A Life in Books a la Newsweek

For awhile Newsweek ran a small article (maybe they still do? I don't know, I got my issues through school and now we're out for summer) where they would interview writers, reporters, professors, and the like and asked them these three important questions about books, which I will now answer as well.

My Five Most Important Books
First off, how do you consider a book important? Is it a good read? Did it influence your life or mindset? Was it written well? Did you identify with the characters? I tried to take all of these into consideration.

1) Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, this book was the book that first got me into reading and writing. Sure, I'd read many books before, but none of them made me like to read. Plus, it's terribly creative and imaginative!

2) City of Masks by Mary Hoffman, this book has such style, amazing characters, and a superb plot! It was told in a way that I, personally, had never seen before, but immediately fell in love with. One of my own books is told through this multi-character 3rd person limited style. It was also the first book that made me cry, plus it's still my favorite book.

3) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I love how this book is told out of order, but for a reason. It shows time travel the way it should be written as, and it's great to see how everything comes together. And the characters were really interesting too.

4) The Giver by Lois Lowry. This book is so radically different from anything I had read before it (keep in mind, it was 3rd grade), and I see it different everytime I read it. There's so many layers I feel I'll never know it all. In short, it's interesting and has rereadability.

5) Peeps by Scott Westerfeld. Easy, I love this book, all of Westerfeld's books, and it was the first book that I had read that taught me to look at legends and stories in a completely different way than we've always been taught.

>>A classic that, on rereading, disappointed: I'm really not sure, I've never been a huge fan of the classics, so I never reread them. But a book that I reread that disappointed me? Actually, I don't know that either. Romeo & Juliet looses more and more of my respect every time I read it though.

>>A Certified Important Book you haven't read: The Catcher in the Rye, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and The Kite Runner. It seems everyone has read these, and they're supposed to be must-reads, but I haven't read any of them.