My Favorite Book of 2009

I read a lot of great books this year, so it's difficult to pick a favorite. However, there's a book that stands out in my mind over all the others.

Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Now, if I'm going to name it my favorite book of the year, I should probably say a little as to why. I have always, for as long as I can remember, been fascinated by story-telling. When I was a kid, my favorite movie was The NeverEnding Story. There was something about the idea of a story becoming real just because you were reading it that stuck in my head. Ever since then I've had this idea that if you could tell a good enough story, it could come to life.

Reading Name of the Wind was kind of like that for me. It was a story that came together in such a way that it felt real. And on top of that was the way the story was told. A harmless innkeeper, Kvothe, is more than he seems, with a past that is beyond believing, and a story-teller hunts him down to get the true story from him, rather than listening to the rumor and exaggeration that always follows heroes of fantasy stories. Kvothe agrees to tell his story, and so the book bounces back and forth between the current setting, where dark things are hinted at in the background, to Kvothe's past, where dark things are faced head on.

And yet, it's more than that. As the innkeeper tells his story, it becomes apparent that his story is based on the stories of others.

But it's more than that, too. His life story centers on a story he heard bits and pieces of as a child, a story that haunts him his entire life.

Through the entire book, I was astonished at the layers that were involved in what was going on. Not to mention how deeply I was sucked in to the story. There was one scene in particular that I noticed my heart was racing and my palms were getting sweaty. My physical response matched that of the main character. It was amazing.

All in all, I feel Name of the Winds was one of the best books of 2009, and it was definitely my favorite.