My Favorite Books

I am a total book worm. I love reading and writing and everything along those lines. Fiction is lovely so long as you don't complete submerge yourself in it.

I am going to list my top five favorite books of all time. I'm sure I will dedicate a blog to those that didn't make this cut but these will always chart on my top favorites if someone asks. These are in a specific order, by the way.

1. Looking For Alaska by John Green
• My love for this book is eternal. I have never felt more attached to a book in my life. I've read it countless times (actually, it is countable. I've read it five times) and each and every time I find something new I love about it. My cover is tattered and folded in weird places. The pages are marked up with multiple colored highlighters and various pencil markings and notes I made. I love the format of it (before and after). I've always been shitty at describing the plot without spoilers but the way a significant event can rip some people apart is hard to read but John Green does it beautifully. You've probably seen quotes from this book on hipster tumblrs and just didn't know. If someone asks me what book to read, I will always say this one. LAF without doubt or hesitation is my favorite book of all time and that will never change.
2. Paper Towns by John Green
• I don't know if you can catch a pattern with this, but John Green is also my favorite author. He provides enough hilarity to keep you laughing but can instantly change it into a heart wrenching scene that brings you tears. He has this way of transitioning and balancing a variety of emotions. My primary reason for liking this book so much, other than the fact that it is another brilliantly written book by John Green, is because it has this one focus on people being mirrors and how we see ourselves in people and make them stay that way. I thought that was so disgustingly beautiful. If someone has already read LFA I recommend this or I'll just tell them to read everything by John Green and call it a day.
3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• I know this book gets branded as being boring or stupid or so one dimensional that it is a ridiculous piece of literature that no one should read because it is so simple. I've heard arguments that the symbolism is so literal that it's stupid. Does that really make a book bad, though? I love the simple language used in this book and how it doesn't use ridiculous words that no one would ever think of using. This book contains one of my favorite quotes of all time (“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”) and the last line of the book gets me every time. If you haven't read this, do it. Just go ahead and do it. Once you get into it you blow through it.
4.  Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
• This is another one of those books that I've read four or five times and will probably never get sick of. The story makes me shudder but Melinda's thought process is what won me over with the book. It's truly tragic and her struggle is interesting to read. It breaks your heart. That's one of my favorite things about books; they can hurt you more than you know.
5. The Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger
• I love Holden Caulfield more than I should. I don't know what I could possibly say about this book besides the fact that I adored it beyond belief. He is such a lost boy and the things he does throughout the novel might shock you or might be whatever. I love the story he tells and the ending will forever surprise me.