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]

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency/The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul. Douglas Adams.
The Charlie Parker novels by John Connolly.
The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly.
East Of Eden by John Steinbeck.
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson.
Any of Chuck Palahniuk's novels.

The Great Gatsby - so perfect in every way, just a beautifully wrought novel.

Pride and Prejudice - I always wonder if it'll all turn out OK, even though I've read it a zillion times.

Fans of fantasy/science fiction:
Songs of Earth And Power by Greg Bear
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Lord of The Rings - of course
Non fantasy:
The Cage by Audry Schulman
The Cage by Michael Weston

An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan

I can hear his wonderful Irish accent every time I read this incredible book.

Not in order and oh dear, too many
Children's:
The Secret Garden and A Little Princess
The Narnias
The Little House series
Ferdinand the Bull
Little Women
Heidi

Adult
Jane Eyre
Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion
To Kill a Mockingbird
Bleak House
Cold Comfort Farm
The Bill Bryson book on the English Language
La Peste
La Porte Etroite
Simone de Beauvoir's memoirs
These Old Shades, Frederica, The Grand Sophy, A Civil Contract, Venetia, Arabella (except for the ending)
Dorothy L Sayers - almost anything
Private Eye Annuals and also Alex...(don't feel these really count...)
Jane Grigson's Good Things - as good as a novel...
Wendy Cope's Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis and
Almost anything by Carol Ann Duffy but especially The World's Wife
Patrick Leigh Fermor - A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and Water
The Blessing
The Chrysalids
Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell
Almost anything by Kate O'Brien, but especially Of Music and Splendour
Antigua Penny Puce
Father and Son
The Way of All Flesh
A Room of One's Own
Agree Lovely Lymond..

My two all-time favourite novelists are Carol Shields and Marilynne Robinson; I honestly cannot imagine life without them! Favourite two by Shields: Unless & Larry's Party; favourite one by Robinson: Gilead.

Graham Greene - The end of the affair
Bruce Chatwin - On the Black Hill
Dorothy Koomson - Goodnight beautiful
Anita Shreve - Where or when
Jane Austin - Persuasion

The War Of The Worlds.

like many others on the thread I'd go for Midnight's Children
Pride & Prejudice
The God of Small Things

plus The Bloody Chamber
Middlesex
The World According to Garp

So glad *The World according to Garp" has been mentioned so much...a great read.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Followed closely by The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

And Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

Lord of the Rings. Wasn't it the book Of the Millenium?
The whole of the Game Of Thrones saga,
The Swallows and Amazons Books.
Most of Anne Rices vampire chronicles and all of the Mayfair witches books,
Anything by Phillipa Gregory.
Jill's Gymnkhana,

And quite obviously, and in total agreement with SayGhoul, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. (DS bought me my own copy for Christmas)
Guess how Much I Love You and Owl Babies. Dick Brunas 'Miffy' books!

Oh, and I really loved Jurassic Park. Michael Crighton rocks!

Ooh, there are so many! My favourite author EVER, is Jasper Fforde! I love him and want his babies!

My favorite serious/meaningful book of all time is

"The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan.

Second runner up in that category would be

"A Handmaids Tale" by Margaret Atwood.

My favorite fun book(s) of all time are the Harry Potters In truth

The boy in the striped pajamas, the book is so much better than the complete let down of a film

Oooooh someone up there said Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.......yes, I just have to second that book - its nothing short of genius (and so very funny).

thecrow road ian banks

kids
narnia books
heidi
what katy did - and then what katy did next and wasn't there another one?
little woman, little men, and the 2 following ones whose name I can't remember

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar
The Tortilla Curtain by T C Boyle
Consuming Passions by Michael Lee West (Deep south food memoir)
Mamma Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells
Prince Of Tides...and... 'Lords Of Discipline' by Pat Conroy
Any of James Villas's food writing espec 'Stalking The Green Fairy'

Divine secrets of The YaYa sisterhood by Rebecca wells
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Womans Room by Marilyn French
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Anything by Truman Capote
Dreaming Southern by Linda Brookheimer
What Katy Did and other books by Susan coolidge
A Country Child by Allison Uttley

Swamplandia by Karen Russell
The Next Step in the Dance by Tim Gatreaux
Any of Lori Lansen's books
The Poisonwood Bible- 'The Prodigal Summer' and all of Barbara Kingsolvers books
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Divine Magnetic Lands by Tim O'Grady (usa travel writing)
Fried Green Tomatoes and other Fannie Flagg fiction
The Secret Life of Bees- The Mermaid Chair- both by Sue Monk Kidd

Anything by Wally Lamb
Any of Jan Morris's travel writing ('Venice', 'HongKong', 'The Deep South')
Class Reunion and 'After The Reunion' by Rhona Jaffe (not literary by any step but escapist) also 'The Best Of Everything'
Lace by Shirley Conran (devoured this on long flight to Korea aged 16).
The House On First Street by Julia Reed (account of New Orleans renovation)
Family Life- and Still Life both by Elizabeth Luard

A Year In Europe by Frances Mayes
Can Any Mother Help Me? by Jenna Bailey
The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Frantzen
Any of M F Fishers food writing
Best Food Writing edited by Holly Hughes ( one edition for each year from 2000-2011)
Family by Susan Hill- her struggle to have a family
American Pie by Pascal Le Draoulec - more roadtrip food writing
Roadfood and One For The Road both by Jane and Michael Stern

Oh god I could go on forever!!

Three men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome

ok some slightly different ones than already mentioned

Sarah Waters - Fingersmith
Zadie Smith -White Teeth
Patrick Suskind- Perfume
Marian Keyes - The Last chance Saloon
Stephen Fry- Making History
Carl Hiassen - lots and all v funny
Ruth Rendell- anything and everything
Ben Elton- same
Evelyn Waugh- The Loved one
The Da Vinci Code and then spurred on to read the conspiracy theory books- The Templar Revelation and The Stargate conspiracy by by Lynne picket and Clive Prince

I like music themed books so
Julian Copes autobiographies Head on and Re possessed I found a brilliantly entertaining read
Gary Valentine-(from Blondie) Turn off your mind
24 hour party people by Tony Wilson

and both of Russell Brands autobiographies- Like him or loathe him I found him damn funny!

Lord of the Rings - I know its 3 really but still I think it counts as one

and for kids i agree with Sayghoul and Saggyold.., The Very Hungry Caterpillar just rules!

I will read anything and have very eclectic taste! Arthur C Clarke, David Eddings, Cormac mccarthy and JK Rowling have written my most favourite books (and i can't remember who wrote Jill's Gymkhana mentioned above, but that must have been my favourtie as a kid!)

Crime thriller authors I love-

Tess Gerritsens books starting with 'The Surgeon'
Lisa Gardner
Linda Castillo
Karin Slaughter
Alex Cava
M J Kierley
Oliver Stark
Chris Carter
The early books of Patricia Cornwell
Chelsea Cain

None of them 'literary' or high art but I do enjoy them and I dislike literary snobbery.

Any more recommendations for American crime writing?

ll31

The books are 'What Katy Did'
'What Katy Did At School'
'What Katy Did Next'

There's also another in the series called 'Clover' about their young adulthood and Clover's (the 2nd eldest sister) travels to Colorado.

The Time Travellers Wife. I love it. Fell in love with it about five pages in and re-read it every six months or so, when I need my fill. Refuse to see the film as I know it will fall far far below expectations.