What is the best book you have ever read?

[KatyDidItAgain]

What was it, and why was it so good?

Mine is Nevil Shute's Trustee from the toolroom for his wonderful portrayal of the main character, Keith.

These threads all turn into "favourite books" threads. It doesn't matter if the OP is about the best book, must-read books, or whatever.

Tales of the City
Therapy by David Lodge
This Book will Save your Life by A M Homes
The Last Resort by Alison Lurie

Alan Bennett's "the clothes they stood up in". It's a tiny, tiny book but absolutely describes human frailties to a tee. I love this book.

Best: Catch-22 is pretty hard to beat.

Favourite: that's way tougher...

Requiem For a Wren by Neville Shute
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

I think of 'best' books as being those where not a word is out of place and you can't imagine the world existing without every word of them in it.

'Favourites' are those that may be flawed but you love them anyway.

So in 'best' I would include:
Catch-22
The Maltese Falcon
Down And Out In Paris And London
The Big Sleep
If This Is A Man, or The Periodic Table

And in my 'favourites' I would have the likes of:
Infinite Jest
Mason & Dixon
Foucault's Pendulum
Stone Junction
The Lord Of The Rings (my ultimate comfort read!)

V good formula, Meg.

So the one's I listed are 'best' but 'favourite' would also include 'Ballet Shoes' and 'Miss Pettigrew' Lives for a Day (for sheer, feel good escapism), the Harry Potter books (which have many flaws but I can't help loving them) and yes to LOTR.

Salinger's Catcher in the Rye

Yes, yes to Primo Levi's the Periodic Table. And TKAM is definitely a perfectly realised world, I think the same of P&P (although didn't Austen think it was too light and happy and perfect). One Hundred Years of Solitude is pretty amazing. I haven't reread Middlemarch since I was in my early 20s but at the time it certainly felt like a big and complex novel. Maybe I should start rereading all those classics I loved at that age.

Favourites? Wilkie Collins is my current crush (some of the best female characters I've ever read), and Margaret Attwood.

Mine would have to be something by John Irving, and would probably go for A Prayer for Owen Meanie ......

I have a few -

The Grapes of Wrath- Steinbeck
Behind The Scenes At The Museum-Kate Atkinson
The End Of The Affair- Graham Greene

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, because it is so readable and such a good story, describes horrible events accurately (I assume) but somehow doesn't seek to burn them into your brain in a way that lesser books might do for effect (I'm looking at you Rupert Thomson ), and at the end of it I looked at the world differently and I hope with more humility.

A very difficult question... Certainly near the top of my top five would have to be The Sparrow Mary Doria Russell. It's about Jesuits and aliens and just says so lunch about the human condition. It's beautiful and gripping.

Oh Joan I loved A Fine Balance too. In fact I think it's time for another read

Shatters, I have just finished the grapes of wrath. Unbelievably powerful. Like being punched repeatedly in the head. It's haunting me too.

Upton sinclair's the jungle had a similar effect on md several years ago.

I love The God of Small Things
Persuasion
Possession
Bone People

I have yet to find a book better than The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, and in second place it's a tie between:-

Watership Down
A Tale of Two Cities
A Prayer for Owen Meaney
The Book Thief
Year of the King
Persuasion

The best? East Of Eden by Steinbeck. It's beautifully written.

As for favourite, I just can't choose one. Sorry.

The Grapes of Wrath is incredible - but I don't think I will ever be able to re-read it.

Yes, yes, yes to A Fine Balance - could not stop thinking about it, so beautifully written, changed my perspective on just about everything.

Also love Primo Levi.

When I was younger it was Foucalt's Pendulum, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Cold Comfort Farm and Wuthering Heights.

I dont know about 'best' and i have already listed my 'favourites' but the misremembered man is a beautifully written gentle book

Graham Greene's 'Brighton Rock' is unforgettable and I have to say I relish 'Catch 22' more every time I read it. 'The Great Gatsby' is pure pleasure.

Best is Sophie's Choice or Brideshead Revisited. Favourite is Gone with the Wind. But honestly and promisedly Charlie and Lola are my favourite and my best.

Midnights Children is the one I've read several times and plan to read several times more.
The Time Travellers Wife is the one that made me cry & cry.
The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe is the one I love reading aloud.
Down & Out In Paris & London is the one that shocked me to the core.
Oh, there are so many, for so many different reasons!!