What is the best book you have ever read?

The puppet boy of Warsaw.

It's about a Jewish boy growing up in the ghettos in Warsaw during the war he is given a coat with secret compartments which belonged to his grandfather. He starts performing puppet shows to the kids of the ghetto but when the Germans discover his talent he is forced to entertain them

Harry Potter & A Street Cat Named Bob

batteriesallgone I would say my favourite book is Foucaults Pendulum. It's thought provoking, full of humour and a really good read.

Sadik Mansfield Park is my favourite Austen, but I think I like the wrong characters the best. I like Mary and Henry Crawford

Lots of great books named. I'm currently rereading E F Benson. Mapp and Lucia which is so brilliantly written.

James Herbert - enjoyed many of his books.

The Poldark series were a fantastic read.

Cathrine Cookson (i know, i know) - i lived her Tilly Trotter Trilogy.

As a child Alice Walker - Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry made a big impact.

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters.

Absolutely loved it from start to finish, brilliantly written, fantastic structure, really romps along at pace.

And just when you think she can't go any lower... !

Barbara windsors autobiography

The grapes of wrath

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I bloody love that book.

Whatever Love Means by David Baddiel. Genuinely the cleverest, most brilliant book I have ever read. His first novel, Time for Bed is a close second.

Also loved One Day by David Nicholls and The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffneger.

I love any book by Barbara Erskine

I don't think I have any favourite favorite books, well I do but there are lots of them

Love Phillipa Gregory

Watchers by Dean Koontz is a great read, love it.

I've just started Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen by Alison Weir

As far as I know she will be writing one about all the Tudor queens

A room of one's own and Orlando both by Virginia Woolf.
Wild Sarogassa Sea by Jean Rhys.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

The books I keep coming back to are:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• various by John Wyndham
• Illusions by Richard Bach
• the Harry Potters

Ones I read over and over are Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Life After Life, wasn't struck on A God in Ruins though. Loved The Magic Circus, too.

A pp mentioned A Little Life which I read recently. It's very well written but not a book I would recommend as such because if the content, it's absolutely heart breaking and I don't think I would read it again.

Has Annie Proulx had a mention yet?

Brokeback Mountain.

Impossible to choose just one. But, another vote for A Suitable Boy.

Also, The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

And A Passage to India by E.M. Foster.

And about a million others!

"The Long Walk from the Bachman Books by Stephen King"

Thanks - how had I not noticed this book? Just downloaded it from Audible.

I'm a Stephen King fan, the writing and the man. He's the only author I'm actively worried about dying - he's quite old now and I need him to carry on churning out novels for a least another thirty years, hopefully to see me out. Love him!

My favourites are:
1984, George Orwell.
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte (I personally think Anne was the most talented of the Brontes).
The Devil of Nanking (aka Tokyo), Mo Hayder, made me cry and stayed with me a long time.

Such a hard question. Off the top of my head

Faire Tale Raymond E Fiest

The accidental Ali Smith

All families are psychotic Douglas Coupland

Crimson Petal and the White , can't remember authors name

Tulip Fever Deborah Moggach

There's probably soo many more.

Ooh that's reminded me jingly. My sister recommended Shantaram. It's on my wish list! Is it a long read?

One Hundred Years of Solitude was responsible for me choosing my degree course.

I'm another who can't choose by individual title but by author I'd go for:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
George Orwell
Graham Green
Evelyn Waugh
John Irving - I'm pleasantly surprised how many others have picked him
Orhan Pamuk
Gerald Durrell - The Corfu trilogy never fails to make me want to ditch everything and go to live in Corfu.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the book I have re-read the most. The ending still gets me.
I really love Rupert Thompson's writing - The Insult is probably my favourite.
There are so many books that I love though, that it is really hard to decide.

I've just finished Shantaram it's been brilliant!

All the Harry Potter books but especially the last one.

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier

I loved The Lovely Bones and We Need To Talk About Kevin.

I'm also unashamed to admit that I still love The Fault In Our Stars - I was still a teenager myself when I first read it and I keep re-reading it because it really spoke to me

The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold has always stayed with me.