My favorite book. . .

is Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. It was written in Spain more than 400 years ago. The book tells the adventurous story of a middle-aged man (Alonso Quijano) who loses his mind from reading too many books about knights and not getting enough sleep. The result is that he thinks he is a knight, and so he puts on some old armor, gives himself a new name (Don Quixote), jumps on his aging horse, and goes out into the world to do the kinds of things knights do. I first read the novel when I was in college at BYU and have read it a number of times over the years.

The image to the right is the original title page of the novel. You'll notice that it includes the year it was published (1605) and the full title (at the very top). Below the title is the name of the author followed by a dedication, a fancy publisher's image, where it was published, the name of the publisher, and where it is sold. Although four centuries have passed, basically the same information appears on title pages of books today. The image below is one of my favorites. As you can see, it is a picture within a picture. The windmills that you see come from the most famous adventure of the novel, when Don Quixote confuses windmills with giants. When he tries to attack the giants (which are really windmills), well, you can imagine the problems he has. What else do you see in the picture?

So why do I love this book so much? First of all, I love the characters. The protagonist, Don Quixote, is funny, crazy, inspiring, creative, heroic, and just wonderful. He makes you laugh one moment and cry the next. He has one of the best imaginations you'll ever find. His squire, Sancho Panza, is very entertaining as well. They are my favorite duo in literature. I also love how the book is written. There are stories within the story, many references to other books, multiple narrators, and so much more. You can tell that the author had a lot of fun writing the book. I consider Don Quixote required reading for life! When you feel ready to take it on (it's around a thousand pages), let me know and I'll make sure to get you your own copy.

So what's your favorite book and why? You can either comment on this post or create your own post with pictures and whatever else you may want to include.