My Top 8 books of 2012 !

Hello you strangers-soon-to be-friends out there! For my first post I was planning on showing a book haul but then I buy books very frequently that I lost track. Since no way I'm going to write a super duper long post on what I got, (only if you guys asked!) I will do my top books I read in 2012. I came up with 8 books so here they are! (They were actually 9 but I have an OCD when it comes to odd numbers). 

They are not in order of preference. I don’t discriminate my top favorites.

Ready Player One

By: Ernest Cline
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Published: 2011
For: all the geeks/sci-fi fans/ tech lovers/ gamers out there!

This one is the definition of awesomeness and epicness. It is so epic, so awesome you won’t let it down!! If you are a fan of the above, you will go nuts about it. It is set in the future where people don’t live one this world anymore. Just their bodies do! They spend all their day on OASIS, an online world created by James Halliday, kind of like a parallel universe where anything is possible. As the summery of the book says: “OASIS is a virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.” What happens is, the creator Halliday dies and leave his $250 billion fortune to the player who can find the Halliday's eggs hidden in OASIS. The whole world is set on finding the egg. They memorize Halliday’s favorite books, games, movies and basically everything related to the 80’s in hope of finding a clue. After years of failed searching, our lead character Wade stumbles upon the first egg and the world goes wild. Since I’m a huge 80’s pop culture fan, I adored it! Trust me, you won’t regret this one!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

By: Douglas Adams
Genre: Science Fiction/Humor/Fantasy
Published: 1979

For: You will enjoy this if you are a funny person XP

It’s about a guy called Arthur Dent who founds out that they are taking his house down. A spaceship comes and a sound is heard from it to all earth people that earth will be demolished to build a hyperspatial express route through our star system. The earth is demolished and Arthur dent is saved by an alien friend of his. And the journey across the galaxy begins. Silly right? This book is very silly and contains absurd terminology. The sense of humor is very weird but highly entertaining. There were many laugh-out-louds throughout the book. But most of all the meaning behind all “meaningless” things is worth applauding for. This novel takes an existentialism approach where questions are raised about “Life, the Universe and Everything”. He proves a point about the meaningless of the answers about mysteries of the universe if we didn’t understand the reason to such answers. Highlighting that we should stop seeking them and begin to accept things as they are. Good point, right?

Pride and Prejudice


By: Jane Austin
Genre:Classics/Literature/Romance
Published: 1813
 For: if you like the reading about ladies gossiping all day and a very dark mysterious attractive dude. 

This highly annotated novel is one of my favorite works of Victorian literary. This is NOT a chick flick olden-times style! I almost thought its dry in its lack of romance but then that’s how people at that time role. What I found surprising– in most classics too – that the characters don’t have a job and they rely on their estates for income. So what women do is gossip all day. I’m not surprised here!

The story is about a middle class family where the mother’s sole purpose of her existence is to marry her daughters off. It’s a great insight about life in the 19^th century. This novel is delicious; the writing is so plush and flows very gracefully. I can’t begin to describe the wittiness and how loveable are the characters especially Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. You can only gawk in amusement at their encounters. The banter between them is so far from flirting. If you want to ever experience Victorian novels, start from here!

To Kill a Mocking Bird

By: Harper Lee
Genre: Classics/ Historical Fiction
Published: 1960

For: Everyone.

This is the best novel in American literature. I hardly can say anything more. Its flawless, superb, amazing, a piece of art, insightful and every appraising adjective you can think of. My English teacher bugged us at high school about how amazing it is and told us that we should give it a try. Nobody did.  You crazy? Who would ever listen to a teacher’s opinion? But I finally came around and read it just to get it out of the way of the list of books I should read before I die. It became my ultimate favorite. It’s a coming of age story about a small town in Alabama during the Great Depression. It kind of has a relative similarity with “The Help” since it shares the same subject. The feeling this novel gives are simplicity and warmth you just want to snuggle with it. It’s very easy flowing but very strong in its message of tolerance, discrimination and justice. Every line in this novel carries a message. It’s about wearing a pair of pants, collecting your courage and yelling: “NOT ON MY WATCH! “. This novel most important message:  get it together and fight! Fight with all you got! Fight for something you believe in no matter what because it’s WORTH fighting for. I want to do a review about this in details and show you really how great this piece of literature is. Everyone should be required to read this. Who said reading novels is a waste of time?

I had to add some of my favorite quotes that I hold onto very dearly.

- “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

- ‘When they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things . . . Atticus, he was real nice. . . .’ His hands were under my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me. ‘Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.’

 Insurgent

By: Veronica Roth
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Dystopia
Published: 2012

For: If you don’t hate Young Adult novels.

This is the second book in the Divergent series. Shamma and I got completely obsessed over it! This is a dystopian YA novel about the future Chicago where people are classified by their personality traits and fit into different factions accordingly. I can’t give out anything since it all depends on the first book “Divergent”. I can guess the name of the third one already! Although I love this fast-paced and full of epic twists series, I’m not a fan of the title. It might seem like one of the dozens of series with very tacky and one-word titles and their tacky and very unoriginal plots – for some reason most of them are dystopian – but oh no this one is very different ! The lead female character reminds very much me of Katniss from The Hunger Games. There is something that pisses me off though about her.  Tris, the lead character, is being portrayed as if she is made of steel, she doesn’t get very emotional when she should and at one point she gets shot in the arm, she doesn’t cry. What she does is PULL the bullet off her arm and toss it away!! Are you kidding me?! Is she a robot or what? If I get a paper cut I freak out! I put a bandage on it! ….. Sheesh I’m pissed now.

The Great Gatsby

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald 
Genre: Classics/ Historical Fiction
Published: 1925
 For:?

The story sets after World War 1 and focuses on the life of people during that time. It shows a society where its sole purpose is parting and living carelessly. It reveals to the reader that under all that façade of a joyful reckless lifestyle there is just emptiness inside. Fitzgerald novel focuses on Jay Gatsby, A very rich man living in a great mansion that hosts parties very often. He peels away the “great” in Gatsby and shows us his defect and tragic persona. The parties, affairs, and exploits are just a way for people to put a value to their name. The mask the people are wearing is to avoid dealing with real life and to just delve in unadulterated numbness.  The writing, oh god the writing is just superb. It’s very beautifully written with an air of pretense, very far from modesty. I like to think it’s the writer’s way to aid the reader in visualizing the setting of the story. Or maybe it’s just that he couldn’t lose his pretentious act. I highly recommend it.


 Scott Pilgrim Precious Little Life

By: Bryan Lee O'malley
Genre: Graphic Novel/Comic 
Published: 2004

For: comic fans anyone?

This a comic/graphic novel turned into a movie. The summery of the comic goes like: “he's 23 years old, he's in a rock band, he's ""between jobs,"" and he's dating a cute high school girl. Nothing could possibly go wrong, unless a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. Will Scott's awesome life get turned upside-down? Will he have to face Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends in battle? The short answer is yes. The long answer is Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life”

I couldn’t have put it any better. And I’m kind of lazy to write anymore. It’s a long list!

I hope you like my list of awesomeness. What book piqued your interest? Which one you want to read? Which one you already read? Did you like it? Hate it? Please tell me in the comments below!

-Alia