I'm gonna do another selfish, shameless plug here and show some of my personal favorite books the love they deserve. I've raved about enough of these to my friends, and I want to put this list out there for other aspiring writers that might share my taste. I'm gonna try and avoid books that are a part of a series, so there won't be anything like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones on here.

5. Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I fell in love with the Scott Pilgrim series, and the movie is still one of my most quotable favorite things from high school. I've never related to a graphic novel character more than Scott, but Seconds's Katie comes very close. This book is about second chances and what we're willing to throw away as people in order to get what we THINK we want out of a do-over. It taught me a lot about changing the past and not regretting my actions, and I'd highly recommend this to the soul who lives in moments of their past more than their present. This graphic novel might change that about you.

4. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

If you're like me and browse the YA section a lot, you've probably seen this book and its black pages a few times by now.

Do yourself a favor. Read it.

It's the best modern fantasy YA I've read in years with sympathetic characters that are very believable. The book shifts between six different perspectives (for the most part) and focuses on perhaps the greatest planned heist that the country of Kerch has ever seen. The sequel to this book, Crooked Kingdom, came out at the end of 2016, so technically this is the beginning of a trilogy, with the third book yet to be officially announced, so I'm letting this slide. It's part of what inspired me not only to write my own YA fantasy, but to pick up Bardugo's other series based in the same fantasy world. For those interested, google or pick up "The Grisha Trilogy."

3. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Not only am I a sucker for good YA, I'm a huge sucker for memoirs about peoples' childhoods. They don't get any better than this one by journalist Jeanette Walls. In it, she discusses her first memory of being on fire, along with her family's poverty and journey across the country from one misfit town to the next. If you think your family's weird and overbearing, read this. You'll appreciate them a little more.

2. Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Avoiding the cliche John Green novel pick, this book takes a much more realistic turn on what would happen during a type of apocalypse. There are no zombies, mutants on motorcycles, or super-powered heroes, but the characters are compelling and empathetic, especially the narrator. This book explores society after an asteroid of considerable size hits the moon and shifts it several miles closer to the Earth. Society changes very rapidly, and in with the modern concern of global warming on the rise, this book (even though it's fiction) could help mentally prepare you for the worst.

1. Ham On Rye by Charles Bukowski

This is my all time favorite book. Period.

It's listed as fiction, but there are so many excerpts involving Bukowski's actual life that it's hard not to classify this as a memoir. It tells the story of Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, and his childhood growing up in California in the early 1930's and onward. He gets into several fights, becomes a voluntary outcast, and deals with many outlandish problems, namely an abusive father who regularly flies off the handle and does some of the most memorably awful things to his son throughout the book. This novel really made me empathize with Bukowski and his loner lifestyle when I was growing up, and the fact that he so persistently writes poetry alongside these stories makes his work choice gripping and concise. No matter what genre you're into, pick this up. You'll be stunned.