One thing that is awesome about novels is that how swiftly they can damage your life. You may start reading one on the start of a weekend before your finals, and if it connects, you get so involved that the marching exams don’t feel so important.. or say fearsome anymore. And by the time you finish reading it, there is not a day left to practice for the last battle where you’re totally expected to be wounded near to death. The feeling that you get at that time is abominable, but I think it’s totally worth the joy earned before.
You don’t realize it, but great novels try to transform you in many diverse ways. When you start reading a novel, your mind creates an imaginary world for you where you’re the main character of the novel. And, just before you’re done reading it, the world that you’re actually living in becomes unreal, and it becomes impossible for you to breathe without the elements of the novel actually present in your surroundings or at-least your mind. And, that changes the structure of your mind, the way you look at things and the way you think. A voice constantly authorizes your mind, trying to take you back to the life of the novel. You don’t realize it because they do it so silently, but you’re enraptured.
This scheme of gradual captivation is very fascinating and addictive, proven by the cruel fact that it keeps calling you back. But, in order to become a prisoner again, the essential requirement is to find the right novel. The one that is capable of executing this beautiful task. And, doing it is not easy at all. Everybody comes into this world not only with a unique DNA but also with different sets of interests. A person may like mystery series and the other a complete book that describes the pretty and ugly parts of life altogether. A person may like a mystery character who’s all genius and serious about his work and the other a character who likes to have some fun while solving cases. So, I don’t really know what kind of novels attract you, but here’s the list of the novels that completely transformed me:
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
The title of the novel indicates about the story's main adversary, the Dark Lord Sauron, a magician who had in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power as the ultimate weapon in his plan to conquer and command all of Middle-earth. The novel begins from Shire, a land of hobbits, and continues towards the middle earth where the final war for the destruction of the ring takes place. The story runs around the struggles of the novel’s main characters: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas.
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
A novel written in the 19th century in which Ishmail narrates the impassioned quest of Ahab to take revenge from the whale that ate his leg. The novel has the detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and extraction of whale oil, along with life on sea travelling in the search of whales beside a socially and religiously diverse crew, and the existence of God.
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The novel is about a cast of characters living in the town of West Egg on Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story basically encircles the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan who’s now married to a man who loves money but not more than his wife. The story further proceeds with the passionate Jazz life that Jay Gatsby’s living and how it ends.
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Catch-22 is a word in English used for the situations where you’re in a dilemma, anything you do takes you down. This novel is basically about Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the 256th Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, west of Italy. The novel describes the struggles of Yossarian and the other airmen in the camp to perform their duties well and return home.
- The Godfather by Mario Puzo
A crime novel written in the 20th century, about the lives of the members of a fictious Italian Mafia family, headed by Don Vito Corleone, that has settled in New York and become well known. The story deals with the childhood and older parts of the life of the Don and how his son, Michael takes over the control of the family’s affairs after the death of his elder brother and his father. Swinging between the rules set by his father and the harshness of the world, the son who never wanted to be a Don reaches the top most level of the business. The story also describes how it all ended for him.
Thoughts Deciphered into Words by
Raja Abdar-Rahman is licensed under a
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