Almost everyone I know is an avid reader. I know I have read literally thousands of books. Heck, when we downsized (the first time) I gave five thousand books to the Library. This last time, seven years ago, when we moved to our tiny five hundred foot garage apartment, it took two full beds of Kathy’s truck to lug those books to give away. We gave away 597 Non Fiction, and 1,233 Fiction books to the Library Downtown (they gave us a receipt -so I know the exact count for that last donation). I have only lived in our New house for a year…and already I have just over 100 books on the shelf next to my computer- and just over 100 on my iPad. So…still a reader. LOL
Even being frugal, I still seem to collect books. So in all those books, what’s my favorite: Chapter, Paragraph, Sentence.
Well, my favorite sentence comes from a book called: A tour of the Calculus, by David Berlinski. Sadly, I can’t recall it word for word. I can paraphrase it. He was in BudaPest with some other Mathematicians. There is a bridge there that is centuries old. It leaks out a weird concoction of pollutants into the air that in certain situations and environments, make the bridge look almost mystical.
He wrote a sentence about it that basically says: “Isn’t that interesting, an object creating the environment most favorable for it to be viewed in.” And isn’t that how we try and live our lives and fill it with folks we love? To create, for ourselves, the environment most favorable for us to be viewed in. Not as an individual, but as a key component of a living, loving, being. Now his sentence is much longer, with almost Art level prose. So if you pick up the book, you will know when you find that sentence. I thought it was profound. Don’t we all create the environment for ourselves that showcases us in our best light? So I can answer what my favorite sentence is in Literature. My Second favorite sentence in literature I can remember: It comes from Milton’s Paradise lost:

“The mind is its own place and, in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven." - John Milton

My favorite Paragraph…Hmmm. Not sure.
My favorite Chapter? Yes, I have that one. It is the second last chapter in Mat Haig’s book: "The Midnight Library.” The Title of the Chapter is:
The Volcano. Pages: 284-286 Give it a read. Just go to your local bookstore, or Library, skip to the back, and read that Chapter. It is my favorite for many reasons. If I have a philosophy about Life, that Chapter comes the closest to it. Maybe that is why I liked it so much. Or maybe it is because he tells you in that Chapter that if you burn your own book of “Regrets”, you realize how much being alive means! Alive right now, today, this moment. I love that chapter!

I know what you are thinking: “Well, then, what is your Favorite Book?” I couldn’t answer that, except to say: “they all are!” Sure I enjoyed reading some of them more than others. Reading the “Giving Tree” by Shell Silverstein, is not the same as reading say…”Gravitation”, or “The Road to Reality” by : Kip Thorne and Roger Penrose (respectively). Both those tomes are massive. More than a thousand pages crammed with Mathematics, Physics, Profound insights and discoveries.

How in the world would you compare those to the joy of reading: Curious George, The Little Engine that could, The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Nancy Drew, the Catcher in the Rye, The Old Man and the Sea, To Serve Them All My Days, Dune, The Sand Pebbles, any Bill Bryson Book, or the magnificently researched books of Irving Stone, or Michener. Oh, and what about the equally well researched books by my favorite Western Author : Louis L’Amour. (Old West, not Hemisphere) My favorite Sci Fi authors: to many to list but: Lois McMaster Bujold, Ursula Le Guin, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, John Scalzi, and Frank Herbert leap to mind.

Recently I have been introduced to a fabulous Chinese Author who wrote : “The Three Body Problem”. Wonderful book, with lots of hints about life in China during the “The Cultural Revolution.” Even more recently to two Japanese Authors, one female, one male, I am typing this without notes, so sadly, I can’t tell you their names or the books they wrote. You will just have to find them. LOL

No, I am not forgetting the Bible in all its manifestations either. Nor the other “Sacred or Holy” books of other Faiths. The Koran, The Torah, Gnostic Gospels. The Buddhist Tikitaka, is some forty volumes in English! You can even read the Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Doomsday Book, and the old Norse Epic Poems. By the way, where do we put the Ancients “books” like the “Iliad and Odyssey”, Ulysses, the Veda Books, The Poetic Edda, and Beowulf.

Where to we put anything by Dickens, The Bronte Sisters, Hemingway, Faulkner, et all? Can you pick a favorite. I sure can’t. So I guess I won’t ever be able to answer my favorite book is… . I could, and did, list my favorite Chapter, and my favorite sentence.

Perhaps you have more books to add: The great South American Writers Like: Jorge Louis Borges (who was so far ahead of his time, it is frightening), Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and my favorite: Paul Coelho ( The Alchemist and others) Maybe Paul Achebe’s famous book from Africa: “Why Things Fall Apart.”

There is a lot to read out there. See if you can come up with your favorite paragraph, or sentence. If you are feeling ambitious, try for your favorite Chapter. If you are really ambitious, try to come up with your own top ten books of all time. Be sure and post your favorite - if you have an idea for the one book everyone should read (outside of Religious Books, we know which one that will be …depending on your Faith)

Smiles, Kevin