Top Ten List for my Favourite Books

Well, everyone, here is the moment I am sure you all have been waiting for! My top ten list of my favorite books. Strap in, folks, as this is very important.

1: Never Let Me Go

Thanks to Kazuo Ishiguro, I am now painfully aware of my impending mortality and the importance of friends and family. Kazuo Ishiguro is an excellent character writer, conjuring situations and themes that resonate with just about anyone. Never Let Me Go, in my opinion, is his best one in this regard, using science fiction tropes to explore personal and universal themes of death, free will, friendship, and hope in the face of impossible odds.

2: Silence of the Lambs

Silence of the Lambs freaks the shit out of me. I wish that I could use the weight of the English language to explore the reasons why this book scares me senseless properly, but there isn’t one. So instead, The Silence of the Lambs is a masterpiece of suspense and pacing, exploring the horror of being a woman in a deep misogynist society and the cruelty it can create within said society.

3: The Egg and Other Stories

The first and only short story collection that has a consistent level of quality. Ranging from the fun to the thought-provoking to the utterly horrific, Andy Weir crafts short stories that are engaging, beautiful, and often thought-provoking in ways Science Fiction can only tackle.

4: The Colour out of Space

The Colour out of Space might be weak on the character front, but it triumphs in the atmosphere, imagery, and pacing. Lovecraft wove a nightmarish tale that shows the strengths of the cosmic horror genre and is the best within the genre.

5: The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Tolkien is the father of modern fantasy; while the descriptions might be slightly bloated at times, Tolkien can ramble on a bit. Nevertheless, the Lord of the Rings is undoubtedly an enjoyable and compelling read, with themes and characters that will stay in your head for a long time.

6: The Handmaid’s Tale

Margret Atwood’s dystopia, much like Orwell, offers a keen eye into the dehumanizing treatment of women under theocratic dictatorships. While some might think The Handmaid’s Tale is farfetched in the west, that shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying and thinking about the ways a crisis can be used to destroy freedom.

7:1984/Animal Farm

I am cheating here, but I think that 1984 and Animal Farm’s political importance cannot be ignored. Orwell provides thought-provoking and often horrific predictions for the future while offering indirect means of preventing it, as long as you are on the lookout for the warning signs. Everyone should read Orwell to protect democracy and freedom.

8 Hamlet

Shakespeare’s epic tragedy of human error, moral ambiguity, and indecisiveness cannot be praised enough; Shakespeare explores the self-destructive force of indecision while never forgetting the humanity of the play’s rich cast.

9: One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a story of history, the wonder and brilliance of hidden magic within said history. We fall into a sense of wonder and quiet fantastical trapped within the normal. The prose is buttery smooth and keeps you reading, despite the often flowery nature of said prose.

10: Ordinary Men

Not an easy read or the most pleasant of ones, but Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning is disturbing and vital for anyone who wants to understand evil. How otherwise normal, unremarkable people can become monsters. This book has greatly influenced me as an author and person due to the horrifying realization that I could have easily been one of those men killing Jews and other Nazi-declared undesirables without hesitation.

Honorary Mentions

The Merchant of Venice

Some might argue that The Merchant of Venice is anti-Semantic. Still, it is a highly human portrayal of a Jew suffering under incredibly hostile social situations. Shakespeare’s limited interactions with Jews seemingly haven’t prevented him from allowing Shylock to beg to be treated with respect or telling the verbal abusers off. Shakespeare’s empathy and humanity have allowed him to write characters beyond his time.

The Picture of Dorian Grey

Oscar Wilde’s retelling of Faust (and a strange autobiography of Oscar Wilde himself) is beautiful and sometimes horrific as a warning against the corruption of the soul.

Uzumaki

Junji Ito’s parable for self-destruction and entropy scares me on a level that I am still trying to understand. However, it has changed how I look at spirals and even snails. I will never forget some of the imagery within this manga, and I do not regret it for an instant.

Dracula

Bram Stocker is the first and only book great book. Bram Stocker‘s Dracula is a classic of the gothic horror genre for a good reason while standing up to modern times today.

Cheers for reading!

Acknowledgments

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