Storytelling is an essential part of life's survival. That is definitely a lesson we've learned in spades during this pandemic. We've all turned to our favorite books, characters and stories for a lifeline. Our favorite stories are a part of our lives, our DNA. The characters become like family and loved ones we need in times of crisis and laughter. We all have those one or two pieces of literature that has changed our lives and kept us sane. Reading saves lives, true story.
Redditor u/redditt135 wanted everyone to share about the stories they've read with and can be apart of over and over again by asking.... What's your favorite book you've read and why?Eden.
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East of Eden. I learned a lot about people and why they are motivated to do the crazy things they do.
I also learned that there are people who are just straight up rotten. Can't be fixed. I think it's chapter 3 where he describes Kate as a monster, comparing that some people are missing an arm or a leg. Kate it missing something in her mind which makes her evil. AsbestosDude
The Myth.
Circe and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
I am a fan of any Greek Myth interpretation or re-telling, but the way that Miller portrays and gets inside the heads of characters that have existed for thousands of years is incredibly unique and powerful. These books do not have to be read together as they just share a world, but would highly recommend both! Though just a side character in both, her Odysseus might be my favorite. RedReismicht
Kitchen Diaries.
Kitchen confidential
It's just so honest. The way he reflects about his career while dropping in little bits of knowledge of how the culinary world works. Madranite
I still need to read this. His death is the only celebrity death that actually made me emotional. I have not read any of his books, but his show was the only show that my wife and I religiously watched together. We love to travel and have several times gone to places on his recommendation.
I feel like I will get emotional reading the book. I thought of buying an audiobook of his, as I drive a lot for work so at any given time I am usually reading a heavy content book while listening to a novel or easy listening business book, but I think I would get upset listening to him talk. ycpa68
Eulalia!!!
The Redwall series by Brian Jacques. I love the adventure and questing and figuring out riddles. The way he described the feasts... God I always wished I could experience a feast like that. The way he would write the different dialects for the different animals was so much fun. They are young adult books, but I'm nearing 4 decades and still love them. Been reading them since I was just a wee lad.
Eulalia! For Redwall! turtlepowerpizzatime
Always Fun.
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The Phantom Tollbooth. It was fun to read as a kid and then I picked it up again as I got older and noticed so many little details that kept it fun and interesting. ahappypoop
Thanks Dan.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Fabulous sci-fi imagination, filled with characters, worlds, technology, politics, and innocence which invoke the most vivid movie reel of a story in my mind each time I read it and the others in the trilogy.
Update: KWaTZ! Blew up more than I expected, Thanks for the gold kind stranger. StarrangerAU
"transient"
Contact by Carl Sagan, about a radio astronomer named Ellie Arroway who discovers extraterrestrial life. (There was a movie too which is also good, but different enough that I think the book is worth reading.)
I feel like I still read a lot, but I don't have obsessive favorite books like I did when I was younger that I read and reread a million times and underline favorite passages.
But Contact came across at just the right stage of formative years for me, and showed me the kind of astronomer I wanted to be... and I'm now a radio astronomer who specializes in "transient" radio signals that turn on and off over time! No aliens yet though. :) Andromeda321
Tolkien.
The Hobbit. I remember my dad reading it to me when I was really little before they got divorced so when I read it on my own I remembered some parts from then. PLUS, it's a great story that I loved. Hellboy32607
I read it in middle school. I then reread it as an adult in anticipation of the movies, and I was riveted at points and couldn't put it down. I couldn't remember what happened and was completely on the edge of my seat.
Then the movies came out and they were bad. rnilbog
Revenge.
The count of Monte Cristo. A fantastic tale of revenge and if it's worth it. douglass_ft8f
I completely agree, this book is always a top recommend. The story of ultimate revenge is beautiful and sad. It will leave you just as broken as the characters in the book, and I love it for for it. DevoidAxis
Algie....
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Flowers for Algernon that book was a roller coaster of emotions at the end. Project_ZS
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "
" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.
Ok, who is watching the clock? Those seconds aren't going to count themselves. The only way to understand time is to be its witness. Although that can get depressing. Let's focus on the light and cool.
History...
Calculate Figure It Out GIF by OriginalsGiphy"If you are an 80-year-old American, you have lived through approximately 1/3 of our nation's entire history."
Those Days...
"The 80s were 40 years ago."
"This is what messes me up because I was born in 82 and graduated high school in 2000 so for some reason my brain is stuck on the 80's being twenty years ago. The 70's thirty years ago etc etc. I have to stop and realize sometimes that my concept of how long ago things happened is way off."
Time goes by...
"We observe that light travels at 186,000 miles a second, but given the vast size of the observable universe, that's a snail's pace. But from the point of view of a particle of light, time doesn't even exist."
"Time slows down as you approach the speed of light, and theoretically stops completely when you reach the speed of light."
Years Gone By...
"MLK Jr. and Anne Frank were born in the same year."
"Betty White was born in 1922. Automatically pre-sliced packaged bread loaves became commercially available in 1928. Betty White is six years older than sliced bread."
Long Live the Queen!
queen elizabeth images GIFGiphy"The queen and Marilyn Monroe would've been the same age."
"And Marilyn Monroe and Andy Griffith were born on the same day!"
- osme1
I swear Liz is going to outlive dirt. Wait, I believe she already has. Well she won't be alone, she'll have Betty White. At least she better have Betty. Time is nothing without Queen Betty.
TV Time
Season 2 Omg GIF by Paramount+Giphy"Happy Days was a TV show made in the 1970s-80s about teenagers in the 1950s. Similarly, That 70s Show was made in the 90s-00s about teenagers in the 70s. If a similar show were to be made today, it would be about teenagers in the 2000s."
- VVillyD
A Croc
"If a T-Rex imagined a creature as ancient as the T-Rex is to us, it would be a Stegosaurus. If that Stegosaurus imagined a creature as ancient as the Stegosaurus is to us, it would be a Crocodile. If that Crocodile imagined a creature as ancient as that Crocodile is to us, it would be a Shark."
On the Clock
"On a twenty four hour clock the amount of time that humans have been on the earth would total around five seconds."
"How about this one: If Homo Habilus first appeared at midnight, 24 hours ago, that means the first Homo Sapiens appeared at 9:25 PM, or about 2 and a half hours ago. The first human civilization, in lower Mesopotamia, appeared at 11:57 PM, or about 3 minutes ago."
"The Western Roman Empire fell at 11:59 PM, or 1 minute ago. Everything that has happened since - the Crusades, the Plague, the discovery of the New World, the world wars, all of it - has happened in the last minute of human existence."
And that's just OUR Sun...
"The span of our lives are so insignificantly small that our Sun will last another 5 billion years. That's 9 zeros people. Our eldest live to around 100 in the best places. That's 50,000,000 (50 million) times longer than any person can reasonably expect to live. And that's just OUR Sun. The universe as a whole has probably existed for magnitudes longer than that already and will continue to exist until the end of time as we know it."
Tell Me a Story
william shakespeare GIF by will herringGiphy"We know what a good storyteller Shakespeare was but there were Greek playwrights who wrote shows nearly 2,000 years earlier that are pretty good, too."
I hate time. Only because I'm petty and irritated of the amount I squandered. That's neither here nor there though. Time marches on and continues to amaze. I'll keep watching.
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