My Favourite Book Essay for Students (10 Lines, Short and Long Essays)

Every evening, my father reads me a story from my favourite book, Aesop's Fables. Aesop was a storyteller who lived in ancient Greece long, long ago. His book has short stories about animals and birds.

My favourite is the story of the thirsty crow. The crow drops pebbles into a pot until the water rises and it can drink. It teaches me never to give up. I also like the tortoise and the hare, which shows that slow and steady wins the race.

The pictures in my book are bright and funny. I keep it carefully on my shelf and never tear its pages.

I have read many storybooks, but none has gripped me like The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling was born in Bombay, and perhaps that is why his forests feel so Indian.

The book tells the story of Mowgli, a little boy who wanders into the jungle and is raised by a family of wolves. Baloo, a sleepy brown bear, teaches him the Law of the Jungle, and Bagheera, a black panther, guards him like an elder brother. Their enemy is Shere Khan, a fierce tiger who wants to eat the man-cub. In the end, Mowgli uses courage and cleverness to defeat him.

The book also has other stories, such as the tale of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a brave mongoose who fights two cobras to save a family.

I love this book because it shows friendship between very different creatures. It also teaches me that rules and loyalty keep a group strong.

Some books are read once and forgotten. Others become lifelong friends. For me, that friend is the Panchatantra, a treasure of animal fables from ancient India.

The book was written in Sanskrit many centuries ago. According to its opening story, a king was unhappy because his three sons were dull and lazy. A learned old scholar promised to teach them the art of wise living in just six months. Instead of dry lectures, he told them stories.

The Panchatantra is divided into five books, which is how it got its name: panch means five, and tantra here means a set of lessons. The stories are tucked one inside another, like boxes inside a box. A jackal tells a tale, and a character in that tale tells yet another.

My favourite is the fable of the monkey and the crocodile. When the crocodile tries to trick the monkey into giving up his heart, the monkey calmly says he has left it on the tree, and so escapes.

These fables have travelled across the world through translations into Persian, Arabic and many European languages. I love them because they teach practical wisdom in a delightful way.

Most of my childhood books were full of talking animals and magical journeys. But the book that has influenced me most is a true story: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhiji wrote it in Gujarati, and it was later translated into English and many other languages. It tells the story of his life from his childhood in Porbandar and Rajkot to the early years of his struggle in India.

What surprised me most was how honest the book is. Gandhiji does not present himself as a hero. He admits that he was a shy boy who was afraid of the dark, that he was married when he was only thirteen, and that he once stole a bit of gold from his brother. He describes how he wrote a confession to his father, and how his father's silent tears taught him more than any punishment could.

The book also describes his days as a law student in London, where he struggled to find vegetarian food and tried hard to behave like an English gentleman. Later he cut his expenses, walked everywhere to save money and cooked his own simple meals. At Pietermaritzburg in South Africa, he was forced off a train simply because he was not white. That cold night of insult made him decide to fight injustice without violence.

I admire this book because it shows that a great man was once an ordinary, nervous boy. His greatness came from small daily efforts to be truthful, simple and fair.

After reading it, I started a small diary of my own mistakes. The book taught me that admitting a fault takes more courage than hiding it. Every Indian student should read it at least once.

Introduction

Imagine being the only human being on an island for years, with no family, no friends and no way to call for help. Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe places its hero in exactly this situation, and that is why it is my favourite book. First published in 1719, it is often called one of the earliest novels in the English language. Three centuries later, it still keeps readers turning the pages.

The Story

Robinson Crusoe is a young Englishman who ignores his father's advice to settle down and runs away to sea. After several adventures, his ship is wrecked in a storm, and he is the only survivor. He is washed ashore on a lonely island near the coast of South America.

Crusoe does not sit and cry. He goes back to the wreck again and again and brings tools, guns, food, ropes and sails ashore on a raft. He builds a shelter protected by a strong fence, keeps a calendar by cutting notches on a wooden post, and writes a journal. Slowly he learns to grow grain, bake bread, shape clay pots and keep a herd of goats. He even teaches a parrot to speak his name.

After many years alone, he discovers a single human footprint in the sand and is filled with fear. Later he saves a prisoner from a group of men who have brought him to the island to kill him. Crusoe names the man Friday, after the day on which they met, and the two become loyal companions. Finally, after twenty-eight years on the island, an English ship carries Crusoe home.

What the Book Teaches Me

The greatest lesson of Robinson Crusoe is self-reliance. Crusoe had no teacher and no shop, yet he solved one problem after another through patience and effort. When his first clay pots cracked, he kept trying until he made one that could hold water. This showed me that failure is only a step in learning.

The book also shows the value of hope. In his darkest days, Crusoe writes down the good things and the bad things in his life side by side, and finds that he still has reasons to be thankful. I now try this myself when I feel low before exams.

Why I Love It

The language of the novel is plain and direct, as if Crusoe were talking to us across a table. Defoe gives so many practical details, such as how long it took to cut a single plank from a tree, that the island feels real. I have read a shorter edition for young readers and plan to read the full novel when I am older.

Conclusion

Robinson Crusoe is more than an adventure story. It is a lesson in courage, hard work and gratitude. Whenever life feels difficult, I remember the lonely man on the island who built a whole world with his own hands, and I feel ready to try again.