What is the best book you have ever read?

[KatyDidItAgain]

What was it, and why was it so good?

Mine is Nevil Shute's Trustee from the toolroom for his wonderful portrayal of the main character, Keith.

[Portofino]

I still love "the Godfather". Not very literary but it has a bit of everything. Love , death, loyalty, betrayal, money..

[JumpingJackSprat]

assassins apprentice by robin hobb - as it introduced me to the character of The Fool.

[TooMuchRain]

Picking one is very difficult, but I recently re-read An Equal Music and it is just beautiful, often I find I read things where I really love the style but am untouched by the story (or vice versa) but with that one I really felt drawn into the whole musical world as well.

[Greydog]

Agree with Portofino - the Godfather. My Fav book ever! (so much so that I'm having a Godfather birtday party!) My other all time fav is Mist over Pendle

[ShatnersBassoon]

The Grapes of Wrath. Compulsive reading, and it haunted my thoughts long after I'd finished it.

[FayKnights]

Another vote here for The Godfather . Also The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris is my favourite go to book.
I love these threads, I come away with lots of new ideas.

[notnowbernard]

To Kill A Mocking Bird

It totally sucks me in, every time

[KenDoddsDadsDog]

The Bell Jar , Sylvia Plath

[MyBoysAreFab]

One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest.
Also Billy Liar.

[notnowbernard]

'Room' had me utterly hooked

[ExitPursuedByABear]

Not read any of these.

No idea of my favourite.

[ExitPursuedByABear]

Whoops. Have read some of these

[MyCatHasStaff]

The Women's Room was my favourite for ages, but I love The Time Traveller's Wife now.

[DoItTooJulia]

1984, hence my name.

Anything by Kingsolver or Attwood or Allende, but I really enjoyed The Seamstress and The American Wife.

[PlateSpinningAtAllTimes]

Lord of the Rings and His Dark Materials (does a trilogy count?)

[MamaMary]

The God of Small Things bowled me over.

Amongst Women is very powerful.

The Remains of the Day is one of the most beautifully written, understated and moving novels I have ever read.

Jane Eyre is one I will always return to. I will probably keep re-reading it and Wuthering Heights until I die or can no longer read.

But I don't have one favourite. Sorry OP

[Yddraigoldragon]

World Class, Jane and Burt Boyar. I had a paperback as a teen, lost it, bought a second hand ex library copy from the US, which fell apart but I still have the bits! I have since picked up an old paperback and have it on kindle...
It tells the story of the birth of open professional tennis, follows fictional characters from junior level to Wimbledon, and I have to read it again every year in June.

[ExitPursuedByABear]

How can you choose?

All those books ......

[MrsHowardRoark]

This is such a difficult question to answer but if I had to pick one then I'd go for Brideshead Revisited.

It is such a beautifully written book that completely draws you in.

Or Blindness by Jose Saramago.

It's an impossible choice!

[Dollybird86]

The colour purple

[thecatfromjapan]

I can't think of "best" - i think I'm too much of a fiction flibbertigibbet to have a "best".

At the moment I'm besotted with Penelope Fitzgerald. Her books are now on Kindle (hurray!) and I've just finished "Offshore", which was brilliant!

I was reading it at the same time as Grace Coddington's memoirs and the intersection with the 60s King's Road was very fortuitous.

Fitzgerald is funny - but not aggressively so - and generous towards her characters. She does really fascinating things with language in "Offshore", letting meaning slip to and fro by means of the specialised nautical language. I also found it quite optimistic.

[ILoveMimislabel]

Written on the body by Jeanette winterson. Really poetic and full of love angst. It's written so you don't know the gender of the character and I love that about it.

[MyBoysAreFab]

Oh, and just remembered another - Little Women. It is impossible to narrow it down to one!

[RubySparks]

A few... William Wharton 'Birdy', Douglas Kennedy 'The Woman in the Fifth', anything by Robert Ryan and Amitabh Ghosh 'The Glass Palace'.

[KatyDidItAgain]

I'm agreeing with so many of these - Room was excellent, so was The Lollipop Shoes. As for the others, I have sent samples of them to my kindle to have a look at later.