With an estimated 170 million books worldwide, there’s a lot of unique stories that are easy to miss
If really like to hear the texts you hold near and dear to your heart
Some basic rules to help keep this discussion productive and fun for everyone:
1) PLEASE say the title, author, and basic summary. We don’t know every book out there
2) PLEASE say why it’s your favorite. Otherwise, your comment is no different than a holiday wish list
3) PLEASE only say fictional books (no college textbooks, encyclopedias, religious texts, self-help, screenplays, etc) Let’s discuss literature
4) PLEASE avoid the banned book talk. Everyone deserves an opportunity to read about what interests them. A book having controversial elements doesn’t make it deserving of a “ban”
I, personally, have both a children’s/YA list and an adult list
I will share some of my adult list:
1) Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald:
Gatsby is my ultimate favorite book. The story is a recollection of events that take place when millionaire Nick Carraway moves to Long Island and befriends a group of other enigmatic heirs during the summer of 1922
Very few books show a true snapshot of history and cover so many unique themes (ex. Unrequited love, personal identity, alcoholism, nihilism, social standards amongst the upper class, organized crime, etc)
If you like mysteries and existentialist debates, this is a great book for you
2) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov:
Lolita is a testimony by French professor Humbert Humbert who tries to explain his unhealthy interest in the young Delores (“Lolita”)
Humbert seems more like a villain than anti hero, but he’s also the protagonist of the novel. None of the other characters become deeply humanized in Humbert’s POV, so readers get entirely swept up into the mind of an unreliable and troubled narrator
3) The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho:
Not to be confused with the American hip-hop producer, The Alchemist chronicles the adventure of a medieval Spanish shepard boy (Santiago) who sets off to Egypt in hopes of finding treasures at the pyramids
I read this book in high school during class (when I was supposed to be listening to the teacher) and the themes of gaining independence, everyone having their own purpose in life, and treasures being beyond material riches really resonated with my then-teenage mind
While Alchemist is very verbose and drags on at certain points, it’s a great novel overall
4) 1001 Nights by various authors
The oldest novel out of these examples, 1001 Nights is a folktale about a young Queen (Scheherazade) who tells a different fairytale every night to her king for 1001 straight evenings in order to save her life
Each story discusses a fantastical adventure with hidden moral lessons (like how to deal with jealousy, fate vs free will, using resourcefulness instead of violence to solve conflicts, etc)
The enchanting tales and dangerous future for Queen Scheherazade make this a once in a lifetime novel
I have many more books in my kid and adult lists, but these were just a few of my examples
I’m really looking forward to hearing about your own favorites!
Thanks for contributing to the discussion 🙂
by Far-Building3569