Confessions of a bookworm.

A couple months ago, my aunt asked me for a list of my favorite books...and being me, I got distracted and completely forgot about it. BUT. I remembered. 

I'm an English major. I've loved books since I was little. Books are on my dresser, in my purse, on my windowsill, stuffed under my bed, in my car, literally everywhere in my life. 

What are my favorites? 

 [ps. these are in no particular order. I'm just looking through my collection and making a stack as I write.]

1. I have a strange fascination with biographies and historical accounts. I got my dad Killing Lincoln  and Killing Kennedy for Christmas last year, and loved Killing Kennedy. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried through the last couple chapters--and then spent a few hours researching Jackie Kennedy's life after her husband's death. The detail in this book is fantastic and maybe it's cliche to say it, but you feel like you're right beside JFK the whole time. 

2. It's all due to my AP English teacher that I love Hamlet. Now I wouldn't go out and read it for leisure necessarily, but the story is one of my favorites and if you haven't read it already, I would. 

3. Along with a fascination with history, I'm also intrigued with non-fiction anything. I liked Outliers, Unbroken, The Lone Survivor, and the Omnivore's Dilemma. But there isn't a non-fiction work that I love more than The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It will change your life--and if it doesn't do that, it will make you look at life a little differently at the very least. I laughed until I cried and then cried until I laughed, and sobbed some more. It's incredible. [once you read that, read his wife's book, Dream New Dreams too.]

4. The entire Harry Potter series. I have a Pinterest board called "The Chosen Board." These books were my childhood. That's all. 

5. Utopian or dystopian societies are all over in literature lately [ex. Divergent] but my favorite will always be The Giver by Lois Lowry. I think I first read it in 4th grade or something...and I reread it all the time. I don't even know why I love it so much, I just do. 

6. My favorite book in the history of writing is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. If I'm ever bored of what I'm currently reading, I resort to this. I have the unabridged version on my bookshelf, a copy of it on my iPad, and the abridged version in my backpack. I'm in love with Edward, I want to be Mercedes, and I can quote a solid portion of the Count's lines. It's almost pathetic...but not quite. 

7. Like every good English major, I've read my share of the classics. I'm not a huge fan of the Bronte sisters, but I did enjoy Wuthering Heights. I love Jane Austen, just like basically every other teenage girl in the world. I love anything that qualifies as "Early American Literature" particularly The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible. And I'm just going to say I LOVE F. SCOTT FITZGERALD & C.S. LEWIS and leave it at that. If you haven't read The Great Gatsby or Mere Christianity or The Chronicles of Narnia series, you haven't lived. Do it. I'm also in love with The Princess Bride and Frankenstein and Dracula. But make sure you get the unabridged/unedited versions or you miss the details that make the story worth reading [1818 for Frankenstein and 1897 for Dracula].

8. Random favorites: When You Reach Me. The Book Thief. The Wednesday Letters. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Why We Broke Up. 

9. If you're looking for a good series [and by good I mean I read it when I was in high school and loved it] read A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. I also just barely started Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and as weird as it is, I'm absolutely loving it! My mom and I are also obsessed with The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flemel series too. 

10. And because I've got a pile of books to read at least seven high, I obviously need to be looking at what I want to read next. I'm looking at Perfect Ruin, Fangirl, and the Divergent series. 

What are your favorite books?