Your Favorite Books……….by Erin French

Books – whether we grew up listening to them be read to us or felt drawn to read them at a young age – have provided us with insights that are not always attainable in a world full of movie-goers and non-readers. As time goes by, a select number of books have provided not only knowledge, but also inspiration.Alora Nichols, a college student  living in College Station, Texas, has felt particularly drawn to The Road by Cormack McCarthy, Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.

“These three books, there aren’t any out there like them,” said Nichols. “I really like Sophie’s World because it’s almost like a philosophical guidebook and it also teaches the reader a lot about philosophy, which is neat. I also really like The Road because it’s honestly the only book that’s ever made me sob. It really draws you in and makes you care about the two main characters because you want them to survive and make it through the journey and when things start going bad, it’s like it’s happening to someone you know and love.”

Elijah Blumov, a college student  living in Brooklyn, New York, has read and thoroughly enjoyed The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the Bhagavad Gita, Ecclesiastes, True Detective, Man Men, Mozart in the Jungle, and The Birth of Tragedy.

“The Birth of Tragedy was such a thrilling book for me to read because it kind of expanded and elaborated on things I had thought about for awhile,” said Blumov. “It’s the first book that Friedrich Nietzsche wrote. His later works came after he was a scholar of classics, as well as an expert on Greek mythology and Latin.”

Jordan Mabrey, a recent college graduate  living in Austin, Texas, feels that the three best books he’s ever read are Dracula, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Farewell to Arms.

“I like all of them because they really intrigue you and they keep you on the edge of your seat, just wondering what’s going to happen next,” said Mabrey. “There’s lots of action in all of them. But I would say my favorite of the three was Farewell to Arms because it depicts real events that happened to people and still happen to people that fight in wars.”