What are your five favorite books, and why?
Always hated to pick favorites...but I'll try to limit this selection to top five.
1) Starting with poetry - Leaves of grass by Walt Whitman - I love to keep in touch with nature, it's a really good teacher, and that is shown in this book. It's the kind of book when you start reading it, it just flows onward and it's hard to stop. And it's also the perfect companion on hikes; climb a mountain, sit down in the grass and read this. Perfect.
2) Calvin and Hobbes. I know it's not a typical book, but it's such a joy to read it, it's really a book for adults, there's so much concept in them and truths about life. I just regret I didn't find them sooner.
3) The name of the rose by Umberto Eco - it's a perfect combination of murder mystery and history. When I was younger I loved reading Agatha Christies books, and ever since I enjoy reading such "mysteries"; I do fancy myself a detective ;)
4) The mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy - I heard of him in high school, when we read a short part of a chapter and it really pulled me in and had to buy it to read the rest. I don't really know why, but I love Hardy's work in general, and this particular one just stayed with me.
5) The name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss - is actually the first book in the series, I'm currently reading the second one. I just love his style of writing, the interlacing of different elements and the characters and how they develop. In it I find great quotes about life, and there's an interesting story developing and you don't know where it will lead.
What do you read for pleasure?
Anything. Different days demand different books. And whatever I read now is for pleasure, there's no one telling me what to read. I enjoy fantasy, mystery, drama, poetry, or a good book about history of midwifery and medicine in general. To name a few authors that I find very pleasurable at the moment: Haruki Murakami, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
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