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I used to have a copy that looked like this. Source: ilisteniwatch

The best book I have ever read is tough to decide. For now, I’m going with Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton. I read it back when I was in high school.

I think I first became interested in it when one of our math teachers, Mrs. Kinch, mentioned it, if I recall correctly, during a math club meeting. I acquired a copy of that book and blitzed through it in 2 days (an all-nighter on one of them!) I liked that world of the island and the things that went down. There was some mention of chaos theory in there, but it was the suspense and action that hooked me.

I wasn’t interested in Crichton’s writing until this book, but I became a fan after. I usually stick to his sci-fi-fi stuff, though, like Congo and Timeline. I also started to pay a bit more attention to illustrations in sci-fi novels after this book. Some of my favorite books overall also have some figures or diagrams scattered through their pages.

I already was heavily into reading by the point I found Jurassic Park, but I became much more active at my local library, checking out more books and devouring them. I dug into Piers Anthony, Heinlein, and a few others in sci-fi and fantasy authors’ works for years after JP. It was another big push in my love of reading.

Now, it’s your turn:

What is the best book you have ever read? Why did you like it? Did reading the book change you in any way? What way? – Prompt source is here

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A telegram, lodged between the pages of the book, S.

It’s another blank page. It’s time to conquer it! Let’s go!!!

My motivation for today that is.

Anyway, I had a good long meeting with my bed last night after a very long day yesterday. It was a day that included the long-overdue adult physical checkup (I’m good, but need a bit more exercise) and the sometimes-dreaded work performance review.

On a much brighter note, I got more reading on S. done. The core story is a decently good one. So far, it’s featured a man with amnesia (that’s S. himself) and a ship crewed by whistling ghouls. Seriously, only one shipmate could sort-of-speak English. S. has endured being Shanghaied so far, and his adventure’s only just begun. To be clear, he knows his name, as do people he introduces himself to, but it’s obscured from the reader so that whenever he presents himself, it looks like this:

“What’s your name?”
“S—.”

It’s the only book I’ve ever picked up that is written this way.

At any rate, it’s getting a bit easier to keep the loose items that come tucked into the book from falling out, now that I’m a bit closer to the middle of the binding. Like a good video game, I’m looking forward to discovering their meaning on my next “play-through” of this book.

Also, my sweetheart shared this fun video, made by one of my favorite YouTube creators, Freddie Wong:

She truly knows how to get me hyped for a movie.

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S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst

I’ve had this book for a few years now. Every time I see it, I remember that it’s not ordinary, for a book. It has, as a core feature, multiple layers. There’s the core text, the fictional author V.M. Straka’s Ship Of Theseus, and then there are the copious notes and other physical ephemera shoved between pages of the text, placed by apparently multiple characters. That’s the secondary layer and is why it comes in a solid dust jacket as well. This is definitely a book you don’t experience properly in electronic form.

I’ve made at least one attempt to complete this adventure in the past, but now, I think I may have the fortitude to do so. It’s going to take a while, I know, because my current plan is for at least two careful readings, with the first being to get the bottom layer text under my belt. These readings will require ignoring the margin notes, bits of loose notes, and multiple colored annotations. I’ll get to that on the second reading, as I try to unravel what’s going on with the 2(3? 4?) other readers.