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.

[teenidle]

aww, look at all the people here who never even made it to 5 posts.
...
I'm gonna say "The Fountainhead", by Ayn Rand.
And "Sophie's World", by Jostein Gaarder. It's kind of about philosophy and the history of philosophy (and I admit to sometimes skipping those parts), but also a novel at the same time, with an interesting plot at that, and the ending is my favorite ending, ever.
Also, "Second Foundation", by Isaac Asimov. Sure, the whole series is great, but this one stands out for me.

I'm definitely bookmarking this thread, though.

[fropa]

ulysses by james joyce for its poetry, comedy, and complexity

[sparkyb]

My favorite book is "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" by Cory Doctorow. It is short so that I pretty much read it in a single sitting every time (because I also can't put it down). I love it because it is an interesting premise of the future, but mostly because of how much I can identify personally with the struggle of the main character.

Spoiler:

...to keep control of a thing and keep it then same when change is inevitable and his own stubbornness is his undoing.

Also because it takes place in Disney World, my favorite place.

[addams]

Have I recommended John Varley's Persistence of Vision, yet?

It is Science Fiction. It is a collection of short stories.
It like all SciFi carries memes.

The memes I remember Persistence of Vision carrying are ones of Good Natured Hope.
Complex acceptance, intelligent action and interpersonal and cross species relationships that Work.

Spoiler:

I remember the Mars Colony that was thriving when help arrived from Earth.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/v/joh ... vision.htm

******
*****
Books. I want to write about a book. Not the whole book, One Poem.
I was a child. I read. Once I learned to do it. Hard to learn.

I was reading Poetry and stories written, sometimes before The Great War=WWl.
It may have been American. I did not understand one Poem.

When I did not understand words I went to Grandpa.
He was not a Native Speaker. He was Good.

He spoke with an accent. He read and spoke and he could write.
I took the book to him. He was outside. We were outside.

He read the Poem/Story. Then we sat down and I looked at the drawing and listened to Grandpa.
The drawing was an Old Man of something over Thirty. Older. Maybe not in years.

The Old Man sits beside a Child. The child is Male. The Child holds a Human Skull.
The Old Man and the Child Speak.

The Old Man tells of a Battle that was fought upon The Soil.
"The plow turns them up, sometimes, Child."
What animal is this, GrandPa?

"Child this us us."
"We fought and died upon this field."

Ech. It was long. But; Not complicated.
GrandPa started telling me about Why he and I were sitting where we were.

He said things. Grandpa said, "This Land. This Land has never known War."
It was true in Grandpa's mind. Peacenik? Grandpa?

Yes. His full time job, after everything else, was to not piss off Grandma.
Grandpa had lost a lot during the WWI. He was one of those Jumpy guys, maybe.

I don't Know! His government told him, You want to Go? Go!
They let him pick Anywhere. Who knows why he chose a Fertile Valley in a far off Land?

He lived a long time on that one piece of land. It was a gift to him from his people.
Most never knew they did it. When WWII rolled into Town, some of his people had a place to go.

My Grandmother never learned a word of Norwegian. A few. She thought they were English.
He liked her. I liked her, too. When she wasn't mad at my Mother for leaving me there.

Or, Mad at me for looking like my Father. Or; Mad about something someone at Work did.
Grandpa could sooth The Savage Beast.

Stupid American Story. Old Books like that are sometimes kept.
Remember Heidi? Like that; Only We Had All the Bells and Whistles.

Grandpa had Grandma after he Tamed her.
She did not stay Tame.

War brought Grandpa here. Then his people.
He did not like War. He said he had seen it.

When Grandma was at work,
Grandpa could talk to me or the dogs.

Sometimes both. I sat on the floor with the dogs.
Poor Grandma. She and Grandpa put a clear plastic Runner down the path the dogs and I took through the Living Room.
I had a hard time adjusting to Mud. You?

This is about Books. Those old books told stories to and about Children.
That book was in English.
Why would someone tell a child that lives in a place with no Human Skulls about Human Skulls?

Animal Skulls, too. Animal skulls are common.
Human skulls are Not common.

[Vinleg]

My favourite series is also my first series i've read in my life, which is His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I love it simply because of its vulgarity and science (what do you call that area of science without backed-up evidence such as parallel universe and dark matter) wrapped in a fictional story centered around a very philosophical and almost religion-provoking topic. Anyone a big fan of the series?

[kiniget]

that's exactly the series that I was about to mention.
those books shaped massive portions of my outlook on life

[DireKobold]

I''m really loving the Nassim Nicholas Taleb books. The Black Swan was amazing and I'm about half-way through Antifragile and it might be even better.

It's not fiction like the most of the submissions, but I think in terms of understanding the modern world and how it works, I don't know of any books that are better.

[Yablo]

I generally prefer classic literature. The Three Musketeers is my favorite novel since it has everything; action, romance, intrigue, duels, alcohol consumption on a dangerous level, and even humor. After that, I would have to say The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy since it's pure entertainment, and you can read a hundred pages before you realize it. Catch-22 deserves an honorable mention as it's also pure entertainment.

[fuzzbucket]

I loved The Ocean at the End of the Lane, so much.
I discovered it at my library completely accidentally, I hadn't known Gaiman had published a new book!

[addams]

I have discovered my favorite book changes.
At the moment my favorite book is Brother Void's Daily afflictions.

I think the man is Hysterical.
http://www.dailyafflictions.com/readthebook.html

[EMTP]

I really love (and don't judge me) "Pride and Prejudice". Lizzie is my favourite heroine!

Why on earth would anyone judge you? Jane Austen is a fucking stone cold badass. She's on most scholars' lists of the top five or ten novelists of all time.

[Celdir]

Some of my favorites are:

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the whole series, but specifically the first three)
The Once and Future King (because who doesn't love Arthurian mythology)
A Song of Ice and Fire (the Game of Thrones series)

[Quercus]

I won't call Angels & Demons sci-fi. Yes it does deal with science but it is more like a new genre that was created by Dan Brown which I'd like to coin as religious fiction. He deals with religion in two books and he puts fiction in them..

I know this is serious necro-posting but I was reading back through the list for some inspiration for my next book and I don't feel I can let this stand. Dan Brown certainly did not invent religious fiction, or even religious science fiction. If we restrict ourselves to real-world religions (thereby excluding books like Dune, where fictional religions play a major role), and books that are religious allegories (thereby excluding books such as the Narnia series), we have at least A canticle for Leibowitz, published in 1960, and probably others I don't know about.

Oh and as this is a favourite book thread, I'll join those who went for the Grapes of Wrath. It's a wonderfully powerful exploration of the preservation of humanity in the most inhumane of circumstances, and it's Steinbeck, who is in my opinion is possibly the finest wordsmith I have ever had the privilege of encountering.

[addams]

I won't call Angels & Demons sci-fi. Yes it does deal with science but it is more like a new genre that was created by Dan Brown which I'd like to coin as religious fiction. He deals with religion in two books and he puts fiction in them..

I know this is serious necro-posting but I was reading back through the list for some inspiration for my next book and I don't feel I can let this stand. Dan Brown certainly did not invent religious fiction, or even religious science fiction. If we restrict ourselves to real-world religions (thereby excluding books like Dune, where fictional religions play a major role), and books that are religious allegories (thereby excluding books such as the Narnia series), we have at least A canticle for Leibowitz, published in 1960, and probably others I don't know about.

Oh and as this is a favourite book thread, I'll join those who went for the Grapes of Wrath. It's a wonderfully powerful exploration of the preservation of humanity in the most inhumane of circumstances, and it's Steinbeck, who is in my opinion is possibly the finest wordsmith I have ever had the privilege of encountering.

Thank you for the suggestion.
I did not read the book.

I read some of the Wiki on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

Thank you for leaving a link.
Those are interesting ideas, to me.

There is another book I did not read:
'How The Irish Saved Civilization'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_Ir ... vilization

A human being told me, his take on that book and several others.
His thesis was something about The Church is a bit like the Madden Aunt.

Maybe not so much these days.
But; In the past, The Church protected both the physical books and the ability to read and write them.

The Formal Behavoir Required from each and every person also helped.
Those are strange conversations.

I have learned illiteracy is very high in the US.
That is in the year 2014.

It seems functional illiteracy is the Norm not the Special Case.
Who needs to read, these days? The News is spoken.

Pockets of Illertacy?
We may have pockets of illiteracy.

We may have a national norm of Functional Illiteracy.
(shrug)

The Church did amazing things in education.
Are they still doing that?

Penny for Penny, The Church produced better results in education no matter where the students came from.
They had a structure that Translated. (shrug) I read a bunch of papers. And; Papers about Papers.

I was hanging out with some Education Department people.
They thought their papers were fascinating. I agreed with them.

[Edwards]

Camras Good Beer Guide, by Roger Protz
I buy it every year.

[Kristen23]

'The Prodigal Daughter' - by Jeffrey Archer

[Muz]

It's always been hard for me to pick a single favorite, but one that always come to mind when people ask me this is a little-known supernatural potboiler called The List of 7, by Mark Frost (co-creator of Twin Peaks). Arthur Conan Doyle is the main character, caught up in a supernatural mystery with an agent of the British Crown who would (or so the novel postulates) become the inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes. It's dark, exciting, and not without a sense of humor.

Plus it features a minor character (and chapter title) with one of the best names I've ever heard: "Bodger Nuggins."

I'm also big on Hyperion by Dan Simmons and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, but those are more well-known...

[Boyd1]

I love Slaughterhouse 5, but The Sirens of Titan is by far my favorite book.

[jules.LT]

"Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

And I'm not the only one, apparently

Cheerfully disrespectful, full of silly stuff, kindness and intelligence.
If you haven't read it yet, you're really missing out.

[Asmodieus]

My favorite book at the moment is "Ada or Ardor" by Nabokov. It's such a hedonistic, debonair book, it was very fun to read.

[chad23]

I love Slaughterhouse 5, but The Sirens of Titan is by far my favorite book.

These two are my favorites of Kurt Vonnegut's.

Stil, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the book that touched me deeply and it's best of the best for me.

[kaispencer]

So much Lord of the rings fans) My favourite was and is Tarzan of the Apes. Awesome world and plot and all) I just love it)

[stopmadnessnow]

The Art of Coarse Acting by Michael Green. The guide for learning how to overact.