T-SHIRT 5preview
Lisa asked me to share with you my 3 (all time) favorite books, but after trying for quite some time to sacrifice one book to get room for another I decided that I’d introduce you to 5 of my favorite novels.
Harry Potter-series by JK Rowling. – Trying to define what makes the Harry Potter novels so special is quite impossible. For me it was all about the magic (i.e. fantasy), in addition to the fact that the books are well-written, funny, sarcastic and touching. They also followed me from the age of 10-ish and all through my teenage years, which made relating to Harry and his friends a lot more natural. I will always love Harry Potter, and no matter how cliché that sounds – I mean it.
Ensemble C’est Tout (Hunting and Gathering) by Anna Gavalda. – The source of inspiration for my tattoo and also a beautiful novel about being alone, an outsider living in some variation of apathy, of feeling alienated and passive in your own life, and how three very dysfunctional human beings can change each others lives for the better.
Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; forget about Edward Cullen and Eric Northman. They are both characters created by fan girls trying to imitate the best vampire series there is: The Vampire Chronicles. You might have seen the movie Interview With A Vampire staring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Kirsten Dunst (age 14), +++ That movie was based on the first book in the series that revolve around Lestat de Lioncourt, an 18th century French nobleman turned vampire. It adds a layer of beauty and intellect that the other books lack.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac. – Road trip back and forth across the North American continent, chasing rainbows, jobs, girls, booze and poetic yet pessimistic notions of what life is really all about. Wonderful book that makes you want to leave your life behind and chase some dream or just live for the pleasures of life, while at the same time feeling the hopelessness of the situation these people have put themselves in. It is all about where your perspective on life is rooted, and to what extent the book manages to change that perspective.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. – Dorian Gray is Narcissus, the hedonist, obsessed with aestheticism. And this book covers all aspects of the extreme variants of those types of personalities. Young, handsome and charming Dorian takes a Walk on the Wild Side (and buy a flat there to really experience the Wild Things before eventually moving over to the Very Wild and Dark Side). Beautiful and cruel and filled to the brim with those quotes that Wilde is famous for: “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
Which 5 books are your absolute favorites?
Runners up: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera,Wheel of Time-series by Robert Jordan, Send in the Idiots by Kamran Nazeer, Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare, After Dark by Haruki Murakami, A Charming Mass-Suicide by Arto Paasilinna, Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.
You’ve listed a few of mine already, but that doesn’t come as much of a surprise, you knowing me and me knowing you. Hee. But even so, here they are in random order: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Under en Hårdere Himmel by Jens Bjørneboe, His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullmann, 1984 by George Orwell and obviously the Harry Potter series.
Runners up are Stardust by Neil Gaiman, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Intet Nytt Fra Vestfronten by Erich Maria Remarque and Terry Brooks’ Shannara Series, just to give my inner fantasy geek a bit more leeway. :D
I had forgotten all about the Shannara series, oh happy day, new thing to read all over again.
And of course 1984. :)
Mye bra på den lista der, og gode tips til ting jeg ikke har lest. Jeg ville også hatt med Pinnsvinets eleganse av Muriel Barbery, Rosens navn av Umberto Eco og Fahrenheit 451 av Ray Bradbury.
Not just all over again, mind you, ’cause that series is now at a total of…oh…20-something books, altogheter, with more on the way, and I’ve read every single one of them at least three times. Haha!
And yessss…matchy matchy goodness! Nå sitter btw bursdagspresangen din og venter på mandag. Whoopwhoop!
JA maren, anne rice!!! så. mye. bedre enn alt twilight- og vampire diaries-tull.
Hm… Eg klarer ikkje å rangere bøkene, men her er mi blanding:
– Svermen av Frans Schätzig. Trur det er første gong i mitt liv at eg har vore oppslukt, verkeleg OPPSLUKT i ei bok. Det var umogleg å legge den vekk på slutten! I tillegg inneheld den litt realfag:)
– Utvalgte emner i katastrofefysikk av Marisha Pessl. Det språket, og slutten! Åh!
– Jane Eyre av Charlotte Brontë
– Sasjenka av Simon Sebag Montefiore. Eg KOKTE gjennom denne boka og kunne lett ha slått den i hovudet på ein kommunist.
– Collapse av Jared Diamond. Det er ikkje skjønnlitteratur, men eg diggar den. Den bør vere oblgiatorisk for alle menneske, særleg dei som skal styre.