Shannon at the Great Book Challenge found this list of questions and I decided to play along with them as well. Question One: Your Favourite Book
For me, this question is like asking a parent to pick their favourite child (the one who is wildly successful, remembers to call every week and has children who remember to say 'thank you'). I had to really struggle to finally get it down to one, and even then I'm still not really sure if I'm right, but... One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I first read this book three years ago. I had bought five second hand books from Russell Books only to leave all but one of them on my dresser so I ended up buying a few books in the airport for the long flight to Tanzania (it's a two day trip). One Hundred Years of Solitude ending up being one of those books I wish I had read earlier in my life because I don't think I will ever read it enough times to be satisfied. I love that such strange and fantastical events are told as if they happen every day, as if they are as common as washing one's face; and the language was just so rich and beautiful--I could almost taste the words in my mouth--they made me want to read it out loud to my roommate, they were too beautiful to be read in silence. Every time I read it (I've re-read it three times since then) it rekindles the desire in me to improve my Spanish. If this is what it sounds like in English, imagine how glorious it must sound in Spanish? (And if Javier Bardem could read it to me, I promise I would never complain about anything in my life ever again.)
Runner Ups:
Shake Hands With the Devil by Romeo Dallaire - this man is the reason I went to Africa
The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier - I still regularly quote this book. Just seeing its cover makes me happy
Trinity by Leon Uris - It was this book that taught me that history is not black and white and even the 'good guys' can be guilty.
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