Lea's 5 Books

I have been asked for my own Top 5 and quite frankly, would have preferred top 100 lol. Seriously though, I’ve always been a reader and although thanks to other pastimes it’s dropped a smidge and I don’t read as much, I’ve still always got a book on the go. With nowt on tele but crap, I’m craving the need to read more. Funnily enough I have bookcases full and can never find anything...

I won’t do Outlander as that is my current read and Carolyn’s already done it (great taste lady!). I also won’t do To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye as they are usually a given with most people. Game of Thrones is out because although I am loving it, I haven’t finished them yet and well, it’s too obvious lol. I had to think long and hard about my choices but here they are. Like Carolyn, they might change tomorrow or next week but these are at least the books I’m happy to read again and again. In no particular order...

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

 

I absolutely loved the DaVinci Code but this book surpassed that in so many ways. In essence I felt it could have (should have/maybe did?) been released first as it didn’t feel like a sequel where as DaVinci did. Anyway, as a person not religious or all up in the Catholic Dogma, I was fully sucked into the theories and conspiracies behind the new electing of a Pope, the Illuminati and their vendetta against the church and of course the linking of famous historical figures to what was essentially the Freemasons. Finding hidden meanings in even the most innocent of looking items is a big appeal. Loved it!!

Roots by Alex Haley

 

It’s been forever since I read this and I can’t remember a lot (it’s been more than 20 years yáll lol) but it still sits with me. At one point I literally started to cry on a bus full of people because the part I was reading upset me that much. The anger it makes me feel about how one person can treat another, based purely on the color of their skin is still palpable and sadly some 150+ years later nothing has changed. If anything I would like to think that it at least taught me to be more tolerant and to take people for who they are, and not what they look like on the outside.

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

 

I loved this and not just because I’m the perfect height to be a Hobbit lol. I read this long before Peter Jackson got a hold of it and Lord of the Rings and was instantly wrapped up in the adventure. The mixing of different races, all fighting for a common goal and half the time fighting each other had some truly fun moments. Knowing that even the smallest of us can still triumph was another big part of it. There’s hope for us all, if you can dream big and then go for that dream.

 **As a side note I would have added LOTR too but I only got about a third of the way through and didn’t actually finish. I will though so technically it can be my 3.a in the top 5 :D

Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews

Yes, I know... But back when I was in high school these were the ant’s pants. You literally had to put your name on the list to get them because they were always booked out. Of course when a friend bought one you just shared that instead. Aside from the sleeping with your sibling thing, I liked that the kids eventually got out (most of them) and managed to live a life, as twisted as it all became. Even as fiction seeing that money doesn’t always give you happiness is a good message to take from it. Oh, and powdered donuts really are bad for you...

 

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Another book I started after seeing the first episode of the mini-series. I truly did love this and its sequel World without End, even more than the shows. The books delved so much deeper into why certain characters were the way they were or what motivated them to do certain things and gave me a better understanding; even to go as far as sometimes feeling sympathy for the bad guys, although it was short lived because they acted like dicks anew. Again it was religious based but that didn’t take anything away for me. I was more interested in the weaving of characters and their stories, cheering for my favourites and hissing and hating at the others. Any story that can do that for a reader surely has to be a must go to, right?