The Written Word

I said it would be easier for me to pick a favourite book. It is. Sort of. I have a few favourites. There are reasons for each.

Les Miserables is always way up there on my list. I love Les Miserables because it is, in my opinion, the ultimate epic of redemption. I generally love romantic literature, and Hugo is the master of Romantic novelists. If I were too ever get a tattoo, it would likely be the numbers 24601. It is a goal of mine to someday read Hugo in French.

Lolita. People usually give me crap about this one. They can't get past the whole pedophile thing. Granted, Humbert Humbert is definitely one sick pervo, but Nabokov is the master of prose, and Lolita is his masterpiece.

Doctor Zhivago - I have to write about this one later. I don't even know where to start. If I could recommend one book, this is it. Boris Pasternak. Doctor Zhivago.

Anything by Dostoevsky. I have never had a book mess with my head like Crime and Punishment did when I read it as a senior in high school. The Brothers Karamazov is probably the most perfect novel ever written. The Idiot is awesome, albeit very, very Russian. Dostoevsky is a great story unto himself. He once stood in front of a firing squad, sentenced to death for subversion. His sentence was commuted to hard labour in Siberia. His insights on capital punishment, which occasionally arise in his books, are hauntingly personal. Dostoevsky, more than anybody, shaped my stance on capital punishment. I will write on that, as well as Dostoevsky later.

I would also have to recommend Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi, and The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. I will hit these books, along with Chaim Potok's Asher Lev books, later. I am not procrastinating. I just want to do my research.

These are my suggestions. I recommend any of the above-mentioned books. I am always open to suggestions as well. I am always looking for a great book.

Peace.