My Favorite Book

So it would make more sense to start this writing project with an introduction of some kind, but I would rather start with this. My favorite book. I love to read and my passion for reading is what brings me to write in the first place, so it makes a sort of sense.

My favorite book is Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I have not read it in years, but I still remember vividly the pleasure I felt reading this book. There is a historical fiction vibe to it that I love. Eugenides obviously used his own life as a resource and did a lot of research, which I appreciated while reading. This book was a labor of love and I could feel that as I read it. He cares about his characters and they are wonderful and flawed and fascinating. Eugenides also wrote The Virgin Suicides and The Marriage Plot, but I think that Middlesex is far superior to those books. There is a warmth to Middlesex that is not present in his other books, in my opinion. He strikes a wonderful balance with this beautiful novel. Balance between setting and character, stasis and movement, the ancient and the modern. I don't want to get into the plot because I don't want to spoil this book for anyone. I wish I had read it sooner, but I also wish I could read it again for the first time.

Really it all comes down to the characters for me. I could easily empathize with these fictional people in ways that I can't always manage with real people. Reading makes me feel more human. I was a literature major in college and I am an English teacher now, so I very much enjoy analyzing a text, but my connection to this book stems from something fairly pedestrian. I just wanted to spend time with these characters.

I plan on writing much more about my favorite books and this will be a common theme. For me, reading is about empathy. I wonder what reading is about for other people who love to read.