The Bookshelf Collection

I own a lot of books (too much if my Mom puts it) ranging from children’s novels, thrillers, fantasy, fiction, and even a little historical novels. As far as back as I can remember I’ve always had books in my room to keep me company, to fight off boredom or just to simply immerse myself in another life or world for an hour or two.

Today, now that I’m 19 years old, I’ve sort of developed a little collection of books that hold a special place in my bookshelf or in his case the top portion of my brother’s wardrobe (yes we share a room). In this most sacred wooden space with a metal book end and a yellow rubber mat thing resides my favorite books, the kind that I’d go back into my house if it was on fire (God forbid) to save.

Over time the books have changed now and again but the books that I will feature here are the constant ones. They’re the barnacles to my wooden ship. The stories that they contain still cling to my psyche long after I’ve finished reading them.

 These books will definitely have a special box for them when I move to New York to pursue my writing dreams, and while I’m starving away in some cramped and musty NY apartment where my bed will double as my couch and my bathroom will be as big as my closet, these paper friends of mine will be there to remind me, and push me to create a book baby of my own that will hopefully be as great as the books that inspired me to write my own novel in the first place.

The following titles that I will share to you have shaped me, encouraged me and most of all inspired me to be a writer, and not just a writer, but a New York Times Best Selling author since the first time I’ve heard about such a title. These are the books since the age of 8 till now that has become my standard of literary greatness and hopefully, one day soon, I can get to put up my own book along with them too.

1.) His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman

This book changed my traditional perception of how a hero or heroine should act and behave. In this magnificent three book series, I was introduced to Lyra Belacqua and her deceptive ways and I was changed forever.

Most literary heroes I know tend to be morally upright and a typical goody two shoes who never breaks the rules. Lyra on the other hand doesn’t just break the rules, she destroys them. And get this: her number one skill is lying. She can lie herself out of any situation from an armored bear to a laboratory where people cut out children’s souls, she is so good at deception she can put any spy to shame.

But Lyra however learns in the end that telling the truth can go a long way and that honesty is often times more powerful than a thousand lies. In this coming of age story our little heroine grows up from an intrepid, lost little girl who follows only her whims and wishes to a young woman who discovers the pain of growing up and losing someone who taught her that love is in fact the greatest force of all.

2.) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Truth be told I was never a Gaiman fan growing up. I found his stories a little too weird, a little too creepy and just a little unsettling. Then I met Bod in his Newberry Award winning novel The Graveyard Book and I was hooked.

The Graveyard Book is a bit like the Jungle Book only this time instead of wolves, a panther, a friendly bear and a malicious tiger, Bod has a family of ghosts (a whole graveyard in fact), a vampire guardian by the name of Silas, a werewolf tutor Ms. Lupescu and a dark society of men called the Jacks-of-All-Trades who wants him to stay put in the graveyard, permanently.

This book taught me that the unconventional can actually work with a really simple storyline and that character creation along with vivid but simple word imagery can go a long way.

Thanks Uncle Neil, you taught (and inspired me as well) a lot.

3.) The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Back when the movie by Peter Jackson was earning accolades left and right, boys my age were perfectly content to live in Middle-Earth via the film but I was no such little boy. Instead I waded through the book’s high prose to get myself a clearer version of Middle-Earth where Tom Bombadil danced in the woods by the Shire and how the Eagles saved Gandalf.

The Lord of the Rings was perhaps my first taste of a sweeping grand fantasy epic that is so huge in scope that reading all three books was like reading a far more interesting history textbook only this time instead of Civil War soldiers and Spanish invaders, elves and dwarves and orcs and men waged and ruled the pages of my book and mind.

4.) The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis

Here is a set of books that I should’ve read when I was seven or six instead of when I was fourteen or fifteen. I first saw the movie, the Disney and Walden Media adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and was blown away by it (and it was just the trailer I saw).

 I still remember how I would repeat The White Witch’s line “If it’s a war Aslan wants. It’s a war hewill get” while I was washing the dishes much to my older brother’s amusement. So naturally I brought a copy and found it too, well, childish for me.

The wordings and sentences were built more for younger children that I didn’t bother to finish the book (and it was illustrated) but I still convinced myself to read the other books and with them I was not disappointed. Up to now I’d say that of all the Narnia books my favorites would be The Magician’s Nephew and The Horse and His Boy. 

I love The Magician’s Nephew primarily because it showed how Narnia came to be and I got the chills reading the part how Aslan sang the realm into life. And I love The Horse and His Boy because it was a straightforward adventure story that ended with a battle and stuff (I’m a boy so cut me some slack).

5.) The Harry Potter Sequence by J.K Rowling

Now here is the book that started it all: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Philosopher’s Stone if you’ve got the British version.)

I was around eight or nine when I was introduced to Harry James Evans Potter via the silver screen and since then I’ve been a proud Potterite after I emerged from the darkness of the movie house my eyes wide with wonder and amazement. Never have I encountered a story that has left such an indelible mark in my head, heart and soul before. Sure I was seven when I first read Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park and I had my dino craze phase but the bespectacled wizard boy’s  story was different. I too wanted a wand. I too wanted a broomstick. I too wanted to be a wizard. I too wanted to be Harry Potter myself.

It was just plain glorious.

It was then at that moment that it hit me. My eyes were tired from reading all the first three Harry Potter books in succession that it dawned up on me that I wanted to be a novelist too of J.K Rowling’s caliber. I too wanted to create a hero that the next generation of kids like me could look up to and stay up all night long just to find out what happens next after he steps through the doorway of a magical castle. I too wanted to create a world where chocolate came in the form of frogs and sports where played a hundred feet played in the air with just a broomstick to lift you up.

I too wanted to live behind my own legacy.

I was 12 then.

Now that I’m 19 years old I’m still at it and hopefully by the summer of next year I can put up a blog entry that will feature a story of my own.

Harry Potter opened up a whole world for me, and hopefully my own upcoming novel will lead another 12 year old boy into a world he’d never thought possible and inspire him to make a world of his own and share it with the rest of the world as well.

 Long live thy books and soon very soon my own will join my bookshelf and everyone else's around the world.