What is your favourite book?

[hurtlocker99]

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I really loved how the Joad family struggled as a cohesive unit and overcame the odds to make their trip cross country. Goes to show that if you have the support of your family then you can power through the tough times in life.

[Odilo]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is the most amazing book ever written.

[flarpfreak]

My favorite book would probably have to be 1Q84, mostly due to how deep into the human psyche it goes.

[Nylonathatep]

"Atlas Shrugged" - Ayn Rand.

[messy]

the hobbit.

[JohnGalt]

Glad to see that Murakami is appreciated by a surprisingly large number of posters. Its hard to pick one, but in the end I would say that "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" is my favourite book. I think, in it he struck the perfect balance between all the elements of his style. In other books he seemed to explore different elements more than others. Such as in "Kafka on the Shore" he focussed more than usual on the sexual aspects of the characters - too much in my opinion. "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" was exceedingly complex and intriguing - which I liked - but some of he characters felt under-developed. The "1Q84" series was almost on par with "Hard-Boiled Paradise" but also left much unexplained. "1Q84" was also interesting in that one of the characters came straight from "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle".

I also immensely enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes series and Dracula. If you haven't yet, and you enjoyed Dracula, I strongly recommend reading "Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

Yeah, long post... Sorry.

[thalia]

How anyone can pick one favourite is beyond me. It changes all the time, and I forget books I love because of time. And I want to name them all, for all of their great qualities.. But, I suppose I'll just name the ones that come to mind.

In the genre of obscure fantasy: I was really captivated by Andrzej Sapkowski's "The last wish". A great collection of monster stories.
I really love (and don't judge me) "Pride and Prejudice". Lizzie is my favourite heroine!
I of course love everything about H2G2, especially the scene where Marvin talks to the robot on the bridge.
I have to mention "The perks of being a wallflower", which I've recently re-read again while waiting for the movie to be released in Europe (which will happen sometime next century, I guess). That book helped me when I was an outcast from everything, and Charlie is just.. awesome.
The "Thursday Next" series is quickly becoming a favourite of mine, although I'm just two books in (and can't bloody FIND THEM anywhere)
Harry Potter, the great love of my childhood:)

[sccdemir]

How anyone can pick one favourite is beyond me. It changes all the time, and I forget books I love because of time. And I want to name them all, for all of their great qualities.. But, I suppose I'll just name the ones that come to mind.

In the genre of obscure fantasy: I was really captivated by Andrzej Sapkowski's "The last wish". A great collection of monster stories.
I really love (and don't judge me) "Pride and Prejudice". Lizzie is my favourite heroine!
I of course love everything about H2G2, especially the scene where Marvin talks to the robot on the bridge.
I have to mention "The perks of being a wallflower", which I've recently re-read again while waiting for the movie to be released in Europe (which will happen sometime next century, I guess). That book helped me when I was an outcast from everything, and Charlie is just.. awesome.
The "Thursday Next" series is quickly becoming a favourite of mine, although I'm just two books in (and can't bloody FIND THEM anywhere)
Harry Potter, the great love of my childhood:)

Sweet, yet another Wiedźmin fan? I picked up two of his books last year to play/read them in chronological order of events. There is nothing like being immersed in a universe with both video games and books of the same world. The sad part though is that after going through them I realised there were about 6 more prior books that hasn't been translated into English yet. It was like watching Lost, but starting from the 6th season.

[thalia]

I know! But there's a book being translated right now The one following "Blood of Elves". So that should be great.

I speak some Polish but not nearly enough to read the writing in a satisfactory manner, sadly.

[charliepanayi]

I work for the company that's published the first two Sapkowski books in English. We're getting the third one translated at the moment to come out next summer, with the fourth one to follow in early 2014. Sorry it's taken so long!

[thalia]

Really? Should I be excited? (because I am).

Thanks for putting it out there!

I went to this obscure fantasy convention last year, in June 2011. There were tons of Polish fantasy writers (not Sapkowski, sadly). But get this - George R.R. Martin was there! and we met him, and got some books signed, and we also met this guy who works for Empik (huge Polish book-and-stationary-and-media chain). And he tipped us off about an apparently amazing fantasy book that isn't translated. Man, I have it in Norway but I'm not at home until Christmas. I wish I could remember the name of it. The author was called Gregorz- something or other. He's already published in Poland, but I'd love to see him translated so I could read him, and if you are into that maybe I could ship you a copy as a sort of future investment in my own reading experiences.

I don't know if anything of what I just said made any sense at all. Alternatively, I'll just learn Polish. Somehow.

edit:
Some wonderful person found it for me!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarosław_Grzędowicz <-- the book I had in mind is Pan Lodowego Ogrodu / The Lord of the Ice Garden

[Protoform]

It's impossible for me to really pick a favourite book, given that there are so many different genres and different kind of books. But if I had to pick a few right now, I'd probably pick "Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain", by M.F. Bear as far as actual textbooks are concerned. For non-textbookish nonfiction, I'd choose "Gödel, Escher, Bach" by D.R. Hofstadter. Fiction... I really wouldn't know, there's just too much I find interesting. The Foundation Trilogy, perhaps, or maybe Permutation City. Perhaps even HHGTTG, if I'm being silly.

[Paradigm_Arsonist]

The Metamorphosis by Kafka had me staying up all night with my browser in fullscreen mode, desperately trying to get this nightmare over with. I loved it and hated it simultaneously. I don't know whether to make this point in this thread or the 'Worst/Overrated' thread.

[Guu]

The Metamorphosis by Kafka had me staying up all night with my browser in fullscreen mode, desperately trying to get this nightmare over with. I loved it and hated it simultaneously. I don't know whether to make this point in this thread or the 'Worst/Overrated' thread.

Yay Kafka! The story was also made into a film, it was really interesting (and sickening b/o beetle's perspective^^) to watch.
I really enjoyed Kafka's The Trial..

Other favourites are (off the top of my head):
Tolkien's Silmarillion! & LOTR
Ryu Murakami - Piercing
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon & The Minds of Billy Milligan
Mark Haddon - A Spot of Bother
J.S. Foer - Everything is illuminated
...and some other fantasy-stuff :]

[Puppyclaws]

Crash, by J.G. Ballard. I sometimes hesitate to recommend it to others, due to the weird sex content.

[addams]

The Metamorphosis by Kafka had me staying up all night with my browser in fullscreen mode, desperately trying to get this nightmare over with. I loved it and hated it simultaneously. I don't know whether to make this point in this thread or the 'Worst/Overrated' thread.

I was told to read the Metamorphosis when I was a teen.
It is good for people that do not fit into the family dynamic.

It is a misfit story. Many people know what it is to not fit.
Kafka hit one out of The Park. He describes the despair.

I was told, "Until you have an apple under your plate, it can get worse. Now; It's not so bad; Right?"
(it is a little funny. that story has helped generations of teens get though the worse of it.)

I was not exposed to any more Kafka until I was an adult.
As an adult, I rejected Kafka. We have enough weird shit.

I think of some of Kafka's stuff as Porn for The Soul.
My soul does not like that kind of Porn.

Kafka specialized in Dispair. yuck.
Why? Some people like Kafka.
Some people like pretending to suffer.

Kafka scares me. Do we need Kafka?
Not all of us do. Not me. ahhhh!

[Puppyclaws]

I think of some of Kafka's stuff as Porn for The Soul.
My soul does not like that kind of Porn.

This is really an excellent description of how I feel about Kafka. There is something...almost fluffy in his depth, with a dose of self-importance.