'What is the best book you've ever read?'

Catch 22 - book
Joseph Heller - author

The best book I have ever read is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. I guess one of the reasons this book made such a big impression on me is that it appeals greatly to my sense of humour, the story telling sometimes makes light of what were very difficult situations at war.

There are certain situations in the book that were blatantly absurd. The guy who ran the food hall Milo, bought eggs for let say 1 cent in one country and sold them on somewhere else for a few cents extra, then he bought them back from the people he sold them onto making them a profit, then sold in the army mess hall and still made a profit.

I read this in my teenage years and will re read it again soon but it's beyond doubt the best book I have ever read. Other than the humor that resonated with me, being able to understand where such a phrase "Catch 22" came from left a strong impression, and the fact that a book could make that much of an impact on the English language, even if people weren't aware of how recently the phrase was invented.

Obviously catch 22 is a phrase most native English speaking people use every so often but most don't know the origin of it. Anytime someone tells a story and says it was a Catch 22 situation I ask them - "oh have you read the book?" and often get blank stares back.

The origin of the phrase comes from the book - a brilliant contradiction where the fighter pilots who wanted to be grounded ( not fly) were told that as they requested to be grounded they were sane enough to fly as they recognised the danger.
But if they flew they were crazy which was grounds to be allowed not to fly. But if they recognise this they were sane enough to fly. And so on. [The Catch 22 situation meant no pilots were grounded simply by asking to be grounded - they had to be sick or injured to avoid flying which was pretty dangerous]