Two of My Favorite Genres

I’ve always enjoyed learning about history, so it comes as no surprise that I love to read historical fiction. I tend to choose books that take place during certain periods, or are set alongside a major historical event, that I find particularly interesting. Oddly enough, I don’t really like reading war novels, but I enjoy reading stories that are set during World War II. I think the first book that really sparked my interest in historical fiction was Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Everyone in my fifth-grade class had to read the novel; for whatever reason, it really stuck with me. I tend to read WWII stories that focus on civilians’ experiences, rather than the experiences of soldiers.

I also find the Middle Ages/Medieval Period to be an especially fascinating era. I totally immersed myself in reading Ken Follet’s “Kingsbridge Trilogy” last year (The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, and A Column of Fire). These stories are each set primarily in the same fictional English town 200 years apart. The main plot of Pillars follows the building of a massive cathedral during the early 1100s; World takes place during the 1300s, with focus on the Black Plague; Fire takes place during the 1500s and features real historical people as characters like Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. What I especially loved about Pillars and World was that Follet provided such detailed information about these characters and their personal lives. Many of them were ordinary peasants and “middle-class” members (to categorize them in today’s terms). Follet makes the reader feel as if he/she is in the story themselves; you get to hear, see, feel, and acknowledge everything around you while learning about major historical events.

            Classics are one genre that I just never get tired of reading. All the books that most people absolutely dreaded to read in high school…yeah, I was that crazy one who couldn’t wait to get my hands onto the works of authors such as Dickens, Hawthorne, Fitzgerald, and Shelley. As an English Literature major, I have the awesome opportunity to read classics every semester. I also choose to read classis for leisure reading as well. The first classic novel that I probably had a sincere connection to was The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which I read my junior year of high school. A major issue for Jay Gatsby is that he desperately seeks to “repeat the past” with his former lover, Daisy. Readers can see the drastic measures Gatsby takes in hopes that Daisy will come back to him. At the time my class read this novel, I was going through a situation very similar to Gatsby’s. A few months prior to reading Gatsby, I had a rough falling-out with someone who used to be my best friend. I couldn’t bear to think that our friendship was over, and I really believed I could “repeat the past” and turn our friendship around to what it used to be. That never happened. I came to accept the situation and move on. Fitzgerald’s novel definitely opened my eyes to my situation and helped me analyze my feelings about the relationship between my former friend and myself.

            I could continuously write about my favorite classic novels and what they mean to me, but I don’t want to create a ridiculously long blog post. So, I will just mention one other classic that I treasure. In March 2013, I saw the movie-musical Les Misérables. The movie totally fascinated me; I loved it so much. It is still one of my absolute favorite movies to this day. Shortly after, I bought a copy of the book. I actually did not read it until winter 2016. I saw the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in November 2016; my (now) favorite actor Eddie Redmayne played the lead role as Newt Scamander. Redmayne also starred in Les Mis as Marius Pontmercy. So Les Mis was the movie that first introduced me to Redmayne. Needless to say I took an immediate, uh, liking to him. Beasts totally intensified my admiration for and interest in Redmayne. After watching Beasts, I decided I wanted to watch more of Redmayne’s movies/shows and then read the books that they were based on (such as The Pillars of the Earth!). Anyways, Les Mis is probably one of the most challenging books I’ve ever read for its length and complexity. However, once I really got into it, the story entirely encapsulated me. The movie was fairly similar to the original story, but Hugo’s novel had so much more detail and information. The reader becomes absorbed in all these different characters as well as France’s history at the time. The book is written with such beautiful language, which generates sympathy for the characters’ hardships, as well as appreciation for the relationships among characters. I really didn’t do a lot of leisure reading between the time I graduated high school (2015) and the time I first read Les Mis. However, this book really helped me find my love of reading again.