[–] SLUMLORD_MILLIONAIRE 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
I'm a huge Ayn Rand fan. Both my daughters are named after her. I personally love 'Anthem' and if I had to pick a favorite that would be it.
I have a special place in my heart for Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Anthem was the first book I chose to read, outside of school. I didn't have to read it for an assignment or for anything else. I picked it up off the shelf in the library and started reading it and started a lifelong love of Ayn Rand. It's really simplistic and written for a 6th-7th grade reading level. It's super short too. Only 108 pages if I remember correctly. I've sat down and read it in a single session many times.
I didn't know anything about Ayn's philosophy or any of her politics or anything. The book to me was just a post apocalyptic love story. I didn't even realize the significance of what I was reading until much later. Her books have that affect on you though.
I really initially just liked the sci-fi utopian (dystopia) aspect of it all. How all of life was regulated and there's one man who is disgusted by it and doesn't know why (holy shit does that appeal to teenagers!) Ayn's vision was different than some of these other YA dystopian fiction books that are popular like the giver, divergent, the hunger games, etc. Those books really appeal to teenagers trying to find their place in the world and their feelings of being different and special and not wanting to really conform to society .... in Anthem the man wasn't really different or special. He was just an average dude that simply found out a truth that others didn't know. In those other books these people are usually born different, they're given this special knowledge by birthright - they've been different (or divergent if you will) their entire lives and then they're thrust into circumstances and become heroes. In Ayn's work you can feel the suffering of the entire society, not through outright oppression but by them taking their nature away. You have the guy that screams through the night, etc. There's an undercurrent of going against nature making individuals miserable. That's so true and even more true today with what society is becoming. When you try to socially engineer people against their biology you end up with a lot of mental illness and pathological behavior and the breakdown of the family unit.
[–] Razor_Teverek 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
All Quiet On the Western Front. It is a work of fiction featuring a German soldier during World War 1.
Make no mistake, this book does not romanticize war or play it up. Although fiction, this is the story of the pain, the love, and the loss of a German soldier.
Erich Marie Remarque, who was himself a WW1 German soldier accurately portrays the level of horror he and his comrades experienced on the western front.
I find the work quite capable of evoking emotion, and for that I love it.
Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright - It's a fully realized fantasy world, except populated by humans. In fact, the fantasy is only a little removed from history as we know it, which makes the disconnect so familiar and likely that we fall into the story as if it were a feather bed.
The story itself gets a bit long winded, and the ending is abrupt; but the concept, wow. It just felt...right. I've come back to read again at least 3 times during my life.
[–] neuron 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
It's not my favorite book of all time, but Invitation to Sociology by Peter L. Berger thoroughly blew my mind.
edit: Oh right, forgot the "why do you like it" part: It's a simple introduction of sociology that gives a great bird's eye view of society.
[–] tito_bandito ago
" The Talisman," by Steven King and Peter Straub, King develops his characters so well, and Straub does the supernatural to a tee. I have reread it a dozen times. I envy the person who gets to read it for the first time!!!
[–] mwg 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. As a writer you can tell he doesn't prescribe to any expectations. Plot, writing style, punctuation, it's all different from anything I'd read before. He uses this in combination with an incredibly real and emotional story to make you feel for the poor bastards left alive in the world. Seriously incredible read that I've done at least a dozen times.
PS All his other books are similar in quality
[–] metaball 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
This isn't a single book, but the His Dark Materials series...The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and the Amber Spyglass.
I read it back in middle school, and I remember feeling very connected to most of the characters and ideas presented. The idea of everyone having an animal/spiritual companion that was an external reflection of your soul...The idea that while you are a child, that animal can change shapes because of how much you develop and change growing up...And then, finally, it settles on one true form that shows who you have become as a person. You learned that there was a lot more than meets the eye in the world, and your life journey is a series of choices made by not just yourself, but the people you let share in your life.