What is the best book you have ever read?

All the Sue Grafton ABC series, the main charactor Kinsey Millhone is so "normal" and believable, down to earth, its the only series where I have kept every single book.

Ooh, I do love a good book list!

Longtime favourites of my own include:

Shadow of the Wind
Memoirs of a Geisha
Frankenstein
Bel Canto
Chocolat

More recently, I've thoroughly enjoyed:
The President's Hat
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
Gentlemen and Players (Joanne Harris)
One of us is Lying (which hasn't been released yet, but is AMAZING!)
He Said She Said (Ditto)
The Housekeeper and the Professor

Plan to read The Goldfinch and The Secret History soon after recommendations on this thread. Can anyone explain why they are so good, or which I should try first?

I loved A Place Called Winter

Thank ... too excited.

East of Eden! How did I forget. Tha j you.

The Red Tent.
Lovely Bones.
The death and life of Charlie St Cloud.
The green mile.

Cheesy but has to be Lord of The Rings.

Our house is called Rivendell and we had the entwife passage read at our wedding.

If I have a daughter she will most probably be called Arwen or Éowyn.

Love this thread - it's great to get recommendations. For me, there are few books I want to read more than once but among the best fiction have to be 1984, P&P, Handmaid's Tale, Huckleberry Finn and Never Let Me Go.
Alongside those will go my current favourites - The Chronicles of St. Mary's Series (book 1 - Just One Damned Thing After Another) by Jodi Taylor. Very clever - although it is so easy to read that I didn't realise until my second reading. She combines science fiction with history and gets me laughing one minute and on the edge of my seat the next. Brilliant.

Loving this thread so much (and have bought a stack of books based on your recommendations!).

Mine:
All quiet on the Western Front

The Godfather

The Bronze Horseman- Paulina Simons - just a great read, sheer escapism

The Princess Bride (read to my son as he was growing up)

The Book Thief. Realise it's a marmite book but randomly selected from a bookshop in Australia, read it with no expectations when it was first published and loved it so much that I cried when I finished it.

@roselover
AM Holmes - This Book Will Change Your Life - anything by AM Holmes is fabulous -
Brother of The More famous Jack - Barbara Trapido - actually my fav book
The Shipping News Annie Proulx - has saved my life.....(read while recovering from cancer)
Collected work of Dorothy Parker - like a Bible - by my bed at all times for the last 30 years
Brightness Falls Jay McInnerny - LOVE THIS BOOK ......why has it not been made into a film!!!!!!!!!!!!
Poison Wood Diary......Barbra Kinsolver (is that her name?)

we have the same favourite books - Brother of the more famous Jack and any Jay McInnerney - we must be the same age?

Loving this thread. My senses are singing just remembering some of these wonderful books.

Many of my favourites have already been added, except for perhaps-
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The old and now-forgotten Gods are woven into everyday life in America and discovered by the central character of the novel. Really great story telling.

The Blind Assasin- Margaret Atwood
A behemoth of a book but I ate it up!

Have been inspired to give The Secret History another shot. Loved The Goldfinch but never made it through S.H. unfortunately.

Oh I loved The Tales of the City! I read them all from the library years ago so cannot refresh my memories.

My all time favourite is now War and Peace, partly because I have reread it through my life and see it differently on each return . Also it's one of the few books that I have in common with my DH.

Wild swans, The Kitchen Gods Wife, Frost In May, any Colm Toibin or William Trevor, What Katy Did Next, Memoirs of A Geisha, all Hilary Mantel. All Jane Austen.Diana Wynne-Jones. Oh and Cider With Rosie.

Brideshead ....Birdsong....Donna Tart books ..... you guys are reminding me .... what fun ...Armistead Maupin .....life changing books ..... thanks for reminding me about them!

Oh I couldn't choose just one!!

-pride and prejudice - I get so drawn in every time, I must have read it a dozen times
-lord of the rings trilogy - you still notice new things every time you read them, new links etc
-wuthering heights - I cry like a baby every time!
-sense and sensibility - timeless
-shy boy (monty Roberts) - a fascinating man with a fascinating outlook on horsemanship
-Harry potter series - it's a classic!
-kiss and tell - different to the others, utter fluff but it's a good read!

Khaled Hosseini - And the mountains echoed (Amazing, can't wait for his next book)

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. A momumental book.
Where would we all be without books?

So pleased to see The Goldfinch mentioned - I finished it about a month ago and had to give myself some time off reading afterwards as I knew nothing would live up to it so soon afterwards. Donna Tartt is an amazing writer. Love The Secret History too and am due my 5th read of that soon!
Also can't wait for Book of Dust and will reread HDM over the summer in preparation, cooling myself down by immersing myself in a world of armoured polar bears!
Reading fiction has always been my favourite way to pass the time, love and appreciate books and the clever people who create the worlds within them. How can you pick just one?

The Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin are my very favourite books and are looking a bit battered now.

There are a couple I have read over and over: The Secret History by Donna Tartt, The Poisonwood Bibke by Barbara Kingsolver, Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson and High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. One of these four is probably my all time favourite but I can't narrow it down!

Changes all the time and tends to be a recent read, but A Little Life was unbelievably moving, and I also loved The Northwater (similar style and themes to Cormac McCarthy). No Country for Old Men is another favourite.

He's a bit unfashionable at the moment but I'd go for Coming Up For Air by the mighty George Orwell.

It's a great read about a middle-aged man who has won £16 on a horse (worth a lot more then) and he wants to have a bit of fun with it by himself instead of dutifully giving it to his wife so that she can get new boots for the kids etc.

Another was Esther Waters by I think, George Gissing. A sad story about a young girl who gets pregnant, she's down to almost her last farthing and is scared of giving birth in the workhouse. That particular part certainly brings on the tears.

For more modern stuff Stephen King always write a rattling good yarn.

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

King Lear - William Shakespeare, my favourite fictional father
The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Secret Story - Donna Tartt
Travels with Charlie - John Steinbeck

The alchemist

Good Omens. I forgot Good Omens!