30 Day Challenge: Day 30

Day 30: Your Favorite Book

FINAL DAY! Aren't you just overly excited about finding out our favorite books of all time!? Well, we're excited to share! But first, a little recap of our #30DayChallenge.

We had some great moments talking about our favorite characters, you discovered how passionate we are about our favorite writers, and you even caught a glimpse of our personal lives, not to mention our bookshelves. Even though Josh's shelf was a little chaotic, and mine a little too neat, we wanted this challenge to be fun and also to show that we mean what we say here at Scarletta: "Publishers by Trade. Readers at Heart." We're voracious readers of a wide variety of books, and we hope our challenge has inspired our dear blog readers to pick up a few new books, or maybe look at a book in a new way. 

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My favorite book of all time has been something I've grown with. Its dust jacket is faded, but its pages still perfectly crisp. It's a book I have bought as a gift for many a young child in my life. It's a book I've read to many kindergarten classrooms, both as a student teacher and as a mystery guest. It tells the story of growing up and reminds us not to forget our childhood, not to forget our first playmates, to cherish our relationships, to understand selfless love, and also reminds us to be a little creative. In fact, it's the book that inspired the tattoo on my side.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is the most precious item on my bookshelf. If there is one thing that I am able to pass on to my kids and their kids when those times come, this book is it. 

-Desiree

"Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.” 

I think the 30 Day Challenge has done a marvelous job of demonstrating our motto here at Scarletta. "Publishers by Trade. Readers at Heart" is precisely how I feel looking back at the last 29 entries in this little blog of ours. It's clear that we have different tastes, different loves, and different desires when it comes to what and how we read. Still, at the very core of this blog, I hope it's incredibly clear that what we really care about is great books and the community that loves them.

We've been thinking about this prompt for the last month or so--and, likely, throughout most of our lives--but that doesn't mean it's any easier to answer. In my heart of hearts, I've known the answer to this question for quite some time, but it never hurts to reflect, to look back, to make absolutely sure that this is the book you can comfortably call: "Your Favorite Book."

The Secret History by Donna Tartt has an immensely special place in my life. I would venture that this book might even be my soulmate (is that sad?!). I first discovered the title at Foyles in central London, off of a brief recommendation from a most cherished--and, at the time, recent--friend, Isobel Brown. From the moment I read sentence one, I knew I was doomed to fall in love with Tartt's haunting, nearly gothic prose and beautiful, terrible characters. The book is not only one of my favorite reads of all-time, but also serves as a reminder of the best experience of my life and a testament to a dear and treasured friend.

-Josh