Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

What is the best book you have ever read?

360 replies

damnedgrubble · 03/03/2017 22:34

I think mine has to be (at least at the moment) The House at the End of Hope Street because I grew up not far from there.

Which is your favourite book and why?

OP posts:
iamdivergent · 04/03/2017 19:56

A really odd one that I enjoyed was "The Bees" by Laline Paull.

HulaMelody · 04/03/2017 19:50

Oh god can't believe I forgot about the Wasp Factory! Although I think I prefer Espedair Street and its homage to the bed hopping and nonsense of heyday Fleetwood Mac

HemanOrSheRa · 04/03/2017 19:49

May I say - I'm impressed with those of you who have read A Suitable Boy Smile. It is the one and only book that has defeated me. I must try again!

Armi · 04/03/2017 19:48

I can't possibly choose....but two of them are 'To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and 'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel. The former is so wise, warm and heartening and the latter is so evocative and immersive, with flashes of the sort of mischievous humour I enjoy.

SallyGinnamon · 04/03/2017 19:46

Love this thread. Loads of great reminders.

Pride and Prejudice is an all time favourite.

I loved A Suitable Boy, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Wasp Factory, and various by Barbara Pym that I've forgotten the titles of. Secret love of Rivals by Jilly Cooper too.

helenfagain · 04/03/2017 19:45

We need to talk about Kevin is a wonderful book. Shame the film adaptation was abysmal.

HulaMelody · 04/03/2017 19:39

We need to talk about Kevin - I love Lionel Shriver's detail on emotions

Secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 - still makes me laugh so much

The Stand - love a bit of dystopian future!

GuinefortGrey · 04/03/2017 19:36

So many, so many!

These two I have re-read many times over the years, not the most high-brow perhaps, but just perfect in their own way -

My Side of the Mountain by Jean George

Forever by Judy Blume

Howaboutthisone · 04/03/2017 19:26

Watching with interest and trying to think of my own!

SpornStar · 04/03/2017 19:20

The Long Walk from the Bachman Books by Stephen King.

HemanOrSheRa · 04/03/2017 19:17

Yay U2 another Wally Lamb fan!

I liked Engleby but I found the main character, Mike, very disturbing indeed.

I enjoyed So Much For That by Lionel Shriver more than We Need To Talk About Kevin.

Sadik · 04/03/2017 19:15

Non-fiction - George Orwell's Collected Essays - there are some duds, but so often an item of news or of general chitchat reminds me that Orwell had the perfect (and most beautifully phrased) reflection on the subject.

Fiction - has to be Austen, and for me (though I know I'm in the minority) if I had to choose one it would be Mansfield Park. As a child my DM used to say that you could place every single person in an English village against a JA character, and it is just so very true.

SoleBizzz · 04/03/2017 19:13

Faulks

SoleBizzz · 04/03/2017 19:13

Charlotte Grey - Sebastian Faulkland

twilightsparklepuff · 04/03/2017 19:11

I can't choose as there are so many good books!

But ons that was really interesting was Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber

ghostyslovesheets · 04/03/2017 19:09

Behind The Scenes At The Museum
Kitchen Gods Wife
Frankenstein

Sallystyle · 04/03/2017 19:06

The Stand

I think.. it's tough, there's a few contenders really such as:

A Fine Balance
The Cider house Rules/ Owen Meany/ Garp
A Suitable Boy
The State Of Wonder
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Trouble With Goats And Sheep
All of Wally Lambs

KatieKaboom · 04/03/2017 19:06

Heads up... don't read Disgrace if you're a sensitive dog-lover.

Sod that book.

My favourite is Middlemarch.

FancyPantsDelacroixTheFirst · 04/03/2017 19:05

Can't pick one.

Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett
Nation, also by Terry Pratchett
True Grit, by Charles Portis
Fox Evil, by Minette Walters
The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy L Sayers

VanellopeVonSchweetz99 · 04/03/2017 19:02

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates is a triumph.
Totally Nobel prize worthy, I doubt she'll ever get it though.

Bambambini · 04/03/2017 18:54

Not sure. Loved The Raj Quartet - brilliant story.

Read Les Miserables. Was tough going and took a few years from start to finnish but glad i picked it up again and persevered. Such sn epic, shocking and emotional book.

summerholsdreamin · 04/03/2017 18:51

The Book of Night Women
The Grapes of Wrath
Pillars of the Earth

squashyhat · 04/03/2017 18:50

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

iamdivergent · 04/03/2017 18:44

ReadyPlayerOne that is a fab book, one of my other usernames is a RP1 reference Grin

I also loved All the Light We Cannot See - amazing

spankhurst · 04/03/2017 18:35

Wuthering Heights.
The Woman Who Walked into Doors
The House in Norham Gardens - nothing really happens, yet an inredibly deep book.