I'd like to pretend I dallied and drew this meme out to coincide with the opening night of the Sydney Writers' Festival but I'm too honest and the truth is that I've been hella busy this last week or so and therefore rather neglectful of my digital life.
The book I am about to mention comes laden with baggage. Which is to say my boyfriend bags out anyone who can categorically say that something is their 'favourite' anything.
This meme and I have gone through our ups (favourites for various reasons) and downs (hates and overratedness) and have skirted around naming the one book to rule them all (and in the bookmaker's workshop, bind them).
I've mentioned the book, of course. But will the favourite book of my favourite author prevail over the favourite book of my favourite series? Will childhood triumph over my favourite book turned into a movie? Well none of this matters because the book I most consistently name my favourite is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, which I mentioned back on Day #2 as a book I've read more than three times.
Just so you know, I don't have a permanent favourite, but Catch 22 regularly turns up in my top 3 list more often than any other book, albeit not always at the top, so it's my ersatz pick. For the others that often rotate in that top 3—have you been reading this meme?
Anyway, I like it because it's different every time I read it. No matter how many times I read it, and no matter how often I think I 'know' it, it never gets old. Heller never came close with his other writing, but that's almost part of what makes Catch 22 as brilliant as it is—he put all his mojo into this.
"[Yossarian] had decided to live forever or die in the attempt."
I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.
2 comments:
Somehow I've never read Catch 22. It was never assigned to me in school, and I've never had the urge to go and pick it up extracurricularly. My sister loves it, and now you're saying you love it... perhaps I'll give it a whirl...
It's a difficult book upon first reading, which is why I was glad I was made to read it at school. Studying it only made it better—a rare thing! Repeat readings are always rewarding.
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