Books I’m reading this pandemic

You really don’t need to come out of this pandemic with a new hot body, speaking a new language, a chef, or with a bang. It’s gonna be dope if you would. But if all you’re gonna do is chill and read a book that’s fine too.

Here are the books I’m spending my time with.

1.Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Recently I saw a Little women’s 2019 movie remake by Greta Gerwig and I was sold.

I usually don’t just simply like things. I overlove and I overdo. Every single obsession of mine became a part of my personality trait for a while and a current one is Little women. I was so deeply amazed by the movie, the story, and the message it brings. The sisters’ monologues were so profound I knew I wanted to hear more. I don’t think I ever related to someone as much as I do to Jo March.

When Jo said:

Women. They have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition. And they’ve got talent as well as just beauty. And I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it. But I’m so lonely

I knew right away I’m gonna get a book and I’m gonna read it and I’m gonna think about it a lot.

2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

This is the book I loved as a kid. Funnily enough, what brought me to the Bronte sisters was Stephenie Meyer and her Twilight series.

There is no way you were a teen in the 2000s and not catch a twilight fever. It was a thing, it happened and we moved on to better books but it still happened. Thankfully my twilight experience leads to more than just cringe-worthy memories like having a big ass face of Edward Cullen stuck on my bedroom wall.

There is a quote in twilight books from Wuthering Heights that goes:

“if all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.

and this quote resonated with me so deeply I picked up Wuthering Heights from the local library and obsessed with it for months. I even chose Heathcliff’s prayer/curse to memorize and recite in front of my literature class.

This piece made me pick up more of Bronte’s sister’s work and love it dearly.

I read it in the Slovak language before and I just really wanted to read the story in the original English language. I went through the same thing with Harry Potter books. Once I read it like 7 times in my native tongue I switched to English to live the story in its original form without translation edits.

3. Macbeth by William Shakespeare

My fascination with Shakespeare begun in high school when I read Hamlet as a part of a mandatory reading. I swallowed the whole play in one sitting and my essay on Hamlet got me very nice praise from my English teacher. It was the moment I realized writing my thoughts out is really cool and I could do this a lot.

It’s such a cliche to say Shakespeare inspired me to write myself so I’m not gonna say it in those words. But yeah, Shakespeare, along with other things, was the start of something awesome for me.

How could I not check out more of his work?

4. Emma by Jane Austen

You might have figured out I’m a sucker for 19th-century literature romances. I’m a hopeless romantic for forbidden love, realism, social and economic differences, and petticoats.

As I loved Pride and Prejudice, both book and movie, it was only natural to pick up another of Jane Austen’s work next. I haven’t started that one yet so I’m pretty excited.

5. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I’ve seen a great number of Oscar Wilde quotes to know I could really relate to the guy. It was a Bastille song that made me chose this book to read. There is a lyric in Bastilles song titled  Doom Days that goes:

Last couple of years have been a mad trip
But how’d y’all look so perfect?
You must have some portraits in the attic.

More about Doom Days HERE. 

The concept of a never-ending youth, soul-selling, art, and beauty is so captivating and there is never a time like a global pandemic to read a story about moral corruption.

What books are you reading in these thought times?