look, books

The other legal intern in my office has gone to serve the nation for a week (by running rounds and generally proving to the professional army-people that yes, should our country become embroiled in a war, he can keep up with the rest of them). Before he left, he asked me for any recommendations for books that he could bring in to read in order to pass the time. 

I had so many books on the tip of my tongue. So. Many. I love books. I love reading. I love books. Books. MORE. 

When we moved into my current house, my mother gave me the option of having two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves or one floor-to-ceiling bookshelf and a desk. 

I chose the former, which was why I spent all of junior college doing my work on the floor. I studied for the A'levels crouched in a little circle of books and files and paper in the middle of my room. I did okay, and didn't slip any disc or end up in physiotherapy. 

But that was a miracle in itself, and after moving a couple of things around, I now have a desk (because I can't get through law school without a desk). I'm getting old. 

Back to the books!!

I recommended American Gods by Neil Gaiman to him, because I figured that it was a boy kind of book for him (he told me he reads Jeffrey Archer, which is like. Ok. In any case: I LOVE NEIL GAIMAN; everyone should read American Gods, and Neverwhere, and the Sandman comic series that he wrote), but this blog post is dedicated to my three favouritest books in the whole wide world: 

3. The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner 

Yes, it's one of those young adult books that you find in the young adult section, right next to that Twilight trash and all those new vampire/hot-young-tortured-thing serials that glorify more vampires and are basically Buffy with some Desperate Housewives thrown in. 

It is nothing like all of that trash. 

I'm trying not to give the plot away, but it's got an Ocean's 11 feel to it, and it's a very, very smart book. 

2. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller 

The other day, I was hunting for this book in my room and was DISTRAUGHT when I couldn't find it. DISTRAUGHT. Catch-22 and I have been through a lot together. I cobbled my entire H3 paper around this book because I love it so much and there was just so much material to keep working with. It's a little hard to start, but once you get past the first 3 chapters or so, you'll gain a better understanding of what's going on, and it really takes off from there. It's a terribly funny book - terrible both because it makes you laugh out loud at points, and terrible because it's about war, which is not funny at all. 

This is my ultra-annotated, post-it-ed-to-death copy of Catch-22. My brother and my young man can't bear the idea of marking a book up, but I like to scribble in the margins and really get invested in the books that I read, because it's always better when you're in the thick of things, and jumping into a story really makes reading more fun. 

This page that I've photographed is one of the richest parts of the book. It's about a man who refuses to put his uniform on again after a soldier bled to death in his arms, and his conversation with his war-profiteer friend. It deals with all these Biblical themes of good and evil, and contrasts it all so beautifully. 

Catch-22 is one of those books that you have to keep re-reading, because you'll find a new nugget of literary gold every time. You see things differently in the second, third, and even fourth readings. I've read this book cover-to-cover a thousand times and I'm still finding things.

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by J. K. Rowling 

I was about seven when this book came out, and my daddy brought it back from a business trip to London. 

That meant that I spent four long years waiting for my owl to arrive, and I've been very bitter about its failure to turn up ever since. 

This is the very first edition of the book, and you can see where all the pages are falling out. I've tried to save it with tape, but it really isn't working out for me. I cannot reparo this book. 

I'm now a little afraid to open it all the way, which is why I went out and bought another copy that I can actually read without losing half the book. (Case in point: when I opened the book to take this picture, the spine made an ominous crack and pages 216-220 fluttered tiredly to the ground.)  

But I am N E V E R throwing this copy away, not just because I can be all "HAH I KNEW ABOUT IT BEFORE THE MOVIES" but because I've literally grown up with Harry Potter, and this was the book that started it all. We are all special and brave and strong, even when we don't think that we are.

What are your favourite books? (tell me you read; please please please tell me that you read)

x 
Liz