The Fourth Post: My Top 5 Favorite Works of Fiction

Alright, I admit I don't read as much as I should. You see, I have this unusual psychological condition - oh forget it. My mom doesn't believe me. My sister doesn't believe me. And I don't expect anyone else to so I won't explain about my psychological condition.

Anyway, I used to read quite a bit back in elementary school. I used to read mainly non-fiction but my teachers told me that I should read a bit of fiction so I reluctantly read fiction. Now I don't read much of anything (the last time I finished reading an entire book was during the February of last year). I have not read a book completely for school since, I think, first grade. Yeah, I had to read this one book called How to Eat Fried Worms. I didn't really like it much, but I did read all of it. There are a lot of other books that I was required to read for school but only skimmed: Maniac Magee, A Wrinkle in Time, My Brother Sam Is Dead, Kindred, Frankenstein, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Scarlet Letter (yeah, it's a play not a book, I know), etc. I also get a lot of classics from the library and end up not reading them just because most of them are really boring. And also because I always try to read the prologue, foreword, or introduction (but only if they were written by the author; I won't read a prologue, foreword, or introduction that wasn't written by the author) and those are usually very boring.

It just takes me a long time to read a book, you see. The books that I read have to be very interesting and I have to like them from the first page. These are five books (I said "Works of Fiction" in the title because I did also read Beowulf, which is an epic poem, but I decided that I didn't really like it much anyway) that fit those two requirements and that I would recommend to anyone:

5. The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells

It's been a while since I last read this book so I don't remember much about it, to tell you the truth. I do remember, however, that it's about this one guy who ends up on this one island that belongs to this one scientist named Dr. Moreau, who tries to make humans out of animals. It's a bit creepy, but still interesting. I thought the ending was pretty touching. I'd recommend this to anyone, like I said above, but mainly to anyone who liked the 1979 Ridley Scott-directed movie Aliens, because it's in the sci-fi horror genre as well.

4. Holes by Louis Sachar

It may be just a children's book, but Holes is a brilliant children's book. It's the only novel that I've ever read twice. Holes is about a kid named Stanley Yelnats, who is falsely accused of stealing shoes that were going to be auctioned to raise money for a homeless shelter. He is sent to a camp where they have to dig holes in the ground to improve their character. Or is it for some other reason? I really liked how the three plots just come together throughout the novel, like a puzzle. This is the only John Newberry Award (an award for kid's books) winner I've read. I did have to read A Wrinkle in Time, like I said earlier, for an oral report in 5th grade. I never had to give that oral report, which was a good thing, because I only read the first two or three pages.

3. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote


This is the book that I finished in the February of last year. I actually heard of the movie first and I thought that the novella would be interesting. It's about a struggling writer who meets this one prostitute (or "America Geisha", which is what Capote called her), who hopes to marry one of the wealthy men with whom she socializes.


Although the movie was pretty good, I thought the book was better. Man, that can make you feel smarter, can't it? Saying that "the book was better than the book" really does make me feel smarter. I don't get a lot of chances to say it so I was kind of grateful for this opportunity. Actually, I'm just kidding. It might just be because I don't read a lot, but in my opinion, it's unfair to say that the book is always better. I mean, just because the director and/or screenwriter didn't have the same vision you did, it doesn't necessarily make the movie bad. Breakfast at Tiffany's the movie was pretty good, in my opinion. It really is nothing like the novella (the message about not knowing what you have until you've lost it isn't really there because the ending is totally changed) but it's still pretty good. Too bad it's tarnished by its portrayal of Japanese people. I would've liked it more if Mr. Yunioshi had remained an important character instead of being turned into a racist caricature.

2. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells


This book's plot is very simple. I mean, most science-fiction books are really complicated but not this one. It's just about this guy who has invented a time machine and ends up in the year 802,701 A.D., where there's a huge divide between the rich and the poor. His time machine is stolen (but none of the people of the future can use it because he took the levers that control it before he left the machine) and he has to get it back. What I especially liked about the book was its epilogue. It's just beautifully-written. I'm serious, go find The Time Machine on Gutenberg and read the epilogue. You don't need to have read the book to understand it. I think I'll just copy and paste the last sentence of the epilogue here, just because it gives me shivers whenever I read it (just so you know, "shriveled" is spelled with two "l"s in British English):

"And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white flowers - shrivelled now, and brown and flat and brittle - to witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man."

You know, if ever I do go to work in Hollywood (I know that isn't very likely), I would very much like to write and direct my own version of this novella. It would be awesome, I'm pretty sure.

1. Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

For a long time, The Time Machine was my favorite novel of all-time. I decided, however, that Mortal Engines is. I first saw it on the top of a shelf in my middle school's library and I really liked the cover (the edition above) and thought that it would be interesting. I read it in three (maybe four) days. Never before had I read a book in only that much time. That's how awesome this book is. It's about a teenager who lives in a dystopian future, where cities devour each other. He falls out of London, along with a girl who was about to kill this one man. The rest of the book is about how they try to get back to London.

The following paragraph has some spoilers (nothing serious, though) about Mortal Engines:

You know, I never can read a whole series. I mean, I tried to read 2010: Odyssey Two, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it wasn't very interesting. Similarly, I didn't find Predator's Gold to be very interesting. I kind of wish that Philip Reeve had just ended the series with the first book (of course, that would mean there wouldn't have been a series). Of course, Mortal Engines couldn't have just ended with Tom and Hester floating away on the Jenny Haniver. Or maybe it could have. Actually, that would have been a great ending. I will try to read Predator's Gold again sometime, however.

Alright, spoiler alert over.

Anyway, I can't wait to see the movie adaptation that Peter Jackson and his company, WETA Digital, are working on. It should be awesome. I'd go see it on opening day.

So yeah, that's all for today.