by Elton Gahr

Created on: June 09, 2009

When considering favorite books it is easy to go to the classics like "The Grapes of Wrath", "Pride and Prejudice", "Frankenstein", or "The Time Machine". They are all good books but as smart and well written as these books and as glad as I am to read them they aren't the books that draw me back time and again. Those are books that have points and mean things but primarily they are easy and fun books to read.

The first of those books is "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." A humorous science fiction satire that has some of the feel of Monty Python. This is a story about Arthur Dent who is a normal man from England except that he knows an alien that helps him leave the earth moments before it is destroyed. The two go on an adventure not only to survive but to discover the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything.

The next of the books is Ender's Game. Like hitchhikers guide, this is a science fiction book, but this one is deadly serious. A generation ago humans were attacked by an alien species, they are now preparing for the counter attack but they need a general. Someone able to lead the attack. To find this person they have began to recruit children and taking them to Battle Station, An orbiting space station where they teach the children tactics and have them play games to learn. Ender is the best of these students. This book gets the feeling of smart kids perfect, not making them too smart but also not making them stupid either.

"The Lord of the Rings" while falling into the more difficult category is still among those as well. It is fun and every time I read it I find something new. These are books that can be read as metaphors, as epic fantasy or simply as very good stories.

For nonfiction books my favorite book is a brief history of time. There are nearly as many books on science as there are scientists who study it but most of them sound like scientists wrote them. A brief history of time was popular because it is not only very informative but because it really is as easy to read as the subject can allow. It's not a novel but it feels like one in places.

My favorite book is difficult. Depending on the day or the mood there are any of a hundred books that could be considered my favorite from a Star Trek spin off novel to kids fantasy but there are only a few books that I go back to constantly. Books that have proven themselves to me by being good every time I have read them and books that I am almost always happy to sit down and read again.

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