15 Books That Will Stick With Me
Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your Profile page, paste rules in a new Note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the Note, upper right-hand side.)
(This is not in order of how much I liked the books).
1. Eat. Pray. Love. By Elizabeth Gilbert – Just a very good book. Who wouldn’t want to travel to Italy to eat, India to do yoga, and Bali to find love?
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. It reminds me of my best friend Jordan Beckstead. Also, it’s different, and I like different. “... And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.”
3. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey – Obviously it sticks with me because of all the controversy it caused, but it’s just a very traumatizing/interesting book too.
4. Conspiracy of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald – Great book about how a few people can ruin the lives of many people by being greedy, arrogant and just plain stupid. It’s the story of Enron.
5. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Love the irony, fate, “don’t judge a book by its cover” themes in the book. Sad, but loved it.
6. Life of Pi by Yann Martel – The book claims that it will make you believe in God – and if you already believe, you will believe even more. Interesting eh? “I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a cleaver, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy.”
7. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee -- Again, a good “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” theme. I like the thought of standing up for what is right even though it may not be socially acceptable.
8. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka -- Kafka uses a creative way to describe the pressures of life and how they can turn on any of us at any given time. Not to mention, I had the best English teacher of my life when I read this.
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley -- The whole thought of starting over from scratch with a society to make it what you want it to be was interesting. No matter what the strategy, humans are still humans. Humans still have flaws. Society will never be perfect no matter how many times you try to re-structure it.
10. My Sister’s Keeper or Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult -- She asks the hard questions: What would you do if you were a mother and your kid had cancer? Would you have a child just to save the other child? If you use one child’s organs to save another’s, is that right? Are you being selfish? Would you take a death row inmates heart to save your child? What if that death row inmate was innocent but he's still being put to death? Would you fight for him?
11. Good to Great by Jim Collins -- Definitely helped me understand what type of leader I hope to be one day. And helped me gain respect for the only level five leader I’ve ever known – Kevin McCallum. It’s rare to come across them, but the business world wouldn’t function without them.
12. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell -- This book defines how trends become trends. How these trends hit their boiling points - be it suicide, products, crime rates… and how you can stop the boiling points or continue to make your product “sticky.” It’s easy to read and I always learn something from Gladwell.
13. On The Road by Jack Kerouac -- This book is like a constant poem to me. It made me want to travel and be with friends – love when books do that ☺ “Because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and the middle you see the blue center light pop and everyone goes “awww!”
14. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – Why do I always confuse this book with 1984? I need to re-read both of them so I can differentiate them in my brain. Don’t you think it’s weird that it mentions people being obsessed with watching reality TV (in the future) so they stop reading? The future is now. ☺
15. Choke or Rant by Chuck Palahniuk -- He’s a very raw/dark/creative writer which always makes for good books (and definitely “stick” with you as the theme of this note requests). Most people know him because he’s the author of Fight Club.
