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Hello and welcome to this week's Top 5 Wednesday post, the last post of the month and the last post of my first month issuing the prompts. Be assured that although I am now selecting the prompts (and hopefully, I will look for suggestions soon as well), I don't find these prompts easier. I still sometimes face challenges with some of my prompts, which I enjoy, so I will not choose easy prompts too regularly. The whole idea of hypnosis (as seen by people like Derren Brown) and magic is fascinating and something I wish I could do. I don't know anyone who doesn't like or isn't intrigued by magic. Whether it is in a book or in real life, something is fascinating about magic.
Therefore, for this week's prompt, we are considering our top 5 books with innovative and/or unique approaches to magic. The worst-case scenario is that I cannot find any books I have read with innovative or unique magic; it will just be books that feature magic. But I have actually found choosing books for this week's prompt quite difficult, so in some places, it is just books which have a supernatural/unique element or imaginary worlds. But let's get straight to this week's Top 5 Wednesday post!
1. Switch by A. S. King
So, we start this week's post with Switch, which contains several supernatural and magical elements. This includes the mysterious switch, which is protected by a number of different boxes in Tru's house which is regularly built around. No one ever touches this switch for some reason. But then we are also confronted with Tru's amazing Javelin abilities, being able to achieve results in the sport which were not previously thought to be possible. Tru's Javeline abilities definitely include an element of power or supernatural abilities!
2. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The rest of the magical fictional books on this list take us back to literature, with the next three books actually in the public domain in some form. We start with Dante's divine comedy, which may not be exclusively about magic; it is about the supernatural, magical world of the afterlife, including heaven (paradise), hell and purgatory. Now, this really is a unique supernatural/magical system as no one really knows what the afterlife is life (if, like some people may argue, it even exists). So, we are dealing with Dante's own imagination. Therefore, this is a really interesting book to read about one person's perspective of what the afterlife would be like, and it fits under this title as a unique system.
3. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
This time, we are travelling back to the future, nearer to the present day, by stopping off in Victorian England. This story makes use of another unique magical/supernatural system where the socially confirmative, higher-class physician Dr Jekyll is able to turn into a socially non-conforming, aggressive individual, or should I say is, by just drinking some type of potion. This is indeed a really interesting book, considering Freud's psychodynamic theory in terms of the id, ego and superego in a more literal form. However, being able to turn into a different being from just drinking some potion is unique, especially when this book was written and published.
4. The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs
We now move even closer to the present day, by this time travelling to the start of the twentieth century when The Monkey's Paw was published as another supernatural and somewhat magical horror story. This book tells the story of a mummified monkey's paw, which grants wishes, but with every wish comes a cost. I think even in this present day, the idea of a mummified monkey's paw being able to grant wishes is not only magical but also very unique, and the book as a whole makes a good horror story which is not too horrifying but indeed makes the reader uneasy.
5. A Visionary Guide to Lucid Dreaming by Lee Adams
We conclude this week's post with our one and only non-fiction book, and although the book itself does not really include unique magical systems in the same way as the above, it does explain how we too can journey through our own unique magic systems. I find the idea of lucid dreaming fascinating, and I love it! Every dream seems to tell a story, but especially when you have control over your lucid dream, you can do things which are outside the laws of science and very much live in your own imagination, which is just amazing when you think about it. It's amazing to think our bodies and brains can make up an imaginative world during our sleep where we can behave against the laws of nature. Therefore, if you would like to explore your own unique magic system then this is a good book to start your journey into lucid dreaming.
That is all for this week's Top 5 Wednesday post, I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Also, regardless of whether you just read these posts or interact with these prompts yourself, I hope you have enjoyed my first month of prompts, found them interesting but also challenging and made you evaluate your reading habits as these are some of the things which I personally love about these prompts. Let's get ready for the August prompts! Please feel free to comment below and check out my other Top 5 Wednesday posts and book reviews available on this blog! See you soon!
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Welcome to the official group page of the T5W! This weekly book meme officiated in November 2013 and is still going strong! Join the group to become a T5W-er and check out the topics for the current month!
9975 membersWelcome to the official group page of the T5W! This weekly book meme officiated in November 2013 and is still going strong! Join the group to become a T5W-er and check out the topics for the current month!
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