My top books

I've already said I'm a book junkie. I love books! But there are some books that are total winners and others that I could live without. Here's my list of books I couldn't live without (like, if my house were burning down and I could only save a few books, these would be those) and that I think everyone should take the time to read....but first, a caveat: we can totally still be friends if you don't like my favorite books! I know that if you tell me you hate Sherlock Holmes, I'll tell you that you're crazy and ask why we're friends, but in all seriousness I know that people have different tastes in books. Some people don't like books at all. Some people love poetry. Some people are really into romance novels. We can still be friends, we just can't be in book club together.
Also, this list isn't complete. It will grow as I read more great books.

1. The Bible -- cliche, I know, but without it I'd be lost

2. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis -- how old are you? It doesn't matter! I can't imagine my bookshelf without these gems. And they're just as good in Spanish as they are in English.

3. The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas -- you've seen the movies (so many bad renditions!) and you probably had a mini heart attack when you first saw how big the book is, but in my book (pun intended) it's totally worth the read.

4. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas -- again, you've seen the movie (excellent!!!) and you've choked upon seeing the size of the book. But let me just tell you that the book is very different from the movie, you get to see a darker side of Dantes' revenge plot and with so much more detail.

5. The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- I mean all of his adventures and all 4 novels! Every time I'd read a new short story I'd be baffled at how Conan Doyle could imagine up such intricate mysteries.

6. Persuasion by Jane Austen -- girly, I know, but in my opinion it's Austen's best book. Here's the thing with her books though: I always have to see her books on screen before I can read them. Normally I'm not a fan of movies made from books I love, but Austen always has so many characters and all of the houses have names and it's really hard to keep everything straight in my head. But seriously, the letter. If you've read it, you know exactly what I'm talking about, if you haven't, it's something to look forward to. ;)

7. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp -- her writing style is really hard to get used to at first, but I love her message in this book. I highlighted, underlined, copied into my journal, and committed to memory so many of the things she says in this book.

8. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis -- wow. Sometimes I don't know what he's saying, but most of the time I'm stunned by the simplicity of his words and how they blow my mind. Only problem is I can't highlight every other sentence because then it'll seem like nothing was all that special, or in the words of the great super villain, Syndrome: "when everyone's special, no one will be."

9. Out of the Silent Planet trilogy by C.S. Lewis -- not nearly as popular as the Chronicles of Narnia (by which I mean, most people probably haven't heard of this trilogy), but such a great little sci-fi story. Let me just warn you now: the bulk of the third book (That Hideous Strength) is BORING!! But the ending is sooooo good that it makes it all worth it. But seriously, it's just academics talking and talking and talking the way that academics do, but if you do choose to pick up this trio, please don't be discouraged by that, you can totally make it to the end!

10. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett -- my favorite movie before The Princess Bride took its spot. I didn't know it was a book until about a year ago when I found it at a used bookstore in Guatemala. I loved it so much because it was like reading along as the movie played in my head. I could picture everything so vividly, yet the book still had a few curve balls to throw my way.

11. The Princess Bride by William Goldman -- If you love the movie, you'll love the book even more because you can almost watch the movie playing in your head as you read (Goldman also wrote the screenplay for the movie) and yet there are back stories and some events that never made it to the movie....so it's like everything you loved from the movie, plus some.

12. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini -- This is the most heartbreaking book I've ever read. It made me cry more than any other book has, but I couldn't bear to put it down. The way that Hosseini paints a picture with words it's like you're watching the story happen as you read. It's a beautiful book and it will break your heart and put it back together, only to break it again. I never want to see the movie based on this book, but the story is so beautiful and feels so real.

13. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini -- Again, heartbreaking, yet so incredibly beautiful. Hosseini may be one of my new favorite authors. His style is perfection.