Favourite Book

I'm surprised this hasn't been done yet. If it has, I must be going blind. Feel free to delete this.

Anyways, what are your favourite books?

Below are the 2 books which are not only my favourite books, but have also affected me in so many different ways. Both in my own life, and my writing as well.

Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonneghut
This book is extremely hard to describe, as is it almost impossible to tie down to any one genre, as it moves in between these so fluidly. It is a semi-biographical, timetravelling, sci-fi novel based around the unfortunately life of one Billy Pilgrim, who having suffered a major accident later in life, makes him have lapses in timetravel, from his past, to his present, to his future. It is based around the time of World War 2, and Billy Pilgrim is a soldier in Germany. Not to give too much away, it is an uncomprimising glimpse of how war is, and the massacres that were seen.

I strongly recommend people go out and buy this book. 9/10

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
Now this has to be my favourite book of all time. It definately has to be one of the most unique books I have ever read. It's about a boy who is sent to fight in the name of Democracy during World War 1. Diving into a foxhole, he is struck by a shell, suffering horrorific injuries. His arms and legs are gone. He has lost his hearing and his sight. A huge whole remains where his nose and mouth are. Yet he survives.

It contains no colons, no semi colons, nothing. Now, this may seem strange, but it works perfectly. The entire book is from his point of view, and the lack of punctuation gives a steady line of thought. You can actually hear him thinking. This makes Slaughter House Five look like something you see at Disney Land. Its a short enough book. I remember when I first read it, I had to take breaks because it was so distressing. I have read it possibly 3 times since then. And each time I read it, I am still fascinated by it.

Unfortunately I have no the book on me, it is at a friends house, and I cannot find an example of this book on the internet (a good one, I mean), but I strongly strongly strongly recommend everyone to go out, find this book, and read it. But beware, it is so incredibly disturbing. Not with gore. Not with horror. But it attacks you psychologically.

"He had no legs and no arms and no eyes and no ears and no nose and no mouth and no tongue. What a hell of a dream. It must be a dream. Of course sweet god it's a dream. He'd have to wake up or he'd go to nuts. Nobody could live like that."

Dades

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=314308

Been done all right - but sure who cares.

Heh alright. I'll copy and paste this into there, so feel free to delete this one whenever

Valmont

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The Zombie Survival guide by Max Brooks.

His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman.

So many I can't remember them all.

monkeyfudge

I'd have to go with "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.

It's a book I have read many times over the course of my life and I've always found it wonderfully engaging and amusing.

I love all of Flann O'Brien's work and I'd probably have to choose "At Swim-Two-Birds" as another favourite book of mine.

Tar.Aldarion

I regard all of Tolkien's books to be one. That one.

marie_85

The Catcher in The Rye has to be my all time favourite.

Edit. Followed very closely by Animal Farm and 1984.

Demetrius

Catch 22 at the moment

kittex

Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Emma - Jane Austen
The Wind-up Bird Chronicles - H Murakimi
The Hobbit - Tolkien
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

marie_85

marie_85 wrote:

The Catcher in The Rye
Animal Farm
1984

You'd love the modern novel question in the old Leaving Cert syllabus...;)

Running Bing

1984- All I can say is wow
Fans of catcher in the rye should check out for esme with love and squalor. Its a collection of short stroies by Salinger and it will blow you away, esp. the story "perfect day for bannanafish"
A clockwork orange by Burgess is another great great book and Im also partial to a bit of American psycho.

Zapp Brannigan

Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series are my favourite books.

BossArky

Too many great books to choose one, but these are great ... and are the ones I am picking as I can see them sitting on the window ledge:

Grapes of Wrath
Animal Farm
1984
SlaughterHouse 5
Catch-22
Ulysess (NOT!) :eek:
The Pearl

oleras

Find it hard now to get the time to read, but one from my past that sticks out like a sore thumb......ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Márquez.... fascinating read.

Dagnir Glaurung

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

These two are the ones that stick out for me.

Rubberbandits

"The Third Policeman" by Flann O Brien

"Perfume" by Patrick Suskind