Staying home isn’t as monotonous as one would think. You just need some real treasures in the form of books to keep your company because they transfer you to a world of your very own imagination and keep you motivated even in times as exigent as this. Here’s a list of books you should read this quarantine.
• Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë: A timeless classic. Its language is archaic and a great pick for you if you’re into romance and the Gothic genre. It is a tale of love, romance, passion, heartbreak, and death. It will break and mend your heart in ways inexplicable. The story starts when Mr. Lockwood, a tenant of Thrushcross Grange is forced to seek shelter at Wuthering Heights (his landlord Heathcliff’s home) because of an unfortunate accident, and he succeeds in persuading Mrs. Ellen Dean into disclosing before him the unforgettable history of the Heights, uncovering its infernal secrets and the revenge which ruined them all.
• The perks of being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky: Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel in which the protagonist, Charlie, a teenage boy writes to an anonymous person throughout the course of the book. The letters he writes give us an insight into the mind of a teenage boy, young love, heartaches, and how teenagers think that high school is the beginning and end of the world, but it is not so. In the very beginning Charlie writes in his letter “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.“, by this very sentence you can figure out how intriguing this book is going to be.
• The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield of 16 years of age. It is a coming of age book. It is one of the most popular classic novels of all time. It has the viewpoint of a teenager in the 1950s, hence it should be read to compare the differences between the lives of teenagers from then to now. It is an enjoyable read and perfectly captures the compassion and innocence of this boy because this feels like a conversation being held with the protagonist.
• The Book Thief
Markus Zusak: This book has a lot of messages to give to this world, one among them being the power of love and compassion that human beings are gifted with and how one can overcome any obstacle because of them. This book’s main themes are also knowledge, power, literacy, and rebellion. This book is not for children below 12 years of age because of the strong depiction of the cruelty inflicted by the Nazis throughout the pages.
• Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson: It is a very powerful novel, which is a must-read for youth. The novel (books) is narrated by Melinda Sordino who begins as a high school freshman. The book offers a crucial realism and pulls the reader into the thought process of a lonely teenager. The irony, the hypocrisy, the realism, the powerful jargon will leave the readers awed and inspired.
Reading Books will not only help in passing your time but will also amplify your vocabulary and widen your perception of the world. It’ll hone your skills and you’ll emerge as a more informative and responsible citizen after this quarantine is over.
