Top Ten Books I Read in College: Numbers 4

It's cheating time. I've read a lot of really great books during my college career. Narrowing down to a top 10 is quite difficult, so I didn't. When all is said and done, there will be 12 books on this list. But here's the thing, this isn't a tie. The way I look at it: this is the number four reason for a book to be on my top ten list.

As I was trying to narrow my choices I was trying to decide which of these two books to cut. I love them both, but I couldn't justify both of them being on my list. That's when it struck me: it doesn't matter which one I choose, the reason will be the same, so why not put both books on the list as perfect examples. So, again this isn't a tie, it's a cheat.

In descending order, my favorite books (and by books I mean fiction-novels) from four years of study at Dixie State College:

4. Nightwatch by Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko

The Nightwatch is a group of "light others" who monitor the activities of the "dark others." Apparently, there are all kinds of supernatural beings out there in the world, but we don't get to see what they do because they do it in the "twilight," a layer of reality that you need magical ability to participate in. When a person discovers that they have supernatural abilities, whether it be something simple like vampyrism, or something a little more complex like shape-shifting, they must choose whether they are light or dark. Lukyanenko does an impressive job of showing the good and bad qualities of both sides, and through that he manages to create a large ensemble of very likable characters. He also barely veils the comparisons between "light" and "dark" and capitalism and communism.

4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Katniss Everdeen is an ordinary teenage girl: She likes to spend her time alone; she can't figure out her feelings for her best friend; she hunts for animals to trade on the black market in order to provide for her family in a post-apocalyptic world. You know, usual stuff. Kat's lives in District 12, one of the feeder colonies for the Capital. The people in the Capital control every aspect of her life and the lives of every one else in the 12 districts. To show their control, each year the Capital requires the colonies to send two teenagers to participate in the Hunger Games. A fight-to-the-death challenge wherein the winner gets fame and fortune while losing their sanity. Of course, Kat goes to the games, and while there, she changes the rules and finds a way to maintain her dignity.

The reason both of these books are on my list is because if I had read them before I started college, they would be among my favorite books of all time. These are the books that I loved in my youth and my early adulthood. These books represent pop-fiction at it's very best. During four years of intense literary study, it was a very nice relief to make new friends that reminded me so much of "the good old days." I was also very pleased to learn that sometimes "fun" books can have very "academic" purposes. (This is more true of Nightwatch, and I recognize that canonical books can be fun, and fun books are usually more fun when they're academic.)

For reminding me of a simpler time while still teaching me valuable things Nightwatch sinks its teeth into the list, and The Hunger Games forces me to find a way for two winners, at number 4.