My Favorite Books

When asked what my favorite book is, I don’t think I’ve ever given a definitive or concrete answer. I’ve don’t think I’ve ever read a book that I truly consider my favorite. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy books. I just believe that, for me at least, so far, there is no one book that entirely stands above the rest. While there are some books I’ve read (like the works of J.R.R Tolkien or J.K. Rowling) that are incredibly entertaining and enjoyable, I don’t consider them my favorites. I’d say I have several favorites, maybe even a top 5 list, listed in no particular order.

1.       Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis. It is a dark tale of rich teenagers in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills during the 1980s. It’s a portrait of one boy’s, Clay’s, distance from his former friends after returning from his first semester away at college, and the misadventures in  the 90210 night life. It is written in stream-of-consciousness first person narration that accurately depicts the way teenagers think. Even 27 years after it was written is the mentality of invincibility and careless that the characters exhibit still prevalent. Also, it was made into a mediocre movie with Robert Downey Jr. as the Clay’s wayward friend Julian. And the sequel that came out 26 years later with Clay as a grown man was pretty good too.

2.      A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess. Written in the 1960s, it is a Cold War vision of a dystopian future England where gangs of teenagers rule the night and partake in vandalism and “ultraviolence.” It focuses on Alex, a charismatic teenage gangster who ends up in jail after a crime spree gone wrong. The novel is written in three parts, showing Alex’s transformation and (technically) coming of age. It could actually fit into the curriculum of Literature and Civilizations II, however it is very graphic in its depiction of rape and murder scenes. For the book, Burgess created an entire set of slang, called Nadsat (teenage-speak). It is initially a difficult read, but once the reader picks up on the language it is not too difficult aside from the subject matter. Also made into a film adaptation by iconic director Stanley Kubrick. 

3.      The Broom of the System – David Foster Wallace. Better known for his magnum opus Infinite Jest, Wallace writes about an eccentric young woman, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman, from an eccentric family, whose mental search for identity and love coincides with the physical search for her missing Great Grandmother. While highly philosophically and psychologically engaging, discussing the importance or triteness of words, it is also largely satirical. It has a wide array of strange characters, including Lenore’s boyfriend, who is a short story editor for a journal who lives vicariously through his own failed works of fiction, and her parakeet, (Count Vlad the Impaler,) that can only recite Bible verses.

4.      All the Pretty Horses/The Crossing – Cormac McCarthy. I’m lumping these two books together because, although centered on different characters in somewhat different settings, they are part of a series and very similar in nature. ATPH is about a boy who runs away from with his best friend to Mexico on horseback and ends up finding work there, along with forbidden love. The Crossing is about a boy (named Billy) and his brother who try and return a lone wolf that was terrorizing their ranch back to Mexico. They return home to find their ranch destroyed by Indians, and follow them to Mexico where Billy’s brother becomes a revered outlaw, a Robin Hood-esque figure. McCarthy’s style of writing and descriptive nature of the Texan and Mexican countryside make these into modern Romantic novels.

5.      The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams. In one of the funniest books I’ve ever come across, Adams tells the story of a man, Arthur Dent, who flees Earth with his long-time friend (secret alien Ford Prefect, named after the car) and is thrust into the weird and wild world that is outer space. They encounter the former President of the Galaxy, who travels in a ship of infinite improbability, in which anything can happen. Adams uses poignant satire with creative science fiction, along with a quick narrative pace making it an easy read. Don't Panic.