A simple little post, talking about my five favorite books of all time. Admittedly, some titles on this list are flexible, but these are definitely in the upper echelon at a constant rate.
5.) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
“COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.”
I am admittedly due for a reread of this book, as I’ve only read it once, but I remember reading it my senior year of high school and absolutely loving it. For those of you unfamiliar, Brave New World is a science-fiction novel set in the distant future which plays with several different ideas involving human nature, love and desire, and conformity versus nonconformity. It’s definitely the book that made me really fall in love with the sci-fi genre, with its details of a dangerous futuristic world known as the “World State,” where Henry Ford is considered a god, and individual freedom and thought are spurned and repressed in favor of the collective. Not the most cheerful of topics, and the content itself is quite dark, but it is an important novel nonetheless and well worth a read if you’ve never read it.
4.) Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
“I want to put my hand out and touch you. I want to do for you and care for you. I want to be there when you’re sick and when you’re lonesome.”
I was that girl in high school. You know…the one who liked all of the books in English Class that everyone else hated – and Ethan Frome was one of the big ones. The book is about a man named Ethan Frome whose wife, Zeena, is ill – and so, her relative Mattie comes to help care for her. But it’s not a traditional love triangle – it’s extraordinarily sad, but very compelling. I don’t know what it is about novels like this – short, depressing, and ‘simple,’ with powerful, haunting themes that stay with you. It’s a very real novel – it requires some reading in-between the lines, but I think it sends a very unique message about feeling trapped, and the potential costs of freedom. That said, it’s really not a book for everyone…though I still recommend it.
3.) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
For me, Jane Eyre was the first female literary character that I truly considered to be a badass with an independent will and a very brave, admirable outlook on life. By today’s standards, she might not be considered to be as badass as Katniss Everdeen or Hermione Granger, but the time period needs to be considered – for the era in which it was written, Jane Eyre was pretty daring, and she certainly was a breakout character. Following the life of mousy, average, but very intelligent Jane, the novel, set in 1800’s England, is about freedom and independence and Jane’s journey toward discovering who she is and what she wants out of life, and she doesn’t let no one stand in her way. If you like strong female characters and classic literature, this novel should be on your ‘to-read’ list. And the 2006 miniseries starring Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens is incredible!
2.) The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.”
A staple for all fantasy and sci-fi readers, and, in my opinion, one of the best series of all time. I read both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as a child, and then again as an adult, and love it just as much now as I did when I was 11. Tolkien, in my opinion, is the penultimate master of this genre. He created languages, worlds, and characters that are unforgettable. From Bilbo’s journey with Thorin and Company to reclaim their lost gold from Smaug the dragon, to Frodo and Sam making the hike up Mount Doom to end the tyranny of Sauron and the One Ring, Tolkien weaves amazing stories and characters together for some truly brilliant adventures. As an aspiring author, he’s a big inspiration to me, and these novels never fail to entertain, even if you’ve read them more than once.
1.) Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
“To die would be an awfully big adventure.”
I have never been drawn to the idea of growing up – so Peter Pan has been a personal anthem to me, more than any other novel. Following Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn’t grow up, and his interaction with the Darling children, the Lost Boys, and Captain Hook, the novel takes the reader to the magical world of Neverland, and explores the theme of what it means to ‘grow up,’ and touches on ideas concerning what happens when the magic of childhood begins to fade. I think, at a point in time, a lot of girls feel like Wendy – you want to be whisked away by a charming boy and play games and have fun forever, but then, the realization eventually sinks in; such things are only suited for dreams. As I got older, I realized the tale of Peter Pan is not just a novel about not wanting to grow up – it’s a novel about how one must grow up, something I would have never realized as a child. But I think this book sends that message in a very appealing way, and while it holds very compelling themes, it’s also a fun novel, though a bit ‘darker’ than the Disney film.
Frostwritten 