Favourite book of all time (or just at the moment)

FATFREEJ

Although I can't really decide on just one book, I've read so many great ones, but I just finished Candide by Voltaire and I can't help but lov the way the guy writes. It is so direct and still has a poetic side to it. Anyne know if there are any books that come close to it?

csk

Finnegans Wake.

showry

Douglas Coupland's Microserfs is always up there for me.
Or anything by Haruki Murakami'll do.

CraggyIslander

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

ChewChew

''The Jester'' by James Patterson & Andrew Gross

I read it a few years ago and fell in love with it, so have decided to read it again and am currently 100 pages in!

corblimey

I'm not proud, but Stephen King's Bachman Books. I have 3 editions of it in various places, and every now and then, I crack it and read The Long Walk again. I rarely bother with the other 3, to be honest, I think I've read Running Man once, but The Long Walk is practically a book in itself, right? Right?

gogo

+1
I regulary profess that East of Eden by Steinbeck is my favourite book, but the book i've read more than any other is SK 'The Stand '.:o I have read it seven or eight times now and love it, so maybe the shoud be my favourite. The long Walk is also an amazing read.

I guess I reallly don't have a favourite book, it changes on a regular basis, depending what mood i'm in.

Bongomc

'Digital Fortress' by Dan Brown. I've read it a few times now and it's still a great read

Valmont

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read it over the summer and I enjoyed every single page (although I did struggle during the monologue!). It's a very inspirational and thought- provoking book. I think about the themes and plot quite a bit. I can't imagine another book being more epic than this one.

krpc

Bongomc wrote: »

'Digital Fortress' by Dan Brown. I've read it a few times now and it's still a great read

I agree here. I'm a huge fan of Dan Brown. I prefer "Angels & Demons" from amongst his works.

humbert

Valmont wrote: »

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read it over the summer and I enjoyed every single page (although I did struggle during the monologue!). It's a very inspirational and thought- provoking book. I think about the themes and plot quite a bit. I can't imagine another book being more epic than this one.

The Fountainhead is brilliant too. I think it'd be a toss up between them for me.

fixiepixie

fav book of all time well i love classics so gotta b wuthering heights (bronte) and 1984 (george orwell)

insinkerator

The Bourne Trillogy - By Robert Ludlum...... infinitely better than the movies.... and i loved the movies!

sceptre

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Though I've probably read Mr Tickle more than any other book - it's a gripping read

pseudonym1

Cool thread
Just finished tender is that night - and up there with one of my favorites ever.

orestes

The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings.

Was given the Hobbit by my dad when I was 7 and he started to notice I was a bookish type. He loved it and wanted to share it with me, I fell in love with it and it cemented my love of books.

After I finished that he gave me Lord of the Rings, which it took me about six months to read (with constant reference to my dictionary).

I still read it once every few years, just at the right time when it is just getting old enough in my memory for it to be epic and engross me again. Tis still the same copy I was given all those years ago too, very much a prized personal of mine.

Valmont

orestes wrote: »

The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings.

Was given the Hobbit by my dad when I was 7 and he started to notice I was a bookish type. He loved it and wanted to share it with me, I fell in love with it and it cemented my love of books.

That is exactly the same situation that got me into reading. My dad gave me his copy of the hobbit when I was 9 or so and when my parents realised I loved it, my mom started buying me fantasy type books every few weeks. I completely believe that fostering my love of reading in this way was the most important thing my parents did for me as a child. I read Lord of the Rings when I was 11 and I loved it. I've moved away from the fantasy genre since then but I always keep saying I'll go back and read Lord of the Rings. It's just so darn big!

fragile

corblimey wrote: »

I'm not proud, but Stephen King's Bachman Books. I have 3 editions of it in various places, and every now and then, I crack it and read The Long Walk again. I rarely bother with the other 3, to be honest, I think I've read Running Man once, but The Long Walk is practically a book in itself, right? Right?

Have you read Blaze? its one of the Bachman books and very good in my opinion, albeit not what you would expect from King

capedcrustacian

ice 9 by kurt vonnengut (spl?)

greenapplesea

The Catcher in the Rye or To Kill a Mockingbird.
Love Gloria Naylor too (she's not that popular this side of the world) and am going through my 7th Jodi Picoult book at the moment (a phase)

Hermy

Many years ago I feel in love with Trevanians Summer of Katya. It's only 200 pages if I remember correctly but something about it really caught my imagination.
Pat McCabes The Dead School is another favourite which I keep going back to.
Right now I am reading John McGaherns That They May Face The Rising Sun, an absolutely beautiful book which I cannot recommend highly enough.

tbh

Hermy wrote: »

Right now I am reading John McGaherns That They May Face The Rising Sun, an absolutely beautiful book which I cannot recommend highly enough.

+1 on the description of that one - it's a beautiful book.

My favourite book is "A long, long way" by Sebastian Barry. I just adore that book.

Sumire

Anything by Murakami, mostly Kafka on the Shore though. And Love in the Time of Cholera too

jackbhoy

Extremely hard to pick just one but the likes of Catch 22, Remains of the Day, In Cold Blood, The Catcher in the Rye, Candide and Les Grandes Meaulnes would be in the running.

If I had to chose I think I'd have to give it to one of books I read as a kid, probably Watership Down. I remember having read all of Roald Dahls books and moving onto stuff like WD and Lord of the Flies when I was about 10/11, I already had an interest in reading but those two books really turned it from a passing interest into a real passion. I have read better books since but none has stayed with me or sparked my imagination to the same degree.

vincenzo1975

By Reason Of Insanity by Shane Stevens

Scary stuff!!!!!

ibh

Riotous Assembly by Tom Sharpe is one of my all time fave's. So many funny pieces in it. It's the sort of book i can read over and over.

I was also blown away by The Road, like so many other people. I was expecting it to be good, but it was unbelieveable and probably the best book i have read.

SuperGrover

Probably The Grapes of Wrath for all-timer.

Last few years a couple stick in my memory - In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami (the other Murakami), also, now that I think of it The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki M. was great.

Stephen King's Pet Sematary was particularly creepy and very well written.

hopalong85

the lord of the rings is my all time favourite still! more recently, kite runner is a really amazing book i think.

jim o doom

Catch-22 would be up there for regular fiction, neuromancer by william gibson was one of the best sci fi I have ever read & Wild swans by jung chang was very interesting & depressing for real life reads

HalloweenJack

Probably American Psycho. It's so well written. It's so funny, dark and cynical. It's brilliant.

manfist

id hafta say 1984 by george orwell , which is my all time favourite book.
its unbelivable.
id recomend it over the lord of the rings ina second which i see people saying(although it is another classic)

tHE vAGGABOND

Lord of the Rings is indeed the daddy of them all. its the only book I have ever kept reading as I was walking to work, bumping into people left and right [and did feck all in work, sneaking off to read a page here and there], as I could not wait to see what happened..

Ken Follet's 2 'world..' books would be next on my list - both are quite big, but I flew through them, I love his character and plot development.

tbh

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Ken Follet's 2 'world..' books would be next on my list - both are quite big, but I flew through them, I love his character and plot development.

yeah - the fact that the books were so big gave him lots of room to delveop the plots - and they were real page-turners as well. I loved the first book, so the fact that the second book was basically the first book set 200 years later was great - exactly what I wanted

livinginlucan

Agree with 1984 - it was totally fab! Spent my whole life avoiding it and recently read it and wondered why I had waited so long ... Loved it in all its bleakness and courage. I couldn't agree about Wuthering Heights though... read it recently and although I enjoyed it as a classic, I thought it miserable, bleak, violent and really dark. I suppose that in itself makes it a classic as so many emotions are revealed in the narrative. Tortured it was, and it made me wonder about Bronte though, and the viewpoint she was writing from.

JeanH

Villette by Charlotte Bronte. "But if I feel, may I never express? Never! declared Reason." Lucy Snowe was great.

Middlemarch – George Eliot. The character of Dorothea always reminded me of Lucy Snowe. She's the sort who appears so cold and full of reason but cries quietly behind the scenes. There's a harrowing section where she spends the night crying right into the small hours of the morning. Her quiet sadness when her husband dies etc.

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. There's a beautiful quote in this book that says "It is foolish to wish for beauty. Sensible people never either desire it for themselves or care about it in others. If the mind be but well cultivated, and the heart well disposed, no-one ever cares for the exterior." Such a beautiful sentiment... Oh if only, Ms Bronte, if only...

megadodge

1984 - The most brilliant book I've read, but I'd never read it again, as it scared the bejaysus out of me.

The Life of Pi - Once past the overly heavy (still thought provoking) first section it expands into a terrific read.

Perfume - This seems to be one you either love or hate. I loved it. The most descriptive writing I've ever come across.

Just thought I'd mention how having read the Pearl and Grapes of Wrath, I will never read Steinbeck again. While his actual style of writing is excellent, the neverending theme of misery, more misery and complete and utter hopelessness completely overshadows everything else for me.

Shacklebolt

ibh wrote: »

Riotous Assembly by Tom Sharpe is one of my all time fave's. So many funny pieces in it. It's the sort of book i can read over and over.

I was also blown away by The Road, like so many other people. I was expecting it to be good, but it was unbelieveable and probably the best book i have read.

Ever read Blott on the Landscape also by Sharpe? Classic.

Favourite book is really hard to decide on possibly To Kill a Mockingbird.

mentonaintamint

There are so many books that spring to mind when you're asked to give examples of sheer quality, many of them already mentioned, but for me there's been one book that just stands out, ever since the first time I read it: Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. There is nothing about this book that I don't love.

Misanthropy

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

bumbletumble

Have to say Catch 22 is one of the best. Double cross by James patterson is a great read! and at the moment i reading The Shakespeare Secret by J.L Carrell. Its a fantastic read!

eVeNtInE

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monkey9

Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. Love that book so much. Followed closely by Dracula and Strumpet City!

Ann22

Yes-'Dracula'-Stoker's original is class. Love that one.

BLITZ_Molloy

The Da Vici Code by Dan Browne. I bought 10 copies in case there was a shortage.

Kidding!

East of Eden. Nobody does characters like Steinbeck. It's nice and dark without being as relentlessly bleak as The Grapes of Wrath.

I'm ashamed to say I've tried to read 1984 a couple of times but it didn't click with me at all and I ended up putting it down. Must go read it properly!

evil-monkey

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Everyone should read this book at least once in their lifetime.

TonyM.

The Fateful Adventures Of The Good Soldier Svejk - Jaroslav Haseks

Down and out in London And Paris - George Orwell

crotalus667

Middlesex , I loved it the only thing is it left me wanting to know more

theCzar

Catch-22, haunting, inspiring, hilarious and hideous. The best and worst of man portrayed in a parody that strips the veneer of civilization from war and shows it starkly for the insanity it is.

theCzar

BLITZ_Molloy wrote: »

The Da Vici Code by Dan Browne. I bought 10 copies in case there was a shortage.

Kidding!

East of Eden. Nobody does characters like Steinbeck. It's nice and dark without being as relentlessly bleak as The Grapes of Wrath.

I'm ashamed to say I've tried to read 1984 a couple of times but it didn't click with me at all and I ended up putting it down. Must go read it properly!

East of Eden is also one of my favourites, for me Steinbeck is the best writer of modern English I've ever read. Without ever seeming to try too hard, he spins mundane words into the most beautiful sentences.

Ah my darling Cathy, how I love to hate her.

ibh

Shacklebolt wrote: »

Ever read Blott on the Landscape also by Sharpe? Classic.

Favourite book is really hard to decide on possibly To Kill a Mockingbird.

I haven't actually read many other Sharpe books. I think he wrote the Wilt books.
I'll have to look out for Blot on the Landscape.

Setun

showry wrote: »

Douglas Coupland's Microserfs is always up there for me.
Or anything by Haruki Murakami'll do.

You sound like someone I could trust for book recommendations Microserfs is definitely up there for me, loved it to bits. In a way I felt sad to leave the characters behind. Fantastic read.

For those of you who are a bit more adventurous in what you read may I suggest If On a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. It's my 'other favourite', and a book that will change the way you read literature forever. Calvino is a genius, and must be read.