My favorite book and why.

The Lost World. By Michael Crichton. The sequel to Jurassic Park. Yes, those movies about dinosaurs that was directed by Stephen Spielberg. The first two were actually based on books! the third movie? Well, we don't talk about the third movie.

During my childhood, I was fascinated with dinosaurs as most young boys were. As I grew up, I still favored them more than all the other kids. When I was around 10, my dad rented a movie called Jurassic Park. Boy did I love it. So much so, that I wanted to know more about it. After talking to the library attendant, she told me about Michael Crichton, and told me that the movie I saw was based off his book! I was so excited I rented all the books they had on him. The first and second ones I read was of course, Jurassic Park and The Lost World. I was hooked on Michael Crichton's work from the first sentence.

Why is it my favorite book? Or, why is the second book my favorite? I loved his work from the start, and it was most likely because he had a very interesting way of describing. Yes, he would get lengthy in his descriptions telling you about how something worked, portrayed in the character's mind. But it was that kind of description that made me adore it. The best way I could describe this type of writing, would be "informational description." You learn about various things, but you don't even realize it, and he would do it by keeping you entertained all at once. I learned a lot about dinosaurs from his books through this way. Although of course some of it was pure fiction, but I didn't care.

He played more with the Velociraptors, at least in the novel, which made me more interested. I always wanted to see more of the raptors in the first book, because they were the real killers. Intelligent, agile, pack hunters, perfect killing machines. The T-rex was great and all, but the "huge, strong, and stupid" monster of some kind has been done too many times in books and movies.

He also played a lot with suspense, and fear in the second book, which I loved. So much so, I have read both of those books too many times to count. I shall end this blog with a quote Dr. Ian Malcom, my favorite character from the series:

"If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, expands to new territory, and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously. "

-David Yarbrough