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.

Original poster

What is your favourite book???

84 replies

Els2020 · 11/03/2025 15:52

I pretty much read anything but I'm looking for book recommendations.

Tell me what your favourite books are/ have been. The more 'out there' the better!

OP posts:
UnimpressiveUsername · 13/03/2025 22:30

Cloud cuckoo land by Anthony Doerr
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

plus many other fantastic ones already mentioned!

MissAmbrosia · 13/03/2025 22:10

I have too many favourites to have one favourite, but then I am getting on a bit.
Through time - without having to think too much:
Swallows And Amazons
The Godfather
The Thornbirds
Goodnight Mister Tom
Love in a Cold Climate / The Pursuit of Love
Wolf Hall
The Sunne in Splendour
Norah Loft's House Trilogy
Brideshead Revisited / Decline and Fall / Handful of Dust
Heart's Invisible Furies
We Begin at the End
To Serve Them All my Days / The Avenue
One Day
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Brave New World
The Chrysalids - in fact most John Wyndham
Never Let Me Go / Remains of the Day

123teenagerfood · 13/03/2025 21:48

When I was 5 I killed myself -Howard Buten
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
The Outsiders - S E Hinton
Stoner - John Williams
Stiff - Mary Roach
All the Judy Blume books
All the Moomin books - Tove Jansson

I don't have a favourite book, I have books I love at the time, that have shaped me, intrigued me or just captured me at a particular time. My list could go on. I also love a good crime thriller.

MrPanks · 13/03/2025 21:43

Great Expectations
The Book Thief
To Kill A Mockingbird
1984
Animal Farm

AlwaysFoldingWashing · 13/03/2025 21:41

xmasdealhunter · 11/03/2025 15:57

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Fantastic book, the Netflix series didn't do it justice at all IMO!

One of my favourites too. I have not watched the Netflix show and having seen your comment, I am quite glad!

Pieceofpurplesky · 13/03/2025 21:37

I have a top 100! Will stick to 10!

Already mentioned
All the Light we cannot see
Life after Life
Rebecca (my most read book)
Memoirs of a Geisha

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Keeper of Secrets
The Last of the Moon Girls
Anything by Stacey Halls
The Grace Year
Discovery of Witches
And current fave Onyx Storm

Gliblet · 13/03/2025 20:56

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
The Many Coloured Land - Julian May
Thud - Terry Pratchett
Magician - Raymond Feist
Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin
Three Men in a Boat - JK Jerome
The Bone People - Keri Hulme
The Magic Apple Tree - Susan Hill
500 Mile Walkies - Mark Wallington

Starlingstar29 · 13/03/2025 20:41

I Capture the Castle

SeashellsAndDaffodils · 13/03/2025 20:27

Recently read small pleasures by Clare chambers and really enjoyed it

wildthingsinthenight · 13/03/2025 20:27

Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Hens Dancing by Rafaella Barker

goodnightgrumble · 13/03/2025 20:23

I always say the same one. The red tent by Anne Diamant.

terracelane23 · 13/03/2025 19:56

We need to talk about Kevin

Willowcat77 · 13/03/2025 19:42

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Purity - Jonathan Franzen
Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake
The Nix - Nathan Hill

DustyOwl · 13/03/2025 15:40

Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy Douglas Adams. The whole trilogy (in 5 parts) is pretty good but the first book is a work of genius.

Clawdy · 13/03/2025 15:38

Lincoln In The Bardo - George Saunders

Helloandgoodmorning2 · 13/03/2025 05:19

Gosh, so many !
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Project Hail Mary
Hamnet
Lessons in Chemistry
Fifteen Wild Decembers
Old Baggage (currently reading Crooked Heart)
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
Any Angela Thirkle or Dorothy Whipple

Speakeasy22 · 13/03/2025 04:54

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. Fascinating modern and historical story set in London and Cyprus and partly told from an interesting and unusual perspective.

Happyinarcon · 13/03/2025 04:44

Billy Lier
catch 22
Crime and Punishment
Animal Farm

i wanted to get my daughter started on Russian literature beginning with Notes from Underground but then remembered that a huge chunk of it is him arguing with a prostitute (I’m sure they’ll be a bunch of mumsnetters pretending they don’t understand what the problem with this is)

Hihihello193 · 13/03/2025 03:07

Labyrinths - JL Borges
True Grit - Charles Portis
Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
Darkmans - Nicola Barker

pnutter · 13/03/2025 01:46

Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
I also like a lot of the previous suggestions

MsAmerica · 13/03/2025 01:01

My favorite book has long been Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but I'm thinking that maybe it should be Emma.
However, I'm not sure you should base your reading on the favorites of random strangers on the internet. I certainly don't expect people to necessarily like what I like.

Thewalrusandthecarpenter · 11/03/2025 17:52

I Capture the Castle
The Bell Jar
No More Meadows
East of Eden
The Portrait of a Lady
Rebecca
The Wasp Factory
The Sea, The Sea
To The Lighthouse
The Greengage Summer
Gone With The Wind
Wide Sargasso Sea
The Chrysalids
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
The Catcher in the Rye
Sons and Lovers
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Shell Seekers
The Picture of Dorian Gray

DisforDarkChocolate · 11/03/2025 17:48

The Remains of the Day, to me this is the perfect book.

purpleme12 · 11/03/2025 17:09

The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult

Moier · 11/03/2025 17:07

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.

Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

Swipe left for the next trending thread