Your Favourite Book of all Time

bagdaddy

hmm well i dont know about the best book, but the most enjoyable was probably 'fear and loathing in las vegas' by the late hunter s thompson.

Beruthiel

ratboy wrote:

you're an idiot

ratboy
may I remind you that personal abuse is not tolerated on boards.


thanks a million to everyone for their suggestions, I have ordered so many books from play.com that I'll be reading well into the new year

keep 'em coming!

Dades

Daddio wrote:

Sorry folks, I reckon Pullman is definitely a holiday read. After you've read all the books you brought with you. And discover its the only book you can afford and thats in english at the local mini-mart.

Sleepy said Coupland earlier: Microserfs! Now that's top quality satire.

Microserfs was just tedious.
And you're far more likely to find that in a mini mart than His Dark Materials.

bringitdown

“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..."

On the road is up there simple for its energy I also like a lot of biographical / factual simply because in the main they make me appreciate my own situation better albeit not curing my appetite for crazy.

Setun

The Atheist wrote:

Microserfs was just tedious.
And you're far more likely to find that in a mini mart than His Dark Materials.

Must disagree: I read Microserfs right through, thought it was hilarious. Pullman on the other hand, I read the first 100 odd pages of Northern Lights and couldn't finish it, just got bored.
Actually just recently finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by J.S.Foer. Now NOBODY can argue against THAT!
OP> GET IT if ya havent already.:cool:

DonkeyStyle \o/

Sams Teach Yourself Perl in 24 hours... couldn't put it down.

Other than that, The Dark Tower series by Stephen King (I'm almost finished the fifth one, amazing series, so well written)... and Frank Herberts Dune, which gets a bit heavy in places, but is an overall epic

Dades

Daddio wrote:

I read the first 100 odd pages of Northern Lights and couldn't finish it, just got bored.

So you've based your judgement on having read about an eighth of the trilogy? One thing that people appreciate about HDM is how the books develop. The incredible final book is quite far removed from the first in its scope and depth.

Somebody start a thread dammit!

Setun

No my point was that the book didn't hold my attention, I should have been intrigued by it which I wasn't. It was clear to me that it wasn't my type of book. Notice the use of the pronoun "I", I wasn't declaring the book to boring like RATBOY.

Ratboy, I know that name from somewhere.

odhran

on the road is an incredibly overrated book. his dark materials, on the other hand, is a wonderful work of literature and is, without question, my favourite book. by only reading the first 100 pages of northern lights, you miss out on all the layers and complexities that develop later on in the trilogy.

BossArky

grimsbymatt wrote:

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.

Actually, Midnights Children received an award in 1981 - I remember that from reading it as its the year of my birth.

BossArky

I would recommend "the Nights Dawn Trilogy" by Peter F.Hamilton. It was the last sci-fi trilogy that I read when I was about late teens or 20. The world he creates in the book intrigued me and had me spending many hours pondering his view of the future. Its not a classic read by any accounts, but highly enjoyable and worth the few weeks / months it takes to get through. It took him 10 years to write the lot.

grimsbymatt

BossArky wrote:

Actually, Midnights Children received an award in 1981 - I remember that from reading it as its the year of my birth.

That was probably the year it first won the Booker prize. There was a special Booker of Bookers given in the nineties for the best Booker prize winner of the previous 25 years.

Wikipedia says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight%27s_Children): -

Wikipedia wrote:

The novel won the 1981 Booker Prize and was later awarded the 'Booker of Bookers' prize in 1993 - being the best novel to be awarded the Booker Prize in its first 25 years.

audge

A boy called it

dundalk cailin

i love readin, i read a book called 'dublin' by edward somebody and i was surprised by how much i enjoyed it. i love chick-lit my fave being PS i love you, just finished it last night fourth time reading it :eek:

Andy-Pandy

.Impossable to narrow it down to just the one, so here in no paticular order are some of my favorites.

1. A million little peices by James Frey
2. A Song of ice and fire by George RR MArtin
3. All three of Robin Hobb Trilogy's
4. His Dark Materials By Philip Pullman
5. The Amazing adventures of Caviler and Clay by Michael Chabon
6. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenes
7. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere also rocks)
8. The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks
9. Im a big fan of David Gemmel
10. The first Dune Trilogy by Frank Herbert
11. The Secret History By Donna Tart
12. Shanteram By Gregory David Roberts
13. Magician By Feist

There the one's that stick in my mind, and its only meant to be one. Sorry for all of them.

ratboy

big thumbs up for Shantataram, fantastic book.

Dagnir Glaurung

The Atheist wrote:

So you've based your judgement on having read about an eighth of the trilogy? One thing that people appreciate about HDM is how the books develop. The incredible final book is quite far removed from the first in its scope and depth.

Somebody start a thread dammit!

On the other hand, you shouldn't have to wade through an eight of the book bored just to read the 'good' bits. It should be great all the way through so you can't say that you have to read it all to form an opinion on it.

Andy-Pandy

Dagnir Glaurung wrote:

On the other hand, you shouldn't have to wade through an eight of the book bored just to read the 'good' bits. It should be great all the way through so you can't say that you have to read it all to form an opinion on it.

Perhaps to form a valid opinion though.

Perhaps 'valid' is to strong a word, but you really should give it a proper try. Its amazing.

Johnny Storm

"Dispatches" by Michael Kerr.
It a beautifully written book about a reporter's experiences in the Vietnam war. It transcends the war book genre.
"Ubik" by the incomparible Philip K. Dick.

Dagnir Glaurung

Andy-Pandy wrote:

Perhaps to form a valid opinion though.

Perhaps 'valid' is to strong a word, but you really should give it a proper try. Its amazing.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I read it and loved it all. I'm just saying that you shouldn't have to suffer through a whole 800 page book you don't enjoy just to form a 'valid' opinion. If somebody read 100 pages of a book, I'd say there opinion on it is pretty valid.

Dades

Dagnir Glaurung wrote:

If somebody read 100 pages of a book, I'd say there opinion on it is pretty valid.

A valid opinion of 100 pages maybe! I don't think book critics/judges would get away with not reading the entire book.

I made myself finish Catcher in the Rye so I'd have a leg to stand on when I bitched about it.

Flinty

If you are into crime/thrillers, anything by Michael Connelly is great, particularly the Harry Bosch stuff.

Kiith

Memories of Ice or Chain of Dogs by Steven Erikson

or any of the malazan books.

Setun

Well it's not my type of book and I'm not a professional critic. I read for pleasure, so I'm not going to read something I'm not enjoying. Each to their own and that.

finlma

I read The Beach years before there was a mention of it being made into a rubbish movie and thought it was brilliant. It inspired me to go and see the world.

Also Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Fear & Loathing

lacuna

Though not my favourite, one book that struck me was "Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow" by Peter Hoeg. It's intriguing and I thought the plot unusual and refreshing.

lilmissprincess

Has to be "Ballet Shoes" by Noel Streatfield. Best girly book ever!

Dave3x

I can't believe only one other person has mentioned A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin! Fantastic book, really has an epic scope- it's currently on book 4, and the 3rd book of the series was larger than the entire LOTR trilogy. Non-stop reading. Incredible. My favourites change, but this one has had the top spot for a year.

For a short read, I absoluelty love Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

And as for His Dark Materials... I read Northern Lights, and was left with no impulse to read more. The ideas are reasonably good, but I found both the plot and writing simple and lacking in structure. I don't know the text well enough to give specific examples, so don't ask! But I'd wholeheartedly agree with the 'holiday read' claim. Maybe it gets better, but I've never read a really great book with several hundred bad pages....

John

Dave3x wrote:

I found both the plot and writing simple and lacking in structure.

I thought the writing was concise but not simple. Some very beautiful passages in all three books.

Dades

Dave3x wrote:

I can't believe only one other person has mentioned A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin!... And as for His Dark Materials... I'd wholeheartedly agree with the 'holiday read' claim.

I'm halfway through George RR Martin's series and absolutely riveted. On the other hand HDM is my all time favorite.

Go figure!