_{a small selection of my bookshelf}

2 weeks ago I launched a competition to tell me what the best book is that you've ever read. Here is the link to the original post. I promised to announce the winners today and that's what I'll do with this post. I have already sent payment to the winners, this post is merely to inform you who has won and what I liked about their entries.

I want to thank all 46 entrants for their participation and I hope you liked this competition as much as I did. By now everyone should have an idea what you can expect from my competitions and I loved this competition even more as I noticed that people started commenting on each others' entries. THAT's the purpose of my competitions, building a community and having fun. So I really feel that the SBD's I'm giving away are well spent.

Here are all 46 participants, please give each of them an upvote on their latest post to help one another grow as a community:

@ailenepm @airmatti @allesia @annyclf @arkimedes @artizm @bashadow @bellazelena @bit-sp @christyanthony @cruella @davidblackwell @diebitch @divineinyang @dlina-v-metrah @donovanpage @drwillwho @emarem @essiehime @fabzmani @fedescolari @felander @gd19 @gmuxx @helena-malaja @iamkuyaj @isellbooks @jennwyant @jkimura @joylovestowrite @judass @killurego @lellabird60 @lewanscar @liketimmy @lordsnek @marvel1206 @merry-pineapple @paulsmuts @pgarama @rachel31 @sideshow2 @snooway @tungie @vickywiz @wendie

Now without further ado, these are the winners of the competition. It wasn't easy selecting winners as many of you submitted good entries and some of them are also among my favourites like Harry Potter, a Game of Thrones and others. However none of you submitted my entry, so I'm going to keep you a bit longer in suspence and do a post about it in the near future.

3^rd Place

The 3^rd place goes to @joylovestowrite. Her entry is The Diary of A Young Girl (Anne Frank) by Anne Frank. Why I chose him for third place is the impression this book made on her at an age where she is the same age as the author of the book:

"This book made such a tremendous impact on me that I could never read it again -- it's too chilling. I can't read it, especially the last parts, without crying."

As a third generation holocaust survivor and the eldest grandson and only one to pass on the family name, I have never been able to read this book, although I have it on our bookshelf at home. I can fully sympathise with her feelings and comments.

2^nd Place

The 2^nd place goes to @divineinyang. The book didn't just change him, it made him the person he is today:

"Its a book that deeply appealed to me as it spoke to me of a respect for the abilities and capabilities of mankind. It inspired me; to scrounge for mastery, to seek to be original, me; to strive for a plain and naked honesty."

We should all try and live our lives and not copy others. There's only one you, so be yourself! A worthy competitor and very well argued.

1^st Place

The 1^st place goes to @airmatti! Here is his entry:

My favourite "book" it's MAUS, by art spigelman. I say "book" because it's actually a graphic novel. I read this book about 4 years ago, while traveling in the train. I've to confess I've hardly hidden some tears during the trip some times and most of all, I didn't wont to let the characters go. Like when you want a book will continue to speak forever. It talks about the story of the writers parents, facing Nazism in Poland. It's an honest and frank story, where the author describe even is relationship with is parents in a very deep way. He wanted to represent polish jews as mouses, while the nazi as cats. To me it wasn't like reading it, but living it!"

Why did I choose this entry from all entries? This entry did 2 things to me that I love in books, 1 it moved him so much, he couldn't stop crying and 2 the book moved him so much that he felt like he was living it, despite it being a graphic novel.

I hope you all liked this competition as much as I did and look out for the next one. As February is a short month, the next one will be there sooner than you think.

Thanks!

Doron