The most recent book that I read that I loved was Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. I think that I would have had a completely different view of this work had I been required to read it for school. By picking it up on my own, I gave it that much more of a chance. The author has a great sense of humor (very sarcastic-which is why I can identify) and some of the adventures of Don Quixote are hysterical. The book chronicles the journey of Don Quixote de la Mancha, who believes himself to be a knight in shining armour, even though the days of chivalry are long over. He trapses over the Spanish countryside with his trusty squire, the slightly more practical Sancho Panza. The book gets sidetracked very easily and probably less than half of the book is actually Don Quixote's adventures; the rest of it being the stories of people that he meets along the way. I wouldn't pick up this book unless you are in a very determined mood as it is very, very long. It took me about four determined spurts to actually finish it. In some parts it gets very dry and boring, but the exciting, funny parts are well worth it.

Well...let's see...I also recently read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, but this was for a project for school. This one also takes lots of determination, especially when Rachel gets really technical and starts going into complex chemistry (that it, complex for most people). But this book has lots of character and it has some really good points on humans' destruction of the enviornment that should not be ignored. But I don't think that I would have picked this one up if it hadn't been for school...

And of course, being a teenage girl, I recently re-read, for the I don't know what time The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. All three of those books are so good. I'm not sure which one I love the most. The author has such a unique voice and style to her writing...she says what I want to say, except she says it better :) Unlike all this stuff that they make us read in school, it easily applies to every day life without any analyzing of symbols or motifs. If only we could read stuff like this for school, I might actually want to get up for it in the mornings...