My Ten Most Memorable Books

1. The Amber Sypyglass- The final book in the His Dark Materials Series was moving and creative, redoing the story of creation told by the Bible.
2. The Bible, more specifically, The book of Revelations- This is the end-all be-all of apocalyptic stories, and I was intrigued by its design from an early age
3. Judgment Day- This tale of a renegade christian cult who comes across a god-given technology is a compelling story. The reenactment of WACO is tragic, especially when told from the side of the cult.
4. Mortal Engines- The idea of a post-apocalyptic world where cities moved on wheels and ate each other was so fantastic, it was almost believable. The world created in this book was fascinating.
5. Brisingr- Christopher Paolini's conclusion to the Inheritance trilogy was engaging, as well as very exciting.
6. Inkspell- The second story of a group of people who could read characters out of books was really an interesting tale, and better than the first.
7. The Steel Wave- An interesting take on historical fiction, this book caught me because of its engaging battle scenes and war-room sequences. It is a great D-Day book.
8. Gregor The Overlander- This was yet another fantastical idea that stated that there were civilizations of people, giant rats, and other enlarged creatures living under New York City.
9. Summerland- Though I am not the biggest fan of Baseball, this fantasy-esque take on the sport and the world in general was extremely fun to read.
10. The Da Vinci Code- Dan Brown's epic interested me not because of the story, but of the concept of Jesus having children and a bloodline.

Reflections upon reading the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

When I first picked up The curious incident of the dog in the night-time a few weeks ago, I was immediately transfixed. The compelling and tragic story of an autistic child living in modern-day England was interesting enough, but the author Mark Hadden's chosen style -to narrate through the mind of the child itself- gave the book an interesting and thought-provoking twist. Because Hadden decided to narrate through the perspective of a fifteen year-old boy with autism, I -as the reader- often found myself relating to his struggles, even though I do not have autism. It might be because I was once diagnosed with ADD, but when I was younger (much younger than fifteen, however), I would find myself doing things, both physically and mentally, that were very similar to the actions and thoughts of Christopher Boone (the main character). Things such as forcing myself to only walk on certain colored tiles in the house, or flicking my eyes back and forth in patterns, or walking to certain beats in my head; these were all habits that I formed at a very young age and took me a while to break. This is why I felt a connection to Christopher, even though my habits were not nearly as pronounced or as hindering as his. These similarities that I found between an early me and Christopher made the book feel authentic; it gave me a sense of understanding of Christopher's position, no matter how small the similarities between us might have been.
While there were some noticeable similarities between my younger self and Christopher Boone, I did find that the two differed on several things, the main one being thought processes. While Christopher uses cold hard logic and numbers to solve his problems, I often thought about life and people in a much more moral way. For example; Christopher wouldn't speak with anyone until he had spent an extended time period with them and deemed them acceptable and trustworthy, while I was almost immediately trusting of a person if they were introduced in the proper manner. Also, Christopher believed solely in science and thought that everything could be explained through application of the logical scientific method. I, on the other hand, believed, and still believe, that there are some things out there that cannot be explained solely through science.
Overall, these similarities and differences that I found between an earlier Jake Villadolid and the autistic Christopher Boone made for a very engaging read. It made me think about my brain and the way my mind works in a totally new perspective, while giving me insight towards the different mind set that autistic children are blessed, and cursed with. (447)