To ask what the best book you've ever read is?

[AtlasShrugged]

As above really. Inspired by the worst book thread running at the moment. What's the best book you've ever read? And why?

To Kill a Mockingbird - had a massive influence on me when I first read it as a teenager

A Thousand Splendid Suns. I’ve read it 3 or 4 times. Must be due another read of it soon!

'We need to talk about Kevin'. It's one of the few books I can read again and again; it's so ambiguous. Love it.

My favourite thriller is 'I am Pilgrim' so gripping.

But I also agree it's kind of an impossible question.

Dickens is my favourite novelist but Bleak House is my favourite book.
A Christmas Carol, I've read it so many times that I know a lot of it by heart
1984 - Orwell
Armadale by Wilkie Collins
Jane Eyre - I read it every year
As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
All of the Sherlock Holmes stories
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Pride and Prejudice
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

Seriously, I could go on all night. I've been obsessive reader all of my life and studied English at Uni, books are one of my greatest joys.

Impossible to choose just one!
Flowers for Algernon.
East of Eden.
Catch 22.
Freedom.
Northline.
Miss Wyoming.

@EnthusiasmIsDisturbed - I loved the Bonesetter's Daughter too.

The Shining

Wuthering Heights is my favourite, I absolutely love it.

P&P is just perfection.

For non-fiction An Evil Cradling was brilliant

Or

Dracula

I have a ritual of reading it every year. It is a true masterpiece

Impossible to pick one. I love Persuasion and Wuthering Heights. Also, Small Gods, The Handmaids Tale and The Hobbit. I loved Enid Blyton’s mystery (The Find Outers) series as a kid and have been known to reread them when having a particularly bad day and want to be transported back in time. Love books ❤️

Rebecca
Rachel's Holiday
Mort
All the Lindsey Davis Falco books

IT should be on my list too.

Another vote for a thousand splendid suns.

Also most recently, the colour of bee larkham's murder by Sarah Harris, absolutely brilliant book.

Tumbleweed I LOVE those books. The politics is brilliant. Thanks for reminding me about them.

Nineteen Eighty Four.

Nothing has ever come close to this book, for me.

East of Eden probably my all time favorite but also have completely loved Rebecca, The Secret History and Shadow of the Wind

The Stand
The Crimson Petal and the White
A Suitable Boy
The Cider House Rules
Rebecca
I know Thos Much is True
The Heart's Invisible Furies
A Fine Balance
TKAMB
Lolita

I can't pick one and I am sure there is a lot more than this too which have just escaped my mind.

A Suitable Boy. Will always stay with me.

The goldfinch, life after life, birds without wings, transporting, atonement, (Can't stand most of ian mc ewan's books but thought the ending was so clever) and Beyond Black. I like dark, raw, savage books that tend to make you cry a lot! Very interesting that people love or loathe Wuthering Heights, I'm in the latter camp - although I'm very interested in the Bronte family and want to like it!

I have firm childhood favourites

Little women
Anne of green gables
Harry Potter

But the best book I read this year that gave me the feels was The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes,

Amazing

I can't choose just one, but here are some I've read over and over again:
English Passengers
Watership Down
Cloud Atlas
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
We the Drowned
Tess of the Durbervilles
Anne of Green Gables
Goodnight Mr Tom
Red Shift

Rebecca
Wuthering Heights
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Going Gently
We Need to Talk About Kevin

You all must read alas Babylon by pat Frank. I love everything about this book.

Also love 1984/hate it for the same reason.
Catch 22. The road by Cormack McCarthy is dark and terrible but humbling.

Loved the stand by Stephen king and also the shining.

Love books. Love the smell of them. Always wanted a library and now I have a small study filled wall to wall with books. It is a little bit of heaven. I still want a big one with a slidey ladder and a chesterfield

I can't afford one though