Book. 

Write about your favourite book. 

Include

• Basic details + picture
• Why you like it
• A quote with a brief explanation of the context
• A copy of a review from AMAZON and your opinion of it.
• 150 words + 3 comments

I haven't read loads of books but I try to read some of the more famous ones so I don't feel too ignorant. The one book which really left me amazed, so much so that I have re-read it several times, is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. 

The book is set in World War II and is a scrambled account of the activities of a squadron based on an island near Italy. Each chapter deals with a different character but there is a main story dealing with one soldier, Yossarian, which continues throughout the book. 

It's so funny, relentlessly so, very clever and has is a great reflection on the idiocy of war. Something I wholly agree with.

Here is an example of the brilliant logic of Yossarian who's only objective is to survive the war. 

Yossarian: Those bastards are trying to kill me.
1st Lt. Milo Minderbinder: No one is trying to kill you sweetheart. Now eat your dessert like a good boy.
Yossarian: Oh yeah? Then why are they shooting at me Milo?
Dobbs: They're shooting at everyone Yossarian.
Yossarian: And what difference does that make?
Dobbs: Look Yossarian, suppose, I mean just suppose everyone thought the same way you do.
Yossarian: Then I'd be a damn fool to think any different.

 Here is a review of the book on Amazon.

 The ultimate exploration of the human condition 20 Nov 1998

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

On the surface, Catch-22 is a fine novel about the U.S Army Air Force in Europe during the 1939-45 war. You do not have to scratch the surface hard to find a classic, timeless novel of the fine line between sanity and total madness. Is Yossarian, the 'hero', totally sane, or utterly, irredeemably insane? You tell me. Catch-22 is unique in its ability to thrust confusion, frustration, despair, insanity, death and plain old fashioned misery in waves - and yet repeatedly surprise you with its sidesplitting humour. When you laugh, you are not laughing at Heller's finely crafted characters, with all their idiosyncrasies, but at yourself, your friends and relatives. Because Heller's situations mirror the daily stupidities that we all put up with, laugh about and cry about. Reading Catch-22 is like sitting through the main feature a second time - you know exactly what will happen next; you know that nothing can change it. You cannot help hoping that it won't be so bad. But, of course, it's worse.

I would agree but also add that the book brilliantly shows so many of our daily obsessions and convictions to be completely silly, illogical, even ridiculous.