Number Seven: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
I first read this book after hearing from a friend that it was the inspiration behind the song "goodbye sky harbor" by Jimmy Eat World. I knew John Irving from having seen the movie and read the book The World According to Garp when I was in middle school. I loved the book from the very start and devoured it.
The book deals with a lot of religious ideas, owen being a instrument of god. It was also set part of the time during Vietnam. It gave me a better insight into the world as it was during that time than any other fiction writer has been able to do.
The characters were so real, John Irving gave them such real personalities and let us into their lives. we really knew who they were. His meandering style told the story in such a beautiful way that, though I knew from the start that Johnny's mother would die, when she actually died it was almost like a surprise, you hoped it wouldn't actually happen.
I have read the book many times since the first. There is a lot to it and i forget things that happened between readings. John Irving is my god because of this book.
Number Eight: The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Dear Friend:
is how it started. Letters to some unknown person that was at that party. Charlie doesn't know the friend very well, but thinks they will not tell anyone what he has to say. He bares his soul about his friends, love, his family, and his past. He realizes a lot about himself, some of it destructive, some of it positive. He learns how to be infinite and in a way he teaches the reader how to do so as well.
It was given to me by my boyfriend at the time. He had raved over it and I decided to read it. When, at the end, we find out who Charlie's aunt really was I brought up the topic to him so that we could talk about it and he didn't know what I was talking about. I explained to him what Charlie had discovered about himself in the last few chapters and he told me that I was wrong and that was not how it happened.
I eventually got him to reread it and I explained to him what had happened, and it really made me wonder how someone could love a book so much and not get it. Not realize the point of it all. I have since given it to 3 other boys to read and only one of them caught it so I wonder if it just doesn't click in a boy's brain, and I've always thought that was an interesting little occurance.
Perks was my bible for many years. Charlie makes a mix tape for his friend Patrick and I recreated that tape on cd and it was one of my favorites. Elton John's Rocketman makes me feel as infinite as Fleetwood Mac's Landslide does for him.
Number Nine: A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett (Daniel Handler)
I read this just after moving away from home and getting my library card. My then 9 year old couin recommended The Bad Beginning to me and I picked it up. The series is wonderfully morose and full of humor and wit. At the time I was nearly 20 but found this "children's" book to be more engaging than anything I could find at the fiction section.
I was thrilled to find myself learning, in each book characters used words that were generally unknown in the worlds common vocabulary. Each time he described the word in a way that made it's meaning so clear. I read through the first 4 or 5 in the first week and spent a lot of time waiting for the others to be written and wringing my hands waiting to find out what would happen to my orphans.
This series turned my head to the childrens section, causing me to pick up books that had fallen by the wayside when I skipped ahead to middle school books in elementry school and kept skipping along at that same fast pace. I finally read charlotte's web, the wizard of oz, pinnochio, alice in wonderland, all the classic childrens books that I had only seen the theatrical adaptions of. Lemony Snickett reawakened the kid in me.
Ok, so I didn't finish. Three seems to be my limit. I'll be back in a few days with 3 more.
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