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Original poster

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

221 replies

lostinthoughts · 22/06/2025 21:59

Holidays coming up and I’m fed up of starting books and not finishing them as they just don’t grip me. Give me your best ever books that have had you hooked….

OP posts:
Brownieshonour · 09/07/2025 21:47

Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
You Must be Sisters by Deborah Moggach

burblish · 09/07/2025 21:39

My two favourite books of all time are probably "Midnight's Children" (Salman Rushdie) and "A Suitable Boy" (Vikram Seth) - they are definitely not holiday reads, though!

BeyondMyWits · 09/07/2025 21:16

Two for me...
Jung Chang's Wild Swans... her whole life in a book so readable that you feel you are there, right at the centre of the story.
And Bill Bryson Notes from a Small island... the tiny story of the nun and his own clumsiness with his drink had me ugly cry-laughing where you just cannot stop. Such good writing with simple, yet funny tales to be told.

Movinghouseatlast · 09/07/2025 21:10

Fringle · 09/07/2025 19:07

As a pp said, some of these choices are perplexing. Even allowing for taste, I am amazed at some of the books people say are the best books they’ve ever read.

If I were forced to choose a couple as ‘the best’, I’d say Middlemarch and The Leopard.

(Special condemnation for The Goldfinch. It’s one of the worst books I’ve ever wasted my time on. Absolutely dreadful.)

Oh my God! The Goldfnch is a book I still wake up thinking about. It needed a good edit but it was extraordinary. The story, the characters, the twist at the end...it completely wrung me out.

mamaduckbone · 09/07/2025 21:10

In recent times - Demon Copperhead. Absolutely phenomenal.

DelphiniumBlue · 09/07/2025 21:06

Ddakji · 22/06/2025 22:31

Second Circe! Fantastic book. I loathe Achilles so I never like books about him, he’s such a PITA.

Show quote history

I absolutely agree, Achilles is just despicable! But the book is fantastic.
I hate Achilles like I hate William the Conqueror.

Movinghouseatlast · 09/07/2025 21:05

The Goldfinch
The Hearts Invisible Furies
Birdsong
The Regeneration Trilogy
Snow Falling On Cedars
Nice Work ( David Lodge)
The Remains of The Day
The American Wife

Movinghouseatlast · 09/07/2025 21:05

The Goldfinch
The Hearts Invisible Furies
Birdsong
The Regeneration Trilogy
Snow Falling On Cedars
Nice Work ( David Lodge)
The Remains of The Day

Troubleclef · 09/07/2025 21:05

Forever Amber.

Troubleclef · 09/07/2025 21:01

Eastendboysandwestendgirls · 22/06/2025 22:06

Katherine by Anya Seton.

Oh yes. 100 per cent agree

margotsdevil · 09/07/2025 21:01

Rodham and American Wife - both by Curtis Sittenfeld. I've enjoyed her other books too but this two stand out for me. Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie. Also Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers.

For something thought provoking, Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel.

Depends what you're looking for though - I've recently enjoyed the first Robert Galbraith novel, and Conclave by Robert Harris. Not high brow - but I have to be in the right mindset for more literary works!

dandelionandbirdcock · 09/07/2025 21:00

I can’t really get it down to one, but books that have really stayed with me are:

Undermajordomominor by Patrick DeWitt
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Room With a View by EM Forster
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Tender is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Theres probably loads more.

theotherfossilsister · 09/07/2025 20:57

3kidsaremorethanenough · 23/06/2025 17:30

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel - I haven't read anything since that has had the same effect.

Have you read A Place of Greater Safety? I liked that even more. Just as immersive but French Revolution. She was a phenomenal writer. I would love to read more historical fiction which feels so immediate and rich and doesn’t hold you at arms length.

dandelionandbirdcock · 09/07/2025 20:51

Clawdy · 07/07/2025 22:40

Lincoln In The Bardo - George Saunders. Most of my book group didn't like it- I loved it.

I loved Lincoln in the Bardo too. It was so, so sad. But so original.

anyzen · 09/07/2025 20:42

The Secret Life of Bees
Half of a Yellow Sun
The Hearts Invisible Furies.

Moirasgirls · 09/07/2025 20:39

It's really difficult to only choose one- lots of books have an impact in different ways and at different times.

However, I think for me it would be 1984 by George Orwell. I've read it several times over the years and can still vividly recall being a teenager and finding it absolutely fascinating.

DuesToTheDirt · 09/07/2025 20:25

Thomas Hardy, Jude The Obscure - tragic.
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall trilogy - takes you back right there, you imagine you're in the middle of it all.
And one from left field, Alfred Doblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz (Michael Hofmann translation). Just astonishing.

schnubbins · 09/07/2025 20:18

Rebecca Daphne du Maurier

Star of the Sea Joseph O' Connor

The Invention of Wings Sue Monk Kidd

Messycoo · 09/07/2025 20:16

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre.

RedRec · 09/07/2025 20:07

I couldn't pin it down to just one but could narrow it down to:
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith
The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
The Return of The Native by Thomas Hardy
Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
And practically everything by Sebastian Faulks.

LadybirdDaphne · 09/07/2025 19:55

The French Lieutenant’s Woman - John Fowles
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
Madame Bovary

I love a good 19th century fallen woman, me.

Also:
The Persian Boy, King Must Die, Bull from the Sea - Mary Renault
Circe - Madeline Miller
I, Claudius - Robert Graves
Small Island - Andrea Levy
A Spell of Winter - Helen Dunmore

Non-fiction
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

Arran2024 · 09/07/2025 19:54

The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford. The Go Between by LP Hartley
Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

MissAmbrosia · 09/07/2025 19:48

Ones that leap to mind or stayed with me over the years:
The Heart's Invisible Furies
The Godfather
The Thornbirds
Pride and Prejudice
11/22/63 - Stephen King
Madame Bovary
One Day - everyone hates this but it was so contemporary to my life.
We Begin at the End.

BasiliskStare · 09/07/2025 19:47

Fiesta - The Sun also Rises - Hemingway - I think my favourite book.

The Secret History is , I think a very good book.

I'd read anything by Nancy Mitford again - I think they are fabulous , very witty .

SharkBaitOooHaha · 09/07/2025 19:46

Trust Me by Lesley Pearce
The Walsh Sisters series by Marian keyes
We need to talk about Kevin