I'm in the midst of a new book series, A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin. The book series spawned the HBO program Game of Thrones.
I've quickly become completely worthless. Good books have been known to do that to me. The lawn needs to be mowed? I'll get to it after this chapter. It's time to eat? I'll skip lunch for now. I haven't talked to my wife in three days? I'll give her the book when I'm done and then we can talk about it together.
The book has reminded me how much I love the fantasy genre. I haven't gotten this engrossed since I finished Lord of the Rings. In fact, it's given me this maddening urge to buy as many large bookshelves as I can and make it my life's mission to fill them all as my own personal gigantic library.
But what would I have in that library? What would be on my own "top picks" shelf?
Growing up my parents had a family rule that the TV could not be turned on in the evening, so after 7:00 it was usually off. I still can't remember a time when my brothers and I went to sleep with the TV still going.
That time was usually spent reading, whether it was on our own or Mom pulling out a book and reading a chapter a night. Reading to children requires an amount of skill to it and Mom had it mastered. I used to think everyone was expected to read that well but now I think it's a bit of a requirement for teaching at an elementary school.
We tackled quite a few books, and not all of them small ones, either. Little House in the Big Woods, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and The Hobbit were just a few of our conquests.
These evenings gave me a love for reading that's still with me today. My only regret is that I wish I could read faster. Christina has finished three Doctor Who books in the time I've read one and a half. Granted, my books are a bit longer, but still, she's speed racer. I think she's cheating.
Anywho, (anyhoo..anywhoo...whatevs) this all made me contemplate just what would be in my list of favorite books of all time? In all probability, if you asked me on three different days what my favorite book is, I would probably give you three different answers depending on my mood. So I came up with a list that I tried to make cover as many genres as possible.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Harry Potter has got to be my favorite series, and Half-Blood Prince is my favorite book in that series. Harry finally actually starts coming of age in this book while in all the others he's just sort of "approaching" manhood. He's more mature and less whiney than in the previous book. Rowling makes this book much more concise and straightforward that some of her other plots in the series, which tend to meander.
Dune / Starship Troopers - Science fiction adventures. Both of these feature the human race colonizing planets in the distant future. Dune actually features a planetary feudal system (think monarchs in charge of planets) while Starship has the human race fighting alien races for galactic domination (and the humans in general are winning).
World War Z - A post-action oral report on the "last great zombie war." It's a social commentary on what's wrong with everything from our military to our celebrity culture.
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - The finale of one of my favorite series, but really I would throw all three of Tolkien's books in here.
Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy's best book (although Executive Orders is pretty neat as well). Eco-terrorists try to wipe out all human life with a super virus. An elite counter-terror team sponsored by NATO is all that stands in their way. When I read it in 6th grade it was the longest book I had ever finished.
Watership Down - Cute wittle wabbits FIGHT TO THE DEATH FOR THEIR FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN THE NAME OF THEIR HOMELAND. These rabbits form their own ideal society... and they're just adorable.
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