A book that has stayed with you for a long time

[Peckhaminn]

Really looking for a book that is so utterly fantastic that it's stayed with you for a long time and you could re-read it over and over again. Any suggestions are welcome.

I loved this book too.

I downsized a couple of years ago and had to get rid of a couple of hundred books. The only ones I still have are my Discworld books (the full series), my counselling text/theory books and Skallagrig.

The Rice Mother
by Rani Manicka

The author hasn’t written many books because I think she pours her soul in to each one.

I loved Small, Great Things by Jodi Picoult.

Without giving any spoilers it tells the story of a racist attack from the point of view of the victim and the point of view of the perpetrator. You might think that no one needs to hear the point of view of a racist....but without giving the plot away, this is a really special, thought-provoking book. Brilliantly written and really challenged me too.

Oh, and Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence

I read Station Eleven last year and can’t stop thinking about it. What really is important in life?

The Magus by John Fowles. I read it at 17 and fell in love with everything about it but I've never picked it up since as I've heard others say that part of its magic lies in being read when young and naïve (similar to the main character). I would hate to read it again and lose my lifelong feelings towards it!

The Music of Chance by Paul Auster was another good one I'll never forget. Just so... different.

Black Beauty. I read it as a child and felt such sympathy for horses and for what they are asked to do and what it is demanded of them. Now as an adult and a horse owner, I read it quite frequently to reaffirm what it means to be a caring and responsible owner.

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Come Undone by Wally Lamb. Was recommended by Oprah years ago on her book club. About the coming of age of a severely obese girl from a dysfunctional family and her journey through life. I loved it and understood why Oprah was so moved by it.

A Monster Calls. I sobbed and sobbed.

I really enjoyed Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Thanks for some great ideas.

I really like Chris Cleave. I listen to a lot on audible and Incendiary is amazing and shocking and awful. I have listened to it more than once but it's definitely not an easy listen.

First and always The Lord of the Rings
A Town Called Alice by Neville Shute
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
I live surrounded by books all favourites and each, in its way, life changing. I have chosen three , each from a different genre. When I finish a book I have loved I have developed a habit of laying my hand on the closed book and it feels like a ‘thank you’. Am I bonkers?

On the Beach by Neville Shute. Harrowing read!

Beyond The Shadowlands by Georgina Fleming.
It has everything, and I could read it over and over again. Beautiful book.

My other favourites -

Change Of Heart, Jodi Picoult

The Reef - Nora Roberts

The Virginia Andrews set, Flowers in the Attic, have to read the full set!

The Stress of Her Regard, and Hide Me Among the Graves, both by Tim Powers. Strange, powerful books.

I agree, so much money wasted when the children were starving and Helen was sleeping on a door covered in newspaper.

Two books that I read over and over again, because they are like a warm hug from an old friend, are Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher and The Glass Lake by Maeve Binche.

I love Wally Lamb. I read She's Come Undone years ago and have reread it twice since.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

A Little Life - really quite a disturbing book to be honest but I needed to finish it and still think about it from time to time.

The Road, bleakness written beautifully. It's reads like a poem to me.
The God of Small Things, really evocative.
The Women's Room, completely changed me as a teenager. I've loved re-reading it.

No, you’re not bonkers at all. Literature means the world to me. In fact, I often take books far more seriously than people (they’re certainly more interesting).

I have a habit of reading books out loud when no one is home. I especially love reading dialogue out loud, often impersonating the characters as I do so. My favourites are P G Wodehouse (I do a great Jeeves), Aldous Huxley, Henry James, Anthony Burgess and Jane Austen. All of them are great at dialogue. Above all, I love the dialogue in Wilde’s Dorian Gray. If you saw me reading out loud from Dorian Gray you’d never call yourself bonkers again!! Not that I’m apologising - if I’m a nutcase then I’m a happy nutcase.

(Oh, and I second Lord of the Rings. I often read the Treebeard and Tom Bombadil chapters out loud.)

The Country Child by Alison Uttley. Its considered a children's book but is a beautifully painted picture of an almost forgotten way of life . No deep messages just a comforting read.