Favorite Books. And by favorite I mean "inducing giddy obsession"

Pink llama is there to add balance. I bought these classics at one book fair sale for <100B each, which is why they're all the same Wordsworth editions. 8D

In order of favorite to most favorite.Won't repeat Brontë/Austen stuff. 

8. Wild Swans by Jung Chang

A true story spanning 3 generations:

Grandma:  runaway wife of Chinese warlord

Mother: join Kuomintang, then Mao's party

Author: Maoist, then renounces and moves to England.

A great history lesson (it was assigned for AP World History reading), but told like a long Chinese TV series. Good fun, but also heart-breakingly brutal at times. 

7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Elegant and concise. I have a giant copy. Jealous?

6. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Ever since reading Hatchet (and pretty much everything else) by Gary Paulsen, I've really gotten into survival books. This is by far the best one, and not just because I'm a classics snob. (Which I'm not. Will do a contemporary post sometime)
Read it twice in a space of two months. I would probably be a Jack or Roger if I got stuck on an island, to be honest. Obviously Lost draws a lot from this book.

5. Emma by Jane Austen

4. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
No spoilers, but I will say that it has the best last words of any book.

I learned to knit because of  MADAME DEFARGE! She's the plump French villianness! She knits the names of victims for the guillotine! She puts roses in her hair to communicate with spies! Her best girlfriend is a fat woman named "The Vengeance!" I mean, how awesome can a character get?!

3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Proud to say that I read every word in it with a highlighter in hand. I must've cried at least 10 times, like when Fantine had to sell her teeth to buy a skirt for her daughter. Marius and Cosette might be shallow, but still very romantic. Valjean and Eponine are especially well-written characters. The "Friends of the ABC" group of revolutionary students were described masterfully: captured personalities without stereotyping them. Thernardier is the evilest villain I have ever read about/watched/etc. Could not put the book down during the "Noxious Poor" chapter. After I finished reading I was stumped in a daze for days, overwhelmed by the PURE EPICNESS.

1. Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
Not most people's cup of tea, but it certainly is my beverage of choice. (I might regret using that trite metaphor later.) An unusual book to pick to be your favorite. One usually likes Les Miz over Notre Dame because it's more popular, more touching, and less insane. Well, guess what. I like insane. Taboo love! Giving up religion! Getting murderously jealous! Futility! Fatality! Pulling out hair by the fistful! = Entertainment for me.

I was obsessed with Notre Dame like Archdeacon Frollo was with Esmeralda: this was the first book that helped me to seriously question things that I had always just assumed were "just the way they are."

If I thought of the world as a strong wooden house with structured beams, then this book broke many columns. I remember feeling afraid and shaken, wondering how I was ever going to rebuild.

And all because of a book. If words can make you do that, you know it's good writing.

Obsession with numbers 1, 2, and 4 were not helped by the fact that they are also musicals.
These books are so worn out because I love them so much.

I am so freakin' weird. I didn't even mention the Bible in here, and apart from Emma, anything "happy" or "pleasant."

o_o
...

To compare, here's a list of my friends' favorite books! A couple years ago (info collected during grades 9~10) I made them write down for me what they were.

Time to be statistical :D

  From this data we can conclude:

• Twilight appears five times. FIVE TIMES! xD
• People who might like the same books:
• Joyce and Arin
• Mai and Liz 
• Geemin and Winnie

I have more blackmail material data, but they will have to wait for future posts. :) Until next time! ;D