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Original poster

What is the most beautiful book you have ever read?

232 replies

umbrellabird · 21/10/2014 06:01

I've had a tough year and just want to surround myself in good things...

OP posts:
Norfolkandchance1234 · 23/10/2014 21:11

I cried when I read the last couple of pages of that book for the first time to my DS, hormones ! I was pregnant with DD.

Happypogostick · 23/10/2014 21:03

Guess how much I love you.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 23/10/2014 20:59

But I am bloody awkward, so do feel free to ignore!

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 23/10/2014 20:57

Lots of books on here, I hated. I think I must be wired differently. Confused Hated, '1000 Splendid Suns' and detested, 'Never Let Me Go' and, 'The Remains of the Day.'

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 23/10/2014 20:55

Nice to see, 'Paula' mentioned again. More people need to read this lovely book. :)

Achooblessyou · 23/10/2014 20:54

Another one for the god of small things there's no other book quite like it. Bit of a marmite book though I think.

FiveGoMadInDorset · 23/10/2014 20:51

Sad but beautiful, Paula by Isabelle Allende, a eulogy to her daughter.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 23/10/2014 20:46

The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver-so descriptive, I've read and re read it. Rebecca by DDM-it's like watching a film reading it, in particular the part where she walks through the rhododendron garden, you can almost smell themSmile

whattheseithakasmean · 23/10/2014 18:52

skolastica when the dog is shot in I am David, snivel. A wonderful book.

Bolshybookworm · 23/10/2014 17:30

YY to on the Black Hill. I love all of Bruce chatwins work.

AlfAlf · 23/10/2014 12:41

Clawdy for me, the beauty of A Thousand Splendid Suns is in the way the characters go through so much, experience so much ugliness and inhumanity, yet keep their own innate goodness (their ability to love and trust, their own humanity) intact.
I also like the feminist angle.

Spookgremlin · 23/10/2014 12:03

I've just ordered The Summer Book after recommendations on here, it is only £1.79 on the Kindle if anyone's interested.

BananaRaces · 23/10/2014 11:48

I would like to add support for these ones, which have already been mentioned:
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
The Summer Book - Tove Jansson
A Room with a View - E.M. Forster
The Great Gatsby -
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby

But would also add:
Kim - Rudyard Kipling
The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa
Embers - Sandor Marai

skolastica · 23/10/2014 11:07

Ann Holm - I am David

Simple and very very powerful

VelvetGreen · 23/10/2014 11:05

Lots on here that i love - George Eliot, Angela Carter, Milan Kundera, Isabel Allende. Would add Bruce Chatwin's On the Black Hill - absolutely beautiful book without a single word wasted. Also The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Expurery - definitely not just for children.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 23/10/2014 10:51

I agree that Sue Townsend writes absolutely beautifully. Such a shame she didn't do more "serious" novels.

Clawdy · 23/10/2014 10:43

Am I the only one who found A Thousand Splendid Suns a rather unpleasant read? Didn't find much beauty in it at all.

Aghaidh · 23/10/2014 09:45

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Breathtakingly beautiful prose

JohnFarleysRuskin · 23/10/2014 09:25

I didn't love 'a Thousand Splendid suns' as much as I did the writer's first book, 'Kite runner'.

GeeandTea · 23/10/2014 08:07

I am seconding a thousand splendid suns, five people you meet in heaven and the goldfinch.

Also adding the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold fry. Gentle but life affirming. A wonderful read.

ExitPursuedByABear · 23/10/2014 07:44

Shameless place marking so I can take notes.

Mumzy · 22/10/2014 23:24

The Great Gatsby for its decadence - Scott Fitxgerald
Persuasion for unrequited love and regret - Jane Austen
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 for evoking teenage angst perfectly - Sue Townsend
Owl Babies for motherhood - Martin Waddell

WookieCookiee · 22/10/2014 22:04

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

A Suitable Boy -Vikram Seth

The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng

LalyRawr · 22/10/2014 21:58

The Book Theif.

My first comment when I finished it was actually ''That was the most beautiful book I've ever read.'

ScreamingSmegs · 22/10/2014 21:56

My most beautiful book is The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Beautiful, tragic, deeply evocative. Made me go back and read Jane Eyre again with fresh eyes.

If you want a happy, beautiful book then I recommend The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. It's almost dreamlike in how lovely it is.