 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to Top 5 Friday. Today we are discussing, discussing, not discussing, discussing my top five books of all time. If you're interested in the entire 20 list that is always subject to change, so by the time you have watched this video, the previous 15 might have already changed. But this is numbers 5 through 1 or 5 through 1. This one is easier to remember. It's a running joke with this series so far that I, it's easier to remember, you know, the top, you know, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 than it is to remember. Is this 20 through 15 or 20 through 16? But, you know, so anyways, the end of this theme now is, it's much easier here at the end. We have 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. So, just to jump into it, after all that, we have at the number 5 spot, you, by Caroline Ketnes. This is funny actually because I brought up another book and I thought that you would be a perfect example of that book. I think it was John Irving's The World According to Garp. And I was like, you almost made it on this list, which is hilarious to me. As much as this list changed, I constantly forget what's on there and what's not. But you has been on this list ever since I first read it. It has slowly climbed up because I realized just how good it actually is. And after reading the sequel Hidden Bodies, it just, every time I read this book or listen to it, it just raises my opinion that much farther. And Caroline Ketnes, Caroline, if you ever watch this, was Anita Bruckner one of your inspirations? I got to know. Maybe I'll hit you up on Twitter. Anyway, so why is you on this list? What makes you so special to me? It is the way that you come to care and love and empathize and sympathize with this complete monster. Joe Goldberg is not a good person. Especially the way this book ends. If you're cheering at the end, first off there's something wrong with you. Second off, you just have to stop for a second and go, you know what, they had it coming. That kind of thought right there automatically puts this on the list. When you can understand, maybe you wouldn't have reacted the same way, but when you can understand the motivations of the bad guy, even if they're completely bad shit crazy, that's damn good writing. And the reason this is on this list, because I love reading stories about bad people doing bad shit and getting their comeuppance or being left alone to carry on, to continue doing their dirty deeds, as long as it's eventually going to be some kind of ending. And I feel, I now trust, after reading You, Hidden Bodies, and her third novel Providence, which has nothing to do with the Joe Goldberg series, but it is a fantastic novel and I suggest you check it out, I trust Caroline Kepnes with this series. I know that she is not going to let me down like let's say the Jeff Lindsey Dexter series did, or any number of books that I have read, because I am here for the writing. I am here for Caroline Kepnes' side characters as much as her main characters. She is fantastic with all of that, but the reason why she's on this list is because she had me rooting, empathizing, and sympathizing, and even coming to love and enjoy his company. The villain is the best part of this book. And it also gives you, as a, you know, I like to give the other side of things, but if you have a chance, read these two books back to back. You, well, you and Hidden Bodies, and then read Our Kind of Cruelty by Erin Minta Hall, and see if you don't get a much deeper experience for your efforts. Maybe even also throw in, start with Gone Girl, read you Hidden Bodies, and then Our Kind of Cruelty. That's probably what I'm going to do in the future. I'm just going to binge all four of those books back to back, because I believe that those four books really help each other out more than even them just standing alone, because you was a great response to the Psycho Woman story of Gone Girl, and then Our Kind of Cruelty is a great response to you and Gone Girl. Erin Minta Hall did a fantastic job with that. But yeah, villains, I mean, it really is no better individual human villain that I can think of. And yes, I like Joel Goldberg more than I like Annie Wilkes. How about put that in your pipe and smoke it? I, at number, actually that was number four. Y'all, I stacked them the wrong way. I apologize. So that was number four. Going back. That was number four. Maybe I can cut this to where that screw up isn't there. Probably not. I ain't got the effort or time to be doing such things. At the number five spot is After Dark by Haruki Murakami. This book did things with perspective that, first off, I didn't think, I was actually told a long time ago, if you write like this, if you do what Murakami does in this book, no one will read it. No one will like it. No one, no one will buy it. No publisher is going to want it. And now there's something to be said that Murakami was well established. I mean, this book was, I think, published after 1Q84. If not, it was just before it. And so he already had an established career. But if you go back to his stuff, he's got quite a bit of stuff like this. So maybe I'm just in the wrong genre when it comes to things like this. But as far as the sections in, let's see here. Yeah, eyes mark the shape of the city. Through the eyes of a high flying night bird. We take in the scene from midair. In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creature. And I love that type of writing, but I've been told by several people, nobody reads that kind of stuff anymore, which is a shame because some great books open up like that, like Black House or Needful Things. There's some great fiction out there that takes like this bird's eye view of things. Now the whole book isn't written like that. Just certain segments of it. And any of the TV segments, those completely changed how I view the world of Point of View. If you want something stylistically challenging when it comes to, you know, you don't want your average everyday thriller and that kind of thing, Haruki Minakami is a great author to jump into, but especially this book. He messes with Point of View quite a bit. And that's the reason why it's on the list is the stylistic choices for the Point of View. For the rest of my career, I will be, you know, screwing around with Point of View because of this book. I'm trying to get myself right now out of a box of only third person and first person. I'm trying omniscient. I'm trying second person. I'm trying loads. And I guess I know, friends don't let friends write in second person, but I'm trying it. And I'm enjoying myself again, whereas I was stuck in a rut with all the first and third stories. Okay. So sorry. Once again, that was number four followed by number five. So we got five and four out of the way coming in at number three. And this is only because I had to shoot. I'd take this down from the, I'm not trying to show off. I had to take this down from the shelves because I'm doing a special, a special, not unboxing, but a showcase of this. This is not where the wild things are. It is Nosferatu, NOS482, and the Wraith, the I-W-I-V-W Limited Edition. And hang on, actually, you're probably gonna take something to, anyways, it's NOS482. It's this one that you guys will be seeing up on the channel at some point in time. I've already filmed it, but this version, and that's how I know it's stuck in there so well, but this version, you will see this done in another video where I break it down. But this book in particular I do love that, but I'm not including the Wraith comic even though it's great. I'm not including that in my number three spot. The reason NOS482, I'm just gonna go ahead and say Nosferatu, the reason why this on this list is for settings. It had some of the most unique settings I've ever come across. And I'm not just talking about Christmas land. In fact, you don't get much Christmas land. I could have used more Christmas land. But I think the book would have suffered had we spent more time in there. It is a great place to visit, not a place you want to live, that kind of deal. But I remember the library, the covered bridge, the place where Vic initially goes to, the diner she goes to. All these places stand out so well in my mind. The little town she walks through when she's standing in front of the glass of the storefront. Everything about this book is so vivid in my mind and I have no idea why. It's one of those books that I can close my eyes and the scenery will just pop into my head. Seeing the children in the lake, all the different things in Christmas land, those were fantastic. It's a massive accomplishment. I feel what Joe Hill did with this book. And people who write it off is just another one of his father's books. His father, I don't think his father had Christmas land in him. Christmas land is Joe Hill's own thing and it all comes from the same imagination that came up with the Lock and Key series. Which I'm not a huge fan of, but I haven't finished either. So come, you'll breast me down there in the doobly-doo. But this book, yeah, it's definitely, it's all about the settings with this one. I think the race is fine. So is the motorcycle. The characters are great too. Vic McQueen is one of my favorite characters of all time. But it's the settings that does it for me. The reason why this book is on this list is because I can see this book so clearly in my head. Anytime I think about it, I see those images. And it's not the images that Gabriel, uh, no sorry, that was Lock and Key. Charles Paul Wilson III did for the race comic is not those images. I have my own images built up in my mind, my own comic book, my own movie. And that's one of the reasons why I'm not enjoying and I'm gonna say it here first because I don't think the showcase video I'm gonna be doing next will come out before this one. I'm not a big fan of TV show. I'm not. I think it looks really, really cheap. Probably about on the same par as the Shining mini series that they did with Stephen Weber playing Jack and Rebecca B. Morne playing Wendy. It looks cheap. I don't know what else to say, man. It feel bad. But it looks cheap. And Zachary Quinto has, I was fully open to him playing Manx. But there's also something that said how cheesy he is in this show so far. Maybe it'll get better. I don't know. But I don't want to go into it. The only reason I bring it up here is because people have been asking me and I probably won't be doing a review of the show. I don't, that's why we stopped doing Council Rock because I pissed all over Council Rock. People were starting to get upset. So I just stopped. But yeah, this is the number three spot for the settings. That's the main reason it's on here. There by no means is that the only reason why I love this book though. I love every single piece of this book. But the settings are why it's on here. And now at number two, finally to the last two. We have Night Film by Marisha Pessell. Pessell? I don't know. This book, when I first read it, it was an impulse buy at Books of Million. I walked in, I saw the tremendous first edition. Hang on, I knew I should have done this. But I saw the tremendous first edition hardcover. It just, it screamed at me. And this is, whatever, let's talk about this version of it. So this thing just screamed at me. It's got that awesome rainbow tint. But it also had, and I picked it up and looked at it. And there's all these, all this fake stuff. And this is why we're here. This is why we're here. Content, gimmicky content, when done right, I think can be done exceptionally well. I mean, well, when done right is some of my favorite stuff. I didn't mean what I just said, but rewind. Gimmicky stuff, like stuff in here and House of Leaves and that kind of thing. When done right, it's some of my favorite content, man. Like, I will get lost in these images. And I think the author, Marisha Pesl, I think she created all this stuff. I mean, stuff like that, I mean, that peaks my interest and just keeps it in there. Or just, I mean, pictures like this, I'm pretty sure that's Pesl's mother, because it looks a lot like Pesl. It may not be. It's like this time about Stanislav Korddova. But that's why it's on the list. If we're going to get down to the brass tacks or whatever you want to say, the reason this is on this list is for the gimmicky feel done right, because I love stuff like that, stuff that is not your traditional novel experience, that has either pictures or foldable material or whatever it might be. That's why I love this book, because of all the extra doodads off to the side. And that's why her newest book upset me so much, because it felt like such a watered down premise. I'm hoping they're talking about her new adult novel. I'm hoping that's the dark side of elsewhere, Bend or whatever up there. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about this. I'm going to get off on another tangent. I remember opening this and starting it and going, I am just going to be the only book I read for the next week or two weeks. And that's all I did is I dissected this book, went back through it, read it again right away. There is a scene on a bridge that has haunted me ever since I first read it. I will never forget it. Any time you hear me talk about this book, I will always bring it up. It is one of the most horrifying scenes. It has no blood, guts, anything like that. There's really no threat either. It's all perceived threat. It's more dread. There's a feeling of dread throughout the book, but this one scene is like the pinnacle of dread. And then it's pretty much all downhill from there. There's still the box section, which is really fucking cool. But my favorite part of the book is the scene on the bridge. And it still gives me goosebumps to this day just thinking about it. Will your mind allege very? Probably it will. But bang for my buck, it's a terrifying scene. Only scene that comes close to it really is in Joe Hill's heart shaped box with the dude in the chair. Very simple scene. And that's kind of like this, but it's something on a bridge. Now, as far as the gimmicky aspect, yeah, I know when it's not done right and when it's the major focal point of a story, it can get bothersome, it can feel cheaty, it can feel lazy. Me, Earl and the dying girl, I think that book did it. Where they had some parts were in script form, some parts, it just felt silly. And it was a book about cancer. So I don't think it was supposed to feel silly. I didn't think it worked there. It worked in this one. I'm not feeling it as much. I pretty much go ahead and say now I quit House of Leaves. I can't get back into it. Once you get to a certain point and you stop, there's really no getting back into that book. Some people say well just listen to the audio book. I don't want to. I'm just not enjoying it. But this is one of the few times that I will say that a gimmick was nailed and done extremely right. Let me put this one back over here. I don't want a whole bunch of books sitting all over the place. Okay, finally, last but certainly not least, of course, of course, is not least. It's the number one spot. And I chose this came in just in time for me to film this episode. So I'm going to hold up this version of it. Thank you again, Wayne. It by Stephen King. And yes, this is a first UK edition first printing for it's a first edition first printing what we call a first first of the UK edition. It's not the first printing ever. That would be the US, the US hardcover. But this, it's also my favorite cover. Now, people ask me all the time, you know, why of course, why, why it, you know, is it just because it's Stephen King? No, it's just because it's as long as book. It's not the stand is longer. So any different the whole reason this book is on this list is because of the complete and overall experience. I have never been so lost in a story. Nice. I know I said, Christopher Buhlman's those across the river down on the bottom with a complete novel experience. This is a this is my favorite experience inside of a story period. I can I've reread this book. I'm here. Sorry, if you guys heard any noise, I was the air conditioning kicking on outside for the house. But every time I finished this book, I turned back to page one and I read it all over again. I never want to leave this story and people who have a problem with him going on too long in this book or whatever, I feel are experiencing this book the wrong way. And I never say this about anything, anything creative. If you actually take the time with this book and you look at the themes and the layering and everything that he accomplished with this book, there's something in this book for everyone. It's one of those books that I look at. I look to you know, to the one star reviews. And if you're a writer, here's some advice for you. If you get bummed out over a negative review, go find your favorite book of all time and read the negative reviews and have a good laugh. I see people give it a one star review all because of the scene. We all know about the scene. If you've read the book, say ruin the whole experience for them. I find that strange, but there's that I mean, it takes all kinds really. Now, if it I could understand more, and I'm not going to go deep into that scene, I can understand more if it was like adults with children, but it's children. And kids are going to experiment. These things happen. I know I think my first sexual experience was that when I was nine, I'm not condoning it by any means, but it was with another young person. And we were both young. There's certain experimentation that is going to happen. So to call that scene far fetched, if you don't like reading it, hell, I don't like reading it. But I think it'd be worse if it was, you know, if adults were in that scene. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just talking in my ass. But I've seen so many people say that that one scene ruined the whole book for them. I don't get that. It's like having one spoiled, this is how I feel about it. It's like having one spoiled P, one black P in a big ass bowl of peas. Just take the P out, throw it away. Forget about it. That's what you can do with that scene. Just tell yourself, they got out of the sewer. But the complete experience, anytime I read this book, man, I just I want to start it over as soon as, not only as soon as I'm done, but before I get done, I want to start it all over again. And there's a bit of an addiction with me in this book. And it's all because the story, I have such a passion for the story, because I was multiple members of the Losers Club. I was Mike, because I was always in the library. I was Ben, because I was the fat kid. I was the imaginative one. So I was Bill. I was always telling stories. I didn't really have asthma. It was something that my mother got the doctor to say, so I wouldn't have to exercise, because I didn't like exercising. I'm a fat kid, no shit. And she got and said, so I carried around an inhaler like Eddie. I mean, just about everybody, except for Stanley and Bev, I had some kind of connection with. And it's not all the time that you, you know, you might connect with one or two, but I connect with almost all of them. And as far as Bev, I mean, I even had a shitty father. I didn't have the kind of shitty father she had, but I had a really shitty father. And if I, if I dug enough, I could actually stand. I was raised in a very religious, very religious upbringing. And that's one of the reasons why I hate religion nowadays, because I saw the shit that they, that religious people use to cover up, you know, the nasty shit in the world. But to find some of yourself in every single character, in every single good guy in the book, meant the world to me. And to come and to read the Adrian Mellon section. That shit came, that came out in 1986. And here King was talking about gay bashing. You know, there's so many political stances that he takes in the book that would, that would show up later on in his, in his life, you know, taking to Twitter. This is the king, this is what King has, has molded into. It's like we've watched him convince himself of the rights and wrongs of the world as we were watching him develop his own, his own take. And you can say what you want about the man whether you're not sure his politics or not. I don't care one way or another. If you don't follow him on Twitter, that's fine. If you want to call him a SJW cuck, whatever you want to call him. That doesn't bother me any. But this, this novel means the world to me. It is everything that I strive to be, to be a storyteller. It is everything that story means to me. My love for story. It is the reason why I tell the stories that I tell today. Why there's always a monster. Why there's always a human monster to go along with the supernatural monster. Why all of the characters may not be perfect. Why all these characters are their own broken selves. Why I'm so fascinated with the world of horror and how horror is the least fascinating thing about the world of horror. But that's my top five for now. Anyways, we'll see how it changes in the years to come. This top five hasn't changed since you came out. So I don't suspect it'll change anytime soon. We'll see with the release of the Institute. I doubt anything's that we're going to top it for me. But with the release of the Institute, New Caroline Ketniss books, new Joe Hill books hopefully, hopefully. You know who knows what's to come then and I am always open-minded about leaving these spots as loose as possible so that something can come along and overtake it. Usually that happens with numbers 20 through 6. I got it right this time. Usually that happens with 20 through 6. Sometimes number 20. Sometimes it's number 6 that changes. But the top five usually stays the same. I'd like to know your top five, top 10, top 20, top 100 books of all time. If you're linking outside of the site of the spam filter might catch it but link me anyways and I checked spam filter once a week and it's just because it's a URL leading outside of YouTube. If you have a video on the platform please link me to it. I love, I love these videos almost as much as the list as much as I love book hauls. It's all my favorite content on the site. But until next time, I have been E. You have been E. This has been another top five Friday. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye bye! And super secret spoiler ending. It's hot! It's literally it. That's all I got to say. Bye!