 Hey guys, it's Liana. I'm here today with a list of my all-time favorite books of all time. I posted a poll asking what movie, what video you guys would most like to see from me, and the winner ends down was my all-time favorite books, which surprised me, because y'all always like it when I rant, and all-time favorite books is an entirely positive video, so thank you for wanting to see me be happy. This list is obviously as of now. Over the course of my lifetime, this list is subject to change, so maybe I'll film a video like this again in a year or two years, who knows. But as of right now, as of what I have read to date, as of who I am this day, these are my favorite books of all time. I narrowed it to 10, so I have other favorite books, but I had to narrow it somehow and I decided 10 is a nice round number without being like, I couldn't do top three because I would just like have an aneurysm. 10 was still painful to do because there's other books that are still books that I love. I would love to have been able to talk about, but if I had to, push comes to show, pick 10. These are the 10, but these are not ranked, so it's not like 10th favorite to first favorite, because I can't. I just cannot. So these are in no particular order. These are the order that I wrote them down is, that's it. So the first, but not potentially number one, but, but no, not officially, is the name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss. No one is surprised. This is, I literally have a shelf that's like 15 copies of king killer books. I'm obsessed. I've loved this book since I first read it. I picked it up randomly and I loved that that was random because I had zero expectations. It was just this gem that I just discovered. I just found it a half price books, a mass market paperback for like two dollars, read it as my commute book and was just like, this book is amazing and then made my co-worker read it and she was like, this book is amazing. I was like, yeah, it fucking is and got more people to read it. Talked to my dad found out he had already read it and I was like, why didn't you recommend it to me? Why are you holding out on me? Got my brother to read it. He loved it and then discovered booktube and discovered that a lot of people have read it and a lot of people love it. And I was just like, oh, okay, so this is like a thing like people are aware of it. I just wasn't. But I'm glad it wasn't the other way around because whenever you're going to something that's prehyped for you, you run the risk of being disappointed. So I loved that it was just like this random book that I thought would pass the time on the bus and I was just like missing my stop every day when I was reading it because I was just so invested. And to this day, I have not read anything that's quite been that. I've read a lot of good books. I've read a lot of lyrical, beautiful prose, but none of it is quite the magic of Patrick Rothfuss' writing. And he needs to fucking finish that trilogy because you know, come on, come on. Next, again, is not going to be any shocked anybody, is The Wolf by Leo Carrou, which I have read three times. I didn't intend to read more in my lifetime. I've talked about this book a lot, which is why I don't feel like I need to say a lot, but if you've never seen my channel or never seen me talk about it before, The Wolf is an imagined history, alternate history fantasy that takes place in our world, but asks the question, what would our world be like if we were not the only humanoid species to survive the Ice Age? So it takes place in a medieval kind of period, but there are other humanoid species occupying Europe. And we follow primarily those non-humans, the Anakim, the Black Lord Roper, who has recently come into power because his father was killed in battle by the Southerners, which are humans. And he has now come into power and he has to navigate suddenly having a position of power when a bunch of people are very clearly conspiring against him because they don't think he should rule because he's very young. The world that Leo Carrou created, the way that he did the work of imagining what Neanderthal would be like if it developed to have language and culture, and the way that he crafted the politics and the history and again the culture, the language, there's language the Anakim speak where it goes into how they have words for things that we do not have words for because you're just always telling about it people because if a people has a word for it, that means that something, it shows something about their thought process. He's just done such an anthropological job of fleshing out these people and this world and still written a really intensely interesting battle-centric political conspiracy-laden plot. Ugh, absolutely designed to be my favorite thing in the world. So good. And the second book, The Spider, is just as good if not better and I believe he's in the process of writing book three and I have every reason to expect it to be fantastic because he is not letting me down. Ugh, so good. Next is A Little Hatred by Joe Abacromby. Joe Abacromby is one of my all-time favorite authors. That's my favorite thing he's ever written so I don't think I need to go super into that. He's, I love the world of the first law. I love what he's done with the world. Best of Cold was my favorite until I read A Little Hatred but A Little Hatred not only do I think it's better than Best of Cold, it's also I think the most, I don't even know how to say like, Best of Cold was the best one in the first law as far as I was concerned. It was most interesting and engaging and enjoyable and I loved it but it wasn't so groundbreaking and unique. A Little Hatred is everything that I love about the world of the first law and the best at being that. But he's also pushed his world into an industrial age so he's done something that most fantasies don't do where you've taken a world and you've progressed it into where technology is is developing and economy is developing and social structures are developing and pushing it into this more industrial age while still being in the world of the first law. Still having characters that you recognize from the original books and the plotting of it, the pacing of it, the everything of it is just chef's kiss. It's so fucking good. Oh, it's masterful. It's so artfully crafted. It's fucking fantastic. Next is The Lies of Lacklemore up by Scotland which is right up there with like the name of the wind. It was it was actually another commute book that I picked up randomly and read and loved and made my co-worker read and then discovered that there are other fans. Very similar experience as the name of the wind. Not quite that kind of like, oh my god, wow, the name of the wind, but still like really, really good. And I haven't really found another like crew of heisters bantering that matches the level of The Lies of Lacklemore, The Gentleman Banners. Whenever I hear people say, oh, if you love The Lies of Lacklemore, then you should read this and I'm always let down. It's never quite that level. The snark and the banter, especially throughout the series, it gets better and better, but the first book is so iconic and it's an exciting and fast-paced plot that has really great world building. The characters are really interesting and fun and funny and also like completely rips your heart out with like where the plot goes and I think the the Venetian-inspired world and I think the whole thing is so lush and so fun and so engaging and I just, I love being in the world of come more. And I just, I haven't read about another crew that does it for me like The Gentleman Bastards. However, next on the list is something that is frequently compared to Lies of Lacklemore. That is Six of Crows. However, I think that comparison does both books a disservice because the satisfaction I derive from each is very different. Lies of Lacklemore has that heisting, banter-y thing. Like, yes, there's that group dynamic and I guess in that sense the books are similar. But what I'm getting out of Six of Crows is the representation of all these people from really diverse backgrounds, the representation of people who are slightly differently abled, Kaz is physically disabled, Weilin has, I guess, a learning disability? I don't actually know. I'm not educated or informed enough to be able to talk about this to articulate what is being represented there. But you have a really, again, a really diverse and complex group of characters that is you don't see that often in YA. They have a lot of emotional baggage that does not define them and yet is important to who they are. And then you also still have this great epic world with an interesting heist and fun banter and it's an all-around good time. But just the work that she's put into creating these characters and the messiness of each one and how that works and doesn't work and how it affects them and doesn't affect them and emotional and physical traumas and the toll they take. And I just think it's the character work that's being done for these young people is, I haven't really seen it in any other YA done to that degree. So I just kudos for doing that. And I just, I mean, I love the f*** out of Casprecker. Let's be real. Next is Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman is my favorite author and Ocean at the End of the Lane is my favorite thing he's ever written. So enough said. You know, Ocean at the End of the Lane is actually a fun book because I shouldn't say actually as though like unlike the others, it's, there's a fun story behind it because he kind of accidentally wrote it. His wife Amanda Palmer is a singer. It was a way to record an album like film videos for it or just record it or whatever. She was out of, she was out of the country for that and he was going to write her something for while she's gone like to send to her because she would miss him. And he was just going to write her a short story after what she wanted. And she said, you never put yourself in your stories. I want you to write something with you in it. So he started writing a short story and he kind of kept writing it and kept writing it. And then she got, she came back and he still hadn't finished it and he kept writing it. And he's like, I think I've accidentally written a novelette and he kind of kept writing it. And he's like, I think I might have accidentally written a novella and then he kept writing it. And then in contact with his editor, his publisher was like, I think I've accidentally written a novel if you're interested in publishing it. It is the only story that really kind of has him in it because it's about this little boy who you can really see like it's probably what Neil Gaiman was like or the way that he remembers himself or thinks of himself as a little boy. And it's this really dark but also utterly fantastical kind of like a few days in the life of this little boy that are being remembered by the adult version of himself. And one of my favorite things about the story is that arguably the events of the story could be interpreted as childhood trauma and a child explaining something really terrible to themselves in a way that is more palatable by assigning the blame for it to something magical. And the story doesn't like dwell on making you ask that question, but the way it's told it leaves that room for doubt that what happened in this story, which is utterly fantastical and horrific is not necessary did not necessarily happen. It might have been in the mind of the child. The way that Neil Gaiman understands the mind of a child, understands the child, a child's perspective on the world and the way that a child sees the world and engages with the world is so on the nose and I'm impressed with it every time he does it in other books too where he really the way that a child would interpret something or the things that a child would notice an adult wouldn't. The way that he's able to like zero in on that and describe it in a way that you're you didn't think of it because you were an adult but as soon as he says it you're like yeah that is what it was like being a kid. You're totally right. That's what's changed. There's a line in the book where he says that that adults follow paths but children explore or children children creep or something like that but basically that like if you look at a garden an adult sees this path that they're supposed to walk on and they'll look at the flower beds or whatever. A child sees no rules and boundaries. Everything is open for exploration for crawling on top of it underneath and they explore every little bit. There's there's no path and it's one of the most like fundamental differences between how an adult and a child will look at something and it also carries over into everything else the way that a child will interpret events. There isn't already a predetermined answer to how to interpret this event. It's all fresh and new and open to horrific possibility and Neil captures that in a way that I don't think any author any other author in my experience at least has been able to do. Next is Radiance by Grace Draven and that's on this list probably just for the sheer virtue of the number of times that I've read it. I just can't get enough of it. It's it's a romance. It's very short. It's I think it's at or under 300 pages and there's like zero angst, zero misunderstanding, miscommunication. There's zero questionable crossing of boundaries. It's just two incredibly reasonable people falling in love with each other and I love hanging out with them so much. It's funny too and I've talked about this book so many times just like the others and I just I can't get enough of it. Every time I read it I just get a goofy smile on my face because I love Pristina del Dico because there every time I read or any other story that has a romance in it when the characters are being like ridiculous where all of this could be solved if y'all just were honest if y'all just spoke up and said something Pristina del Dico without fail just say it. Anytime they're worried about something afraid of something worried that the other one is thinking something they're not just like bottling it up and getting all like dramatic and angsty and having a misunderstanding that lasts like 10 books. No that's why the book is like 200 pages because they meet and they're like well you know we both have to marry each other as much as we probably wouldn't want to but you see them all right I see them all right I really gotta do live together so let's be honest with each other and let's make the best of it and they do and she was freaked out by something he's like are you freaked out by this she's like yeah kind of like honestly I am a little freaked out he's like understandable um but you know I'm here for you so like let me know if you get freaked out by stuff she's like yeah well you know we'll do and it's just so reasonable and they poke fun at each other in a way too you know he makes because there are different species and he finds her terrifying she finds him terrifying on the outside but they trust each other so he's like please don't do that thing with your eyes that's completely terrifying please don't and she's like what this and his food is like disgusting to her and she's just like if I have to make that for dinner like that's not happening and he's like oh no you don't want that have that for dinner like they poke fun at each other and they're just like really chill to hang out with I love them and I love that they love each other and it's just whenever I want confirmation that there's good in the world I just read radiance next is golden sun by fierce brown which is the second book and the red rising trilogy and in the red rising saga it is the book that made me a red rising fan I read red rising and the beginning of the book I was like oh this is really really good by the end of the book I was just like what boring I don't know that I would have gone on to read the next one I didn't hate red rising but I was like started strong but and then friends of mine were like we just read red rising together I think you just finished red rising we're all gonna read golden sun do you want to join us and I was like sure why the fuck not and golden sun is a game changer oh holy macaroni that book whoa whoa it's just complete next level like did not see any of that coming such masterful twists and character building an expansion of the world and and the other books in the series obviously I'm a fan of red rising and I he continued to write really good books that continued to keep me a fan they're all like five star books but golden sun continues to be the one that is paced the best that has the most shocking most incredibly like heart wrenching and gripping moments the most it just has tax the most punch where I just when I read that book I just was gobsmacked I was like what did I just read and I've reread it and even though I knew the twists coming I was just like holy fuck this book so I mean I think his writing keeps getting stronger and better he keeps improving as a writer but nothing in the reading experience has really topped golden sun um the last two on this list might be more of a surprise or less known to you and those are first Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott which I don't think I've ever talked about on my channel before but it is my favorite classic and it is so under appreciated and I don't understand why there are so many movie adaptations of all these other classics there's so many so many people talking about and giving special additions to so many other classics and Ivanhoe is constantly overlooked and I don't understand why Ivanhoe is is the reason that we got this resurgence of this romanticism he's the one that brought Robin Hood back into the zeitgeist he's the one that got us all interested in like knights and crusades and and all of that again he what Sir Walter Scott is the reason that we have all that literature but Ivanhoe is overlooked and forgotten and Ivanhoe itself the story it is filled with a lot of interesting social commentary a lot of humor a lot of I mean it's a very interesting book and and quite for its time quite modern in kind of the things that he incorporates in it and then the characters reactions to things and in the way that he ends it there's this kind of like wink wink nudge nudge aspect to it and I just think it's so good it's very epic I just think it would be so good on screen and there have been adaptations of it there was one really long time ago with Elizabeth Taylor and uh I forget who else was in it but I mean that's how old it is and then there was like a made for TV one that was like very low budget with Anthony Andrews but Ivanhoe deserves to be adapted by like Ridley Scott and have a score by Hans Zimmer and and be that I don't know why it's not people keep remaking Robin Hood and I'm like okay whatever people keep remaking Pride and Prejudice and I'm like okay whatever but why not Ivanhoe why not Ivanhoe Ivanhoe is such rich material oh it would make such an incredible film or because of the higher budgets of TV series no honestly it's a really there's a lot to the book and I would hate for any of it to be lost so fuck the Ridley Scott idea have HBO adopt it a mini series on HBO Ivanhoe would be fantastic it's so good and I highly recommend you read it the book is great but I don't understand why people don't talk about it don't read it and don't adapt it it's so rich and sweeping and epic and funny and it has everything you could ask for in a book it's so good and last but certainly not least is Peter Pan by J.M. Berry I am obsessed with Peter Pan and for the longest time I was obsessed with Peter Pan without having read it and I did finally read it a couple years ago and it was the treasure that I always thought it was and I am still blown away by J.M. Berry's creativity and in a very different way he's capturing the truth of youth in the way that Neil Gaiman does because neither Neil Gaiman nor J.M. Berry regard children as angelic neither of them they idealize youth but not in a perfect way they idealize children but not in a way that makes them out to be flawless or without sin Peter Pan is kind of a monster and the children that populate Neil Gaiman stories are not innocent but there is something inherently different about the way that children view the world about a child's perspective on what is important and Peter Pan captures that in a completely different way from what Neil Gaiman does it's more of a fairy tale and yet he has managed to I think that's why it's to the test of time because Peter Pan isn't about a perfect sweet to spirit of youth that lives forever because he represents all that is good like nope it's definitely not what it's about I mean you do kind of sympathize with Captain Hook at times because you're like man you have to deal with this little shit who just won't die and can fly and be pretty fucking aggravating and like the island of Neverland like it's not a perfect paradise it's dangerous and deadly and that is what excites children children are not sweet little angels they get very interested and excited about dangerous things they have all these strange thoughts and dark impulses that they don't know how to interpret yet or don't even know they're wrong yet and so there's this kind of like sinister purity to a child's delight in violence and horror because they don't even know that it's wrong yet they're living for sheer emotion and delight it is the purest form of hedonism is a child and Jaydenbury's story and his world captures that like nothing ever has ever again or ever will and I love it for what it is like the fact of it I love it but also just the reading experience because Jaydenbury's writing style is fun and imaginative and filled with imagery and humor and it's just a fantastic creation so those are my all-time favorite books of all time ever let me know in the comments down below what your favorite books are if any of the books on my list are on your list if any of the books on my list you are now going to give a try because you're gonna add them to your list if any of the books on my list are you released favorite books of all time you hate them you know let me know that too why not I post bookish videos on saturdays and as of now I'm posting vlogs on tuesdays and thursdays until for their notice so if you enjoyed please like and subscribe and I'll see you when I see you bye