The book that inspired the movie that inspired my favorite Youtube video of all time. The first time I read Jurassic Park I was like 11 and it was the summer it came out in the theaters. We were driving to the beach and my brother had already read it and I had to fight him to keep from telling me what happens in the novel before I was able to read it. I also had a cursory (still do!) understanding of chaos theory from reading a bunch of William Sleator YA sci fi novels as a kid too, so I was pretty excited to be engaged in the adult version of this.
The book stands out now as still being pretty fun and exciting, while now having the kind of nostalgic charm of how brash and arrogant the grasp of technology circa 1985 and how it compared to computing power today: the Cray XMP computers they use to power the whole island (two of them) is equal to about the computer power of four iPhones. Or to put it a different way, Jurassic Park is powered basically by a PS4. So that’s really funny. This book is also the first book that I think told me and showed me about advanced degrees and doctorates in a way that made me understand things. And similar to both Dan Brown and other Michael Crichton novels, this novel made me believe that academics were some kind of cult of celebrity around the world, when in reality the hottest academic in the world is still pretty regular compared to actual celebrities.
The book also shows some of the ways the film needed to streamline things to work for a film version. This is always a fun reread for me.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Jurassic-Park-Micheal-Crichton/dp/1784752223/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1580306908&sr=8-9)