Your Favourite Book of all Time

Beruthiel

you know how some books are great and then some are just fantastic,
I'm looking for book recommendations, so name just one book you could not have lived without reading and you think that everyone else should read it too.
Mine would be LOTR

dudara

That's a really hard question there Ruthie. It changes depending on my mood, but definitely one of my all time favourites is "The End of the Affair" by Graham Greene

Tar.Aldarion

All of tolkien's works are my favourites and most of them are just part of one big book.So The Hobbit, LoTR, The Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales,The Lost tales and a fair few more
After Tolkien it would be the trilogy 'His Dark Materials'-Phillip Pullman.

Branoic

"Dune" by Frank Herbert.

Goodshape

I'd have to say 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' trilogy (of five). I've read better books, no doubt, but I'd return to this one more than any other.

'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' would also be up there.

OfflerCrocGod

Catch-22, HGTG, LOTR, Discworld series..........oh wait you asked for one book:D

johnny_ultimate

To pick one is extraordinarily difficult. Id have to go for either Hithchikers or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas... or Catch 22. Damn.

Eva24

I Change my mind constantly [a woman's perogative, I guess:D ] But The "Virgin Suicides" by Jeffrey Eugenides is my all time favourite. The man has a skill, no one else can write black humour on such dangerous topics. ten million times better than the movie with Kirsten Dunst. His follow-up "Middlesex" won the 2003 pulitzer prize.

Skellington

to hard to pick one. but it'd be between, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, American Psycho, Dice Man, Funhouse or A Million Little Pieces. Oh, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is also a great book.

John

My absolute favourite book of all time is Lord of the Flies by Golding. It's the only book I've read more than ten times.

Manach

"The Man who was Thursday" by Chesterton. Never looked at a calander again without smiling.

Jay Tomio

My favorite book is probably Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake.

Dades

Hmmm, today it's probably the

His Dark Materials trilogy.

Surprised to see HHGTTG up there on people's lists, though it's damn close to the top of mine too.

lordgoat

Magician - R.E. Feist,

In my opinon, his series is far better than anything Tolkien's done.

Actually i really dislike Tolkien, i think he created a decent world in the Hobbit (great book) but ruined it with flowery descriptions and endless stopping for dry bread and cheese and crappy 4page songs in LOTR.

Other notables- Fear and Loathing, anything really by HST. And i love the motorcycle diaries as well...

books are great

Garibaldi

"Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield for a little historical fiction fun or, if you're after something to make you appreciate your own life a lot more, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

lordgoat

Garibaldi wrote:

"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

That's a great book too, but not one i'd read over and over again!

Nea

The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho.
Love it

Maccattack

a tough one but. Im gonna go for The Time Machine.

Read it years ago as a kid and it freaked me out. Still an enjoyable read today.

tSubh Dearg

Just for something a little different from what's already been listed. I find myself endlessly re-reading Tom Robbins. He wrote "Even Cowgirls get the Blues" but his best 2 in my opinion would be "Skinny Legs and All" and "Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Countries"

Spicy Lauren

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupery

missingtime

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Nimrod's Son

I'm gonna say The Rum Diaries by Hunter S. Thompson (even though it's not actually my favourite book of all time, it just needs to be read!).

Excelsior

Animal Farm by George Orwell. The brevity- you just gotta love it.

Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis.

Beruthiel

excellent stuff people
I have read some of the books already, the one's I haven't, I've order online.
keep em coming!!

Neo#

The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. Actually the trilogy is fantastic. I also liked LOTR.

grimsbymatt

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie hasn't been mentioned yet. Great book, Rushdie writes in the most wonderful style I've never seen the likes of elsewhere.

Beruthiel

grimsbymatt wrote:

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

do you consider this book to be better than The Satanic Verses?
which I haven't read yet btw, just wondering....?

hoody

On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Made me want to get up and do something

Beruthiel

hoody wrote:

On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Made me want to get up and do something

read it years ago, had a copy of a paragraph stuck on my bedroom wall for years, it inspired me so much

Siogfinsceal

My abs fav is a book my mum got me as child it is called "what katy did"

simu

Proust Proust Proust!

People say he's difficult and obscure but I don't think so! His books are fascinating so deeply do they delve in the characters' perceptions and thought processes and there is an abundance of fascinating ideas to be found! Although I must say I haven't read the whole of In Search of Lost Time yet! (7 books)!

Dades

Beruthiel wrote:

read it years ago, had a copy of a paragraph stuck on my bedroom wall for years, it inspired me so much

Which one? I had a few that I knew by heart that have faded from memory now...

GumDropButtons

Oscar Wilde - Fairy Tales. Timeless!

Sleepy

If I absolutely have to choose just one book that I'd consider an all-time favourite and think every woman should read, it has to be 'Man and Boy' by Tony Parsons. The main protagonist, Harry Silver, is the best exploration of the male role in modern society I've ever come across.

That, or anything by Douglas Coupland.

damn, that's about eight books...

Closing Doors

The Atheist wrote:

Which one? I had a few that I knew by heart that have faded from memory now...

I'm guessing:


because the only people for me are the mad ones -- the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing,
but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles
exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle
you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awwww".

pbsuxok1znja4r

My all-time favourite has to be Hemingway's "For Whom The Bell Tolls". I read that book twice every sungle summer. I know the damn thing inside out at this stage. Brilliant book.

tSubh Dearg

I thought of a couple more that I would recommed. The Mists of Avalon by Marion (Zimmer) Bradley, it's a retelling of the Arthurian legend but by his sister Morgaine Le Fey. It is an excellent story. By the same token Firebrand also by Bradley is the Siege of Tory told by Kassandra who was the prophetess and one of King Priam's daughters. I think both of these books tell their stories well and it's interesting to hear these well known stories from a different viewpoint.

The other book that sprang to mind was A Room With a View by E.M Forster. It is simply a funny love story of sorts. But I've read it many many times and it never ceases to make me laugh. The characters in it are excellent.

nlgbbbblth

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis.

Patrick Bateman is cool.

arbeitsscheuer

Impossible question, cos I change my mind all the time.
But if my favourite book meant the book I've read most times, it would be...

Derek Robinson - A Piece of Cake.

Hilarious, Gripping, Moving... Everything you want in a book tbh.

athena 2000

Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander".
The first of an epic six novel series set in the early 18th century. Historical adventure, romance, great plots and twists, wonderful characters with heroism, death, mayhem and love. I couldn't wait for each novel to be published.

Beruthiel

Closing Doors wrote:

I'm guessing:


because the only people for me are the mad ones -- the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing,
but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles
exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle
you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awwww".

that was the one!
it really spoke to me because of where I was in my life then

Dades

Beruthiel wrote:

that was the one!
it really spoke to me because of where I was in my life then

That would be one alright.
Think that little snippit was printed inside the cover of my first copy.

clay

'Tender is the night' by scott fitzgerald

nlgbbbblth wrote:

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis.

Patrick Bateman is cool.

no he's not, he's a psycho!
I thought 'Less than zero' was way better anyway... /looks innocent

Sleepy

SebtheBum wrote:

Impossible question, cos I change my mind all the time.
But if my favourite book meant the book I've read most times, it would be...

Derek Robinson - A Piece of Cake.

Hilarious, Gripping, Moving... Everything you want in a book tbh.

Really enjoyed that, there's a sequel too ya know

arbeitsscheuer

Sleepy wrote:

Really enjoyed that, there's a sequel too ya know

Yeah I know, A Good Clean Fight. Definitely not as good.
Goshawk Squadron, Hornet's Sting, War Story... All better than that sequel.

Anyway, Piece of Cake. F**king brilliant.

grimsbymatt

Beruthiel wrote:

do you consider this book to be better than The Satanic Verses?
which I haven't read yet btw, just wondering....?

I only got half-way through the Satanic Verses before I moved out of the house where the copy I was reading lived, so I couldn't be sure - I keep not getting round to obatining my own copy. However, Midnight's Children received the Booker of Bookers award in (I think) 1993, which was the award given to the best Booker prize winning book of the previous 25 years, so that might give an indication of its quality.

Misumi

His dark materials by philip pullman without a doubt....although Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori is a close second

ratboy

What's so great about his dark materials, i've read them all and enjoyable as they are, they're not much more than airport reads to be honest. My favourite book would probably be 1984.

Pitseleh

The two books that instantaneously sprang to mind: Don Quixote and War And Peace - both require a bit of work at times but are vastly rewarding in contrasting ways.

EvilPixieOne

I liked his dark materials when I read them, but they were a bit simplistic or something... My favourites are Catch22, some of dickens, Animal Farm, the picture of Dorian Grey,LOTR,Rebecca... I've got alot really

Scratch Acid

'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'
'Trainspotting'
'Glamorama'