Tip of the Hat 1

Okay, this is me, totally jumping on the Spread the Love bandwagon. I recommend y'all jump on it, too. We have cookies. ;-) Anyway...

Senior year of High School, my philosophy teacher decided that for our final project, we had to do a ten minute presentation on our personal philosophy.

My presentation: "Okay, my personal philosophy is pretty much Ender's Game by Orson ScottCard. Yep, that's it."

Then, to stop my teacher from failing me on 15% of my grade, I expanded that into 15 minutes. But, yes, that's how much I think Ender's Game rocks. It's my philosophy, (and the subject of my English 12 Final Term Paper. Can we say obsessed-much?)

But, in time, my love of Ender's Game turned to a healthier level, where I no longer reference it so often my friends want to throw things at me. But, when people ask me what book I think anyone in high school should (and can) read, I always say Ender's Game.

Quick Summary: The world has already been attacked twice by the malevolent alien "buggers," and they're massing for another strike. To save the world, the government recruits top children to train as battle commanders. Ender Wiggin, a third child bred for this purpose, seems the only hope of finding a military leader smart and strong enough to defeat the buggers. At Battle School, the early military training takes the form of complex war games, and Ender always wins. He's smart enough to win any game, and he's smart enough to know that Earth is running out of time if they want to win against the buggers. But is he smart enough to save the planet?

What's not to love? Sports (in zero-gravity, which just makes them that much more awesome), great life advice (the enemies gate is down, people), a morally troubling but lovable main character, and an interesting cast of supporting characters.

I don't normally go for sci-fi, but this book made me give serious consideration to the genre.

What book do you totally love? What books have impacted you?