An Overabundance of Books

by Molly Miller

The Stand, Stephen King

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy, E.L. James

Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

You said to only pick five of our favorite novels. I do not think that I can accurate depict in words how difficult this was for me. I literally sat in front of my computer trying to pick just five for probably half an hour. For me, when reading a book I either absolutely love it or I hate it. So I went with the five books that I find myself constantly going back to and rereading time after time.

When it comes to reading, my tastes have always been rather varied; however, I tend to gravitate towards books that have some sort of romance contained within them. The major plot of the story does not have to be romance, but I prefer that there be one somewhere within the novel. My seventh grade English teacher actually told me that I was probably the only one to read Stephen King’s The Stand for the love story.

One thing that the majority of these novels have in common is length. All of them except for To Kill a Mockingbird are rather long novels. I think what really draws me to these type of novels is that in order to make a novel so long there has to be a lot of description. This allows me to completely immerse myself within the story and feel like I am actually there. Since the novels were so long, not only was I able to immerse myself within it, but I was able to stay there for the period of time in which it took me to read them.

Something else that all of these books have in common is the relationship between the characters. By this I do not necessarily mean a romantic relationship, however these relationships fall under this as well. The bonds that the characters have are often times so strong and affect their everyday lives.  I love to see these developments and how they work for both the better and the worse. Some people will always stand by your side and other times those you trust will betray you in ways you cannot imagine. In The Stand Harold Lauder betrays everyone when he pretends to be on their side and then plants a bomb intent on killing the Free Zone Committee.

These novels all also seem to contain some sort of villain. Although some of them are not as obvious as Lord Voldemort, they all contain some form of villain. In my mind a villain is not always someone who is evil, but rather a character that I do not like and always seems to get in the way of how I feel the story should go. For instance in Pride and Prejudice to villain to me is Mr. Wickham, because he is deceitful and plants the seed of doubt about Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth. I really enjoy these types of novels because it shows that you can overcome obstacles in life, especially people who stand in your way.  

I want to again reiterate that these may be my favorites, my go to books, but they are in no way to only ones that I enjoy. There are not my books that I have read that I did not love. In fact my mother is constantly telling me that I have too many books, but I do not listen and keep buying more of them. I just cannot seem to get enough.