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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:
Pilgit · 05/03/2017 08:18

The mists of avalon I read as a teenager and stuck with me and is one I go back to. Also
Little Dorritt by Dickens,
little women,
Edge by Jeffrey deaver

yogabird · 05/03/2017 07:39

Me too for The Magus by John Fowles, This Thing of Darkness is amazing despite a title I wouldn't have been drawn to.... I forget who it's by.

GandolfBold · 05/03/2017 07:31

I can't pick. It's like choosing between your children.

Recent books I have loved are
The snow child
Americanah
A gentleman in moscow

Classics I could read over and over
Evelina
The reader
Vera drake.

Underthenutellaellaella · 05/03/2017 06:59

Catkind- Bone People is my favourite also. The characters are the most real, heroic and flawed I've ever come across. Brilliant.

rainbowdash888 · 05/03/2017 06:49

The hamaids tale
Jane eyre
The mayor of Casterbridge

All had a great impact and have gone back to them since

tiddlyipom · 05/03/2017 06:24

Gone With The Wind
Shantaram
Brave New World
Outlander
The Six Wives Of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser
Oliver Twist
Room
We Need To Talk About Kevin

PintofSquash · 05/03/2017 02:35

Pillars of the Earth is the best book ever! The follow ons were good too, but nowhere close to Pillars.

However this is closely followed by the Earth's Children series by Jean M Auel (Clan of the Cave Bear, Plains of Passage... there's 6 altogether) Brilliantly researched and beautifully written.

RiverdaleJughead · 05/03/2017 02:09

The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson or the colour purple

AvaCrowder · 05/03/2017 02:01

I will do hemanorshera I'm very good at reading other books that have been recommended to me.

Please do read Foulcaults Pendulum too.

ClaudiaWinklepants · 05/03/2017 00:57

Many of mine have been mentioned:

Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
1984 - George Orwell
To kill a mockingbird - Harper Lee
Roll of thunder, hear my cry
Pillars of the earth - Ken Follett
Magician - Raymond E Feist
The Bullerby Children - Astrid Lindgren
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
careless whispers - Carlton Stowers
A twist in the tale - Jeffrey Archer

Will happily read any of these over and over and also any Jilly Ccopers Blush

kineticmagnetic · 05/03/2017 00:29

Not rtft, falling apart by Jacqueline Wilson. Young adult book from early in her career.
It is amazing.

finks100 · 05/03/2017 00:24

Gone with the wind- simply phenomenal
Birdsong- emotional
captain correlis mandolin- challenging at first but incredible

HemanOrSheRa · 05/03/2017 00:19

Hmmm. We need an edit button on MN Grin. You know what I mean Smile.

HemanOrSheRa · 05/03/2017 00:16

I'm going to read A Prayer for Owen Meany after this thread. You must Ava Smile The World According To Garp is very similar. As is any of Wally Lamb's books. Also I thought Maggie O Farrell's This Must Be The Place was very much like John Irving's books.

GlobalTechIndustries · 05/03/2017 00:10

An encyclopedia of philosophy.

CanadaMoose91 · 05/03/2017 00:00

A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle

happypoobum · 04/03/2017 23:52

Siddharta by Herman Hesse has stayed with me for years.

As has Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky,and The Mayor of Casterbridge by Hardy.

Anything by Austen, any of the Harry Potter books bit especially Prisoner of Azkaban.

The Magus by John Fowles - amazing!

Cannot stand Wuthering Heights, Kite Runner, or Passage to India.

AvaCrowder · 04/03/2017 23:41

I'm going to read A Prayer for Owen Meany after this thread.

PenguinDi · 04/03/2017 23:34

Lord of the Rings- JRR Tolkien. I can always find passages that will help me through tough times, and it's just a story I can get lost in.

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 04/03/2017 23:27

I've read many books that have affected me.

Nothing has poleaxed me like A Prayer for Owen Meany.

Nothing

catlover1987 · 04/03/2017 23:20

And my guilty pleasure is Tara Road by Maeve Binchey which I read every few years.

catlover1987 · 04/03/2017 23:18

The secret history by Donna Tartt
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

caprifun · 04/03/2017 23:08

Too many to think about ...
Charlotte sometimes
The BFG
A handmaids tale
Tender is the night
A prayer for Owen meany
Cold comfort farm
Middlesex
Nineteen-eighty four
The crow road

All books I've read more than once and would love to enjoy again.

Frazzled74 · 04/03/2017 23:03

The hand that first held mine.

Onprozacandmyhighhorse · 04/03/2017 23:01

Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee and I absolutely love A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, especially the first book in the trilogy - Sunset Song. First read them for standard grade English and still find something new in them 40 years later. Wonderful, wonderful books.