The fifth best book of my adulthood

My sister asked me last week if I’d put together a list of a few of my favorite books for her. I’ll be the first one to admit that I read a lot. My family, friends, librarians, and all the people I bumped or almost bumped into while readwalking will confirm. (Don’t forget – you’re not supposed to wake us up. It could get ugly.)

So my sister’s challenge (was it a challenge?) seemed like a daunting task. I procrastinated on it for about 5 seconds before opening my Goodreads account and dutifully sorting through all of my 5* ratings. Besides reading many great books over the years, the challenging part is that I’ve been keeping my reading records for the past maybe 19 years. Nineteen years ago, I was a fresh-faced teenager who had yet to finish secondary school, get her period (I think) or learn that no robber was hiding in our cellar. (I’ve always been a late bloomer.) I loved Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. I vividly recall that Barbara’s Erskine On the Edge of Darkness left me feeling haunted for weeks, making me forever in love with the mystique of Scotland. Besides Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Quo Vadis, I also read tons of Jude Deveraux (The Mountain Velvet being my favorite), who, in my 13 years of age, made me believe that the best guys are grumpy, unpleasant, and named Montgomery. (I’m healed now, I promise.)

So the question is… what qualifies for the list of favorite books? Books that spoke to me at any point in my life and that I hold dear even if I may not be able to appreciate them as much in my current stage of life? Books that I would still love now? But how would I even know without rereading them? Tricky. I guess my sister was asking for book recommendations, although I have to admit – being entranced by the many options of this assignment – I forgot to ask her.

What I put together is a series of my Top 5 favorite books of my adult age, split into five articles because I have too much to say about each. Who gets the gold medal?

Out of my 600+ read books on Goodreads, the fifth place goes to…

Terry Pratchett’s humorous Discworld novels have a special place in my heart. I own most audiobooks and listen to them basically every night while falling asleep. They are hilarious and cozy, and they make me feel safe.

My favorite and the one I listened to the most times (and that I’m relistening these very days) is Witches Abroad. There, we meet up with three characters from previous books (no need to read them in order) – Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. Magrat unexpectedly discovers she became a godmother (the fairy-tale type with the magic stick, y’know). She’s supposed to travel to the far-away city of Genua to ensure that “the servant girl doesn’t marry the Prince.”

Now, imagine that in your young, never-ending, naive wide-eyedness, optimism, and desire to learn, you have to travel with two snarky 80-year-olds, one of whom drinks too much and then sings inappropriate songs in public, while the other thinks foreigners are acting foreign just to make her angry. It surely means some fun times are ahead.

The book revisits many famous stories, highlighting not-so-fairy-tale-like angles like if marriage should really be based on whether a guy manages to chop through rose bushes and kisses you while you sleep. There is also some fighting off the other godmother who wants to make the world more of a fairy tale. I suppose that if – besides all the fun – there’s a moral to the story, it is this:

“You can’t go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it’s just a cage. Besides you don’t build a better world by choppin’ heads off and giving decent girls away to frogs.”

Amen, sister. I mean, brother. Sir.

Any Discworld book from the Witches storyline is excellent, and the City Watch storyline is my favorite too, so if you have never read any of them, I recommend starting with either of the two.