I believe that certain books are our favorites, not because they are objectively good, but because we find them at the right place and time. Here me out for a second. Think about your favorite book and think about why you like it. Is it actually because it is a literary masterpiece? Or is it because it scratched your brain the right way when you needed it the most?
My favorite book, or series I should say, of all time is Percy Jackson. I picked up Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan in Mrs. Hetzel’s 3rd grade class. Hundreds of books and nearly a decade later when someone asks me what my favorite book is, I still say Percy Jackson. Was that book or series a literary phenomenon that broke the literary world? Did I read objectively better books than that in my time alive as a person? Yes. Will that book forever and always remain my favorite even though I haven’t read a single page in over 10 years? Also yes.Â
The opening line of Percy Jackson is, “My name is Percy Jackson. I’m twelve years old.” At 8 years old, I thought this was brilliant writing. Percy Jackson is telling his story to me. Here, Percy and I were going on an adventure together. Percy, with his snarky remarks and struggle to fit in, mirrored how I felt navigating the ups and downs of being a kid. The book’s world of demigods and ancient myths gave me a place to escape — a place where I could make friends, albeit fictional, to live a colorful life within a rather dreary one.Â
The funny thing about favorites is that it is never the content itself, but rather the person we are when we encounter them. I could almost guarantee you that if I picked up that book another year or even months later I would not have liked it as much as I did. But at the time I did pick it up, it was what I needed. It turned summer afternoons into quests, made me laugh during tough school days, and taught me that being different wasn’t just okay — it could be powerful. But most importantly it sparked my love for reading, for being able to live multiple lives in one, or to find the strength to live in just one very hard one.Â
Sure I’ve read better books. Books that had poetic sentences and pages that make you stare at walls and ponder the meaning of life. But none of them hold the same weight in my heart as Percy Jackson does. Not because it’s better, but because it’s mine. The books and movies that become our favorites are like snapshots of our souls at the moments they find us. They’re reminders of who we were and how far we’ve come. It is a reminder of who we are and what our values and beliefs are. Whenever I think of Percy Jackson, I think about 8-year-old me and how she’s changed so much, but at the same time not at all. How certain books just hit us correctly because we are in a certain moment and place in our lives.
People have favorites not solely because they are good, but because it resonates with who they are, where they’ve been, and what they needed at a particular moment in their lives.