My+Favorite+Book+-+Van+Hoose

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In English classes, it is often the first question a teacher asks to break the ice in a new classroom. For me, it was always a dreaded moment I wanted to avoid. Reading was something “nerds” did according to many of my peers. Most students did not want to be in English class let alone read outside of class for fun. Even my own cousins gave me strange looks when I told them I was reading a book for fun. It wasn't really that I didn't want to tell my classmates I enjoyed reading that made me dread the question though. It was the sheer fact that there are so many books out there, how could I possibly begin to choose just one to be my favorite?
 * 1. What is your favorite book or genre? Why is it your favorite? What does it offer?**

Often, I reply to the question simply by saying the book I read most recently, which would be //A Feast for Crows// by George RR Martin, or the book that comes to mind first, which would have been //The Name of the Wind// by Patrick Rothfuss. Or maybe I would choose a book that we had read in my previous English class to make the teacher think more highly of me, in which case I would probably choose //The Giver// by Lois Lowry. But then that makes me think of //The Hunger Games// by Suzanne Collins, and I'm not sure I could make myself pick between those two dystopian novels.

Well, what if I just settle on a genre then? I could tell them that I enjoy fantasy because it tends to be the only genre I read now aside from the books teachers make me read. I guess it's my favorite because, well, it gives me the chance to escape. I can get away from the boring day to day life of this school and visit Hogwarts in the //Harry Potter// series by JK Rowling instead where all sorts of unusual things happen to make life more exciting. Or maybe I'll allow myself to think that there are other creatures walking this earth that we cannot see, such as in the //Faeries of Dreamdark// series by Laini Taylor. Then again, what book expresses my love for this genre better than the //InkHeart// series by Cornelia Funke? How awesome would it be to literally enter the world of any story I choose? It takes a whole new meaning to a life-like reading experience.

All of these fantasy novels give me stories and experiences that I cannot have in my own world but wish to have. I can feel what it's like to be a faerie or practice magic or enter my favorite story and meet the characters I love. I can get away from the problems of this life and return to this world feeling rejuvenated. If the characters in these novels can overcome a dark sorcerer who wishes to kill them, surely I can tackle one more exam or that history paper I do not want to do, right?

And somewhere by now, the teacher or my friend or whoever asked me the question, would be looking at me for a response. They wouldn't realize that I had gone over about ten different book titles before randomly choosing one or before admitting that I just like all fantasy. They wouldn't understand that it's hard to choose just one. Each story offers something different, and it depends on my mood at the time. It depends on what I'm craving. It matters whether or not I'm happy or whether I'm feeling like there's no way the people in this world could be crueler because those things will determine whether I pick up //The Hunger Games// or //InkHeart.//

A book is a friend. It shares its secrets with you, and in the process, you learn about yourself and find that life is not what you make it out to be. A little escape here makes it so you keep going. And like a good friend, they are there for you at the end of a bad day ready to console you all over again.

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