more. These are the books that I will pass down to my children, I recommend to anyone who will listen, and will always hold a special place on my shelf.
My All-Time Favorites (in no particular order)
1. Harry Potter Series – J.K. Rowling
One of my earliest memories is my mom coming home from work with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in hand. This was soon after the book was published, and hadn’t attracted the popularity and acclaim that it soon would. I was 6 years old, and instantly fell in love with the series as my parents read it to me before going to bed. Soon, I was able to read it myself – I even pronounced Hermione’s name “Her-me-own.” Oops. Ever since, the books have held a very special place within me and always will. They were the series that I grew up with (the last book came out when I was 16), and had taught myself to read with. They were the books that truly taught me the magic (no pun intended) of reading.
What’s my favorite book in the series? The first and last, of course.
2. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
In my senior year of high school, I was part of a very small and very close AP English Literature class. The books that we read ranged from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre to Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (see below) to contemporary literature like Bel Canto. Within the first few chapters, I completely fell in love with Bel Canto and read the book in about two days – weeks ahead of our syllabus. The writing is perhaps some of the most beautiful that I have ever encountered – lyrical like the opera music that is a central tenet of the book, and flowed with such a beauty that moved the reading along with the story and its characters. Bel Canto made me a devoted Patchett fan, but unfortunately none of her other books quite stood up to the high expectations that this masterpiece set. This novel is a masterpiece, and I highly recommend it – it’s an incredible story, beautifully told.
3. 1Q84 – Haruki Murakami
1Q84 was the first Murakami book that I ever read – I picked it up at a bookstore in Grand Central on my way to a hostessing job downtown because I thought that the cover seemed interesting (and I have always been a lifelong fan of George Orwell’s 1984). The book is massive – 924 pages to be exact. I was completely unaware of the massive buildup and popularity behind the novel’s release, so large that “it received a level of attention typically reserved for established cross-platform franchises.” Although many read the long-awaited novel as a disappointment, I absolutely loved it. It was my first Murakami, and therefore like nothing I had ever read before. It did take me a long time to get through – nearly two months. I kept picking it up and putting it back down, reading late into the night and then not glancing at it for two weeks. The power of the story is slow – the words and their meaning is far away once you begin, but then slowly envelopes you as you continue and essentially smacks you over the head when the novel is finished. After reading several of Murakami’s other novels, I can see how 1Q84 is so different. Nonetheless, it is still my favorite of his books and one of my all-time favorites.
4. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
This was another book on the syllabus for my AP English Literature class from my senior year of high school. The most grueling 53 pages that I have ever had to get through in the history of literature, but oh how it was worth it. Few books have left me with such an impression that Heart of Darkness has. Intense and compelling, it takes the reader on a journey through the jungle of the Congo into the darkest recesses of human nature. Written over 100 years ago, it still holds as much, if not more, significance today. One of the few novels that I believe that everyone should read.
5. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez
After my best friend hitting me over the head with this book for several years in an effort to encourage me to read her favorite book, I finally picked up One Hundred Years of Solitude as a suitable beginning to my 52 Books in 52 Weeks project for 2015. Unlike most of the other books on this list, this was not one that I loved every minute of. I absolutely adored some parts, while others made me wonder why I was reading this silly paragraph over nothing. However, the end of the novel, those fateful final few pages, changed everything. One Hundred Years of Solitude is an enduring classic for many reasons – it is a brilliant chronicle and telling of the cycle of life and death, and the beauty of humankind through one family. It makes me very sad that 95% of readers don’t actually stick through the book, because the end makes it all worth it – all of the feelings.
6. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Another book that my best friend (a fellow bookworm) has been recommending to me for years, and I finally read. Oh good lord, I cannot even emphasize all of the feelings and tingles and thoughts that this book made me feel. To clarify, there are few things that I love more than a book about a book. One of those things is a good story. Although this isn’t the finest piece of grand classical literature that left me questioning the universe and my role in it (which many books do), The Shadow of the Wind is a story in the way that stories are supposed to be. Richly developed characters that you befriend along the way, a gloomy and engaging setting in Barcelona, a city of smoke and mirrors, young love, love lost, a tragic hero and a sickeningly great villain – The Shadow of the Wind has it all.
7. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (the book that changed everything!)
After a friend recommended this to me last May while in Rwanda (an appropriate place for the read), I ordered it on Amazon and had it sitting on my bookshelf for months until I had the time to read it. Once I began, I finished it in less than two days with the feeling that I was holding a newfound Americanahan classic in my hands. Americanah is so much more than a story of love between a man and a woman from Nigeria – it is a remarkable, thoughtful, and truthful book. It hits the issue of race in America on the head. The main character, Ifemelu says, “We all wish race was not an issue. But it’s a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue, I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America.” The inclusion of the blog posts from Ifemulu’s blog, Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black, was wonderful.
Americanah is not only about race – it touches other issues such as social inequality, immigration, self-acceptance, loss of cultural identity, and change. The book remains with you after you finish reading, forcing you to question issues of all types of inequality in American society and begging you to read it again. Without a doubt, I’ll read this book again at a later time and come back ready for more.
The Hungry Bibliophile 