Ten Books

I used to be a big reader in elementary and middle school, but after I got into high school I've lost touch with that part of me. A nice thing about high school though is that English class has exposed me to a lot of other titles and COVID forced me to read a bunch. Now that things are winding down I've started to read a lot more than I have been and had the time to rethink what I like. I hope this list somewhat reflects that and has good titles that I can enjoy even as I grow older and mature. Below are ten books I'd like to read, not in any particular order, along with some reasons why.

• Catch-22 (WW2 bomber island survival story)

• I used to read a bunch of survival books in elementary school for some reason (think Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain). The summary from this book seems oddly nostalgic yet with more complexity and depth. I've also heard this name-dropped a lot so I have high hopes for this one.

• The Lord of the Rings

• This is another nostalgic title since I haven't read fantasy in so long. It gets thrown up in conversation with Harry Potter and I also got recently made fun of for not reading it so I hope I'll get through this title soon.

• The Grapes of Wrath (Great Depression)

• I've liked Steinbeck and his books on America after I was introduced to him in freshman year. I think the economic component of this piece will be interesting since I've gotten somewhat into that topic during high school and maybe in college too.

• Brave New World (genetic engineering)

• Biotechnology is something I've gotten involved with in high school and the intersection of traditional biology and technology is something cool that has raised lots of ethical concerns lately. This older book would be interesting to think about and something I'd like to read about undergrad as I'm trying to figure out what I would like to do post graduation.

• Animal Farm

• I might become more civically active in college and I took AP world history this year and learned about different governments in Europe over time. Although I didn't like Orwell when I read him in sophomore year, I want to read this at some point soon.

• Beloved

• Toni Morrison is a really highly recommended author and I'd like to read her piece after college. After reading Recitatif, I feel like Morrision’s way of presenting racial issues is new and leaves more room for thought. The basis for Beloved is also interesting and deeply symbolic, so I feel like this will be a good piece for me to read in my mid-twenties.

• Invisible Man

• I tried reading this a few years ago and I gave up. I put it in here mainly since I'd like to see if my tastes changed. It’s been banned in schools for its vulgarity but it takes a hard look at the racial inequities through a perspective that is symbolic of many things. It’s been highly recommended to me and a well-known classic as well. H. G

• Slaughterhouse-five

• I watched All Quiet On the Western Front somewhat recently, which is about World War One, and it piqued my interest in war time literary pieces. It tackles questions about life and purpose, which are interesting and important topics to consider as I grow older and determine what direction my life will go in. It’s not particularly high diction and the writing style is direct, so I hope that I mesh well with this piece.

• If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

• The premise and writing style of this book seemed really interesting. Definitely something that'd I would want to read but probably towards the end of the ten book list.

• The Good Earth

• I read this book for the first time during Covid and I absolutely loved it, but this turned out to be a really controversial title. It was honestly the only book about the “Asian experience” that I had read up until this point (besides a fictional diary about a gold rush immigrant in elementary school). I really deeply connected with the characters and the issues that they presented, but since it was written by the daughter of a white missionary, people always say it’s bad. I haven’t read it since then because I don’t want to taint my memory of it but when at the end of my ten years I want to look back and see if I like it as much. Since then, all the other books I’ve read written by Asian authors on Asian people (like Pachinko or The Leavers) have been really disappointing.