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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:
PlentyOfPubeGardens · 21/10/2014 20:36

The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing
The Possession of Delia Sutherland - Barbara Neil
The Girls - Lori Lansens
Genesis - Michel Serres
Most things by Haruki Murakami or David Mitchell

NoMarymary · 21/10/2014 20:34

Love 'the giant under the snow' too by john Gorden.

It's a childrens book but like Harry potter not childlike. Better written too, and magical and mysterious. Happy ending so definitely will cheer you up.

NoMarymary · 21/10/2014 20:30

Graeme Greene 's The end of the Affair is so moving on many levels and the last few lines will always make me cry. Beautifully written and atmospheric.
Maybe not for cheering up though!

Cider with Rosie is full of sunshine and countryside and being young so that might do the trick.

Ilovenicesoap · 21/10/2014 20:29

Love is where it falls - Simon Callow .
Breath taking in its beauty and clarity of what is right in the world.

Like Water for Chocolate -Laura Esquivel
Adore both of these books and read time and time again Smile

OnlyLovers · 21/10/2014 20:26

I concur with The Summer Book and H Is For Hawk. I read the latter a little while ago and when I finished it I had to start it all over again! Captivating, strange and compelling.

Also anything by Marilynne Robinson.

The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry.

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, for the beauty of Lyra's world the other two are a bit rubbish though

And Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. Glorious.

Greythorne · 21/10/2014 20:25

Funny how subjective these things are. I think the Grapes of wrath is one of the more unpleasant and depressing books I have ever read!

RupertTheBear · 21/10/2014 20:24

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Very sad but lovely.

ElphabaTheGreen · 21/10/2014 20:24

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Beautiful story, beautiful ending.

UriGeller · 21/10/2014 20:22

In The Skin of The Lion by Michael Ondaatje.

So beautiful I read it in small small pieces so I could string it out as long as I could. I haven't read anything else since that I could feel the beauty of the prose in like this book.

CSLewis · 21/10/2014 20:20

Another vote for Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - a spare, beautiful story that makes you want to be a better person after reading it.

Idontknowhowtohelpher · 21/10/2014 20:19

Another vote for I Heard The Owl Call My Name. I first read it nearly 40 years ago and was tremendously moved by how beautiful it was. Very sad though...

BikeRunSki · 21/10/2014 20:17

Another vote for "The Five People You Meet in Heaven". Also, "Tuesdays With Morrie", also by Mitch Albom.

EugenesAxe · 21/10/2014 20:07

Voyage of the Dawntreader by CS Lewis; the ending imagery makes my heart beat faster.

The first book of Herman Hesse's Stories of Five Decades I remember being very beautiful.

The Water of the Hills by Marcel Pagnol.

Haven't read half of these acclaimed novels mentioned - need to redress that! I found The Five People... overly schmaltzy but it is a bit of a Marmite book.

IamOldGregg · 21/10/2014 20:05

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk is beautifully written and full of pathos. Love it.

FixItUpChappie · 21/10/2014 20:04

The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

CitronVert · 21/10/2014 20:01

I'd agree with Remains of the day, God of small things and Like water for chocolate.

I also really enjoyed memoirs of a Geishaand thought the descriptions of the traditions (the Geishas' make up and hair, tea ceremonies and music and dancing) were beautiful and really calming to read.

Catnuzzle · 21/10/2014 19:57

Les Grandes Meaulnes by Alain Fournier. An English translation of a book by a French author who was killed in WW1, so he never got to write another. It is the most beautiful and saddest love story ever. I'm hoping it's never made into a film as I don't think it could ever be done justice.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 21/10/2014 19:57

There's a book I'm reading an ARC of at the moment, Changed Souls by Harriet Truscott - Goodreads link - it's coming out properly in a few weeks, I think.
The prose is just gorgeous, spare and not wordy at all but so elegant and multi-sensory in its descriptions. Highly recommended. (Creepy, though.)

Bumpedbonce · 21/10/2014 19:50

I love a book called 'a brief history of the dead' it's said in parts but so well written and thoughtful

HarrietSchulenberg · 21/10/2014 19:35

My Antonia by Willa Cather. I come back to it time and time again.

Molotov · 21/10/2014 19:31

'On The Road' by Jack Kerouc

For Dh 'The Notable Brain of Maximillan Ponder' by J. Ironmonger, or 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy (that is darkly beautiful, imo).

CaulkheadUpNorth · 21/10/2014 19:08

26a by Dianna Evans

Little King December by Axel Himdt (I think that's the author)

tobeabat · 21/10/2014 19:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ItsNotEasyBeingGreen · 21/10/2014 19:00

Ooohhh cross posted. It is sad, full of regret, but beautiful at the same time.

ItsNotEasyBeingGreen · 21/10/2014 18:58

Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day

An absolute masterpiece in my opinion.

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