I used to have a list of my favourite books here. It got kind of boring kind of quick, so I thought maybe I should give more thought to why my favourite books ended up being my favourite books. And voilà! Here’s a new list, but I’m going to tell you why I love these books, funny stories about them, and try to tell as little as possible about the plot itself. Enjoy!

De Allesdief

Let me start with saying that De Allesdief is a Dutch children’s book. It’s written by my favourite writer at the time, Paul van Loon. He is known for writing "horror stories" and I love his books. They are so out of the ordinary. I think they truly triggered me into thinking differently about things, into seeing the beauty of the dark side of life and what supposedly comes after this life. I love his books about the Other Side, about vampires and werewolves. Sometimes they were really scary, most of the times [when written for younger children] they were funny and exciting.

Though, De Allesdief, freely translated to "The Thief of Everything" isn’t about the Other Side. It’s about a regular girl who loves eating chocolate, but who is also a private detective and solves mysteries. A great thing about the lead character is the identity. In retrospect, it’s really telling children that gender isn’t always important in one’s identity. You can be a great private investigator, whatever your gender is.

I read this book when I was about seven and I finished it in what was at the time a record-breaking time. I always thought of it as one of my most precious books, since I bought it myself when it was national children’s book week, and I met the author. He left his autograph in this book, and so it became one of my most prized posessions even when I outgrew the story and loved other books by him even more. This book was also the first time I did a bookreview in my class, normally one was only supposed to do that starting in 4th grade, but as I loved the book so much I already did it in 3rd grade. Ah, I was so proud of myself and this book!

Girl, Interrupted

I read this book at a time when I was going through a very rough path in life. This book helped me realize that even if one doesn’t have a "sophisticated" mental disorder, life can still be hard on you. However, it is you who has to work [on yourself] in order to make life less hard. That seems really weird but it’s some sort of theory that I like to believe in. You don’t have to be really crazy to see that life isn’t about roses. But you can’t sit back and expect life to suddenly be about roses, without taking an effort. Even though of course life in a mental institution can be very tragic, especially for those who will probably never get out, it is always an ability to grow as a person.

The book is actually so much more fascinating than the movie, since in the book a lot of things are discussed that I could, and can, relate to. Normally I hate movies made from books though, but this one I can stand. I actually like it. I like Winona and I like Angelina and I think they did a fantastic job. Sometimes I hate that so many people quote from the movie, and never from the book. But the movie has that one quote, so overused now, but so true. I’m sure you know which one I’m talking about. Maybe it’s teen angst at its best. Maybe it’s just hitting the nail on its head. "I know what it’s like to want to die, how it hurts to smile, how you want to fit in, but can’t, and how you hurt yourself on the outside to kill the thing on the inside."

Ik Ook Van Jou

Another Dutch book. The title is something along the lines of "I love you too" without the love specifically mentioned. I’m not going into the details here since it’s not that important. It’s just nice, different, seen from another perspective. Obviously this book is about two lovers. The reason why I love this book so much is because it was my first book by this author [Ronald Giphart] and also his debut. So in a sense I feel like even though some other works may be loads better, I think this was the perfect introduction to Giphart’s fascinating way of writing.

Some people argue he writes about sex too much. I think one can never write or talk about sex too much. You know why? Because sex is such an important part of human life, and people think about sex all the time. Why can’t people like to write about sex? Or read about it, for that matter? Sex is necessary, it’s a vital point in the human existence and I’m glad somebody writes about it in a normal fashion, instead of being all mystic or elevated about it.

Now on to why I love this book so much. It’s because I can relate to the female character in the book. But I can also relate to the male character in the book, and the issues he has concerning his love for the woman. This book really hit close to home during the time I read it, and I even made Muffin read it so he could maybe understand a bit better. A lot of things were described so well, I really liked reading about other views on things and trying to make sense of my own life a little bit more.

I really like the plot, the tragedy but also the beautiful moments and the harsh reality that life can’t be like it is in the movies. I absolutely hated the movie for this book and I’m not even going to talk about it. The book itself is also about love for the written word, and writing is something I deeply admire. I think it’s a really good debut, it really made me want to read more by Ronald Giphart – which I don’t regret at all because I like all of his work.

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

I feel like a lot of emo kids love this book, which is not really a bad thing, as it’s good to be well-read, but it’s kind of sad that a book gets almost negative connotations because of trends. Sometimes I think we [European people] are too Americanized, and this book feels so American. Though the magic about this book is that it is timeless, and almost borderless. I got really drawn into this book. When I read it, I can go on reading it until I am finished [forgetting about everyone and everything else going on] and I can reread it for a million times.

It’s called a "coming of age novel" and maybe that’s why so many people can relate to it. We have all been this person, or known this person. We have all felt alone and gone through changes. We have all heard about someone dying, about our gay friends, about our high school loves. I think everyone can read this book and replace the names and dates so it would fit their own life. That is the power of this book. Even if you are older, you will go back in time, even if you weren’t there, you will feel like you were. I think that for a lot of kids growing up in a Western society this book could very well be a representation of what growing up was like.

For me it started when I read the poem featured in this book, I wanted to know what the book was like. The poem isn’t written by the author [it's just in the book, quoted, actually], but it fit beautifully into the whole mood of the book. I guess the magic of this book is really that you feel like you’re really a part of this world. I liked it when I was going through that time in my life [high school] because it was all so recognisable. Now I like it because I can be all nostalgic.