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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:
BaggypantsCrimplesnitch · 04/03/2017 18:26

Angela's Ashes

And Henry Williamson's animal books - Tarka the Otter, Salar the Salmon, Chakchek the Peregrine, Brock the Badger.

Gatekeeper · 04/03/2017 18:16

Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Moon of Gomrath
By Alan Garner

Read hundreds of times since 1973

I capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

What is the best book you have ever read?
onlyslightlyinterested · 04/03/2017 17:53

As a child my favourite was, I am David. As an adult, the Crow road

thisismadness77 · 04/03/2017 17:33

We need to talk about Kevin

fussychica · 04/03/2017 17:31

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes
Any Human Heart by William Boyd

Bue · 04/03/2017 16:17

I think all my best/most memorable reads have been mentioned:

A Prayer for Owen Meany (and The Cider House Rules)
The Poisonwood Bible
Alias Grace

EyeStye · 04/03/2017 15:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Turbinaria · 04/03/2017 15:14

To Kill a Mockingbird -
Catcher in the Rye
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4
The Remains of the Day
Pride and Prejudice
Perfume
All perfect books

Andrewofgg · 04/03/2017 15:07

If I have to choose one it's the Count of Monte Cristo.

TheElephantofSurprise · 04/03/2017 14:39

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

Fireinthegrate · 04/03/2017 14:37

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

TheNaze73 · 04/03/2017 13:38

On The Road - Jack Kerouac

JooLoo · 04/03/2017 13:37

The ones I couldn't put down and still remember:
The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver
A Secret History - Donna Tart
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Middlemarch - George Eliot
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

I remember loving John Irving as a teenager but not much about the books. Think I might need to reread!

MumBod · 04/03/2017 13:11

Depressingly prescient, wasn't it, minifingerz?

Sad
minifingerz · 04/03/2017 13:08

Mumbod just rereading The Handmaid's Tale in light of current political changes in the US - the restrictions on abortion, defunding of birth control services, and the planned changes in the approach to environmental protection. Shock Margaret Atwood is a writer of genius.

Beeswax2017 · 04/03/2017 07:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BottomlyP0tts · 04/03/2017 07:42

Yika

Sportswriter is SO good.

I re read middlemarch again and fell in love - still like Lolita more.

A suitable boy and God of Small things I read around the same time, need to re-read to remember them.

Yika · 04/03/2017 06:57

Yes Disgrace is brilliant, and I also loved Richard Ford's The Sportswriter.

I think it also depends when you read a book, some books have really resonated with me at a particular stage in my life.

My favourite books of all time are A Suitable Boy and Middlemarch.

LadyOfTheCanyon · 04/03/2017 06:57

If it's a case of books I go back and back to rather than "classics" then:
Little Women
The weirdstone of Brisengamen -Alan Garner
His Dark Materials trilogy - Phillip Pullman
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Possession - AS Byatt
Cold comfort farm - Stella Gibbons
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
The end of the affair- Graham Greene
No Name - Wilkie Collins
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurty
The Quincunx - Charles Palliser

Orangehighlighter · 04/03/2017 06:45

The God of Small Things, Arundati Roy.

MumBod · 04/03/2017 06:31

Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
1984 by George Orwell.
Middlemarch by George Eliot.
Hard Times by Charles Dickens.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozie Adichie.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Road Dahl.

For starters!

DoraChance · 04/03/2017 06:30

Middlemarch for me.

UmuLuxury · 04/03/2017 06:16

Station Eleven

Ebbenmeowgi · 04/03/2017 06:07

So many it's hard to choose! I guess the ones that had the most influence/stayed with me are:

Woman on the Edge of time by Marge Piercy (read as an impressionable 18yr old)
Child in Time by Ian Mcewan (absolutely devastating)
The Stand by Stephen King (read when I was 10 and sparked off a life long interest in utopian/dystopian/apocalyptic literature!)

Oh and definitely Harry Potter Blush

ninenicknames · 04/03/2017 05:51

Kill your friends. Brilliant