What is your favourite book?

[darwinwins]

Invisible Man, Ellison
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Haddon (No love here?)
Oryx and Crake; Cat's Eye, Atwood
East of Eden; Cannery Row; The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway (I didn't much like his other novels--The Garden of Eden in particular was awful.)
Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
Madame Bovary, Flaubert
All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Chabon (Best Christmas present in years!)
Catch-22, Heller
The Stand, King
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald (I didn't like Tender is the Night, but This Side of Paradise was good.)
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Márquez
The nearly-ubiquitous Ender's Game, Card (Speaker of the Dead was fair, but I only managed to drag myself through Xenocide, Children of the Mind, and the Ender's Shadow series through a combined sense of loyalty and masochism.)

props for oryx and crake. nobody's read that book. i think most people expect a certain type of book from margaret atwood and decided to skip that novel. i can't seem to get into her other works but when i read it, i was in the middle of a bio-ethics class and loved every bit of that book. i still have issues eating processed chicken on a regular basis these days.

[chelidon]

props for oryx and crake. nobody's read that book. i think most people expect a certain type of book from margaret atwood and decided to skip that novel. i can't seem to get into her other works but when i read it, i was in the middle of a bio-ethics class and loved every bit of that book. i still have issues eating processed chicken on a regular basis these days.

The default reaction to Atwood seems to be either Wuh? or some mention of "retro feminist shit." It's really a pity! I've read a few of her other books and thought they were good, if not great.

Well, actually, I read one of her earliest novels not too long ago and hated it. The only thing I can remember is that it involved a revolution on a Caribbean island and a lady with a disgustingly cutesy name. (Wikipedia! Ugh, it's called Bodily Harm, and the main character is Reenie.) If that were the first book of Atwood's that I had read, I'd want to avoid her too!

[Kendo_Bunny]

Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell (It's not a love story or a romance! Why do book publishers keep insisting that it is!?)
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
Betsy~Tacy, Maud Hart Lovelace
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
1984, George Orwell
Anthem, Ayn Rand
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 (How can I choose just one story from it?)
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Alice in Wonderland and Her Adventures Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
The Hitchhiker's Trilogy, Douglas Adams
Harrison Beregon, Kurt Vonnegut
The Bonesetter's Daughter, Amy Tan
Five Chimneys, Olga Lengyel

Poetry-wise, I'm a particular fan of T.S. Eliot (my favorite poem is 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'), Allen Ginsburg, Matthew Arnold, Theodore Roethke, and Samuel Coleridge. Actually, I like a lot of poetry... I also love Shakespeare, but that's because I went to private school and had to memorize half of the King James Bible. Knowing Elizabethan English really helps with the jokes.

[mmx49]

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

[TheAmazingRando]

In no particular order except for the first:

V. - Thomas Pynchon (his best, in my opinion)
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Watchmen - Alan Moore

And I'm sure Nabokov's Pale Fire would be on the list if I could ever get around to finishing it.

[tenohsix]

I've been lurking for some time and joined mostly because of this:

The New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster: Modern fiction that is actually good. Not only is it good, it's god damn genius. Comprised of three books, this series is a puzzle in itself, and enjoyable on just about every level.

Yes! I love the New York Trilogy and have never met anyone else who's read it. Some other favorites:

The View From Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg
The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
Lloyd Alexander's Westmark Trilogy
King Lear, and The Tempest

and, like many people here,
most anything Terry Pratchett, and
Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series.

[prime]

The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

I love that book. Never found anyone else who does until now.

[tenohsix]

@Prime: That's awesome! I've got an audiobook version that I think I must have listened to at least six or seven times in the last few years. It's got such a well-developed cast of characters, and I love the little, clever twists that Raskin works into the plot. And of course, I'm also a fan of books that rework the traditional detective story trope, which Raskin does - she's made excellent use of murder mystery elements to get the story into motion, but the book isn't at all constrained by this framework.

[l33t_sas]

Flatland - Edwin Abbott Abbott

Closely followed by Ender's Game (and I read it years before xkcd!)

[Celestial]

The Importance of being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
The Alchemist - Paul Coelho
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Emma - Jane Austen
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
A Midsummers Night Dream - William Shakespeare <3

[darwinwins]

The Importance of being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
The Alchemist - Paul Coelho
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Emma - Jane Austen
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
A Midsummers Night Dream - William Shakespeare <3

a good part of me wants to fight you for the mention of the alchemist but the rest are aces.

[Muppetizer]

The Farseer Trilogy, Robin Hobb.

A few years ago, I got the entire English department at my highschool in love with Robin Hobb.

[violaxcore]

the picture of dorian gray - oscar wilde

good omens is a close second

[Celestial]

The Importance of being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
The Alchemist - Paul Coelho
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Emma - Jane Austen
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
A Midsummers Night Dream - William Shakespeare <3

a good part of me wants to fight you for the mention of the alchemist but the rest are aces.

Hes a best selling author for a reason!! I really like that book okay.. and I am sure students will be reading them in 100 years time for english lit classes!!!

[reflectia]

This list changes almost daily, so I just might look back on this post in a month or even a week and decide that I don't like half the books anymore once I reread them.

Just off the top of my head -

1984 - Orwell
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest - Wilde
Jane Eyre - Bronte
Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury
Ender's Game - Card
Brave New World - Huxley
Atlas Shrugged - Rand
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald
Hitchhiker's Guide - Adams
Pride and Prejudice - Austen
Rebecca - du Maurier
Flatland - Abbott
Slaughterhouse-Five - Vonnegut
Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
The Three Musketeers - Dumas

This post feels abnormally long already, and almost all of these have been mentioned, so I'll stop here. It actually feels kind of strange to be thinking about all these books when I haven't read a really good one in a while. I've been wanting to get my hands on I Am America (And So Can You!) but our public library never has it in, and the hold time is almost 3 months.

[darwinwins]

Hes a best selling author for a reason!! I really like that book okay.. and I am sure students will be reading them in 100 years time for english lit classes!!!

you know, i don't really see that happening. i know he's a decent writer but that book is about as deep as a cup of lipton tea. (no offense to those whom dig that crappy tea)

[George Orr]

I've been lurking for some time and joined mostly because of this:

The New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster: Modern fiction that is actually good. Not only is it good, it's god damn genius. Comprised of three books, this series is a puzzle in itself, and enjoyable on just about every level.

Yes! I love the New York Trilogy and have never met anyone else who's read it. Some other favorites:

The View From Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg
The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
Lloyd Alexander's Westmark Trilogy
King Lear, and The Tempest

and, like many people here,
most anything Terry Pratchett, and
Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series.

Great to meet someone else who likes the New York Trilogy!

I, too, dig the westing game. I actually re-read it just last year, and it held up very well for a book I originally read untold years ago. It's such a well-developed mystery...way better than all that Dan Brown Hogwash.

Also, I don't really remember The View From Saturday all that well, but I definitely love the hell out of From the Mixed-up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Seriously, that book was awesome. So Konigsburg gets love from me, no question there.

[Number3Pencils]

I never used to have a single answer for this question (in fact I posted here earlier with two different books). Now I know: Walden. Yep, call me an unrealistic idealist, but that's the one.

[Alibaba]

Ender's Game is one of them... I read it every year and use it as my "extra credit summer reading assignment".

[TheAmazingRando]

I just picked up City of Glass, in part because of this thread. If I like it I'll be sure to check out the rest of the New York Trilogy.

[VoteBob]

Absolute, all time favorite book: How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers. You should read it. Right now.

[Mandiful]

"The Lions of Al-Rassan" by Guy Gavriel Kay.
One of the most beautifully-written masterpieces I've ever read. His characters have such a development, and you begin to truly feel for the them and relate to them.

[xndrew]

Absolute, all time favorite book: How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers. You should read it. Right now.

You win all of the internets I could ever have. Which story is your favorite. And yes, all of them is an acceptable answer, but which one doyou grind your teeth and go "yeah, I guess this one was better than that one" but then feel relieved because you know you have a favorite and you don't want to say it's "What It Means When a Crowd in a Faraway Nation Takes a Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him from His Vehicle and Then Mutilates Him in the Dust" because it's strong and bold, but short, and you don't want to choose it because you feel like "Up The Mountain Coming Down Slowly" is so powerful you can't really deal with it, but you finally decide on "After I Was Thrown In The River and Before I Drowned" because it captures youth like a soothsayer and makes you feel good about being alive. (Read: You=I)

But damn right that's a great book. I just finished You Shall Know Our Velocity and I'd recommend it if you like Eggers. Even if you don't, or if you like travel books, or if you like funny and gut wrenching and upsetting and beautiful books.

[VoteBob]

Absolute, all time favorite book: How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers. You should read it. Right now.

You win all of the internets I could ever have. Which story is your favorite. And yes, all of them is an acceptable answer, but which one doyou grind your teeth and go "yeah, I guess this one was better than that one" but then feel relieved because you know you have a favorite and you don't want to say it's "What It Means When a Crowd in a Faraway Nation Takes a Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him from His Vehicle and Then Mutilates Him in the Dust" because it's strong and bold, but short, and you don't want to choose it because you feel like "Up The Mountain Coming Down Slowly" is so powerful you can't really deal with it, but you finally decide on "After I Was Thrown In The River and Before I Drowned" because it captures youth like a soothsayer and makes you feel good about being alive. (Read: You=I)

But damn right that's a great book. I just finished You Shall Know Our Velocity and I'd recommend it if you like Eggers. Even if you don't, or if you like travel books, or if you like funny and gut wrenching and upsetting and beautiful books.

I own every Dave Eggers book out there right now. They just make me feel so... right.

I, of course, love all the stories in How We Are Hungry, but my favorites are probably "Climbing to the window, pretending to dance," "Your mother and I," and "The only meaning of the oil wet water." Everything he writes is just so poignant and honest. You read it and you're just like "Yes! Yes, that's exactly how it is!" even when it's about something you've never, and maybe will never experience.

[Anasazi]

My favourite book of all time is 1984, and it's also the scariest book I've ever read.

I recently read Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke, and that would probably be my favourite book if not for 1984, just for how much it changed my perspective of the world. It /opened my mind/. Very, very good book.

I was reading today, and I noticed it said that they punched julia in her solar plexus
cool

[zingmaster]

If anyone is interested, one of my favorite relaxed reads (as in, requires no thinking whatsoever) is Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo, basically a high school drama centered around a science fair. And unlike other high school dramas, it's not too dramatic. And the characters are fun to follow. They're pretty unique and slightly extreme, but not too much. It's by Greg Pearson Leitich, or someone whose name looks like that.

Oh, and it's pretty short.

[Anasazi]

Harry Potter series
Abarat series
Unlundun
yeah, I have a bunch more

[Metty]

I just read Max Barry's 'Jennifer Government'.

I knew I'd love it before I even got it. It was awesome.

[Fossa]

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

Hands down my favorite book by itself.

George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is right up there as well, though.

[pollywog]

George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is right up there as well, though.

I really wish my library had the first book of that, so that I could start reading it, as a lot of people tell me that it is quite good.

[Fossa]

Its worth buying. I've reread the series about 4 times now.

[pollywog]

Local bookshops are not of the requisite standard to contain it. If I stood in front of the sci-fi and fantasy section, I would block it. I've looked, and it's not there. *brainwave* I'll check Trademe.

[Renko]

Catch 22, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Cat's Cradle, Lord of the Flies, Atlas Shrugged (I know. make fun of me), and im currently reading infinite jest and enjoying it alot. also, for pure nostalgic reasons, there will always be a place in my heart for His Dark Materials and The Dark Tower Series and Ender's Game.

but being a teenage kid, Ive only recently started enjoying reading anything besides sci-fi or fantasy. So, Ive got alot of stuff lined up to try out. Im putting off reading pynchon, haha.

[justaman]

sooo many books so little time, I'll list some authors instead and a few books where I think only a few are any good:

Fiction:
J.L. Borges (especially his shorter stories)
H. Murakami: any of them but especially "norwegian wood" and "the wind-up bird chronicles"
T. Pratchett
G. Grass: "tin drum" and "dog years"
H. Hesse: "the glass bead game" and "siddartha"
J.R.R. Tolkein
I. Asimov
R. Heinlein
A.S. Byatt "elementals' is the best
A. Solzhenitsyn "Cancer ward" try his gulag archipelago (NF) series too, hard going and very brutal but shocking and reasonably well written
A.C. Clarke (2001 is his best, and the movie is excellent)
S. Rushdie, you can't go past "Satanic verses" but others are equally good
M. Twain - mostly tom and huck series though the later ones get a bit wierd
D. Adams, all the H2G2 series and Dirk Gently
E. Hemingway "The old man and the sea" is the greatest story ever
R. Goscinny and A. Uderzo: Asterix series
A. Burgess - any
R. Graves, especially the "claudius" series
F. Herbet - especially Dune

Others worthy of mention: E.E. Smith for some very superceded SF, N. Mailer, H. Lee, too many to list really, so I'll stop there

For NF, I also have huge list, but especially Bill Bryson, Frank Hurley, Apsley Cherry Garrard and Campbell of "biology" fame

Note to self: Geez enough already

[wittyknee]

Some of the favorites:

To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee (Atticus Finch is one of my favorite fictional characters ever.)
Harry Potter Series... by J.K. Rowling
Angles and Demons by Dan Brown
I am America (and so can you!) by Stephen Colbert
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

And many more. I'm just too lazy to go look at my large bookcase. That and I'm constantly reading so it gets hard to define them anymore.

[aitrus]

My favorite is a book called Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle. Alternate History and even alternate science, it's a world where the science of the Greeks was correct: the Earth is the center of the universe, everything is composed of the four elements (fire, earth, air, and water), and the Celestial matter cannot be destroyed. It's a great tale of morality and power set in a world so different from our own... I swear, this is one of the best books I've ever read.

[SPsnow02]

Great Series - Symphony of the Ages by Elizabeth Haydon,
The Wheel of time by Robert Jordan,
and I like the Halo books too

[Firnagzen]

Favourite book?

Mmm. I'd have to say that the Star Wars Episode 3 novelization by Matthew Stover is one of the best I have read. I don't know why, it's just a fantastic book, in my opinion.

Next? Eh, Interesting Times, The Last Continent, The Science of Discworld 1-2-3, all by Terry Pratchett.

[the_intern]

On The Road, Jack Kerouac

[bigglesworth]

George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is right up there as well, though.

I really wish my library had the first book of that, so that I could start reading it, as a lot of people tell me that it is quite good.

*Apologies for Librarian anger*

F**king ask the lending library and they will order it for you.