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

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.

SaintHubbins

Dracula - Bram Stoker
Adrian Mole books - Sue Townsend
The Van - Roddy Doyle

john77

All time favs:Timbuktu by Paul Auster, Amongst Women by John McGahern, Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

Current favs: In Europe by Geert Mak made a big impression on me recently. As did The Rider by Tim Krabbe

She Devil

Just finished Cecelia Ahernes book The Gift
Its excellent. I loved it.

SeekUp

I trust that most of you have also seen (and/or posted on!) the thread about the most overrated books . . . Isn't it funny how so many of the loved and hated books overlap?

(I'm not being a smarta**, I really do think it's funny )

lordgoat

Norwegian Wood or Kafka, because most of the main characters are wonderfully imperfect and i love them.

José Alaninho

Right now?

H.S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Haven't read it for years, it's all coming back to me now

Of all time though? Impossible to list. Far too many...

copperfield

I've got three favorite books now:
1. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - J. Joyce
2. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
3. The Black Prince - iris Murdoch

I'm a kid... I know

Hrududu

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.

I loved East of Eden. I still get a little misty when I think about what happened with Tom and Dessie.

Wuthering Heights is right up there for me. Such brutal characters and such destruction they caused amongst their families.

MrJones

theCzar wrote: »

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.

could not have put it better myself. im currently half way through it. A question
i keep asking is how did he come up with this stuff?!
Also 100 years of solitude by gabriel garcia marquez was great. As was Grapes of Wrath but as mentioned by another poster it is unrelenting in its bleakness!

XxlauraxX

Ma, I’m Gettin Meself a New Mammy by Martha Long. i really enjoyed it and is not as sad and tragic as Ma, He Sold Me For a Few Cigarettes.I would highly recommend both books

Laura