Book Recommendation: Some of My Favorites

Well, because I wrote about books, knowledge, and privilege before, (read it here!), I thought I might as well write about some books that I love. I’m not good at distinguishing the genres, though, because sometimes I think a book is just a little mix of everything so it’s kinda hard to say that a book is of a certain genre just because it’s the dominant side of the book. Also, I don’t really distinguish books for kids, teens, or adults. Well, I know some books are more suitable for kids, some are more suitable for teens, and perhaps some are specifically written for adults. But I guess some books can be read and enjoyed by people of all ages. Well, at least as long they can read and enjoy reading stories 😊 I’m saying this because, well, maybe most of the books that I love do not reflect “my age” because many people think of them as books for kids or teens, so I’m not sure if it makes me look childish or something. But personally for me, I don’t think it really matters. As long as I enjoy it, love it, get engrossed in it, etc, I think the book is good. So, well, without further ado, here are some books that I love. [Not necessarily in the order, so it doesn’t mean that the first book I mention is definitely better than the next book I mention ’cause they are good in their own way 🥰]

1. One Piece
Well, I know that for some people One Piece might not be considered books. It’s manga or Japanese comics. And you know, some people might not think of it as “books.” So I’m not sure if it’s okay to put it here. But for me, it’s just one kind of books, and I cannot not put it here. However, I’ve talked a lot about One Piece in its special category (read here); so I won’t talk too much here, except that I really love it, and hence, I’d highly recommend it to everyone 🙂

2. Diary of A Wimpy Kid
I really love this series. I first read this when I was in college. In my Extensive Reading class, my lecturer brought some books for us to read, and I fell in love with this one. It’s about a “wimpy” kid. I really love how it is written. It’s innocently annoying or annoyingly innocent. Well, it’s like we can read the mind of this kid called Greg Heffley. And his thoughts are “interesting.” How he envisioned himself to be famous someday. How he wanted an easy life. How he thought of his family, his father, mother, older brother, little brother, friends, neighbors, etc. Sometimes it’s ridiculous but in a good way. As I’m writing this, it’s got 15 books already (+4 additional books). And they’ve got a movie too! When I read this book, I can’t help laughing. It’s so entertaining. So, yeah, this is one of my favorite books 😉

By the way, somehow I got lucky. I bought the first 8 pre-owned books on ebay+2 books about the movie and the spin-off. And it’s all just for $9.99+shipping $6.81. But I’ve got a $5 voucher from ebay for $10 purchase and above. $9.99 wasn’t qualified, so I ended up ordering an onigiri bear shaper for $1.65+shipping $0.40 for me to be able to use the voucher. So I paid only $14.57. Am I not lucky? I’m so happy with my purchase ^^

3. The Secret of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
I might not have read a lot of mythological fiction, but I did read some, and for me, this is the best mythological series. There are 6 books in total (and 2 extra books as the bridges). I don’t know, but when I read this, I was so immersed. I couldn’t help thinking, “What if this is true?”, “What if this is what actually happens?”, etc. The way it’s written is so cool. Time simply flies and it’s really interesting. No, interesting doesn’t do it justice. It’s brilliant. I can’t really tell you what the story is about because I just don’t know how, but you can always browse it. But what I love about this series is the way they use real characters, both mythological and historical characters such as Billy the Kids, Joan of Arc, Saint Germain, etc. They were portrayed as characters that still exist or are alive in today’s era. And the way they “combine” the two different realms. It’s amazing. For example, one scene that I remember is when Saint Germain created fire. And it’s mentioned that in our “world”, normal people see it as amazing fireworks in Eiffel Tower. I think it’s awesome how they use real-life events as something else in the story. And you know what? I ended up visiting some places that were mentioned in this series. All because they were mentioned in this series. Some of them are Alcatraz, Museum Louvre, and Necropolis.

Anyway, I’m so happy to finally be able to buy this series. It’s pre-owned but still in a really good shape. I got them through an auction on eBay. I was the only bidder, though. LoL But it was my first time winning an auction on eBay. I was so anxious that I just had to check and refresh the page every day, hoping nobody would outbid me. Haha Well, I got this for $12.99+shipping $15.50. Yeah, I know, the shipping cost more than the books. But I guess that’s how they made it cheap? I don’t know. But I’m happy, though. It’s because when I checked individual books, it’s way more expensive than $30. So I guess I’m lucky. Well, actually I’ve got one of the books in the Indonesian version. Still wrapped in the plastic. So maybe I could sell that one later? Haha

Oh, by the way, just so I won’t forget, I knew this series from one of my students that I tutored (English) back then (or was it The Heroes of Olympus? Or maybe both). She was a smart girl. She was kind, nice, and humble too. And when she knew I loved reading, she let me borrow the first book. But I stopped tutoring her after I graduated from college (or was it after she graduated high school? I wasn’t sure), but then I knew it was hard to continue reading the next books, which was why I ended up buying one of the books myself. Hhe But, ugh, what a wonderful soul she’s got! I hope she’s doing great and happy now 🥰💗

4. The Chronos Files
I knew this book because at that time I had Amazon Prime membership and the ebook was made free for Prime members. And I got captivated by the story. Well, it involves time travel, and you know how fascinated I am with time-travel stories, right? And, ugh, there was some romance in this story, but that’s not what I’d love to focus on. What I find fascinating is the idea that goes with the time travel concept. So, in this story, people from the future went back to the past and established religion. Could you guess what happened? It’s really mind-blowing. If God didn’t exist, this would be the only explanation I could accept when it comes to religion. I mean, to some extent, it really makes sense. These people from the future, they learn some histories, they know various kinds of events, natural disasters, big crimes, etc. They know all about it because to them, it all happened in the past. Now imagine these people going back to the past, telling people from the past about those events (natural disasters, wars, etc)? They pretended to be prophets or holy people by making it sound like prophecies or predictions because to people from the past, those events haven’t happened yet. And when it finally happens, they’d be like, “Wow, it’s been prophesied. The prediction/prophecy is so accurate.” Hence, they became devout to the established religion, believing that these people from the future are indeed not just mere humans, but a deity, supernatural or extraordinary or divine beings. The people from the past then worshipped them, not knowing that they were actually people from the future. Not to mention that the people from the future, with the technology they’ve got, could time travel so they always appear “young” to their followers across time. Am I making any sense?

I don’t know about you. But I’m a Muslim. And people from my religion often talk about how all these things written in our holy book are often proven true. There’s no way a mere human being in the past could predict all of them so precisely. It’s only possible if God himself is the one who prophesied them all, creating, writing, and planning them as fate/destiny. So when I was reading this series, I was like, “What if that’s the case?”, “What if someone really came from the future and told all these events as prophecies when they’re just a part of their history or events they learned to happen in the past?” In addition, nobody knows the face of our Prophet (PBUH), so it makes it “more believable.” Gosh, does this make me sound like an infidel? Does this automatically make me an apostate? 🙁 *Astaghfirullah’aladhim*

But thankfully, there are things that I’m not quite satisfied with the “concept” of the story in this series, so I stop thinking about “What if this is true?” things. It’s still amazing, though. I guess I’m glad because it doesn’t really make me an apostate since I’ve got a lot of questions unanswered. LoL Well, time travel is surely fascinating, but it’s really hard to understand the whole thing. There are so many questions unanswered. For example, when we go to the past and change something, then the future will also change accordingly, and it would create an alternate universe where the same people live in different timelines leading and living different life after the changes. Now imagine if you go back many times and change so many little things that affect the course of events in the future? How many alternate universes would that create? And that’s considering only one person. But we know our life is connected to one another. One change will affect the others. If we change something, and someone else changes something too, etc, how many changes would that affect? See? It’s complicated. But anyway, it’s really mind-blowing for me. I’ve watched movies about time-travel but I’ve never thought about traveling to the past to establish a religion. That’s why I was impressed when I was reading this series.

But, ugh, if parallel universe did exist and there were other “me”s in other universes, I do hope they are better and happier. I hope they have someone who genuinely loves them, makes them happy, and is happy to be with them. I hope they are stronger and kinder too. Gosh, if there were really alternate universes, I kinda want to watch myself in them like I would watch a movie. That must be very interesting.

And by the way, I got the second-hand books for this series. 3 books for $12.87. Well, not cheap, but not that expensive either considering that it’s a bit hard to get the books since, it seems, they are published online as ebooks/kindle editions only. But, actually, there are more than 3 books because they published a book between Book 1 and Book 2 and between Book 2 or Book 3. I couldn’t get these half/bridge books, though, because, again, it looks like that they are published only online. So I guess they were not printed. Sigh…

5. The Heroes of Olympus
I don’t know what to write for this series actually. All I can say is that this is the first series of Rick Riordan that I read and came to love. So yeah, it’s about gods, demigods, humans, and our “modern” world. It’s about Percy Jackson and Annabeth. Jason and Piper McLean. But my favorite is Leo Valdez. I knew I’d love the character since I read the first book of The Heroes of Olympus series. Percy Jackson is too mainstream. Everybody loves him; he doesn’t need me. Jason Grace is gorgeous but sometimes too cold. I love him, too. But Leo is somehow different. He’s ‘interesting’. And you know what? I even named my motorbike after Leo’s dragon: Festus 🥰🙈🤪✌💗 And, ugh, I was really happy when Calypso finally fell in love with Leo. I mean, Percy has got Annabeth. Jason has got Piper. And then there was Leo, with nobody loving him. That’s kinda sad. So yeah, I was happy when Calypso finally loved him because he deserved all the love in the world 🥰💗

By the way, I don’t really remember how I came to start reading this series, but I managed to write some quotes from these books. Well, I must have written a lot in my diary, but right now I don’t have my diary with me, so I’d just copy-paste some quotes that I managed to post on my Facebook. They are:

“…you…are very familiar with your own bad spirits, and you try your best not to feed them. You have solid instincts, and you know how to follow them. Whatever annoying qualities you have, you are a genuinely good person who always tries to make the right choice. So no more talk about giving up.” (Piper to Jason, The Blood of Olympus)

“Keep moving. Don’t get bogged down. Don’t think about the bad stuff. Smile and joke even when you don’t feel like it. Especially when you don’t feel like it.” (Leo Valdez, The Blood of Olympus)

Well, I think that’s all for now. I, of course, have read some other books too, but maybe I wasn’t as impressed, I don’t know. But, well, we’ll see if I could manage to write another post about book recommendations later. I can’t promise, though. But who knows, right? ^^ I hope somehow you can try to read these books and love them too ☺❤