What is the best book you've ever read competition! 25 SBD prize money!
Today marks 3 weeks since I did my very successful photography competition. I was overwhelmed by your enthusiasm and efforts. I had not planned to do the next competition this quick, but I just got inspiration as I sat myself down to do a post for today.
🐺 Question 🐺
The question is pretty simple, tell me 'What is the best book you've ever read?'
I got inspired by this question as I actually wanted to write about the best book I have ever read, but I am saving that for another post.
🐺 Rules 🐺
The rules are more simple and yet more exhaustive this time:
- Answer to this post with the name of the book, the author, what the book is about in a few sentences and why this book has made such an impression on you?
- Another question that's not obligatory to answer is when did you read this book? This will give the why more of a reference to me
- Your qualifying answer needs to contain ALL 4 elements as listed under #1 (name, author, what and why)
- You need to upvote this post
- If your book is of a violent or sexual nature, please mind the tone of your answer as I want to keep my posts family friendly
- The winner gets 15 SBD, the runner up 7 SBD and third place 5 SBD, if this post hits more than $300 in value I will increase the prize money or consider nominating an additional winner
- The person with the most upvotes will also win a prize of 5 SBD IF the value of this posts reaches $350
- The competition will run for 2 weeks and closes on Monday 12th February at 19:00 my timezone, which is GMT +1
- Payout of the prize money will occur at the latest 24 hours after the competition is closed, so on Tuesday 13th February at 19:00
- I will run all answers through plagiarism tools, to see whether your entry is copied from the internet. Anyone found to have copied their answer of trying to falsify their entry will be excluded from this and any future competitions. My competitions are about opening up conversations and discussions, but not about an opinion that isn't your own.
The KEY question is why this book has made such an impression on you?
Example
'Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy. I read this book when I was about 14 years old in high-school. Jack Ryan is a CIA analyst and is being setup by his boss the director to take the fall for a cartel case. This book made a big impression on me as it is a huge book and it was the first book I read in English. It was hard to read, but it awakened a thirst within me to read more books in English and these were my first steps into solidifying my knowledge of the English language. When I went to London for my placement everyone told me I spoke such a good English. This book helped me to start that.'
The book was later made into a movie with one of my favourite actors in the lead role
This is an example and not actually my favourite book, but it should give you an idea of what I am looking for.
🐺 Monitoring 🐺
I will upvote each qualifying answer with a 1% upvote, this is to mark that your entry is accepted in the competition. If you entry has not received an upvote within 72 hours after posting your answer and you are certain that you've met all requirements, please get in touch with me on discord. My user ID is wolfje #6587. If you have not received an upvote before the end of the competition, this will mean that your entry does not qualify due to not meeting my requirements. I will NOT tell you pro-actively what you're missing. I spent close to 30 hours on my last competition and I will not do this again.
I really look forward to reading your answers and having interesting book discussions with you.
Good luck!
Doron 🐺
The best book I've read so far is "The gods are not to blame" by Ola Rotimi. It is about a young prince with a twisted fate. He was destined to kill his father(the king) and marry his own mother. I read this book when I was in Pry 6. It made an impression to me because of the intrigues and suspense. It is also packed with a lot of African proverbs which spiced it all up.
I think the best book I've ever read, perhaps about 10 or 15 years ago was " To Kill a Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee. The book which is narrated in first person by the protagonist tells the sad story of her father's struggle as a white lawyer in the Deep South in the 50's who, being a good man, trys to defend a wrongly accused black man of rape. The story is told in a fascinating manner, interwoven with suspense and anticipation with a fascinating ending, which finally sums up the whole intricate storyline and finally explains the meaning of the cryptic title. It is almost impossible to put the book down...I was actually shocked and upset to discover that it was Harper Lee's only published book..( she had published work in newspapers etc, but only 1 novel)...how sad...
This was a really enjoyable to read. I have heard so many great reviews about this book but never actually knew what it was about. My mum ranked it as one of her favorite books as well that she read when she was young. The description is great, i will be ordering a copy (as well as other books on this list) asap!.
Wow this post has really inspired you!
Nice idea!!! Very original!!!
Thanks :-D
My favourite "book" it's MAUS, by art spigelman. I say "book" because it's actually a graphic novel. I read this book about 4 years ago, while traveling in the train. I've to confess I've hardly hidden some tears during the trip some times and most of all, I didn't wont to let the characters go. Like when you want a book will continue to speak forever. It talks about the story of the writers parents, facing Nazism in Poland. It's an honest and frank story, where the author describe even is relationship with is parents in a very deep way. He wanted to represent polish jews as mouses, while the nazi as cats. To me it wasn't like reading it, but living it!
The best book I've read is A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire#1) by George R.R. Martin
What?
It tells a story of several houses in a period where summers can last decades and winters much longer. With more characters than the typical novel, I think the heart of the story of this novel lies with the Starks of Winterfell. The story begins with a mysterious attacks of unknown forces to a group of rangers of the Night's Watch beyond the kingdom's wall in the North while in the South King Robert's Baratheon trusted adviser died of questionable circumstances. Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, was summoned to serve as the king's hand and when he was doing his duties, his family was put in the center of the deadliest conflict in the kingdom: the game of thrones.
Among the important events that occurred in this particular installment are the following:
Whew, it was pretty tough to make a decent synopsis of this installment because this book is really full-packed.
Why?
This series, particularly this installment made an impression on me because what's not to like when you have all the elements of a good story in one book: great and unique characters with perfect names, well built settings with perfect names also and plot with the right mix of mystery, magic, reality, politics, family and even love. I see this series particularly this installment with all the elements of my other favorite series put into one such as Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Harry Potter and other mystery/thriller books that I've read. I really see the brilliance of George R.R. Martin in creating this kind of story with the right balance of admirable, flawed, hateful and disgusting characters and settings built from out-of-this world imagination.
I especially love this installment because this is when I fell in love with the Starks of Winterfell and their direwolves and here they are really depicted as a house with great honor and with so much more talent, skills, mystery and secrets. This book made me read all the parts of this series and is impatiently waiting for the Book 6 of the series.
I read this book right after I give birth to my first child in 2013. Because I was on maternal leave and my son was very behaved and slept a lot, I have enough time to watch the Season 1 of Game of Thrones TV series and when I could not get enough of the TV series, I started reading Book 1 and the rest followed.
What a nice detailed review!
Thank you for noticing my entry. :)
Great review, thank you very much. I have actually just started re-reading the book myself.
'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]
I saw the movie and it really was an interesting mind-boggling story
Thank you for your entry. I lived in London for 6,5 years and I wasn't familiair with this term until a colleague who joined my team 1,5 years back started mentioning it several times. However I was not aware where it resonated. Sounds like a book I'd read. I guess based on your steemit ID, you are in the book trade?
Yeh I'd hear it every couple of months I'd hear it in conversation in Ireland anyway.
Well I started to sell books off steemit sort of as a hobby but I haven't invested much time in it due to my "real" job. But on steemit I offer to buy a book from bookdepository.com who deliver worldwide for free for someone and be paid in SBD or Steem as a novelty. Again the idea is there but I haven't invested much time in the execution yet.
@wolfje Upped my game with a giveaway if you'd like to enter, got to start somewhere
https://steemit.com/giveaway/@isellbooks/givaway-mastering-bitcoin-book-easy-to-enter
Thanks for the heads up! If you're running more competitions, I'll do a shoutout for you in my next competition blog next Monday. That way you will get the word our very fast. I'm definitely interested in entering. thanks again!
The best book I have ever read, was Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams! I was 13 years old, it opened my mind to a whole new level of narrative description. I was already a sc-fi fan and something of a science nerd, but the story as unfolded, the humor mixed with huge philosophical and quantum physics was mind blowing, and inspired a lifelong study. Harvey dent was a shlub in the suburbs of england whose house was scheduled for demolition to place a highway bypass. In an unexpected turn of events the earth was also scheduled for demolition to build a galactic bypass! Aurthur is saved by his drinking buddy who also happens to be an alien and they go on a fantastic journey through the galaxy with a guide containing all the information collected in the universe, The Hitchhikers guide... to help them on there way.
It became a series including, "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" and "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish." It has been made into two movies neither of which were able to capture the dry wit and tone of the book. If you have never read this book I can't recommend it enough.
If I could upvote this 42 times, I would, but alas, I may or may not have visitors, and it's time to feed the cat. Share and enjoy!
Thank you! It's really hard to imagine a better author. Judging by you're name we probably share quite a few interests. Nice to meet you!
I've argued repeatedly that Douglas Adams is one of the best authors of all times and have had my kids read them as part of their homeschooling. His amazingly offbeat humor makes me very happy, and I find myself using references to the Guide often in conversation. I have pretty well decided that people who don't like Adams really aren't the type of people I want to be friends with. I even have a reprint of the original radio show of Hitchhiker's with all the production notes. I'm rooting for you to win! I honestly was going to put that down as my choice, but you beat me to the punch, so I'm going with one of my number two favorites... somewhat obscure fantasy, but an excellent series none-the-less.
I don't see how anyone could deny that! lol The Radio show was probably the best media adaption, and that is a hell of a trophy. Glad to hear you're homeschooling too! I will keep an eye out for your entry!
It's not very popular... you'll have to scroll way down.
The breakthrough experience by dr. John Demartini,
Nice post. For me the best book is still “ Im Westen nichts Neues” (English title is “All quiet on the Western Front”). Read it more than 20 years ago during high school and still find it a masterpiece about the hardships during the WW 1 trench warfare. The topic itself and the vivid yet simple and daily description of the lives of the German soldiers make it a good book. Also, to a certain extent the book itself is timeless and good also be about soldiers coping with war and the home front in more recent wars