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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:
PausingFlatly · 22/10/2014 21:39

Any poetry by Musaemura Zimunya - try collections like Kingfisher, Jikinya and other poems.

VivaLeBeaver · 22/10/2014 21:37

Toms Midnight Garden is a beautiful, magical book.

areyoubeingserviced · 22/10/2014 21:17

Of Mice and Men

Bakeoffcakes · 22/10/2014 21:14

I love Half Of A Yellow Sun too. Beautiful writing.

I also love reading Graeme Green, The End Of The Affair is my favourite.

TsukuruTazaki · 22/10/2014 21:05

Haruki Murakami - anything by him
Tiny Sunbirds far away
Half of a yellow sun
Miss smillas feeling for snow

Spookgremlin · 22/10/2014 20:52

Oh The Secret Garden. Magical.

LaQueenIsKickingThroughLeaves · 22/10/2014 20:49

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Tiredemma · 22/10/2014 20:33

A Thousand Splendid Suns here.

whattheseithakasmean · 22/10/2014 20:31

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson-Burnett is my go-to book for smiling through tears. It is a child's book that you never grow out of. I know of no better evocation of childhood, friendship, bereavement, sorrow, nature, painful green shoots of hope and the enduring power of love that outlasts death. It is perfect.

Felyne · 22/10/2014 20:20

I love the way Pat Conroy writes, Beach Music and The Prince of Tides are beautiful and poetic.

I also read a Paulo Coelho book years ago, which I think was The Alchemist; I remember loving it and buying it for gifts a few times yet I can't now recall what it was about or even if it was that particular book - I have read others by him and was put off in one of his books where the character "meets the author, Paulo Coelho..." - really odd!

TunipTheUnconquerable · 22/10/2014 20:09

Oh, I LOVE Elizabeth von Arnim.
Tbh I think her more satirical ones are better than the romantic ones but I love how she can write about very soppy things without getting over-lyrical and without wasting words.
This has been an interesting thread because it seems a lot of my least favourite books are other people's favourites - without naming names, a lot of the books on here are things I find hideously over-written. Which just goes to show how varied personal taste can be.

Clawdy · 22/10/2014 20:06

The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim

MamaMary · 22/10/2014 19:36

Driving over Lemons by Chris Stewart is a beautiful travel memoir that stays with you.

Canyouforgiveher · 22/10/2014 18:21

Another vote for Gilead. Utterly beautiful.

Marilynne Robinson just published Lila - narrator is the wife in Gilead - in the US. I don't think it is published yet in UK. It is equally beautiful.

Uptheairymountain · 22/10/2014 18:03

I came on here to say Tanith Lee as well ,LaQueen. I've just read Louisa The Poisoner - short, sharp, slightly nasty, but absolutely perfect! My favourite TL book is probably Heart-Beast and I love her short stories.

Most of the books I've really loved have a fairytale theme. Thomas The Rhymer by Ellen Kushner is wonderful and may have my vote for the most beautiful book ever written! Patricia McKillip's Winter Rose is lovely, as is Sharon Shinn's The Shape Changer's Wife. Keeping the wife theme, I thouroughly recommend The Fox Wife by Kij Johnson. If you're okay with a sad book, Briar Rose by Jane Yolen is gorgeous but devastating (and she's also written a short story called Sister Dark on similar themes, which is worth looking out for). For something happier, Terry Pratchett's Men At Arms, Lords And Ladies or Maskerade, or less happy but more thoughtful, TP's Monstrous Regiment. Sunshine by Robin McKinley, Beauty, Grass and Gibbon's Decline And Fall by Sheri Tepper are also superb.

CrispyFern · 22/10/2014 17:37

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. The sort of book you have to keep stopping to reread stunning passages, quiet and beautiful.

PingPongBat · 22/10/2014 17:33

BolshyBookworm - YY to Poisonwood Bible and Flight Behaviour - two of all time my favourite books Smile and I think Flight Behaviour is one I will go back to again and again, that's definitely a beautiful book.

PingPongBat · 22/10/2014 17:31

I liked the Rosie Project - not necessarily a 'beautiful' book, but light hearted, heart warming and funny.

Or maybe The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
another vote for The Five People You Meet in Heaven

and I must read Like Water for Chocolate again...

Thurlow · 22/10/2014 17:30

Another vote for Wolf Hall. It's just so perfect, as a piece of literature. Plus yes, there is something about the way she writes Thomas Cromwell.

I found On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks beautiful, but it is sad beautiful, not happy. It has the most beautiful line I've ever read: a hunger for his presence that his presence could not sate

l1ttlebean · 22/10/2014 17:23

The island Victoria Hislop - sad, beautiful have reread a couple of times, have enjoyed all her books so far

giantfloorpuzzle · 22/10/2014 16:24

Oh I loved The inheritance of loss!

GoingToBedfordshire · 22/10/2014 16:18

Girl with a pearl earring. Anything by Tracey Chevalier actually.

LaQueenIsKickingThroughLeaves · 22/10/2014 16:11

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LaQueenIsKickingThroughLeaves · 22/10/2014 15:29

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Bolshybookworm · 22/10/2014 12:19

This thread is making me want to re-read lots of my books.

I also love the Poisonwood Bible and Flight Behaviour and the Lacuna by Barbara Kinsolver- such beautiful writing.

Also, the Ghost Road trilogy by Pat Barker (and Union street, as mentioned by pp).