Like I'm going to pass this one up! For the best: Ahh, but where to start? I've read so many books that have affected me in so many ways, I can't truly single out just three. This is assuredly not an end-all list, so there!
BEST(EST)
1.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. There is something both magical and calming (magically calming?) about this book. It reaffirms my way of thinking, is sweet and sombre, imaginative and otherworldly, and reminds me unshakably of Katamari Damacy (and vice versa). I believe I was originally given a copy by a teacher, for guidance, so give it a shot sometime and perhaps it can do the same for you.
2.
Watership Down by Richard Adams. You know, that cute book with bunnies! I love bunnies! Now, I tend not to enjoy "talking animal" books. That is, animals behaving in ways and relating to one another as humans would. They are in the guises of animals, perhaps, but their characterization is utterly human. Make sense? However, Watership Down does not feel like this at all. Rather, it's as if the reader is simply observing the bunnies in their natural habitat and has the added bonus of being able to understand what they're saying. Not to say that it's boring, oh no, no, no. If you aren't in the mood to pick up the book to see what I mean, why not give the animated movie a try? One that likely traumatized my class in third and fourth grade when we watched it for Easter. The snare is never going to leave my mind...
3. ... ... ...No, no! I simply can't limit myself to three! So many great books, so little time! Aiiighhh!
Instead, some notable contenders would have been
Good Omens, Ninteen Eighty-Four, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Ender's Game, Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Catch-22... Oh, heck. Next time, can we pick best literary characters? That would be easier! I'm neglecting some great series, too, like Sherlock Holmes, Horatio Lyle, Agent Pendergast...
Look, if it bothers you that much, just pretend I wrote something magical and adventurous and full of eccentric characters demonstrating questionable levels of sanity in the third spot, deal?
Now, the worst...!
Eh. I got nothing. I am absurdly picky when it comes to selecting something from a book store. A book has to 'call' to me before I'll snap it up. Some irresistible force draws me in. Perhaps this is limiting what I eventually read, yes, but it does act as a lovely fail-safe against acquiring a bookshelf full of clunkers.
If I had to pick, it'd probably be a selection of asinine titles I had to read during school. Ones about
issues, and
current events, and
coming of age, and
tragedy, and
family drama, and
hardships and
turmoil and
Look At This Shiny Newbery Medal, You Guys! Piling on the drama does not a good book make! The trick is to pile on the brevity, the humour, the absurdity,
then pull the rug out from under our feet (like a few books I've read in recent memory, sob sob).
Or, barring that, I'll simply nominate that one chapter in Atlas Shrugged that should honestly be renamed "Shut up, John Galt." Come on, you thought it, too.
What about you guys? Have any "These are the greatest, read them now!" books to throw at me? Or how about "Avoid these at all costs, they're a waste of time and trees!"?