by AJ Clayton

Created on: February 20, 2007   Last Updated: September 04, 2011

When thinking about the top five books that I believe everyone should read, I first asked myself why should they read them? The answer I came to was that the following books have the ability to change the way you might think about or see something.

1. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I don't think I can even count the number of times I have read and reread this book. This book addresses sex, drugs, technology and overall societal control. Class systems are developed and boundaries are set that are not to be crossed. Decisions are made and your role in life is basically decided from birth.

2. The Giver by Lois Lowry. This book addresses themes of life and death along with memory and individuality. In the society created in this book, decisions are made for you and so much of your life is exactly like those around you. Society decides what you do, what you are given and even what you remember.

3. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. After reading this book, Dorothy and OZ never look the same. Maguire writes this book so well that you can actually feasibly see the events in this book happening before the events that so many of us know from The Wizard of OZ. You can go from despising the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of OZ to feeling bad for her and wanting to see her succeed. Under all of this though, there are many other themes, such as animal rights and political unrest.

4. Walden Two by B.F. Skinner. Not to be confused with Walden by Thoreau (although that is another great book), Walden Two illustrates human behavior and how anything can be changed. Skinner created a community with a scientific foundation, and used the principles of behavior modification.

5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. Imagine not being able to lie, hating to be touched, excelling at math and science, cannot understand jokes and having no understanding of human emotion. This is what life is for the 15-year-old narrator of this novel, a young boy with autism. This book is amazingly written and gives great insight to the world through the narrator's eyes. Autism is a disease that many people know very little about. But with this novel, you can at least get a glimpse of it.

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