My Listicle of Awe

Listicle: a listicle is a short-form of writing that uses a list as its thematic structure

• Persuasion & Emma, Jane Austen 
• The maturity of Persuasion astounds me, and Anne is perfect. Emma is so different from her others and really changed me in many ways. The two together inspire awe.

• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
• This is that book for me, the one I love so much that no one can ruin it. I love this book in a way I don't even understand.

• A Thousand Splendid Suns & The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
• I was only going to put A Thousand Splendid Suns until I realized that the two books together are what inspired awe in me. Such beautiful stories and language.

• Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
• I just remember reading the end and having epiphany after epiphany as Huxley ties all of his themes together; I would reread certain passages dozens of times while I tried to wrap my head around everything.

• "The Stolen Boat" episode in The Prelude, William Wordsworth
• Beautiful language, beautiful imagery, and the perfect experience with the sublime in nature.

• Steinbeck, anything really
•  Stories that stick with you even when you don't want them to.

• Hamlet or King Lear, Shakespeare
• Hamlet was my first authentic experience with Shakespeare and when I realized for myself how brilliant he was. Lear was this same experience transcended.

• The King Follett Discourse, Joseph Smith
• A mind-blowing source of information and revelation.

• Invictus, William Ernest Henley
• So much power in so few lines. Also, the movie Invictus about Nelson Mandela and rugby is one of the only films that has ever inspired wonder/awe in me.

• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
• The most powerful YA book I've ever read. The imagery and craft of the language is astounding.