Daily Prompt: Bedtime Stories

What was your favorite book as a child? Did it influence the person you are now?

I was an avid reader from childhood. The first book I read and can remember was the short stories collections by Enid Blyton. She was one of my favorite authors growing up. I read at least 20 of her short stories collections, the Famous Five series, the Five Find-Outers series and the Secret Seven series.

My first novels were Frankenstein, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea to name a few. As you can see most of them have a dark background. My parents were fans of these books so obviously when I wanted to read novels they gave these to me. I think this was primarily where my dark nature began.

But I think that the book that influenced me the most during my childhood had to The Picture of Dorian Gray. I think I read this book when I was in 3^rd or 4^th grade. This book was my favorite and is still one of my favorite books. For some reason this book seemed to teach me something that none of the other books did.

First off the book was supernatural. Being able to capture one’s beauty in a picture or painting just blew me off. For a long time, I wish I didn’t grow up. Being able to be a child forever seemed more fun than growing up to being an adult. Maybe that’s why even now, I don’t like change in my environment so much.

The book taught morality to me way better than anything else. People say not to do things around you because it is bad. I would question it. Why shouldn’t I? What if I do it? What will happen? The Picture of Dorian Gray spoke about morality. Being bad at first may not seem so bad. You may even enjoy it. But in the end, you lose yourself and no one is your friend. You die alone. The book I had was illustrated and the last picture of the old and evil Dorian Gray was freaky. When I first saw it, I knew I did not want to end up like that. So how to stop it? Be good. Be kind to others and you will not be that ugly creature in the painting.

Lastly, the book showed love wasn’t perfect and so is life. Being a girl, I watched a lot of those princess movies, the ones where it all ends happily ever after. But this book starts out with a love tragedy. The girl, Dorian Gray loves, dies. Her death affected him but he moved on. Her brother didn’t and came back to haunt him. And finally even though he had his wish granted, to be young and beautiful forever, he was so unhappy that he had to kill himself. I learned that exterior beauty is not all and that not everything has a happy ending. It gave me a more realistic view on life.

Day 3 – 5 Books that I Recommend Reading

Day 3 – 5 Books that I Recommend Reading

 

Ok this is probably going the hardest list. I mean out of all the books that I have read picking just 5 would be almost impossible. I will however to ease my brain put in series.

 

1. Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling. Right off the top, if you don’t read the series you can not enjoy any of the movies. Being a Potterhead, I highly recommend this book firstly because it changed a whole generation completely and secondly because it is good. There have been a lot of books on magic but J.K. Rowling brought the children and growing up aspect really well.
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde. This book was my favorite book when I was kid. I read it so many times. It is very dark book but the human nature and vanity and everything about this book is simply too good.  I have read other short stories by Oscar Wilde and his mindset is very similar to mine. A dark yet happy mindset. All his stories tend to have a happy ending, depending on how you look at it.
3. The Earth Chronicles – Zacharia Sitchen. This is the only non-fiction that is going to be on the list. The Earth Chronicles are a series of books on the ancient astronaut theory. Though some of the theories presented have been proved wrong, it is still interesting and informative.
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy – Douglas Adams. This is probably one of the most hilarious science fiction books I have ever read. I love this book. You could read the whole series but the first one is the best. I like the next one ‘Restaurant at the End of The Universe’ (not what you think ;)). Though most people don’t find it humorous, it takes a little bit of intellectual humor to get it.
5. The Devotion of Suspect X – Keigo Higashino. This is one of the recent books that I read and let me tell you I was hooked. The entire story you know what has happened and all you are waiting for it to unfold with a twist at the end. After I finished reading the book, I had to pause and think replay the entire thing in my mind. It was that good.

 

So that’s the list of books I recommend for now. There actually at lot of books that I would love to add but I guess maybe next time. So till then enjoy reading! 😀