These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Book

Today the 'favorite thing' that I'll talk about is one of my favorite books.  As an aspiring novelist and an admitted book addict, it's pretty impossible for me to have one favorite book.  I have quite a few.  But this book has been one of my favorites since my freshman year of high school.  It's influenced me in so many ways.

The book I'm talking about is The Giver by Lois Lowry. 

The Giver always makes me think about why we are the way we are.  What makes us like the things we like?  Why do some people like certain things while other people like other things?  What makes us excel at the things we excel at?

I often think about everything I like and am interested in and wonder how I got to this point.  At what point did I decide that societies interested me and that the social sciences would be a great field to pursue?  Why have words always fascinated me?  Was I meant to be a sociologist or a novelist or a mixer of both?  

Of course, The Giver also makes me think about societies as a whole.  And to be glad that we live in a country where we have freedom of choice.  Where we have freedom at all.   It would be great to never feel pain and for everyone to be taken care of, but I do understand that we would lose so much of our individuality and of course, our freedom.

The Giver makes the reader think about all of these things though it goes about it in a subtle way without being too scholastic or preachy.  It's a novel about a twelve year old boy who pretty much has to take the weight of the world on his shoulders.  And he has to decide what he's going to do about it. 

I wish I could be as brave as Jonas.