Gilmored

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish. This week’s theme is:

Top ten favorite authors of ALL TIME!

Zora Neale Hurston

10. Audrey Niffenegger – I think Audrey Niffenegger gets a terrible wrap because of the abomination that was the film adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife. But both of her novels – the aforementioned and Her Fearful Symmetry – are wonderful stories with just enough magical realism to make things interesting
9. Zora Neal Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of my favorite books – it always reminds me that my happiness is important, too, and that’s okay.

C.S. Lewis

8. C.S. Lewis – C.S. Lewis is one of my favorites because he used his work to make his own passion for reading contagious.

7. J.R.R. Tolkien – What I love about Tolkien and his work is the depth of the story. He didn’t just create an adventure, he created an entire world, and that kind of creativity just blows me away.

6. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – If I was forced to read one genre for the rest of my life, it would be detective stories – and I blame Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for that entirely.

J.K. Rowling

5. J.K. Rowling – I was flipping through Buzzfeed the other day and came across this amazing list of authors sharing the books that inspired them to write. One of the women said that Light in August by William Faulkner inspired her because it made her think, “you can do that???” And that’s how I feel about the Harry Potter series, and J.K. Rowling’s story in general. Through her work and through her journey thus far, she constantly reminds me that impossible is just a suggestion.

4. William Shakespeare – I know the Bard is not for everyone but I thoroughly enjoy his work. The stories are so vivid and the characters are so intriguing. I’m never bored reading Shakespeare. Plus without Twelfth Night we wouldn’t have She’s The Man and that would be a terrible loss for us all.

Jane Austen

3. Jane Austen – I haven’t made my way through all of Jane Austen’s works but the ones I have read became fast favorites. I just love the way she takes the mundane and somehow transforms it into the extraordinarily interesting.

2. Bill Bryson – If Bill Bryson published a book of grocery list I would buy it and devour the entire thing with relish. His work consistently reminds me that above all else, reading is supposed to be fun.

Roald Dahl

1. Roald Dahl – Roald Dahl has been my favorite author since I was six years old. Growing up I read every single one of his books until the covers fell off, and to this day picking up one of his novels feels like coming home.

I came to the conclusion the other day that I kind of miss being in high school. I was an especially angsty teen so I was far too concerned about AP classes, unrequited crushes, and the general awkwardness that is being 15 years old to have any appreciation for just how awesome high school was, but in retrospect it was great. My day lasted from 7:25am – 2:00pm. That’s it. Even factoring in afterschool activities, I was home by 6:00pm at the very latest. And when I got home, my primary concern was doing homework while my wonderful parents made me a delicious, homemade meal that I didn’t pay for.

If I got out of work at 2:00pm and came home to find a homemade meal that I didn’t have to thaw or microwave, I would weep like a small child for several minutes.

One of the things I miss most about high school is required reading. At the time reading for class seemed like the most inhumane thing anyone could possible request but when I think about it now, when else in my life am I going to be required to read kick-ass novels? Case in point: Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

Thanks to the 2012 adaptation, I think everyone is pretty familiar with the general synopsis of Life of Pi – a young man, Piscine “Pi” Molitar Patel, is a survivor of a terrible shipwreck in the middle of the Indian Ocean. His faith is tested during his 227 days at sea as he fights to protect himself from the elements, as well as the only other survivor – a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

Life of Pi was assigned the summer between 10^th and 11^th grades. After reading the back cover I was convinced it was going to be terribly boring – I mean, if this kid is stuck as sea, there cannot be 360+ pages of things to talk about, there simply can’t. Not to mention he’s bunking with a tiger so chances are he gets eaten, right?

Fortunately, I was very wrong.

A story that, on the surface, has the potential to drag on does just the opposite in Martel’s capable hands. He creates an amazing and insightful narrator in Pi, and choosing to write the book in a series of vignettes, almost, instead of chapters makes it feel like you’re sitting at Pi’s feet listening to this story yourself. I’ve never been one for audiobooks but I have a sneaking suspicion that this one would be wonderful.

There’s also sort of an Inception element to the story which I thoroughly enjoy. At the end of his trip, Pi tells his entire tale to representatives from the shipbuilding company, and they immediately write Pi’s account off as impossible. After some discussion, Pi tells them another version of the story where he’s not stuck with Richard Parker but with an aggressive sailor from the ship, and the builders immediately find this more palatable. But then then the question becomes, which is true? Or rather, which is more true to you?

It was pleasure to revisit this summer reading special, and it gives me high hopes for the other relics of the good ole’ days of required reading that I still have yet to knock out as a part of this crazy reading challenge!