My favorite books all enter into the category of those that make me weep hysterically (except maybe everything Douglas Adams ever wrote, which only promote the tears after hysterical laughter. Maybe I should say books that promote hysteria!). But for today, I’ll go with my favorite novel by a living author: Galatea 2.2, by Richard Powers.
My first reading of Galatea 2.2 came during my freshman year of college; I found the book by wandering the library bookshelves and pulling something that looked interesting off, a practice that has introduced me to most of my favorite writers. Later, I would discover that the head librarian was also a fan of the relatively unknown Richard Powers; hence, the library including all his works in their otherwise scanty recent fiction collection. With the book’s ample treatment of the history of literature, it instantly hooked this budding English major.