Top Five Books to Read by Sarah Elliot

There are many books and stories which have touched my heart and soul over the years, reading was something that I did as a child and it’s been very hard to pick my five most favourite stories of all times but I’ve finally narrowed it down.

My favourite stories as a child were Matilda by Roald Dahl and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Matilda was one of the first tales that I ever remember getting really excited over as the characters and world were completely fascinating and it was my first encounter with a strong female protagonist who gained her powers through studying books. She was quick witted, worked out how to ‘beat the grown ups’ who were oppressing her and did so in a none violent method that was refreshing and always made me want to become as smart and intelligent as her, so that I could think my way out of situations. The Hobbit was a passage into the land of fantasy that was engaging, enthralling and one of the few school study books that I completely fell in love with. The intricates of the land that Tolkien created and the character’s complexities remain as a bench mark that I would love to achieve some day in my own writing.

As a teenager, I went into slightly more surreal works with Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale and Philip K. Dicks Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep immediately standing out to me. Whilst I had seen Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner through several different cuts of the films before I read the book, I was amazed by the stylization of the piece and just how the anarchy of the then modern time had been transferred into a devastated future setting, where owning a real animal was considered to be a high honor and granted a lot of prestige. Do Androids is not one for the casual sci-fi reader, it is a true masterpiece that had me hooked to the point where I spent seven hours solid on a train reading it none stop. Takami’s work in contrast is highly controversial and takes a strong stomach to read, the first time I tried I became really freaked out and had to leave it for around a year before I went back to it. However, once you get over the initial shock of the actual context of the story and delve deep into the aspects of the world that Takami is exploring through a brutal government funded and approved ‘game’ of survival, Battle Royale is a stunning piece of work. It is one that I recommend with slight hesitation, because the context is not going to appeal to a lot of people and its literal take on the violence that comes out of mere teenagers is not for the faint hearted. I adore it for the modern day take on society and the dangers of adults influencing minds that maybe should be left well alone.

As an adult, my time for reading has become limited and is something that I do not get much of a chance to indulge in but Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden stuck with me long after I had finished reading it and it is one of my favourite pieces of literature. Arthur Golden portrayed a very real young girl going through her life as she discovered the beauty and terror of the life that was refreshing and did not pander to the usual over dramatic style of a coming of age story which I liked very much. The attention to detail was outstanding and made even the most basic of scenes memorable. Though it made me wonder a little about how long it took pigeon pellets to dry out. There are many others that I have read, reread and completely enjoyed but these five have been the ones that have stood out to me the most.