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]

To Kill a Mockingbird
Jane Eyre
Rebecca
The Kite Runner

I'll have to print this thread off and keep it handy for meanders through Amazon...lots of great ideas!
Some of my favourites,

A Fine Balance- Mistry If I had to pick one it would probably be this one.
City of Djinns- Dalrymple (not fiction but never mind!)
Midnight's Children
Cat's Eye- an early Atwood
Any Human Heart-William Boyd

The Chrysalids
My Family and Other Animals
To Kill a Mockingbird

These last 3 are favourites from teenage years but re-read sporadically.

Behind the scenes at the museum - Kate Aktinson
The Magus - John Fowles
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint - Brady Udall
We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver
Possession - AS Byatt
The Help - kathryn Stockett

Any Margaret Attwood - I can never work out what is going on for the first few chapters and by then I am completely absorbed.
Guilty pleasure: Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite

The flight without end by Joseph Roth
Lessico famigliare by Natalia Ginzburg
Anything by PG Wodehouse
Suite francaise
The corrections
Anything by Georges Simenon
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
American psycho

Getting loads of ideas - thanks for the thread OP. Can I add The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd?

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Minstry
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Quincunx - Charles Palliser
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkes
A Very Long Engagement - Sebastien Japrisot
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Tortilla Curtain - T C Boyle
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

I don't think you can have a favourite book if you are a passionate reader [hsmile].

If asked I always say A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

Other favourites are:
J G Ballard - Super-Cannes
John Irving - World According to Garp
John Irving - Cider House Rules
E Annie Proulx - The Shipping News
Jane Smiley - A Thousand Acres
Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie - Purple Hibiscus
J.M. Coetzee - Disgrace

Actually I love love love John Irving - Hotel New Hampshire, Prayer for Owen Meany etc. If you asked who was my favourite author it would have to be him!

flubba - you are so right about Danny The Champion of the World! I cannot wait to introduce my DCs to that book. It is wonderful. In fact I might have to dig out my copy and re-read tonight :)

Most of my favourites have been mentioned but, most recently, I've loved reading The Lacuna which got me going on the rest of Barbara Kingsolver.

Also anything by Neal Stevenson. Reamde is gripping me at the moment and Anathem is brilliant.

A life-time addiction is Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolo series.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak I was so sad to have finished it.

Ooops sorry! I started a thread on my favourite book before I saw this one.

Mission- Patrick Tilley

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is my absolute favourite book ever. I've not yet found anything to top it!

Oh yes Dorian Gray is fantastic and unforgettable

Anything by Sebastien Faulks. Birdsong is very good and his One Week in December is brilliant and very relevent to London today.

I' also like to add to my list:

• Unaccustomed earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Easter parade by Richard Yates
• The real life of Sebastian Knight by Vladimir Nabakov
• Eugenie Grandet by Balzac

In no particular order...

The Alchemist - Paolo Coelho
Captain Correlli's Mandolin / Red Dog - Louis de Bernieres
How The Dead Live - Will Self
Othello
Most of Iain Banks / Iain M Banks (The Bridge is my fave)
Anything by Philip K Dick - especially his short story collections
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby (I was a muso snob until I read this )
Trainspotting / Acid House / Marabou Stork Nightmares - Irvine Welsh
The Island Of The Day Before - Umberto Eco
Boule de Souif et autres contes de la guerre - Maupassant
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins (as much as I despise his condenscending, inflexible, blinkered vision, his books are, dare I say, a great read!)
Girlfriend In A Coma / All Families Are Psychotic - Douglas Coupland
Return Of the Native / Tess Of The D'Urbevilles - Thomas Hardy

Step away from the keyboard... sorry - can't pick one!!!

Oh no!! I missed

Lovely Bones, His Dark Materials, Life of Pi, Lord Of The Flies, 1001 Arabian Nights, L'Etranger, Solitaire Mystery, Christmas Mystery, Sophie's World

this thread is frustrating - I'm addicted. I need to turn the computer off.

Chronicles of Narnia

God Of Small Things

One??? Nooooo.
Anything by Sara Banerji, great story telling with slight mystical element sometimes, unique
How do you want me? - witty/funny/sad autob by Ruby Wax (your jaw drops at the staggeringly awful attitude / behaviour of her mother)
John Buchan - Prester John, gripped me as a teenager
The Help - currently reading, delicious, poignant writing, amazing debut novel, and don't want it to end.
Captain Correlli's Mandolin - it's got everything
To Kill a Mockingbird - just "wow"
The Thornbirds - epic saga
Everything by John Windham, esp. Chocky
Tom's Midnight Garden - heartwarming children's time travel
Narnia - timeless escapism for children
The Mars and Venus books by C.S.Lewis, ditto
Wizard of Earthsea Trilogy, if you like Narnia you should like this
there's more...including some mentioned above....of course, and i haven't even touched on any of the classics...but that's what i can think of for now.

Planning on trying "Wouldn't it be nice?" by that Beachboys bloke as good reviews. I read somewhere he had to fight off the voices in his head for two hours every morning before he could get on with his day....Anyone read that?

hitch hikers guide to the galaxy

...and Albany Park - Patrice Chaplain

A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving - awesome

Agree with almost all of this list but would add "The Book Thief" (Marcus Zusak) "The Road Home" (Rose Tremaine) and "The Help" (Kathryn Stockett)