Don't judge a book by its' cover. And don't judge a penguin by its' fur.
I love a good story, and books are a great place to find them. I try to keep at least one good book around to read when I can. Here I plan to list great stories that aren't by a serial-writer (John Grisham, James Patterson etc). We know those good books are a great read, but I'd like to tell you about great books that you maybe haven't heard of or given time to read.
Dracula
Several years ago, my friend Chris got hooked on Vampires; he didn't go goth or anything but he picked up some Vampire movies and started reading Dracula. I laughed at first and thought it was a silly thing to get interested in. Then one October he wanted to do a Book-of-the-Month reading and have us all read Dracula; I decided not to participate. Then about halfway through the month we were together and he was discussing it with Josh, and I felt left out. The book sounded awesome! So I picked it up. I read it. I loved it.
If you're anything like I was, when I think of Dracula and Vampires I basically think people obsessed with sex. I honestly don't know where that came from! The book isn't anything like that, it's a horror thriller for sure! The Count is creepy, evil and smart while his pursuers are honest gentlemen concerned with ridding the world of this evil character. The writing style is awesome and different from the norm. It's a great book for sure, and I highly recommend it! One day I hope somebody makes a movie true to the story, but so far I don't think anything (recent) has come close.
The Power of One
My senior year in High School I had a one-semester English class taught by Mr Snell, it was a fun class. We generally would start a book, but after a week or two Mr Snell would just rent the movie and we'd finish it up that way. One video he decided to show us was 'The Power of One', but he never had us read the book.
Both the movie and the book are terrific. I decided to read it in 2007 and really enjoyed it. The story doesn't go fast, it's not action packed and full of drama. Rather it's just a good story with great characters. It follows the growing up life of Pee Kay, from when he was a little boy to his mid-twenties. Along the way he meets people that change his life and impress on his young mind that life in South Africa (during Apartheid) was not a very safe, or fair, place to live. It is a slow read, not something you'll speed read in a weekend, there aren't many cliff-hanger moments that leave you hanging. I would definitely recommend this to you good book lovers that are content lounging in a chair for an hour or so and taking a month or two to read it.
Japanese is read top to bottom, left to right. While I fluently speak it, I read at about an elementary level.