Only five books? Let’s select the my five favorites from vastly different genres.
There’s a book challenge going around various social media sites right now that requires you to list the 10 books that have affected you the most. Here at Hypable, we’re kicking off our own version of the challenge. While we may be doing only five books, we’re also going to tell you why they affected us — and maybe we can convince you to read them, too.
I loved reading as a kid – Go, Dog, Go was my first – and I was a young four-year-old who would fill her arms with more books than she could carry in the library. I credit my mom for stroking the ferocious reader that I’ve been for decades, as she indulged me, allowing me to read whatever I wanted (Gossip Girl when I was 12? Sure – most of it went over my head anyways.)
For this list, I selected books I read in high school or since graduating all those years ago. I think it’s because those are the books that truly define who I am today, at least, pieces of the person I am.
‘Anna and the French Kiss’ by Stephanie Perkins
I detailed my love for this book back when Isla and the Happily Ever After came out earlier this year. This is my go to feel good book. I think it’s the one that will embody that kind of relaxed feeling for me for a long time. It is, I dare say, the epitome of my favorite kind of YA story. There’s not much more to say about how the book defined me, beside that when you say ‘young adult’ I think Anna and Etienne.
Stephanie Perkins’ book made me fall in love with Paris. It made me look at big cities like it differently. She excels at writing about the little moments in a relationship – both of the romantic and friend variety – within the big moments.
‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ by J.K. Rowling
Of course I had to include at least one Harry Potter story on the list. If you want to know more about my immersion into the series, here’s an article that details mine, and other Hypable staffer stories as well. When thinking about simply which to select, I went thought about the merits of each book before finally selecting the fourth installment. I think Goblet of Fire affected/defined me the most because of its benchmark turning points. Voldemort returns and the war between good versus evil begins once again. While the third (or the sixth, depending on the day) might be my favorite, the fourth is the one I return to the most when I’m looking to reread a book from the series.
‘A Whole New Mind’ by Daniel H. Pink
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when I read this book for the first time. It’s a non-fiction look into how we use our brains. Riveting, really. It was before Lie to Me premiered on Fox in 2009, because I know the book opened the floodgates of psychology and reasoning to me. The show introduced me to famed scientist Paul Ekman (Emotions Revealed), who found the six universal facial expressions that defy language barriers. This period of reading was, for me, largely non-fiction works about the brain. This is Your Brain on Music, Malcolm Gladwell’s books (I devoured Outliers in two days and I’ll never know what I missed in AP U.S. Government during that time) soon followed after Daniel H. Pink’s book.
The book defined me in that, it unlocked that curiosity to learn about human beings in an innate way. There’s so much, it’s hard to know where to start. There’s right-brain (the more creative side) versus left-brain (analytical) thinking, and all these little things that shape and define us in our careers and personal lives.
‘Bossypants’ by Tina Fey
It’s no secret among my friends that I idolize Tina Fey and love the fact that we share half a name. Like A Whole New Mind above, Bossypants represents a large section of my library: autobiographical stories from my favorite entertainers. Tina Fey’s — and Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns) — book takes us through her awkward childhood and into her currently role in society as one of the queens of comedy. As someone who eats, drinks and breaths television entertainment, reading about Fey’s perception of the industry and her advice for young females definitely influenced me.
This fall has been a particularly fantastic few months for fans of such stories. Neil Patrick Harris, Lena Dunham and Amy Poehler all had their books debut recently that provide humorous insights into their personal and professional lives.
‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I was assigned to read The Great Gatsby in AP Language English class in eleventh grade. The Great Gatsby, I remember, was the first book I felt compelled to buy so I could reread again and again (sorry, To Kill a Mockingbird.) I would spend hours analyzing the cover of the book as well as the allegories about opulence, wealth, fantasies, delusions, and the motifs that reside within it simply because I wanted to, not because I had to. The discussions that occurred within the classroom were a jumping off point for me that lead to more in-depth though and conversation about the book and it’s aforementioned reflections of society. Gatsby also introduced me to what would become another favorite Fitzgerald work of mine, This Side of Paradise.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Hypable Staff Challenge:
Find out what books define the other members of the Hypable staff who have taken this challenge!
–Ariana Quiñónez
–Karen Rought
–Jen Lamoureux
–Marama Whyte
–Kristen Kranz
–Pamela Gocobachi
–Brittany Lovely
–Natalie Fisher
–Mitchel Clow
–Caitlin Kelly
Fan of our book coverage? Why not join our Hypable Books Facebook group!
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.