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Your Favourite Book of all Time

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  • 19-10-2005 3:39pm
    #1
    Beruthiel
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 42,362 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    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


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    #2
    dudara
    Registered Users Posts: 33,518 ✭✭✭✭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


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    #3
    Tar.Aldarion
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,096 Mod ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #4
    Branoic
    Registered Users Posts: 1,742 ✭✭✭Branoic


    "Dune" by Frank Herbert.


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    #5
    Goodshape
    Registered Users Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭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.


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    #6
    OfflerCrocGod
    Registered Users Posts: 6,312 ✭✭✭OfflerCrocGod


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


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    #7
    johnny_ultimate
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,434 CMod ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #8
    Eva24
    Closed Accounts Posts: 65 ✭✭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.


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    #9
    Skellington
    Closed Accounts Posts: 783 ✭✭✭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.


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    #10
    John
    Registered Users Posts: 12,135 ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #11
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,711 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


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


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    #12
    Jay Tomio
    Closed Accounts Posts: 35 ✭Jay Tomio


    My favorite book is probably Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake.


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    #13
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #14
    lordgoat
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 11,371 Mod ✭✭✭✭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


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    #15
    Garibaldi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 530 ✭✭✭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.


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    #16
    lordgoat
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 11,371 Mod ✭✭✭✭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!


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    #17
    Nea
    Registered Users Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭Nea


    The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho.
    Love it


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    #18
    Maccattack
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,322 ✭✭✭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.


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    #19
    tSubh Dearg
    Hosted Moderators Posts: 5,555 ✭✭✭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"


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    #20
    Spicy Lauren
    Registered Users Posts: 752 ✭✭✭Spicy Lauren


    The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupery


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    #21
    missingtime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,942 ✭✭✭missingtime


    The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton


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    #22
    Nimrod's Son
    Closed Accounts Posts: 664 ✭✭✭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!).


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    #23
    Excelsior
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,203 ✭✭✭Excelsior


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

    Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis.


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    #24
    Beruthiel
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 42,362 Mod ✭✭✭✭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!!


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    #25
    Neo#
    Registered Users Posts: 648 ✭✭✭Neo#


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


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    #26
    grimsbymatt
    Closed Accounts Posts: 305 ✭✭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.


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    #27
    Beruthiel
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 42,362 Mod ✭✭✭✭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....?


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    #28
    hoody
    Registered Users Posts: 698 ✭✭✭hoody


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


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    #29
    Beruthiel
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 42,362 Mod ✭✭✭✭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


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    #30
    Siogfinsceal
    Registered Users Posts: 1,915 ✭✭✭Siogfinsceal


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


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    #31
    simu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭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)!


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