On any given day I find myself falling into the make-believe world of my favorite stories. Losing myself in the wonder of what my literary friends are doing. Is Elizabeth Bennet reading or out for a walk? Is Daenerys Targaryen on the way to Kings Landing with her dragons? And what awaits her when she gets there? Will Lyra Belacqua find solace after her parents' betrayal? I feel guilty spending so much time pondering the lives of people who don’t really exist. But then I remember the laughter, joy, anguish or wonder that I felt when I was reading about their story. I revel in the way that these characters come to life through the pens of their authors to entertain and inspire us. Some stories are serious commentaries on the society of the time. Some reveal wonderfully vivid worlds that existed in a time long ago, and others just make us laugh and feel less awkward about how we navigate this thing called life.  

What pulls me away from my friends in those worlds are my friends in this one. I am lucky to be an Anythinker and able talk with you daily about books I love and why I love them. Some of these books are like old friends and I go back to visit them often. Here are just a few that I love and I think you will, too. Next time you stop in to Anythink Wright Farms, find me and tell me about the books you love.

Pride and Predujice by Jane Austen

When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor, Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin 

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty

A love story, an adventure and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written and always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream and remember.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany is the inspiring modern classic that introduced two of the author's most unforgettable characters, boys bonded forever in childhood: the stunted Owen Meany, whose life is touched by God, and the orphaned Johnny Wheelwright, whose life is touched by Owen. From the accident that links them to the mystery that follows them -- and the martyrdom that parts them -- the events of their lives form a tapestry of fate and faith in a novel that is Irving at his irresistible best.