Since reading texts for class takes up the majority of my time as a university student (and an English student, no less – those classic novels can be hefty), it can be difficult to find time to read for pleasure. For many people, reading is a passion that is easily swept under the rug as other responsibilities take up more time. At the beginning of 2019, I set a goal for myself: to pursue pleasure reading whenever I had downtime. It’s easy to say you have absolutely no time to pursue hobbies and things that make you happy, but setting aside small increments of at least ten minutes a day definitely adds up to something significant. I managed to get through more books this year than I expected, and hope to do the same in 2020. Some books were light reading while others were dense. I even made it through a few classics. In starting the new year on a note of positivity and hopefully kick starting another wave of reading, these are just a few standouts that I highly recommend.
- The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
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The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a historical fiction novel that follows the story of two young Jewish prisoners, Lale and Gita, imprisoned at the Birkenau concentration camp during World War II. Lale, who is put to work as a tattooist at the camp and tattoos prison numbers on all incoming prisoners, becomes smitten with Gita upon her arrival. The book tells the true story of real life couple Lale and Gita, and their struggle to stay alive and stay together amid the devastating conditions of the Auschwitz Birkenau camp.
I read this book within a day, if that says anything about how enthralling it was. It’s all the more impactful knowing the novel is based on a real story. Despite the dark and intense setting (and the novel does get dark and intense, of course), there is an underlying tone of hope that runs throughout.
- A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
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Landon, a self proclaimed “bad boy”, is forced into his high school’s theatre production after one too many rebellious outbursts. He finds himself unlikely coupled with Jamie, the town’s perceived goody-goody Christian girl who is cast as the play’s lead. Despite their differences, the two develop a close relationship that reaches beyond what either one of them expected. Upon a sudden and startling twist of fate, however, the couple and their love story are tested.
We’re all allowed to have guilty pleasures, and A Walk to Remember is one of mine. The book is even better than the movie, although that’s not to say the movie isn’t a staple of its time. Yes, the plot is a cliche in itself, but it’s also heartwarming, emotional and oh-so-lovey-dovey. If you’re looking for a Nicholas Sparks book that’s on the shorter side, this is the one for you.
- Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
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Mia Corvere is the daughter of an executed traitor who finds herself training her entire life to become an assassin. She is inducted into what once only lay in whispers and rumours: the Red Church, a cult-like school that is merciless in its combat training. Seeking vengeance against the corrupt powers that killed her father and tore her family apart, Mia uses her inherited gift of manipulating shadows to face extensive challenges, including a murderer loose at the school.
Full of in-depth imagery that makes the novel’s bloody gore and death scenes feel a little too real on occasion, this novel isn’t for those with a weak stomach. That being said, this book is good. It’s immersive and doesn’t shy away from plot twists. I consider it to be a fantasy staple (and the sequel is just as good).
- The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
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Dorian Grey, a young man who convinces himself that beauty and outward appearances are the most important things in life, sells his soul in a deal to eternally look like he does in a portrait that his friend has painted of him. The deal comes with a twist, however, as all corrupt things do: with every bad deed he commits in real life, his portrait grows more and more grotesque. Complications arise in Dorian’s real life (after all, not aging for nearly twenty years isn’t exactly unnoticeable) while his portrait continues to deteriorate.
This is one of my favourite classic novels, and I would recommend The Picture of Dorian Grey to anyone hesitant about classics. The prose is so smooth and the plot is so full that it hardly reads like the slow, inaccessible writing that classics are often stereotyped with. My favourite quotation from the novel reads, “‘All I want now is to look at life. You may come and look at it with me, if you care to.’”