What is your favorite book of all time?

[Fishpants]

I'm hoping to gather some ideas and some real people recommendations rather than the Top 100 Novels to Read Before You Die type lists.

Disclaimer: I know it's hard to pick just one, so you can pick more than one if you really must. [hwink]

Marquz...?

Marquez..?

Wash your keyboard out with soap.

Coelho is the weirdy.

Marquz is a stunning and towering genius.

Coelho-- yes not my cup of tea either. I used to get him mixed up with Sebastian Faulks though and Faulks is great!

Oh I can't be done with all that pretend magic stuff. At least Harry Potter's got a bloody wand so you know what you're getting.

There was another mad Latin American thing I read once, where I never understood, even after 300 pages whether the protagonist was a dog, a man who thought he was a dog, or a man whose wife made him sleep in a kennel.

The kite runner
Angelas ashes
A Thousand splendid suns
Tis
Ma he sold me for a cigarette
Uncle Toms Cabin
Remember me - Lesley Pearse
The book that I loved as a child - A little princess - Frances Burnett Hodgkinson
Anything by Minette Walters

A tree grows in Brooklyn

I don't think many people apart from Marquez can get away with magical realism. Tho Allende's House of the Spirits was v gd.

Oh I cannot stand Harry Plopper! It is a CHILDRENS book I tried to get into them when they 1st came out, but no, not for me either.

I am just off to the library so have taken some notes for some books to try and find. Thanks!

For non-pretend magic, there's also Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell. It's real magic from real magicians, but it doesn't come easy for them. I enjoyed it.

The Go-Between, LP Hartley. So nuanced; poignant, funny and sad, and so beautifully written.

Wuthering Heights

He may be weirdy, faux spiritual or whatever and I don't like any of his other books, but I DO like The Alchemist and I think it is an excellent book so yah boo sucks can't catch me I'm too fast...

Good for you Sossiges.

I love magical stuff. But then I'm quite woo and believe in the possibility of almost everything.

One of my all time favorite books is Good Night, Mr Tom. I read it when I was ten which led to a lifetime (so far) of Anglophilia and indirectly, to me being here on Mumsnet and talking to all of you lovelies. :o

Actually I really loved the film of Never Let Me Go, GhastlyGP. The book is superior by a mile, but the film really does present the key ideas. Have you watched the Extras on the DVD? - the cast and principal crew all talk about reading the book and their take on it, and Ishiguro talks as well about his understanding of what the book is about. In this extra documentary you can see how much thought has gone into the film and the acting and why they feel they have grasped the real themes of the story.

no didnt see the extras...mainly I think Keira Knightly is a PITA, although as her character was hateful anyway she was less annoying.

I just loved that book.

have started reading Sebastian Faulks Birdsong now.

Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follet

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In the night time.

I have a child with ASD and I get a lump in my throat every couple of pages. It's not perfect for finding out about people with AS or HFA but there is enough accuracy to make it worth reading for a bit of in sight imvho. Put it this way I bought copies of it for totally clueless of the subject matter family members and it did really help them get to grips with ds and what it means for him to have this condition.

In The Skin Of A Lion - Michael Ondaatje. So beautiful.

Madame Bovary
The Bell Jar
Gone With The Wind
Rebecca
A Clockwork Orange
Jane Eyre
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Birdsong

Wolf Hall.
The Road.
A really great one about an Irish girl moving to America - I think it was called Brooklyn.
Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Anything by PG Wodehouse.
The Accidental Tourist, Ladder of Years - in fact, I'd read Anne Tyler's shopping lists if she published them.
Music and Silence, and Restoration by Rose Tremain.
A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Half a Yellow Sun.
The Crimson Petal and the White - apart from the ending.

I need a new book to love! Haven't been blown away for ages.

Catch22

Great expectations, Dickens. Might have to read it again soon.

Someone mentioned A Tree Grows in Brooklyn above. It's the only book I've read and read until it fell apart (well, apart from Rivals) so I suppose it must be my favourite. Though the end is a bit disappointing.

Some good ones mentioned above. I adored Alias Grace and Carol Shields Unless

The New Confessions - William Boyd
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks