Day Four: Favorite Book

Man, oh man. Where do I even start?

I have a love of books that is...well, probably a little unhealthy to be honest. I've wondered at times if I don't have an addiction to reading. I go through withdrawal if I go too long between reading material. You'll see me twitching and slapping at the crook of my arm and everything. It's bad.

Also...I have a strange quirk about books. Once I pick up a book, I am compelled to read through it as fast as I can. I feel this peculiar responsibility for the characters, as though they are "stuck" at whatever point in the story that I quit reading. This is probably a sign that I saw the movie The Neverending Story too many times as a child. (I totally forgot to add that one to my favorite movie post. Atreyu-uuuuuuuuuuu!)

You laugh, but I am serious. It's bad.

Anyway, the point is that I go through books very quickly. And I have this thing about buying my books instead of borrowing them from the library. I buy them new for reasons too ridiculous to bore you with. Jason has pretty much started to refuse to buy me books less than 4- or 500 pages. He says it's just not economical because the $7-20/book should last me more than 4 or 5 hours. He's probably right. We don't have to share that with him though, right? He's kind of annoying when I admit he has a point about something.

Okay, so favorite books. Good grief. Even with all this stalling I still don't know where to start!

At this point I don't read much in the way of classics or anything too "high brow." I read Sophie's Choice a couple summers ago and about fried my brain. (Jason was happy though; he really felt like he got his money out of that one.) It's just too much for me to read those kinds of books and keep up with the kids. Maybe in a few years. I read a lot of today's popular authors, though. Lots and lots. I'm not incredibly picky about what I read; because of the whole character stuck in the book issue I have, I will read complete crap just to give a character closure. (No, really. I told you it was bad.)

I can tell you that I love Dean Koontz. With the exception of the Frankenstein books he's been writing, there really isn't anything of his that I don't like. My favorites of his are probably the Odd Thomas books, followed by Life Expectancy, and then Twilight Eyes. The best thing about any Koontz book (in my opinion) is the underlying positive energy. The laughter and humor through dark times...it's how I try to approach life. (Not that I always succeed, of course.)

I used to be a HUGE fan of Stephen King's books. I have a copy of IT that has seen better days. The Stand was also great. (I'm talking about the books, you understand. Not the horrible made-for-tv movies that were based off the books. He should never allow anything other than short stories to be made for tv or the big screen. Not even all those, though. The Mist made a horrible movie but was a terrific story.) His newer stuff leaves me cold and the Dark Tower series just plain irritated me. (Sorry, Mr. King! I still think you are awesome.)

My most recent favorite series has been the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Love them!

I love, love, love Anne of Green Gables and all the books in that series. If I absolutely had to pick a favorite I would pick this series. No, I couldn't choose just one; it would definitely have to be the all eight books.

Also from my childhood: The Chronicles of Narnia, The Boxcar Children, and A Wrinkle in Time. Oh! And A Little Princess and The Secret Garden. I still read those last two from time to time. Now that I think of it, kids have all the great books.

So many adults claim that they don't have the time to sit and read a book. Do you make time in your day or week to read? What have you read recently?