Five Must-Read Books in AUC’s Library
![The AUC library houses a number of literary treasures [Aravani]](http://www.auccaravan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/IMG_2370-e1416248870783.jpg)
BY MARY ARAVANI
Although the AUC library is not lacking in the number of students who enter its premises daily, it holds wonders amid its stacks that have hardly had any human contact.
These wonders are books of many shapes and sizes that have been collecting dust particles rather than student fingerprints.
It is perhaps true given the fast- paced world we currently live in and all the work one must do throughout the semester that students can’t seem to find the time to devote themselves to a good book. wHowever, it would be a shame to let the library’s advantages go to waste.
The Caravan has compiled a list of five must-read timeless classics that can be found within the library.
1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:
To Kill a Mockingbird is an immensely popular novel published in 1960. The novel mainly deals with issues of racial injustice in a fictional town in Alabama during the 1930s. The story revolves around a compassionate 6-year- old, Scout Finch, and her family.
Memorable quote: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
2. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy:
This powerful piece of literature was published in 1997 and is Roy’s only novel. The plot deals with a number of issues ranging from those of a political nature to those of a romantic nature and revolves around the lives of fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel. The novel is set in India and the time shifts back and forth between the late 1960s and the early 1990s.
Memorable quote: “And the air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. Big Things lurk unsaid inside.”
3. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez:
Published in the 1980s, this gem of a book by Nobel Prize-winning Spanish author García Márquez is essentially a love story. The novel revolves around the lives of its two main characters, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza, who fall in love in their youth and then again many years later in their old age.
Memorable quote: “He was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.”
4. Hamlet by William Shakespeare:
It wouldn’t seem right not to have something by Shakespeare included and although there are countless Shakespeare plays that should be read, Hamlet is probably one of his most famous tragedies. While there are a number of film adaptations for this particular play – which was written somewhere between the late 16th and early 17th century – there is nothing quite like reading the play itself. The plot deals with Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, who tries to unravel the mystery behind his father’s murder after being confronted by his ghost.
Memorable quote: “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel:
Published in 2001, this novel is relatively recent and has an even more recent Oscar-winning movie adaptation in 2012. Although it would be a lot easier to just watch the film adaptation, rest assured there is nothing quite like the experience of reading this beautifully written novel. The story deals with an Indian boy, Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, who, after a shipwreck, is lost at sea for 227 days with a tiger called Richard Parker. The novel is a spiritual journey that tackles the ideas of God, religion, truth and friendship.
Memorable quote: “I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know… You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.”
And there’s a lot more where that came from.
