Buccaneer Blogfest -- Top 5 favorite books

I have a hard time answering when someone asks "What's your favorite..." It's not that I'm so stuck up that I don't have a favorite anything, I just like so many things that's it never easy to say one out of all of them is my favorite. I think the only thing I can definitely say I have a favorite of is song, and even there it's actually two songs tied for first because I can't choose! Anyway, today we are supposed to post our top five favorite books of all time, so let me give it a shot. In no particular order:

1. The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima. This one is actually an easy pick for the fave category. I geared a lot of my studies in college around Japanese culture/literature/history etc, thus I read a lot of Japanese works, especially from their post modern period. I fell in love with this novel because of the quiet feel it had, set on a small island it tells the love story of a young fisherman and a girl who comes from a wealthy family. It's a simple story but not without its complexities, and I love it for that. It doesn't stray far from the island it's set on and there's not a huge cast of characters, but it keeps the reader through the story. I'm not really the type to re-read novels, but this one I've read more than once.

2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I first read this when I was a sophomore in high school. Though I think the prose can be a bit dense at times, what I love most about this novel is the damaging love between Heathcliff and Catherine. It's dark and twisted, Heathcliff is truly a heinous character, and Catherine is hardly likeable a lot of the time, yet you can't help feel for them and want them to be together. I love how Bronte wasn't afraid to go there with her characters, I mean digging up someone's body years after they died just to get some ease of mind? That's something beyond love. I was even inspired to write a poem based on Catherine and Healthcliff. I love trying to write in extremes, especially when I write poetry, so when I'm trying to push the envelope of something dark and romantic and tragic I always think about these characters.

3. The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause. This was one of the first vampire novels I read, and even after years of reading vampire novels it stands out to me because, like The Sound of Waves, I'd describe this novel as quiet. It tells a love story between a girl and a vampire, who is tortured by his existence, not unlike a lot of vampires out there. But the novel stayed in a very small world involving the characters, who each had their own issues, and I liked that there was no big evil to fight or mysteries to unravel, it was mostly about the characters. I think this was one of the first books that brought tears to my eyes since the ending is sad (and probably because I was a young teen and all sensitive lol).

4. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This is one from my childhood, but I've re-read it well into my older years. I loved the story of a garden bringing people together and bringing 'magic' back into their lives. There was just something about it that kept me coming back. And I guess I have a thing for books involving big, old houses on the English moors?

5. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Since the other four books are older, I'll go with something more recent. This is one of my favorite books I've read this year. The prose was lovely, the characters extremely interesting, the story complex and mysterious and keeping me turning the page to find out more. Can't wait for the sequel.

I actually made it to five books, yay!