The best book you’ve ever read?

[ICECream821]

There we go! Sorry if there is a thread like this…but what’s the best book you’ve ever read? Or I guess the book that left you thinking about it for days after?

For me I would say The Kite Runner

I’m taking notes!

@CHILLLADIES

Every time I see this sort of thread I try to get people to read the Far Pavilions. It's an absolutely brilliant book.

I too love The Far Pavilions - but my favourite is Shadow of the Moon, also by MM Kaye.

Wuthering Heights. Absolutely loved it as a teenager and still do.

My favourite reads are The Island, station eleven, cats eye and handmaids tale Margaret Atwood, 22/11/63 Stephen King and more recently I have read Shuggie Bain and this is not about me (Janice Galloway). I couldn’t put either of them down. Number 1 will always be anything by Enid Blyton because I credit her with sparking my love of reading.

Another vote for To Serve Them All My Days - I'm old enough to remember the TV adaptation with a teenage Nicholas Lyndhurst.

The Pursuit of Happiness by Douglas Adams is also a very satisfying read and for something completely different - the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde is brilliant. It starts with The Eyre Affair.

Frankenstein just knocked my socks off. I was expecting a horror, but really it’s a tragedy.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved has never left me.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl was my childhood favourite.

@Liadan - agree with ‘We need to talk about Kevin’. Such a powerful book, it has stayed with me too. - It’s on the row of books in my bookcase I will never part with.

Others favourites throughout my life and on the same shelf include:
The boy in the striped pyjamas
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Sophie’s World - Jostein Gaarder
Rachel’s Holiday - Marian Keyes
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Behind the Scenes - Kate Atkinson
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius - Dave Eggers

And growing up:
As a child ‘The Wishing Chair’- I still have the first image in my head of them finding the chair in the antiques shop.
Also ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole’
And ‘Of Mice and men’. I did it for my English GCSE when I was going through a tough time with teen anxiety.

Now I feel a great privilege reading books with my DS. Paper Dolls, The Jolly Postman and The snail and the whale are my newest favourites .

The Bible- not religious at all but challenged myself to read it, would be amazing if true

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell. Absolutely spellbinding writing.

Possession: A Romance by AS Byatt. Beautiful.

The Choice by Edith Eger. So profoundly moving.

Circe by Madeline Miller. I love that she made Circe a real figure, someone more than jealousy and anger.

My favourites are Persuasion, A Room With A View, and The Remains of the Day. Can reread these over and over.

@Thewishingchair123 I still have the image of finding the chair as well! Such a lovely warm memory. Also I absolutely cannot look at wooden panelling without thinking there might be a secret passage behind one of the panels.

@Orphlids

Frankenstein just knocked my socks off. I was expecting a horror, but really it’s a tragedy.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved has never left me.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl was my childhood favourite.

@Orphlids oh I loved Henry sugar! I remember the first short story before it, about the "finger smith". Always thought that was cool too

Strangers by Taichi Yamada is a terrific ghost story. I highly recommend. I also loved never let me go..

Has anyone recommended I Am Pilgrim yet? I can't believe it- such a good read! Didn't want it to end,

Great thread op, I've always loved books.
Favourite books from childhood would be the owl who was afraid of the dark and a little princess.
As an adult, my sisters keeper, the lovely bones, the handmaid's tale. These are just a few as there are too many to mention.
Whenever I need something a bit more light hearted I always come back to the Marian Keyes books about the Walsh sisters.

The Magic Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton.

I re-read The Exiles by Hilary McKay over and over.

mostly reading cookbooks, Ice Kitchen by Shivi Ramoutar is fantastic, these are some from the bedside table that is not recycled via the charity shop
A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha Weinberg
Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The complete works of Jules Verne
The Aran Islands by JM Synge

Empty cradles

Have read and enjoyed many of these .. favourites that I’ve re-read many times over the years are Persuasion and I Capture the Castle. Have recently been reading classics I missed as a child and absolutely loved The Count of Monte Cristo, Sherlock Holmes & everything by Elizabeth Gaskell

@Labradabradorable

I’m not sure it’s the best book I’ve ever read (novel-wise that’s The Secret History for me), or the one that’s moved me the most (That’s The Choice by Edith Eger I think). However, the book I return to again and again, when I’m blue, tired or want to escape is Armisted Maupin’s Tales of the City. I love how I absolutely lose myself in it, every single time. I even have my own room, imagined in exquisite detail at 28 Barbary Lane.

I would agree with all of your choices, and would add in Zadie Smith's On Beauty.

The kite runner
The secret history
Shantaram
Has anyone mentioned cutting for stone??? Love this

Rebecca and The Poisonwood Bible

Danny The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. I have always loved that book.

@FindingMeno

Enid Blytons The Faraway Tree books. Because I think that's when I realised that books transport you.

I really wanted that tree to exist!

Candide by Voltaire
Zami by Audre Lorde
Third life of Grange copeland by Alice walker

Glad Janice Galloway has had a mention.