**My Favorite Books: A Personalized Reading List**

As I sit here reflecting on my reading journey, I am reminded of the countless books that have shaped me into the reader I am today. For this video, I wanted to share with you my favorite books that have had a profound impact on my life and taste in literature. These books are not just favorites, but they are also indicative of my love for contemporary YA fiction and literary storytelling.

**Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe**

One book that has been a constant companion throughout my reading journey is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. This novel was my introduction to YA contemporary fiction, and it still holds a special place in my heart. Written in 2012, this book tells the story of two Mexican-American teenagers who find love and acceptance with each other amidst the complexities of family life, identity, and coming-of-age struggles. What struck me most about this book was its poignant portrayal of first love, friendship, and self-discovery. This book has been a favorite of mine for so long that I still haven't read the sequel, and I'm not sure if I ever will. Nevertheless, it remains one of my all-time favorite books, and I often find myself returning to it whenever I need a reminder of the beauty of love, vulnerability, and human connection.

**The Perks of Being a Wallflower**

Another book that has had a profound impact on me is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Published in 1999, this coming-of-age novel tells the story of Charlie, a shy and introverted teenager navigating high school, friendship, and first love amidst the complexities of adolescence. This book was my introduction to literary fiction, and it changed the way I read and wrote forever. What resonated with me most about this book was its honest portrayal of mental health, anxiety, and the struggles of growing up. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a novel that has stayed with me long after I finished reading it, and I often find myself returning to it as an adult whenever I need a reminder of the importance of empathy, kindness, and human connection.

**A Clockwork Orange**

In conclusion, my final favorite book that I want to mention is A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. This classic dystopian novel has been a part of my reading journey for so long that it's hard to imagine a time when I wasn't familiar with its themes, characters, and literary style. Published in 1962, this book tells the story of Alex, a teenager who becomes a member of a gang of teenage delinquents known as the Droogs, and his struggles with free will, morality, and the consequences of violence. What struck me most about this book was its exploration of complex themes such as identity, power dynamics, and social commentary. A Clockwork Orange is a novel that has stayed with me long after I finished reading it, and I often find myself thinking about its themes and characters whenever I engage in discussions about literature, society, or culture.

**Join the Conversation**

If you've been following my reading journey from the beginning, you know how much I love discussing books and exploring new ideas. I would love to hear from you! Have you read any of these books? Do you have a favorite YA contemporary novel that explores themes of identity, power dynamics, or social commentary? Please leave your recommendations in the comments below, and let's continue the conversation about literature and reading.

**Get Involved with the Clockwork Reader Book Club**

If you're interested in joining my book club on Fable, I invite you to check it out! The Clockwork Reader is a community of readers who share a passion for YA contemporary fiction, literary storytelling, and discussing books. Join us as we explore new ideas, authors, and genres, and let's continue the conversation about reading and literature.

**Follow Me on Social Media**

As always, thank you for watching my video! If you'd like to stay up-to-date with my latest videos, book reviews, and literary discussions, be sure to follow me on social media. All of my links are in the description box below, so please feel free to check them out and join the conversation.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello hi welcome everybody so today I am finally making a video that is very long overdue something I promised you all a really long time ago and something I've been wanting to make pretty much ever since I started my channel I just have never felt like it was the right time and I don't think I will ever feel like it's truly the right time but I think that if I keep waiting for it to feel right then I'll never make this video so today I'm finally doing it and I'm giving you the A Clockwork reader reading list AKA my favorite books of all time I mentioned the idea for this in a video last year I think when I was talking about some book that I really liked and I said that it kind of defined my taste in a lot of ways and I would add it to a list of books that I would consider to be part of the essential reading list like the syllabus if I were to make a syllabus for my YouTube channel that book would be on it and that's where the idea for this kind of came about and a lot of you really like that idea and you wanted to know more but these are basically books that I feel like Define my taste as a reader my identity as a Reader books that are incredibly important to me have shaped me changed me changed the way I think and of often times have themes or messaging that really align with my beliefs or my values so if you've ever been curious about my list of all-time favorites or the books that I would recommend to everybody or you just really want a long and I mean long list of recommendations of books to read if you have similar taste to me and you like a lot of my recommendations this is the place for you we're finally doing it I have so many books to talk about I literally didn't count um I laid them all out on my bed you like you don't even want to know what this looks like we're not even going to talk about them all in extreme detail because you heard me talk about these books countless times on my channel um I talk about them all the time I just wanted to put them all in one place but I also have another really really exciting announcement that I specifically wanted to mention in this video because it felt like the perfect time and the perfect place to do it and that is that I am starting my own book club on Fable yes I am starting the Clockwork Reader book club that's the name I have so far we can change that if you guys want to name it something else if you have any ideas let me know in the comments down below I'm open to ideas but for now it's just the Clockwork Reader book club but I'm really really excited about this so like I mentioned the book club is going to be done through Fable and Fable is an app that is basically for Book Lovers whether you want to find new books to read or discuss books you're reading with other people there are tons of book clubs on there and you can join and read books along with other people and discuss those books or you can start your own private book clubs with just a few of your friends if you'd like to within each book club there are different discussion rooms there's a Lobby where people can just introduce themselves and talk about some non- bookish things and then there will be discussion rooms based on each chapter for the book so if you don't want any spoilers you can easily avoid that by staying within whichever chapter you're still in and then a final discussion room once you finish the book so everyone can discuss their final thoughts and give their reviews and everything so it's really interactive it's really easy to use and it'll be so much fun to have a space for us to just discuss the books that we're reading there are also a lot of different tools and features you can use on the app like reading lists so you can make like a TBR for yourself it's also really easy to write and review books on there and you can even use half Stars which is so nice you can also read along in any way you choose whether you have a a copy of the book already if you'd like to get it from the library if you like to read on eBook or Audi book whatever way whatever format you prefer to read it's totally up to you but Fable also has their own e-reader through the app so you can purchase the ebook through their app and their e-reader allows you to make like notes and highlights and stuff in the book and once you um talk about them in the discussion rooms those notes and stuff show up in the discussion sections as well so other people can see the commentary and stuff that you made which is really really cool so yeah like I said I'm so so excited about all of this and I cannot wait to start this journey with you all and start this book club I'm so excited I'm even thinking about like monthly live shows again if that's a thing you guys are interested in cuz then we can take the discussions you have in app and we can talk about them on live too so if you want to join the Clockwork Reader book club you can download the fable app for free the link to my book club is in the description box below so you just have to click it and join the book club and then introduce yourself in the club Lobby so we can all greet each other and talk to each other and get to know one another a little bit more and I'm sure a lot of you are curious what the first book pick is going to be and I already decided on it I'm really excited about it I have really really high hopes that I'm going to love it and that hopefully we're all going to love it and that is what the river Knows by Isabelle ibenz this is the first book I believe in a ya duy I don't know if it's duy or it's going to be a series but it just recently came out this is an historical fantasy novel set in Egypt it has a Rivals to lovers romance and it seems to have really good like mystery and suspense and action and it sounds fantastic it sounds exactly like the type of thing that would be on the a clock Rec reader reading list hence why I chose it to be our first book club pick I mean historical fantasy romance is like god tier genres for me and you'll notice that in the rest of the recommendations I have to give to you today and the books I have to talk about so yeah I have very very high hopes download the fable app and join the book club so we can all read along together and so again thank you Fable for sponsoring this video I'm so so excited for the book club to get started we are going to be reading the book from basically December through the beginning of January so you have plenty of time to get started on it but if there are any books that you're all really interested in Reading together I'm always open to your suggestions leave them in the club Lobby in the fable app and we can talk about it and maybe we'll do some polls or something on there and I'll definitely take your input into what we read cuz this is a space for all of us it's not just for me it's for all of us for this community and yeah I'm just I'm so thrilled all right now quickly one more thing before we get into all the books I just want to remind you all that my journals the A Clockwork reader film and TV journal and the O Clockwork reader reading Journal are available in the link in the description box below if you want to track the books that you read and journal about it or track the film and shows that you watch and journal about it these are the perfect place to do that um they'll make perfect gifts for the upcoming holiday season if that's something you're looking into as well and also I'm thinking that when we do the book club it might be fun to do a discussion room where people can maybe post about what they're journaling about I think that might be a fun little thing to do so yeah anyway just wanted to remind you all link is in the description box as always to purchase these so like I mentioned I have a lot of books on this list okay and at first I was going to narrow it down to even fewer like Max 10 to 15 books and just give you like a top 10 list or something but that was really hard like it was it was impossible I'm not going to lie and I wanted something that felt kind of all-encompassing so I decided to go in a little bit of a different direction that's why I chose so many books and that's because I decided to separate this out by genre and category so I have like at least three four books or so in each category that I'm going to talk about that I feel like kind of Define my taste so if you prefer to read Classics or if you prefer to read series then you can check out the books that are in that specific section so that's how I've decided to kind of separate it out and I feel like this gives you a better overall picture of my general taste maybe I thought about this too much I don't know um but this was really important to me okay that's why it took me so long to make this video I also just want to say there might be a couple books that you notice are not on this list that I have previously said are some of my favorite books I thought about this a lot like I mentioned um and there are some books that I used to consider some of my all-time favorites but upon further reflection upon either rereading or learning new information about the content or listening to other reviewers or learning new information about the authors and how um they're not really the type of people I want to support on my platform I have decided to not include those books do I still like them yes the books will always mean something to me on some level but I'm not talking about them in my in my space okay this is my list so it's my choice and that's what I chose to do so I know some of you are going to be like where's this book where's that book there's a reason certain things are not on this list and there's a reason I don't want to talk about them and it's because I'm not platforming certain people but yeah anyway without any further Ado let's get into the official Clockwork reader reading list so that I can gush about these books for the millionth time okay so the first section is going to be Classics so these are my favorite classic books classic novels that I have read obviously as will be the case with every single section I've not read everything so it'll be impossible for me to cover everything I'm sure there will be other books I'll read in the future that I will consider alltime favorites or maybe like even more than some of these but for now based on everything I've ever read in my life this is my current list so first and foremost we have to cover my favorite Jane Austin novels cuz I love Jane Austin and of all of her work that I've read which I do feel like I really need to reread everything um because it's been a really long time I think I haven't read Mansfield park or persuasion I can't remember it's been a really long time and I've watched like films or adaptations for all of them so I've muddled them all in my head but it's one of those two that I haven't read but I've read everything else and I love all of the ones that I've read but these two at present are my favorite ones and is Sense and Sensibility and Emma Sense and Sensibility is a story about sisters specifically and I always love stories that cover that as a theme and Emma in my opinion this is probably my favorite one this one is just so good it is so funny it's so emotional and it's in my opinion I think the easiest to read the most accessible of all of her work it's just a fantastic book also a fantastic book love these both dearly love Jane Austin she's the OG okay like romance would not be what it is without her next up we have a book that I would consider probably in my like top 10 list of all-time favorite books and that is easily The Little Prince I think I first read it when I was really young but I didn't really process it or remember it all that much and then I reread it for the first time early in high school I think and I just fell back in love this is a story that's just like stuck with me ever since the first time I read it it's just one of those things that is so heartwarming and beautiful and emotional even though it's technically a children's story I love art that can transcend age or any kind of demographic and this is definitely one of those stories it's Timeless it's classic for a reason and it's absolutely beautiful so if you've still never read this like you really really should it's so short my goal one day is to read it in the original French so I hope to do that at some point but yes forever something I will deeply deeply cherish the next classic of course has to be The Picture of Dorian Gray I talked about this a lot since I read it for the first time last year because I just can't get it out of my head this like really changed things for me this made me discover an entirely new genre that I was not reading from very often and it's opened up like a whole new world for me I didn't read much Gothic horror that was not something I'd really ventured into much until I read this and oh my God like easily one of my favorite genres of all time now in any form whether it's TV movies or books so yeah absolutely have to credit this for that such an incredible story such fantastic commentary and insight um it's one of those things that will get you thinking but it's also really entertaining mysterious and will keep you on the edge of your seat I absolutely think it should be on the top of your list if you want to get into reading Classics this one will not bore you you will be entertained from beginning to end okay the next classic I have is another one I've talked about countless times and that is of course Rebecca by Deanie de morier I love this book you all know that mysterious haunting thought-provoking and just so so beautifully written I love a good book with an unnamed narrator and this one is an OG and a classic when it comes to that in so many ways I absolutely recommend this for anyone who's also getting into Classics another book that will keep you on the edge of your seat and keep you entertained all the way through through please please read Rebecca if you want to read more Classics okay and the final classic book on my list is one that I don't talk about as much on here um but this is the book that like got me into reading classic novels this is the book that kind of pushed me over the edge and got me to expand what I read cuz before this I really mostly just liked reading ya and fantasy and stuff like that and I didn't really Venture into Classics and stuff very much outside of school and while I read this for school it was just kind of life-changing for me in a lot of ways and that is none other than withing Heights by Emily Bronte I really can't explain like the shift that happened in here when I read this when I first read it I was 100% one of those people who was like oh this is like a tragic romance as I got older and the Brain developed I don't really view it as a tragic romance anymore um but I still deeply deeply love this story and can appreciate it for what it is it's another one of those things that I should have known early on that I really like Gothic horror dark kind of Twisted mystery stories as you can tell from Rebecca and The Picture of Dorian Gray um but this was the first one I kind of read that falls into that kind of genre or category and I was obsessed with it from the start I mean I love a good book about generational trauma and this one I feel like is definitely one of the classics when it comes to that and of course themes of breaking cycles of abuse but also all of the like motifs and symbolism that's used in this book as well it was one of those things that really got me into the idea of like reading more actively and reading more intentionally to the point where for the first time I was really highlighting huge passages of the book so that I could connect one section to another section and identify different motifs of the story like the use of Windows it really really just changed the way that I read and I'm sure that this isn't the book that will do that for everyone I just feel like everyone has one of those books or at least a few of those books that kind of like clicked something in their head for them um that made them read differently made them a new reader and this was definitely one of those ones for me so I'll always have a very special place in my heart for it okay next up we have my non-fiction SLP poetry section first we're going to start with my one poetry recommendation I really do like reading poetry collections but this is the one that I feel like in the past like few years that I've read has really really stuck with me and has really um changed the way that I feel about poetry in a lot of ways too and that is let us believe in the beginning of the cold season by fad she was a Persian poet she passed away in the60s but she still deeply beloved and considered an iconic classic feminist writer of her time and her poetry is just unbelievable it's beautiful I had never really read Persian poetry apart from like HZ before I read this book and it was just a really emotional EXP experience for me and I just I love her work there's so many poems in here that I've marked up and tabbed um because they just truly stuck with me this translation I think is really well done and I highly highly recommend it next up we have another book that was very formative for me something I read in my first semester of college that gave voice to thoughts that I could not previously Express and radicalized me in a lot of ways um and that is of course B hooks's feminism is for everybody this is still to this day the book on feminism that I would recommend to anybody who is interested in learning learning about the basics of uh the feminist movement feminist philosophy and Theory this is where you should start specifically intersectional feminism I mean to me it's not feminism unless it's intersectional if you're newer to a lot of these ideas I think this will be um more beneficial to you if feminist theory is something you've been reading for like a really long time I don't know how much new information or um Insight this would provide for you but if it is something that you have only really like experienced through like online discourse um I do think this is a fantastic book to actually read um to get you started I still think about it all the time it it's just one of those things that like those books that you read as a kid that really stuck with you and shape to you this is like the thing I read as a young adult that really stuck with me and shaped me um and shaped a lot of my politics absolutely love this book can't recommend it enough love Bell hooks as an author so definitely had to be high on the list for the clock reader reading list okay next up we have a um non-fiction book that I feel like is one of the things that really got me into reading more non-fiction which is something I still want to do more of I don't read that much non-fiction I used to a lot for school but ever since then I just don't anymore but I Still Love non-fiction as a genre and I feel like in the past year I've been kind of getting more and more interested in a lot of titles and I've been wanting to pick up more so I still plan to and I can definitely attribute reading this to that um interest in the genre and that book is in the dream house by Carmen Marie Machado Carmen Marie Machado is one of my favorite authors of all time she has a away with words that is so beautiful um so moving and and heartbreaking regardless of what genre she's writing in or the subject matter anything she writes can make me cry and in the dream house is her Memoir about an abusive relationship that she was in and it's one of the most difficult books I've ever read it's written stylistically almost like fiction so it reads kind of like fiction despite the fact that it isn't and she just has a way of weaving together this story her story that just moves you so deeply highly recommend very difficult book to read but so so worth it okay and then the last non-fiction book I have to recommend is actually a graphic novel and that is ppis by mean crai this is a graphic Memoir about the author's life living through the Iranian Revolution and kind of like what her life was like at that time and her experiences it was also made into a film so you can also watch the film it's beautifully written it's really emotional it's also really really funny the way she's able to balance like humor and light-heartedness in something that is obviously very serious and disturbing and dark subject matter it's just genius and it's done incredibly well so yeah definitely always one of my go-to non-fiction recommendations okay so tying into that last recommendation specifically now we have my graphic novel and manga section so first and foremost I absolutely have to recommend the Yona of the dawn series if you still haven't read these please please do so if you're looking for historical fantasy with some of the best and I emphasize this the best slowburn romance ever please pick it up the story makes a lot of political commentary that is very relevant it's also really long so you'll have so much to read it's still unfinished so there's still volumes being put out every year there's still no end in sight no one knows how long it's going to go on but there's so much content for you here okay like if you need something to binge read this is absolutely the series I've talked about it so many times but I need you all to just go watch the One season of the anime which is criminal that there's only one season um and then be sad about the fact that there's only one season and then read all the manga because you you just have to okay you'll love it I always describe it as if you like full metal Alchemist or um avatar the Last air bender this is kind of like a combination of those two things and as you all know those are like two of my favorite things of all time so obviously I love this one as well and I know so many of you will too so please pick it up if you're looking for manga number one recommendation from me okay the next graphic novel recommendation I have is of course Heart Stopper by Alice Oman everyone knows the series everyone's watched the TV series at this point um but this is just a series that has meant so much to me it was not something that I thought I was going to be that obsessed with but ever since I read it it has just burrowed its way into my heart cuz it's just such a beautiful heartwarming happy story about love and friendship and identity and coming out and uh queerness and mental health and it's just so so wonderful if you still haven't read it fix that read it you'll love it okay then my next graphic novel this is actually technically a uh comic is one I haven't talked about for a really long time but I love this series and I have loved it for so long I'm a few volumes behind now so I need to catch up soon but that is of course AA Saga is a Sci-Fi series about these two planets that are at war with one another and our main characters are from these rival planets and they fall in love they have a child it's a political fantasy Sci-Fi series with lots of uh political commentary obviously and um also a lot of great great humor it's definitely an adult series there's some like graphic imagery in here so just be aware of that if you decide to read it but just oh my God still one of my favorites it's been so long since I've talked about this but to this day I still think about this series cuz it's so so well well done I hope one day we get an adaptation of this I think that would be amazing but who knows if that'll ever happen but yeah if you're looking for a comic series to read this is my go-to okay moving right along we have my romance section and I only have three books in this section for now cuz these are the ones that I feel like are the creme de La Creme the absolute top recommendations I would have the ones that truly Define my taste in Romance Books the first one I have to mention is obviously the charm offensive I love this book I read this for one of my experiment videos thinking that I would enjoy it but I did not think that I would become obsessed and that I would love it so so dearly I fell head over heels in love with these characters the chemistry chef's kiss it's so good if you're really looking for a romance novel to read and you've been disappointed by a lot of the ones that you've been reading a lot of the really popular ones like I was for a while there this one is one you absolutely have to pick up okay my next romance recommendation is one that can sometimes also be categorized as like lip fi I don't really know where you would Place Emily Henry but I mean most people consider her a romance R writer so that's what I'm going to consider it but this is my favorite Emily Henry novel okay this is the Emily Henry novel that to me stands above all the other Emily Henry novels and I know this is not the popular opinion because apparently this is the most disliked one out of all of them but I'm so sorry you're all wrong this is her best work and nothing Tops This nothing even comes close to this and that is easily happy place I don't think I've talked about this on my channel yet uh because I've only talked about it on Goodreads and maybe a little bit on Instagram or something but I read this earlier this summer and it changed my life it hurt me on a very deep personal level it was like she was in my head and she was coming for me personally okay like this was an attack and it hurt but I loved it and to all of the haters out there who say that this one is boring that this one is not as good as the other ones you're so wrong I will die on this hill this is her best work I remember every other time I've read an Emily Henry book I've talked about how I always feel like there's just one thing missing there's just this emotional element that feels like it's lacking like there's just something that isn't there to push me over the edge to make me fall head over heels in love and this book finally had it it had that thing and I do understand that it's like subjective everyone relates to different things everyone's been through different experiences so you might relate more to people we meet on vacation or Book Lovers or something um than you would to happy place and that's completely fine like I get why those would be your favorite but to say that this one isn't as good you're so wrong you're so so wrong this is the one okay if you're reading taste is like mine and you've been let down by most of the Emily Henry books that you've read and you just didn't see what everyone else was talking about you weren't feeling it this is the one you need to read okay this is this is the one for us all right in this space this is our book anyway love this book to death cannot get enough of it fantastic romance so emotional destroyed me and I thank her for that all right and then the last romance book I have to recommend is one that kind of stands between two genres a little bit because it's also technically fantasy but I'd consider this more of like a romantic fantasy book um than just straight fantasy or anything like that and that is of course the very secret society of a regular witches if you like light fantasy if you like witches if you like a good good emotional romance where the characters have both been through hell and they've experienced a lot of traumas and that helps them Bond but not like trauma bonding Bond truly Bond because they open up to each other and also the main male love interest is a hot librarian I'm like what else do you need okay like this is it this is the book I read this and I was like oh this defines my taste in Romance it has the perfect p Ching the perfect balance of romance as well as like other elements because it also has found family you know how much I love found family okay a romance book with found family perfect pacing and a hot librarian she wrote it for me okay she wrote it for us do yourself a favor pick it up you'll love it it's so good it's so well written it'll make you so happy it'll make you cry and you'll feel every emotion and then you'll just come away from it feeling so deeply satisfied okay moving right along we have my next category which is lit Fick and and the first book I have to mention is on Earth We're briefly gorgeous by ocean vong I talked about this countless times this is a pretty popular book um I think a lot of you have probably read it the thing about this book that I feel like really defines my taste is the pros specifically the writing in this book is unreal it's beautiful you'll read certain lines and think to yourself like how could a person's brain possibly come up with something like that and it made me tear up and cry simply from just how beautiful the writing is as well as of course the subject matter because it's a very emotional book and it's really really heavy and difficult to read but the pros is what really really stands out in this one to me and it's the type of thing that I would recommend to anyone who loves beautiful writing next up we have a book that I've talked about countless times as well and it's easily one of the most difficult books I've ever read in my life and one of the ones I still think about almost more than like anything I've read and that is my dark Vanessa you heard me talk about this countless times like I said so you don't need more detail about it just always always will say look up content warnings if you decide to read this book this is not meant to be read just casually without a second thought like you you really need to know what you're getting yourself into it's not easy material and it's meant to be disturbing it's meant to elicit an emotional reaction and response from you but I've said this and I'll say it again till the end of time when I talk about this book this book is written with so much empathy and so much understanding from the perspective of a person who you can clearly tell understands this experience and it's the empathy that's in this book that I feel like is genuinely woven through every single line in every single page that is what really really stands out to me ignore the slight angle change my camera died on me because I've been talking for way too long but anyway that's the thing I appreciate so much about this book because I feel like that can be hard to find sometimes in work that deals with such difficult heavy and dark subjects is just like unlike anything else I've ever read and I feel like I will be thinking about it forever the next book in my lip fi section that I have to recommend is the only book I don't have a physical copy of yet I've just been meaning to buy it and I still haven't and that is woman eating by CLA Kota I'm obsessed with this book I've talked about it in like a couple videos now because it's just so good and this was one of those things I read where I was was like oh my God this is it's written for me it's this is my taste it's a literary fiction novel about a woman in her early 20s living on her own for the first time but she's also a vampire and she's dealing with all of the emotions that come with being in your early 20s and moving away from home and being on your own in that way and also the emotions of being a vampire and craving blood and it's ripe with metaphor and symbolism and it's really difficult and gruesome sometimes to read but it's so so good this is probably like my favorite lip fi book I've ever read I feel like it's really the one that truly defines what I love and I can't stop recommending it okay so next up I have a mini dystopian section um because technically these could be clumped together with my next category which is series but it feels like it needs its own separate sections but first up I have to mention none other than parable of the sewer by Octavia E Butler I read this book last year and every time I talk about it I say this but it's just cuz it's true this is probably in terms of fiction the best book I've ever read it's so thought-provoking it is unlike anything I've ever read and it is so beyond intelligent that it will make you sit there and just like stare into space for hours and make you think and contemplate and reassess everything you've ever thought well maybe not everything but at least a lot I've mentioned multiple times on my channel that dystopian is not usually my favorite genre and honestly I think I could make an entire video on my specific gripes with the dystopian genre and it's not even like the actual content of the book or anything that we're getting that's my problem with it it's just like the irony in the way that it's presented to us and in the way that we consume dystopian content that kind of just reflects back exactly what dystopian novels often criticize so that's kind of like where my problems with this genre kind of stem from and it's mostly not even like the literature it's TV and movie show adaptations of it but anyways all that aside this is one of those books that is in that genre that to me defines this genre like this is exactly what dystopian and sci-fi should do and sets out to do and this one just does it perfectly the criticism and critique that's in here is so wellth thought out and not like preachy or iny face in any kind of way it sets up questions for the reader to answer and think about for themselves not for the book to solve for you if that makes sense and I think that's what some of the best dystopian does and this is just some of the best out there I think I know I haven't read everything but I think you'd be hardpressed to find something that would really in surpass this in every way if you are into this genre in anyway and you still haven't read Octavia Butler or even if you're not that into the genre and you kind of want to get more into it this is the one please read it and then the second book I have to mention in this category has to be the one the only The Hunger Games I am going to try and keep this as brief as I possibly can because I plan on making an entire video about this series that I am currently writing and plotting out it's going to be like 2 hours long I have a lot to say okay because I recently reread these as in like last week I reread the entire series for the first time since I was like 13 years old and it changed my my life okay it changed my brain I felt like I read an entirely new series I felt like I read something that I had never read before even though I'd read these multiple times when I was a kid it was just so different seeing them with the mind and the eyes of an adult and the lived experiences that I have now it really felt like reading something brand new and it has made this series shoot back up to probably what I would consider my favorite series of all time at this point I used to consider this my favorite series of all time back when I was a kid and then I read so much more after that I got really into like the fantasy romance ya and stuff like that and I really love those books and I still love them and I always will but I really think this is probably my favorite series of all time I have become so obsessed with this again I don't know how to explain to you all like how intense the hyperfixation is right now I have made like a 4-Hour long playlist on Spotify for this series I read Ballad of song birds and snakes made a playlist for that I'm rereading the book right now at the time of me filming this the movie is not out yet but by the time you watch it it should be out I think for Ballad of song birds and snakes and I plan on making a video on that so yeah it's just it's consumed my life again like completely consumed my life I knew how significant this series was I knew how impactful it was I understood the commentary that she was making but I don't think my child brain really understood how Timeless and how relevant this book would remain to this day reading it again right now currently considering everything that's going on in the world the genocide world all currently witnessing every day on the news it's really given me New Perspective on this in a way that has just rewired something up here I knew that this series was a fantastic critique of the US government and US imperialism but I didn't understand to what degree and now I do it's another thing that I read that shaped who I am and the way I think about things and my politics and it has once again done that to me as an adult now reading it again for the first time 10 plus years later so yeah I just I have so much to say about the series okay I I promise you that video is coming it's going to be like my magnum opus I'm working so hard on this video it's really important to me to get it right and to make it exactly the way I want to make it and to say everything I want to say I get very emotional even just thinking about it so we'll be talking about it more at a later date but for now this is just resolidified its place as my all-time favorite series Suzanne Collins is a genius that's all there is to say okay moving on to my next section now we have my favorite series these are basically all actually yeah they're all ya fantasy series there is something about the ya fantasy genre that I don't think I will ever escape especially like these older ones like these Classics there are themes and things that I think that ya explores in a way that adult often doesn't explore and I think we do ya a disservice specifically in the fantasy dystopian genre often times by discrediting it when really I just think that this category will have discussions that adult fantasy books often times won't even touch and that's not to say all of them not at all by any means there's so many that I really want to read that I feel like I would deeply deeply love I'd been putting off making this video because there are like a few series that I really wanted to read that I thought would make my list of alltime alltime favorites but I just couldn't keep waiting anymore and so while I really do love a lot of adult fantasy there's just something about this genre that I will never Tire of so the first book I have to mention is of course everyone knows this book is going to be on this list this series because how could it not be and that is of course The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra CLA my namesake my original true love is this the greatest series of all time no and I would never say that it is but this series does achieve exactly what it sets out to achieve which is just emotional Devastation in terms of relationships between these characters and it does so brilliantly because to this day I will never not be able to think about the epilogue of Clockwork Princess I think many of us feel this way I don't think any of us have ever gotten over it from the time that we first read that epilogue I read that at like 15 or something like that I don't remember it's never going to get out of my head it's so emotionally devastating and she does that so well in terms of fantasy romance like this is just just god tier and it remains god tier I've read so much since I first read this series and to this day it's not even just the Nostalgia of it there's a lot that doesn't stand up to this like it's just not as good will jam and Tessa will forever have a place in my heart I think they'll forever have a place in a lot of our hearts this is just a pure Nostalgia series for me it's still fantastic I still think that it's absolutely worth the read and it's withstood the test of time but so much of this is wrapped up in the Nostalgia of the time that I read it and me getting into reading and falling in love with characters and storytelling everything so yeah obviously have to mention this next up we have another fantasy series that I have talked about so many times and it's been a little while I think since I've mentioned it but I will be praising this series until my dying breath because it's that good and that is of course the number in the ashes series by sa here I see so many like ya series new adult series that get so popular that blow up that people talk about endlessly that are constantly on the New York Times bestsellers list that have the big biggest fandoms I think you all know who I'm talking about and those books are so unbelievably mediocre compared to something like this that it drives me crazy that this doesn't have the same level of popularity as some of the most popular series that we see because it deserves it it has all of the same tropes that people like in those super popular series but it does them better with a story that has legitimate commentary and criticism Incredible characters that you'll get deeply emotionally attached to with fantastic relationships enemies to lovers are they going to kiss each other kill each other like all of those things that everybody loves in all these other Series this has all of it and it just does it 10 times better than everything else I know this is still a popular series technically but it's not nearly as popular as it should be as far as fantasy series go this is the type of political fantasy romance that I absolutely adore this just has everything to me and it's the definition of my taste okay then the last why fantasy series I have here is one I think you're all expecting as well and that is of course six of crows by leardo this duology my God this is one of those things that I think is perfectly hyped I know the series is incredibly popular but it deserves every single ounce of its popularity cuz it's as good as people say that it is it's actually better another series that once again has everything political Intrigue fantastic characters found family and fantastic writing entertaining from beginning to end it checks every single box it's the type of thing that just never leaves your brain you're constantly thinking about it it always comes back to you sometimes I read something and like the next day it's literally gone I can't remember a single character's name but I read something like this and it sticks with me for years and years so that's how I know I love it so deeply okay moving right along we have two sections left I know I've been talking for so long I'm starting to lose my voice but now we have fantasy Standalone novels this is the one I think I have the most books in just because this is like my favorite genre I love a good Standalone fantasy book that is dark disturbing mysterious and just viby I love a good viby book and that's what I feel like a lot of these are so of course I have to mention the book that obviously I think for most of you you would consider at the top of the list of the Clockwork reader reading list because it has been my favorite book for so many years basically since I started my YouTube channel I've said this many times now I can't say with 100% certainty that it is still my favorite book I'd have to reread it I've read so much since this that I deeply deeply love but that has not taken away from my love of this book and that is of course none other than the night Circus by Aaron Morgan Stern this book is to me the perfect encapsulation of magical character-driven fantasy with just the most Immaculate Vibes fantastic atmosphere incredible pros and that's everything I love in a story which is why I think this defines my taste so perfectly and then I can't mention the night circus without mentioning the starless sea also by Aaron Morgan Stern same similar type of Vibes I love her writing I just think she's so masterful at what she does and she's able to elicit such intense emotion and also really vivid imagery and just the atmosphere of these books is unlike anything else I've ever read and this one is also specifically like a story about stories which which is one of my favorite things of all time so yeah absolutely of course cannot make this video without mentioning these two next up I have to mention sorcery of thorns by Margaret Rogerson this is another book that I feel like perfectly encapsulates my taste it's just fun light-hearted still emotional and deep romance fantasy story with the perfect atmosphere the perfect Vibes it's one of those books that you read where you're like ah yes this is why I love to read from beginning to end you're just immersed in this world and you can't even see the outside world which is exactly what I want to feel every time I read a book especially a fantasy book also very strong hell's Moving Castle Vibes and I'm always looking for that next up we have a more recent addition to this category which is a book I read this year that again I feel like the author went into my brain and just like dissected it a little bit and was like oh here let me just like take the thoughts that you have that you've never been able to voice and just write them down for you in the most devastating way um and that is the last tale of the flower bride dark disturbing and a little bit Gothic which has as I've said become definitely one of my favorite genres sub genres categories or whatever to read because I love what you're able to explore in that kind of genre and this book does it perfectly it's really mysterious it's again like I said the type of thing that just felt like somebody was in my head reading my thoughts and writing them down as I was reading and it was just such an utterly unbelievable reading experience for me in the best way possible for anyone who still hasn't read this please please do it's just it's so weird I know everyone won't like it but this is 100% a book for the girls that get it the girls that get it get it and the girls that don't don't and that's fine but if you're a girl that gets it you'll get it next up I have to of course mention Juniper and Thorne by AA Reed another Gothic fantasy book that I feel like changed the way I read and helped me expand my taste in reading and I have just like so much love and appreciation for this book again another really weird book that I feel like most people won't necessarily love at least not as strongly as I do like I can get why you wouldn't be obsessed with this but again the girls that get it get it this is just one of those books that I read and I was like oh no like I I understand like I see it I see the vision but it has beautiful Pros incredible writing the imagery in here is so vivid it's really intense it's another really dark disturbing book so has a lot of really difficult themes as well but so magical at the same time and those two things woven together I think a re just does a fantastic job of creating like this balance between the dark disturbing horror elements of it and the more whimsical elements of the story as well and I say this every time I talk about it but I just think about this book all the time and again I know it won't be for everyone but it's definitely for me so if you like most of the things that I have mentioned then hopefully you will like this too okay and then finally the last book in this fantasy Standalone category is um also one that's technically dark Academia but that is none other than Babel by RF kuang this is another book I read last year for the first time and another book where I felt like the author went into my brain and was like oh these are the thoughts that you can can't express let me write them down again it's a fantastic critique of colonialism and imperialism and the necessity of violence which is in the original title but they don't have it on here very thought-provoking the type of thing that I think a lot of people should read I know a lot of people criticize this book by saying that the characters aren't uh very well fleshed out but I personally found them to be fleshed out I deeply resonated with some of the characters I just think this is some of the best dark Academia I've ever read there's so much about this story that just has stuck with me and I will be thinking about for so many years to come okay the next section that we have is kind of like contemporary fiction and historical fiction but this next book ties a little bit into Babble because this is also dark Academia and I didn't know where else to place this it was kind of harder for me to place CU I don't have many other books like this one exactly I guess you could kind of also call it lit Fick but I don't know it's more dark Academia than that that book is none other than if we were villains this is another book I would probably put in my list of like top 10 favorites ones that absolutely Define my taste this is everything I like in a book all in one another book that I think is so incredibly hyped up and extremely popular but deserves all of its popularity and its Fame because it's that good ml Rio knows how to write a captivating story knows how to write interesting characters to write suspense to write mystery and to also write Shakespearean levels of tragedy quite literally and this is another example of something I would call just a perfect book if you have been avoiding this because of the hype and you're worried that it won't live up to it I can promise you if again you like the stuff that I like if we have similar taste you're going to like this it's going to live up to the hype for you your heart is going to break and you're going to feel devastated but you're also going to curse yourself for not having read it sooner okay the next book I have to mention is also another one that's technically a series but I've only ever read the first book and I know you can read the first book without having to read the rest of them it can stand on its own but that is of course the shadow of the Wind by Carlos Reed zon this is another book that from the time I've read it years and years ago at this point I've still never been able to stop thinking about it it's historical fiction set during the time of the Spanish Civil War and another book that's a story about stories I really just love that as a Trope or a theme the idea of like who gets to tell our stories and what stories we choose to tell um and this book definitely explores some of those things it's also a murder mystery and it's really suspenseful and it's just unlike anything else I've ever read I definitely consider this a classic at this point and something that I think any historical fiction fan should absolutely read but also if you like things similar to like if we were villains I really think you should read this as well it's definitely the type of book that's for people who like to read I find that I really gravitate towards those types of stories okay next up I have to mention as long as the lemon trees grow this is another book I read this year for the first time it's kind of like contemporary lit Fick set during the time of the Syrian Revolution and we follow our main character who is a doctor well she's actually a pharmacy student who is working as a doctor um trying to help she and her family are also trying to escape and it's just so heartbreaking this book is so emotional it'll make you so sad it will make you cry but it has some of the best emotional suspense I think I've ever read it's just so devastating and so beautifully written another book where the story is just laced with empathy you can feel how personal this story was to the author and that's something I always love in a good book when you can tell that this really meant something and that comes across on the page and it really does in this book I really think more people should read it because it's also an incredibly important subject matter as well also just fantastic characters a lot of JBL references the WR is also just kind of whimsical in its own way too and it's again just everything everything I love in a good book okay next up I have to mention a book that I feel like for so long defined my taste and especially like contemporary ya contemporary fiction and a book that to this day I still deeply loved despite the fact that I still never read the sequel and I haven't read it for a really long time but this book just means so much to me and that is Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe if you've been here since the beginning you know how much I used to talk about this book book okay it's just been a really long time and I've read so much since then but my mind still comes back to this and I think it always will this is one of the best Coming of Age stories I think I've ever read and I know the movie came out recently um but it was only in theaters for like a week maybe like less than a week and I wasn't able to see it cuz it wasn't in any theaters near me and I was so so sad cuz I really want to see the film I really hope that it's good but it made me think about the book again and so obviously like I had to mention it in this video because it's still something that I feel like is so important to me even after all these years this was the first ya contemporary book I'd ever read with like a queer couple as like the main characters it's a really fantastic story about coming out growing up falling in love being young and I've read a lot of books now within the same genre with the same themes that explore the same themes but this one still stands out to me there's just something so deeply moving about this story and something that feels at this point like really nostalgic to me since I read it so long ago and it was at such a pivotal time in my life as well okay and we have finally reached the very last book in this video I don't know how many books I've gone through I'm really losing my voice at this point but this is the final final one and one that is incredibly important to me um and another book that like really changed the way that I read changed who I am as a person at a really young age and that is of course The Perks of Being a Wallflower I don't think I can properly explain the feeling of being 15 16 years old and reading this book for the first time it changed the way that I read it changed the way that I look it reading and writing and storytelling this book just explored themes that at that age I feel like I had never seen discussed in this way and that was something that I think I really needed at that time and I think there's a reason that it's remained such a classic and why it's withstood the test of time and why so many people still to this day Discover it and still really love it but yeah it's another book that I think I will be thinking about and hopefully rereading again soon maybe I'll just go back and reread a lot of the books I loved as a kid because apparently seeing them with adult eyes for the first time really changes things for you and I feel like that might be a really worthwhile experience but yeah of course had to mention this one because it will always be a classic and a favorite to me but there you all have it that is it for my A Clockwork reader reading list my favorite books of all time like I said there are definitely other books that I would consider all-time favorites that I deeply deeply love I did try to narrow this down as much as I could okay to pick just like the few that really really Define my taste even though there are so many more books that I absolutely love um so please don't feel like if I didn't mention something I still love those books I really do I just I had to I had to pick just a few even though this is so many again another reminder to check out the Clockwork Reader book club on Fable the link is in the description box below be sure to join the book club there introduce yourselves I'm so excited to get started on our first book if there are any books that you think that I should read based on the reading list that I gave you here um based on my taste that you think I'd really love that you think would fit into any of these categories please leave your recommendations down below I always love taking your recommendations and reading what you recommend cuz I have faith in you all you guys know my taste really well and I trust you so I will always take your Rex if you would like to follow me on any of my social media all of my links are in the description box as always but thank you all so much for watching this video I hope you enjoyed and I will see you in my next video byehello hi welcome everybody so today I am finally making a video that is very long overdue something I promised you all a really long time ago and something I've been wanting to make pretty much ever since I started my channel I just have never felt like it was the right time and I don't think I will ever feel like it's truly the right time but I think that if I keep waiting for it to feel right then I'll never make this video so today I'm finally doing it and I'm giving you the A Clockwork reader reading list AKA my favorite books of all time I mentioned the idea for this in a video last year I think when I was talking about some book that I really liked and I said that it kind of defined my taste in a lot of ways and I would add it to a list of books that I would consider to be part of the essential reading list like the syllabus if I were to make a syllabus for my YouTube channel that book would be on it and that's where the idea for this kind of came about and a lot of you really like that idea and you wanted to know more but these are basically books that I feel like Define my taste as a reader my identity as a Reader books that are incredibly important to me have shaped me changed me changed the way I think and of often times have themes or messaging that really align with my beliefs or my values so if you've ever been curious about my list of all-time favorites or the books that I would recommend to everybody or you just really want a long and I mean long list of recommendations of books to read if you have similar taste to me and you like a lot of my recommendations this is the place for you we're finally doing it I have so many books to talk about I literally didn't count um I laid them all out on my bed you like you don't even want to know what this looks like we're not even going to talk about them all in extreme detail because you heard me talk about these books countless times on my channel um I talk about them all the time I just wanted to put them all in one place but I also have another really really exciting announcement that I specifically wanted to mention in this video because it felt like the perfect time and the perfect place to do it and that is that I am starting my own book club on Fable yes I am starting the Clockwork Reader book club that's the name I have so far we can change that if you guys want to name it something else if you have any ideas let me know in the comments down below I'm open to ideas but for now it's just the Clockwork Reader book club but I'm really really excited about this so like I mentioned the book club is going to be done through Fable and Fable is an app that is basically for Book Lovers whether you want to find new books to read or discuss books you're reading with other people there are tons of book clubs on there and you can join and read books along with other people and discuss those books or you can start your own private book clubs with just a few of your friends if you'd like to within each book club there are different discussion rooms there's a Lobby where people can just introduce themselves and talk about some non- bookish things and then there will be discussion rooms based on each chapter for the book so if you don't want any spoilers you can easily avoid that by staying within whichever chapter you're still in and then a final discussion room once you finish the book so everyone can discuss their final thoughts and give their reviews and everything so it's really interactive it's really easy to use and it'll be so much fun to have a space for us to just discuss the books that we're reading there are also a lot of different tools and features you can use on the app like reading lists so you can make like a TBR for yourself it's also really easy to write and review books on there and you can even use half Stars which is so nice you can also read along in any way you choose whether you have a a copy of the book already if you'd like to get it from the library if you like to read on eBook or Audi book whatever way whatever format you prefer to read it's totally up to you but Fable also has their own e-reader through the app so you can purchase the ebook through their app and their e-reader allows you to make like notes and highlights and stuff in the book and once you um talk about them in the discussion rooms those notes and stuff show up in the discussion sections as well so other people can see the commentary and stuff that you made which is really really cool so yeah like I said I'm so so excited about all of this and I cannot wait to start this journey with you all and start this book club I'm so excited I'm even thinking about like monthly live shows again if that's a thing you guys are interested in cuz then we can take the discussions you have in app and we can talk about them on live too so if you want to join the Clockwork Reader book club you can download the fable app for free the link to my book club is in the description box below so you just have to click it and join the book club and then introduce yourself in the club Lobby so we can all greet each other and talk to each other and get to know one another a little bit more and I'm sure a lot of you are curious what the first book pick is going to be and I already decided on it I'm really excited about it I have really really high hopes that I'm going to love it and that hopefully we're all going to love it and that is what the river Knows by Isabelle ibenz this is the first book I believe in a ya duy I don't know if it's duy or it's going to be a series but it just recently came out this is an historical fantasy novel set in Egypt it has a Rivals to lovers romance and it seems to have really good like mystery and suspense and action and it sounds fantastic it sounds exactly like the type of thing that would be on the a clock Rec reader reading list hence why I chose it to be our first book club pick I mean historical fantasy romance is like god tier genres for me and you'll notice that in the rest of the recommendations I have to give to you today and the books I have to talk about so yeah I have very very high hopes download the fable app and join the book club so we can all read along together and so again thank you Fable for sponsoring this video I'm so so excited for the book club to get started we are going to be reading the book from basically December through the beginning of January so you have plenty of time to get started on it but if there are any books that you're all really interested in Reading together I'm always open to your suggestions leave them in the club Lobby in the fable app and we can talk about it and maybe we'll do some polls or something on there and I'll definitely take your input into what we read cuz this is a space for all of us it's not just for me it's for all of us for this community and yeah I'm just I'm so thrilled all right now quickly one more thing before we get into all the books I just want to remind you all that my journals the A Clockwork reader film and TV journal and the O Clockwork reader reading Journal are available in the link in the description box below if you want to track the books that you read and journal about it or track the film and shows that you watch and journal about it these are the perfect place to do that um they'll make perfect gifts for the upcoming holiday season if that's something you're looking into as well and also I'm thinking that when we do the book club it might be fun to do a discussion room where people can maybe post about what they're journaling about I think that might be a fun little thing to do so yeah anyway just wanted to remind you all link is in the description box as always to purchase these so like I mentioned I have a lot of books on this list okay and at first I was going to narrow it down to even fewer like Max 10 to 15 books and just give you like a top 10 list or something but that was really hard like it was it was impossible I'm not going to lie and I wanted something that felt kind of all-encompassing so I decided to go in a little bit of a different direction that's why I chose so many books and that's because I decided to separate this out by genre and category so I have like at least three four books or so in each category that I'm going to talk about that I feel like kind of Define my taste so if you prefer to read Classics or if you prefer to read series then you can check out the books that are in that specific section so that's how I've decided to kind of separate it out and I feel like this gives you a better overall picture of my general taste maybe I thought about this too much I don't know um but this was really important to me okay that's why it took me so long to make this video I also just want to say there might be a couple books that you notice are not on this list that I have previously said are some of my favorite books I thought about this a lot like I mentioned um and there are some books that I used to consider some of my all-time favorites but upon further reflection upon either rereading or learning new information about the content or listening to other reviewers or learning new information about the authors and how um they're not really the type of people I want to support on my platform I have decided to not include those books do I still like them yes the books will always mean something to me on some level but I'm not talking about them in my in my space okay this is my list so it's my choice and that's what I chose to do so I know some of you are going to be like where's this book where's that book there's a reason certain things are not on this list and there's a reason I don't want to talk about them and it's because I'm not platforming certain people but yeah anyway without any further Ado let's get into the official Clockwork reader reading list so that I can gush about these books for the millionth time okay so the first section is going to be Classics so these are my favorite classic books classic novels that I have read obviously as will be the case with every single section I've not read everything so it'll be impossible for me to cover everything I'm sure there will be other books I'll read in the future that I will consider alltime favorites or maybe like even more than some of these but for now based on everything I've ever read in my life this is my current list so first and foremost we have to cover my favorite Jane Austin novels cuz I love Jane Austin and of all of her work that I've read which I do feel like I really need to reread everything um because it's been a really long time I think I haven't read Mansfield park or persuasion I can't remember it's been a really long time and I've watched like films or adaptations for all of them so I've muddled them all in my head but it's one of those two that I haven't read but I've read everything else and I love all of the ones that I've read but these two at present are my favorite ones and is Sense and Sensibility and Emma Sense and Sensibility is a story about sisters specifically and I always love stories that cover that as a theme and Emma in my opinion this is probably my favorite one this one is just so good it is so funny it's so emotional and it's in my opinion I think the easiest to read the most accessible of all of her work it's just a fantastic book also a fantastic book love these both dearly love Jane Austin she's the OG okay like romance would not be what it is without her next up we have a book that I would consider probably in my like top 10 list of all-time favorite books and that is easily The Little Prince I think I first read it when I was really young but I didn't really process it or remember it all that much and then I reread it for the first time early in high school I think and I just fell back in love this is a story that's just like stuck with me ever since the first time I read it it's just one of those things that is so heartwarming and beautiful and emotional even though it's technically a children's story I love art that can transcend age or any kind of demographic and this is definitely one of those stories it's Timeless it's classic for a reason and it's absolutely beautiful so if you've still never read this like you really really should it's so short my goal one day is to read it in the original French so I hope to do that at some point but yes forever something I will deeply deeply cherish the next classic of course has to be The Picture of Dorian Gray I talked about this a lot since I read it for the first time last year because I just can't get it out of my head this like really changed things for me this made me discover an entirely new genre that I was not reading from very often and it's opened up like a whole new world for me I didn't read much Gothic horror that was not something I'd really ventured into much until I read this and oh my God like easily one of my favorite genres of all time now in any form whether it's TV movies or books so yeah absolutely have to credit this for that such an incredible story such fantastic commentary and insight um it's one of those things that will get you thinking but it's also really entertaining mysterious and will keep you on the edge of your seat I absolutely think it should be on the top of your list if you want to get into reading Classics this one will not bore you you will be entertained from beginning to end okay the next classic I have is another one I've talked about countless times and that is of course Rebecca by Deanie de morier I love this book you all know that mysterious haunting thought-provoking and just so so beautifully written I love a good book with an unnamed narrator and this one is an OG and a classic when it comes to that in so many ways I absolutely recommend this for anyone who's also getting into Classics another book that will keep you on the edge of your seat and keep you entertained all the way through through please please read Rebecca if you want to read more Classics okay and the final classic book on my list is one that I don't talk about as much on here um but this is the book that like got me into reading classic novels this is the book that kind of pushed me over the edge and got me to expand what I read cuz before this I really mostly just liked reading ya and fantasy and stuff like that and I didn't really Venture into Classics and stuff very much outside of school and while I read this for school it was just kind of life-changing for me in a lot of ways and that is none other than withing Heights by Emily Bronte I really can't explain like the shift that happened in here when I read this when I first read it I was 100% one of those people who was like oh this is like a tragic romance as I got older and the Brain developed I don't really view it as a tragic romance anymore um but I still deeply deeply love this story and can appreciate it for what it is it's another one of those things that I should have known early on that I really like Gothic horror dark kind of Twisted mystery stories as you can tell from Rebecca and The Picture of Dorian Gray um but this was the first one I kind of read that falls into that kind of genre or category and I was obsessed with it from the start I mean I love a good book about generational trauma and this one I feel like is definitely one of the classics when it comes to that and of course themes of breaking cycles of abuse but also all of the like motifs and symbolism that's used in this book as well it was one of those things that really got me into the idea of like reading more actively and reading more intentionally to the point where for the first time I was really highlighting huge passages of the book so that I could connect one section to another section and identify different motifs of the story like the use of Windows it really really just changed the way that I read and I'm sure that this isn't the book that will do that for everyone I just feel like everyone has one of those books or at least a few of those books that kind of like clicked something in their head for them um that made them read differently made them a new reader and this was definitely one of those ones for me so I'll always have a very special place in my heart for it okay next up we have my non-fiction SLP poetry section first we're going to start with my one poetry recommendation I really do like reading poetry collections but this is the one that I feel like in the past like few years that I've read has really really stuck with me and has really um changed the way that I feel about poetry in a lot of ways too and that is let us believe in the beginning of the cold season by fad she was a Persian poet she passed away in the60s but she still deeply beloved and considered an iconic classic feminist writer of her time and her poetry is just unbelievable it's beautiful I had never really read Persian poetry apart from like HZ before I read this book and it was just a really emotional EXP experience for me and I just I love her work there's so many poems in here that I've marked up and tabbed um because they just truly stuck with me this translation I think is really well done and I highly highly recommend it next up we have another book that was very formative for me something I read in my first semester of college that gave voice to thoughts that I could not previously Express and radicalized me in a lot of ways um and that is of course B hooks's feminism is for everybody this is still to this day the book on feminism that I would recommend to anybody who is interested in learning learning about the basics of uh the feminist movement feminist philosophy and Theory this is where you should start specifically intersectional feminism I mean to me it's not feminism unless it's intersectional if you're newer to a lot of these ideas I think this will be um more beneficial to you if feminist theory is something you've been reading for like a really long time I don't know how much new information or um Insight this would provide for you but if it is something that you have only really like experienced through like online discourse um I do think this is a fantastic book to actually read um to get you started I still think about it all the time it it's just one of those things that like those books that you read as a kid that really stuck with you and shape to you this is like the thing I read as a young adult that really stuck with me and shaped me um and shaped a lot of my politics absolutely love this book can't recommend it enough love Bell hooks as an author so definitely had to be high on the list for the clock reader reading list okay next up we have a um non-fiction book that I feel like is one of the things that really got me into reading more non-fiction which is something I still want to do more of I don't read that much non-fiction I used to a lot for school but ever since then I just don't anymore but I Still Love non-fiction as a genre and I feel like in the past year I've been kind of getting more and more interested in a lot of titles and I've been wanting to pick up more so I still plan to and I can definitely attribute reading this to that um interest in the genre and that book is in the dream house by Carmen Marie Machado Carmen Marie Machado is one of my favorite authors of all time she has a away with words that is so beautiful um so moving and and heartbreaking regardless of what genre she's writing in or the subject matter anything she writes can make me cry and in the dream house is her Memoir about an abusive relationship that she was in and it's one of the most difficult books I've ever read it's written stylistically almost like fiction so it reads kind of like fiction despite the fact that it isn't and she just has a way of weaving together this story her story that just moves you so deeply highly recommend very difficult book to read but so so worth it okay and then the last non-fiction book I have to recommend is actually a graphic novel and that is ppis by mean crai this is a graphic Memoir about the author's life living through the Iranian Revolution and kind of like what her life was like at that time and her experiences it was also made into a film so you can also watch the film it's beautifully written it's really emotional it's also really really funny the way she's able to balance like humor and light-heartedness in something that is obviously very serious and disturbing and dark subject matter it's just genius and it's done incredibly well so yeah definitely always one of my go-to non-fiction recommendations okay so tying into that last recommendation specifically now we have my graphic novel and manga section so first and foremost I absolutely have to recommend the Yona of the dawn series if you still haven't read these please please do so if you're looking for historical fantasy with some of the best and I emphasize this the best slowburn romance ever please pick it up the story makes a lot of political commentary that is very relevant it's also really long so you'll have so much to read it's still unfinished so there's still volumes being put out every year there's still no end in sight no one knows how long it's going to go on but there's so much content for you here okay like if you need something to binge read this is absolutely the series I've talked about it so many times but I need you all to just go watch the One season of the anime which is criminal that there's only one season um and then be sad about the fact that there's only one season and then read all the manga because you you just have to okay you'll love it I always describe it as if you like full metal Alchemist or um avatar the Last air bender this is kind of like a combination of those two things and as you all know those are like two of my favorite things of all time so obviously I love this one as well and I know so many of you will too so please pick it up if you're looking for manga number one recommendation from me okay the next graphic novel recommendation I have is of course Heart Stopper by Alice Oman everyone knows the series everyone's watched the TV series at this point um but this is just a series that has meant so much to me it was not something that I thought I was going to be that obsessed with but ever since I read it it has just burrowed its way into my heart cuz it's just such a beautiful heartwarming happy story about love and friendship and identity and coming out and uh queerness and mental health and it's just so so wonderful if you still haven't read it fix that read it you'll love it okay then my next graphic novel this is actually technically a uh comic is one I haven't talked about for a really long time but I love this series and I have loved it for so long I'm a few volumes behind now so I need to catch up soon but that is of course AA Saga is a Sci-Fi series about these two planets that are at war with one another and our main characters are from these rival planets and they fall in love they have a child it's a political fantasy Sci-Fi series with lots of uh political commentary obviously and um also a lot of great great humor it's definitely an adult series there's some like graphic imagery in here so just be aware of that if you decide to read it but just oh my God still one of my favorites it's been so long since I've talked about this but to this day I still think about this series cuz it's so so well well done I hope one day we get an adaptation of this I think that would be amazing but who knows if that'll ever happen but yeah if you're looking for a comic series to read this is my go-to okay moving right along we have my romance section and I only have three books in this section for now cuz these are the ones that I feel like are the creme de La Creme the absolute top recommendations I would have the ones that truly Define my taste in Romance Books the first one I have to mention is obviously the charm offensive I love this book I read this for one of my experiment videos thinking that I would enjoy it but I did not think that I would become obsessed and that I would love it so so dearly I fell head over heels in love with these characters the chemistry chef's kiss it's so good if you're really looking for a romance novel to read and you've been disappointed by a lot of the ones that you've been reading a lot of the really popular ones like I was for a while there this one is one you absolutely have to pick up okay my next romance recommendation is one that can sometimes also be categorized as like lip fi I don't really know where you would Place Emily Henry but I mean most people consider her a romance R writer so that's what I'm going to consider it but this is my favorite Emily Henry novel okay this is the Emily Henry novel that to me stands above all the other Emily Henry novels and I know this is not the popular opinion because apparently this is the most disliked one out of all of them but I'm so sorry you're all wrong this is her best work and nothing Tops This nothing even comes close to this and that is easily happy place I don't think I've talked about this on my channel yet uh because I've only talked about it on Goodreads and maybe a little bit on Instagram or something but I read this earlier this summer and it changed my life it hurt me on a very deep personal level it was like she was in my head and she was coming for me personally okay like this was an attack and it hurt but I loved it and to all of the haters out there who say that this one is boring that this one is not as good as the other ones you're so wrong I will die on this hill this is her best work I remember every other time I've read an Emily Henry book I've talked about how I always feel like there's just one thing missing there's just this emotional element that feels like it's lacking like there's just something that isn't there to push me over the edge to make me fall head over heels in love and this book finally had it it had that thing and I do understand that it's like subjective everyone relates to different things everyone's been through different experiences so you might relate more to people we meet on vacation or Book Lovers or something um than you would to happy place and that's completely fine like I get why those would be your favorite but to say that this one isn't as good you're so wrong you're so so wrong this is the one okay if you're reading taste is like mine and you've been let down by most of the Emily Henry books that you've read and you just didn't see what everyone else was talking about you weren't feeling it this is the one you need to read okay this is this is the one for us all right in this space this is our book anyway love this book to death cannot get enough of it fantastic romance so emotional destroyed me and I thank her for that all right and then the last romance book I have to recommend is one that kind of stands between two genres a little bit because it's also technically fantasy but I'd consider this more of like a romantic fantasy book um than just straight fantasy or anything like that and that is of course the very secret society of a regular witches if you like light fantasy if you like witches if you like a good good emotional romance where the characters have both been through hell and they've experienced a lot of traumas and that helps them Bond but not like trauma bonding Bond truly Bond because they open up to each other and also the main male love interest is a hot librarian I'm like what else do you need okay like this is it this is the book I read this and I was like oh this defines my taste in Romance it has the perfect p Ching the perfect balance of romance as well as like other elements because it also has found family you know how much I love found family okay a romance book with found family perfect pacing and a hot librarian she wrote it for me okay she wrote it for us do yourself a favor pick it up you'll love it it's so good it's so well written it'll make you so happy it'll make you cry and you'll feel every emotion and then you'll just come away from it feeling so deeply satisfied okay moving right along we have my next category which is lit Fick and and the first book I have to mention is on Earth We're briefly gorgeous by ocean vong I talked about this countless times this is a pretty popular book um I think a lot of you have probably read it the thing about this book that I feel like really defines my taste is the pros specifically the writing in this book is unreal it's beautiful you'll read certain lines and think to yourself like how could a person's brain possibly come up with something like that and it made me tear up and cry simply from just how beautiful the writing is as well as of course the subject matter because it's a very emotional book and it's really really heavy and difficult to read but the pros is what really really stands out in this one to me and it's the type of thing that I would recommend to anyone who loves beautiful writing next up we have a book that I've talked about countless times as well and it's easily one of the most difficult books I've ever read in my life and one of the ones I still think about almost more than like anything I've read and that is my dark Vanessa you heard me talk about this countless times like I said so you don't need more detail about it just always always will say look up content warnings if you decide to read this book this is not meant to be read just casually without a second thought like you you really need to know what you're getting yourself into it's not easy material and it's meant to be disturbing it's meant to elicit an emotional reaction and response from you but I've said this and I'll say it again till the end of time when I talk about this book this book is written with so much empathy and so much understanding from the perspective of a person who you can clearly tell understands this experience and it's the empathy that's in this book that I feel like is genuinely woven through every single line in every single page that is what really really stands out to me ignore the slight angle change my camera died on me because I've been talking for way too long but anyway that's the thing I appreciate so much about this book because I feel like that can be hard to find sometimes in work that deals with such difficult heavy and dark subjects is just like unlike anything else I've ever read and I feel like I will be thinking about it forever the next book in my lip fi section that I have to recommend is the only book I don't have a physical copy of yet I've just been meaning to buy it and I still haven't and that is woman eating by CLA Kota I'm obsessed with this book I've talked about it in like a couple videos now because it's just so good and this was one of those things I read where I was was like oh my God this is it's written for me it's this is my taste it's a literary fiction novel about a woman in her early 20s living on her own for the first time but she's also a vampire and she's dealing with all of the emotions that come with being in your early 20s and moving away from home and being on your own in that way and also the emotions of being a vampire and craving blood and it's ripe with metaphor and symbolism and it's really difficult and gruesome sometimes to read but it's so so good this is probably like my favorite lip fi book I've ever read I feel like it's really the one that truly defines what I love and I can't stop recommending it okay so next up I have a mini dystopian section um because technically these could be clumped together with my next category which is series but it feels like it needs its own separate sections but first up I have to mention none other than parable of the sewer by Octavia E Butler I read this book last year and every time I talk about it I say this but it's just cuz it's true this is probably in terms of fiction the best book I've ever read it's so thought-provoking it is unlike anything I've ever read and it is so beyond intelligent that it will make you sit there and just like stare into space for hours and make you think and contemplate and reassess everything you've ever thought well maybe not everything but at least a lot I've mentioned multiple times on my channel that dystopian is not usually my favorite genre and honestly I think I could make an entire video on my specific gripes with the dystopian genre and it's not even like the actual content of the book or anything that we're getting that's my problem with it it's just like the irony in the way that it's presented to us and in the way that we consume dystopian content that kind of just reflects back exactly what dystopian novels often criticize so that's kind of like where my problems with this genre kind of stem from and it's mostly not even like the literature it's TV and movie show adaptations of it but anyways all that aside this is one of those books that is in that genre that to me defines this genre like this is exactly what dystopian and sci-fi should do and sets out to do and this one just does it perfectly the criticism and critique that's in here is so wellth thought out and not like preachy or iny face in any kind of way it sets up questions for the reader to answer and think about for themselves not for the book to solve for you if that makes sense and I think that's what some of the best dystopian does and this is just some of the best out there I think I know I haven't read everything but I think you'd be hardpressed to find something that would really in surpass this in every way if you are into this genre in anyway and you still haven't read Octavia Butler or even if you're not that into the genre and you kind of want to get more into it this is the one please read it and then the second book I have to mention in this category has to be the one the only The Hunger Games I am going to try and keep this as brief as I possibly can because I plan on making an entire video about this series that I am currently writing and plotting out it's going to be like 2 hours long I have a lot to say okay because I recently reread these as in like last week I reread the entire series for the first time since I was like 13 years old and it changed my my life okay it changed my brain I felt like I read an entirely new series I felt like I read something that I had never read before even though I'd read these multiple times when I was a kid it was just so different seeing them with the mind and the eyes of an adult and the lived experiences that I have now it really felt like reading something brand new and it has made this series shoot back up to probably what I would consider my favorite series of all time at this point I used to consider this my favorite series of all time back when I was a kid and then I read so much more after that I got really into like the fantasy romance ya and stuff like that and I really love those books and I still love them and I always will but I really think this is probably my favorite series of all time I have become so obsessed with this again I don't know how to explain to you all like how intense the hyperfixation is right now I have made like a 4-Hour long playlist on Spotify for this series I read Ballad of song birds and snakes made a playlist for that I'm rereading the book right now at the time of me filming this the movie is not out yet but by the time you watch it it should be out I think for Ballad of song birds and snakes and I plan on making a video on that so yeah it's just it's consumed my life again like completely consumed my life I knew how significant this series was I knew how impactful it was I understood the commentary that she was making but I don't think my child brain really understood how Timeless and how relevant this book would remain to this day reading it again right now currently considering everything that's going on in the world the genocide world all currently witnessing every day on the news it's really given me New Perspective on this in a way that has just rewired something up here I knew that this series was a fantastic critique of the US government and US imperialism but I didn't understand to what degree and now I do it's another thing that I read that shaped who I am and the way I think about things and my politics and it has once again done that to me as an adult now reading it again for the first time 10 plus years later so yeah I just I have so much to say about the series okay I I promise you that video is coming it's going to be like my magnum opus I'm working so hard on this video it's really important to me to get it right and to make it exactly the way I want to make it and to say everything I want to say I get very emotional even just thinking about it so we'll be talking about it more at a later date but for now this is just resolidified its place as my all-time favorite series Suzanne Collins is a genius that's all there is to say okay moving on to my next section now we have my favorite series these are basically all actually yeah they're all ya fantasy series there is something about the ya fantasy genre that I don't think I will ever escape especially like these older ones like these Classics there are themes and things that I think that ya explores in a way that adult often doesn't explore and I think we do ya a disservice specifically in the fantasy dystopian genre often times by discrediting it when really I just think that this category will have discussions that adult fantasy books often times won't even touch and that's not to say all of them not at all by any means there's so many that I really want to read that I feel like I would deeply deeply love I'd been putting off making this video because there are like a few series that I really wanted to read that I thought would make my list of alltime alltime favorites but I just couldn't keep waiting anymore and so while I really do love a lot of adult fantasy there's just something about this genre that I will never Tire of so the first book I have to mention is of course everyone knows this book is going to be on this list this series because how could it not be and that is of course The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra CLA my namesake my original true love is this the greatest series of all time no and I would never say that it is but this series does achieve exactly what it sets out to achieve which is just emotional Devastation in terms of relationships between these characters and it does so brilliantly because to this day I will never not be able to think about the epilogue of Clockwork Princess I think many of us feel this way I don't think any of us have ever gotten over it from the time that we first read that epilogue I read that at like 15 or something like that I don't remember it's never going to get out of my head it's so emotionally devastating and she does that so well in terms of fantasy romance like this is just just god tier and it remains god tier I've read so much since I first read this series and to this day it's not even just the Nostalgia of it there's a lot that doesn't stand up to this like it's just not as good will jam and Tessa will forever have a place in my heart I think they'll forever have a place in a lot of our hearts this is just a pure Nostalgia series for me it's still fantastic I still think that it's absolutely worth the read and it's withstood the test of time but so much of this is wrapped up in the Nostalgia of the time that I read it and me getting into reading and falling in love with characters and storytelling everything so yeah obviously have to mention this next up we have another fantasy series that I have talked about so many times and it's been a little while I think since I've mentioned it but I will be praising this series until my dying breath because it's that good and that is of course the number in the ashes series by sa here I see so many like ya series new adult series that get so popular that blow up that people talk about endlessly that are constantly on the New York Times bestsellers list that have the big biggest fandoms I think you all know who I'm talking about and those books are so unbelievably mediocre compared to something like this that it drives me crazy that this doesn't have the same level of popularity as some of the most popular series that we see because it deserves it it has all of the same tropes that people like in those super popular series but it does them better with a story that has legitimate commentary and criticism Incredible characters that you'll get deeply emotionally attached to with fantastic relationships enemies to lovers are they going to kiss each other kill each other like all of those things that everybody loves in all these other Series this has all of it and it just does it 10 times better than everything else I know this is still a popular series technically but it's not nearly as popular as it should be as far as fantasy series go this is the type of political fantasy romance that I absolutely adore this just has everything to me and it's the definition of my taste okay then the last why fantasy series I have here is one I think you're all expecting as well and that is of course six of crows by leardo this duology my God this is one of those things that I think is perfectly hyped I know the series is incredibly popular but it deserves every single ounce of its popularity cuz it's as good as people say that it is it's actually better another series that once again has everything political Intrigue fantastic characters found family and fantastic writing entertaining from beginning to end it checks every single box it's the type of thing that just never leaves your brain you're constantly thinking about it it always comes back to you sometimes I read something and like the next day it's literally gone I can't remember a single character's name but I read something like this and it sticks with me for years and years so that's how I know I love it so deeply okay moving right along we have two sections left I know I've been talking for so long I'm starting to lose my voice but now we have fantasy Standalone novels this is the one I think I have the most books in just because this is like my favorite genre I love a good Standalone fantasy book that is dark disturbing mysterious and just viby I love a good viby book and that's what I feel like a lot of these are so of course I have to mention the book that obviously I think for most of you you would consider at the top of the list of the Clockwork reader reading list because it has been my favorite book for so many years basically since I started my YouTube channel I've said this many times now I can't say with 100% certainty that it is still my favorite book I'd have to reread it I've read so much since this that I deeply deeply love but that has not taken away from my love of this book and that is of course none other than the night Circus by Aaron Morgan Stern this book is to me the perfect encapsulation of magical character-driven fantasy with just the most Immaculate Vibes fantastic atmosphere incredible pros and that's everything I love in a story which is why I think this defines my taste so perfectly and then I can't mention the night circus without mentioning the starless sea also by Aaron Morgan Stern same similar type of Vibes I love her writing I just think she's so masterful at what she does and she's able to elicit such intense emotion and also really vivid imagery and just the atmosphere of these books is unlike anything else I've ever read and this one is also specifically like a story about stories which which is one of my favorite things of all time so yeah absolutely of course cannot make this video without mentioning these two next up I have to mention sorcery of thorns by Margaret Rogerson this is another book that I feel like perfectly encapsulates my taste it's just fun light-hearted still emotional and deep romance fantasy story with the perfect atmosphere the perfect Vibes it's one of those books that you read where you're like ah yes this is why I love to read from beginning to end you're just immersed in this world and you can't even see the outside world which is exactly what I want to feel every time I read a book especially a fantasy book also very strong hell's Moving Castle Vibes and I'm always looking for that next up we have a more recent addition to this category which is a book I read this year that again I feel like the author went into my brain and just like dissected it a little bit and was like oh here let me just like take the thoughts that you have that you've never been able to voice and just write them down for you in the most devastating way um and that is the last tale of the flower bride dark disturbing and a little bit Gothic which has as I've said become definitely one of my favorite genres sub genres categories or whatever to read because I love what you're able to explore in that kind of genre and this book does it perfectly it's really mysterious it's again like I said the type of thing that just felt like somebody was in my head reading my thoughts and writing them down as I was reading and it was just such an utterly unbelievable reading experience for me in the best way possible for anyone who still hasn't read this please please do it's just it's so weird I know everyone won't like it but this is 100% a book for the girls that get it the girls that get it get it and the girls that don't don't and that's fine but if you're a girl that gets it you'll get it next up I have to of course mention Juniper and Thorne by AA Reed another Gothic fantasy book that I feel like changed the way I read and helped me expand my taste in reading and I have just like so much love and appreciation for this book again another really weird book that I feel like most people won't necessarily love at least not as strongly as I do like I can get why you wouldn't be obsessed with this but again the girls that get it get it this is just one of those books that I read and I was like oh no like I I understand like I see it I see the vision but it has beautiful Pros incredible writing the imagery in here is so vivid it's really intense it's another really dark disturbing book so has a lot of really difficult themes as well but so magical at the same time and those two things woven together I think a re just does a fantastic job of creating like this balance between the dark disturbing horror elements of it and the more whimsical elements of the story as well and I say this every time I talk about it but I just think about this book all the time and again I know it won't be for everyone but it's definitely for me so if you like most of the things that I have mentioned then hopefully you will like this too okay and then finally the last book in this fantasy Standalone category is um also one that's technically dark Academia but that is none other than Babel by RF kuang this is another book I read last year for the first time and another book where I felt like the author went into my brain and was like oh these are the thoughts that you can can't express let me write them down again it's a fantastic critique of colonialism and imperialism and the necessity of violence which is in the original title but they don't have it on here very thought-provoking the type of thing that I think a lot of people should read I know a lot of people criticize this book by saying that the characters aren't uh very well fleshed out but I personally found them to be fleshed out I deeply resonated with some of the characters I just think this is some of the best dark Academia I've ever read there's so much about this story that just has stuck with me and I will be thinking about for so many years to come okay the next section that we have is kind of like contemporary fiction and historical fiction but this next book ties a little bit into Babble because this is also dark Academia and I didn't know where else to place this it was kind of harder for me to place CU I don't have many other books like this one exactly I guess you could kind of also call it lit Fick but I don't know it's more dark Academia than that that book is none other than if we were villains this is another book I would probably put in my list of like top 10 favorites ones that absolutely Define my taste this is everything I like in a book all in one another book that I think is so incredibly hyped up and extremely popular but deserves all of its popularity and its Fame because it's that good ml Rio knows how to write a captivating story knows how to write interesting characters to write suspense to write mystery and to also write Shakespearean levels of tragedy quite literally and this is another example of something I would call just a perfect book if you have been avoiding this because of the hype and you're worried that it won't live up to it I can promise you if again you like the stuff that I like if we have similar taste you're going to like this it's going to live up to the hype for you your heart is going to break and you're going to feel devastated but you're also going to curse yourself for not having read it sooner okay the next book I have to mention is also another one that's technically a series but I've only ever read the first book and I know you can read the first book without having to read the rest of them it can stand on its own but that is of course the shadow of the Wind by Carlos Reed zon this is another book that from the time I've read it years and years ago at this point I've still never been able to stop thinking about it it's historical fiction set during the time of the Spanish Civil War and another book that's a story about stories I really just love that as a Trope or a theme the idea of like who gets to tell our stories and what stories we choose to tell um and this book definitely explores some of those things it's also a murder mystery and it's really suspenseful and it's just unlike anything else I've ever read I definitely consider this a classic at this point and something that I think any historical fiction fan should absolutely read but also if you like things similar to like if we were villains I really think you should read this as well it's definitely the type of book that's for people who like to read I find that I really gravitate towards those types of stories okay next up I have to mention as long as the lemon trees grow this is another book I read this year for the first time it's kind of like contemporary lit Fick set during the time of the Syrian Revolution and we follow our main character who is a doctor well she's actually a pharmacy student who is working as a doctor um trying to help she and her family are also trying to escape and it's just so heartbreaking this book is so emotional it'll make you so sad it will make you cry but it has some of the best emotional suspense I think I've ever read it's just so devastating and so beautifully written another book where the story is just laced with empathy you can feel how personal this story was to the author and that's something I always love in a good book when you can tell that this really meant something and that comes across on the page and it really does in this book I really think more people should read it because it's also an incredibly important subject matter as well also just fantastic characters a lot of JBL references the WR is also just kind of whimsical in its own way too and it's again just everything everything I love in a good book okay next up I have to mention a book that I feel like for so long defined my taste and especially like contemporary ya contemporary fiction and a book that to this day I still deeply loved despite the fact that I still never read the sequel and I haven't read it for a really long time but this book just means so much to me and that is Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe if you've been here since the beginning you know how much I used to talk about this book book okay it's just been a really long time and I've read so much since then but my mind still comes back to this and I think it always will this is one of the best Coming of Age stories I think I've ever read and I know the movie came out recently um but it was only in theaters for like a week maybe like less than a week and I wasn't able to see it cuz it wasn't in any theaters near me and I was so so sad cuz I really want to see the film I really hope that it's good but it made me think about the book again and so obviously like I had to mention it in this video because it's still something that I feel like is so important to me even after all these years this was the first ya contemporary book I'd ever read with like a queer couple as like the main characters it's a really fantastic story about coming out growing up falling in love being young and I've read a lot of books now within the same genre with the same themes that explore the same themes but this one still stands out to me there's just something so deeply moving about this story and something that feels at this point like really nostalgic to me since I read it so long ago and it was at such a pivotal time in my life as well okay and we have finally reached the very last book in this video I don't know how many books I've gone through I'm really losing my voice at this point but this is the final final one and one that is incredibly important to me um and another book that like really changed the way that I read changed who I am as a person at a really young age and that is of course The Perks of Being a Wallflower I don't think I can properly explain the feeling of being 15 16 years old and reading this book for the first time it changed the way that I read it changed the way that I look it reading and writing and storytelling this book just explored themes that at that age I feel like I had never seen discussed in this way and that was something that I think I really needed at that time and I think there's a reason that it's remained such a classic and why it's withstood the test of time and why so many people still to this day Discover it and still really love it but yeah it's another book that I think I will be thinking about and hopefully rereading again soon maybe I'll just go back and reread a lot of the books I loved as a kid because apparently seeing them with adult eyes for the first time really changes things for you and I feel like that might be a really worthwhile experience but yeah of course had to mention this one because it will always be a classic and a favorite to me but there you all have it that is it for my A Clockwork reader reading list my favorite books of all time like I said there are definitely other books that I would consider all-time favorites that I deeply deeply love I did try to narrow this down as much as I could okay to pick just like the few that really really Define my taste even though there are so many more books that I absolutely love um so please don't feel like if I didn't mention something I still love those books I really do I just I had to I had to pick just a few even though this is so many again another reminder to check out the Clockwork Reader book club on Fable the link is in the description box below be sure to join the book club there introduce yourselves I'm so excited to get started on our first book if there are any books that you think that I should read based on the reading list that I gave you here um based on my taste that you think I'd really love that you think would fit into any of these categories please leave your recommendations down below I always love taking your recommendations and reading what you recommend cuz I have faith in you all you guys know my taste really well and I trust you so I will always take your Rex if you would like to follow me on any of my social media all of my links are in the description box as always but thank you all so much for watching this video I hope you enjoyed and I will see you in my next video bye\n"