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.

And For Whom The Bell Tolls was a revelation.

One?! ONE?!?!?

Not possible

But at the top along with I'm sure many others:
Handmaids Tale
A Fine Balance
God of Small Things
Bell Jar
Purple Hibiscus
His Dark Materials Trilogy
Pillars of Earth
100Years of Solitude
Veronica Decides to Die
Time's Arrow
Oryx and Crake
1984
Down and Out in Paris and London
A Tale of Two Cities

I'm so boringly classic aren't I?!

Waaaaaay more. I can't choose

Oh my god yes!

To Kill a Mockingbird
I Capture the Castle
A Child in Time
Matilda
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
A Secret History

I'm going to stop posting but start writing down all your other suggestions

after I sneak in The Great Gatsby and Tipping The Velvet

and Lady Chatterly's Lover and Frenchman's Creek

Ok fine - if best I'll prob make it A Fine Balance and The Handmaids Tale

But all of the above still stand

'A Fine Balance' didn't work for me at all.

Never heard of that 'Veronica' one - looking it up immediately! :)

Best book ever - Anna Karenina
Followed by the Rabbit series by John Updike

Then heart of darkness.

Morvern callar is a great book and I love Alice Munro short stories.

A fine balance moved me in such a subtle way and is the best book I ever read, ever! Actually just thinking about it makes me cry!
Mister pip made me cry spontaneously on the bus
The great gatsby is my favourite of all time

Also isn't the kindle one of the worlds greatest inventions! My life changed the day I got that thing

I could probably do a Top 10 and that would certainly include Experience (his memoir) by Martin Amis.

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

Restoration by Rose Tremain

The Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle

Can I throw in the collected plays of Joe Orton too?

Ooh if we're having plays, can I chuck some Ibsen in?

For me, the best book is The Grapes of Wrath. I read it when I was about 14/15 and I have never forgotten it, a powerful story, heart-breaking and lyrical. It still haunts me, and it is still relevant in these times of mass economic migration

Favourite books? So many, and of different kinds according to the mood I`m in at the time of reading. A selection of ones that spring to mind:

A Room with a View
Down and Out in Paris and London
The Kite Runner
Bleak House
Emma (all Jane Austen, in fact)
Anything by Bill Bryson
The Lacuna
The Death of Vishnu
A Suitable Boy
The God of Small Things
Animal Farm

Veronica Decides to Die is Paulo Coelho....I'm a bit meh about some of his books but loved this and The Devil and Miss Prim

Nooooooo we can't do plays as well, I'll be here forever and ever!!!

Thanks ATB.

Go on...You know you want to do plays too. :)

Let's do poetry as well. I'll have the collected Larkin please. :)

I loved Love in the Time of Cholera

If youre doing poetry I vote for the Metaphysical Poets, especially Andrew Marvells "To his Coy Mistress"

Agree with loads of others TKAM , Fine Balance and Remains of the Day
but also loved Margaret Forsters 'Have the Men had enough'. In fact love most of her books

Shogun
Took me to another world age 14, when every child needs to escape. Took it to school and had my nose in it on the bus, dinner and break. Totally couldn't put it down.

Have never dared re read it, it so much belongs to then.

One day I'll buy a copy and get DD1 to read it.

His dark materials is brilliant, and a real fav. of DHs too.

I'm a theatre director so plays is a really tough one as I read them for pleasure but also for work and rarely read them without working out the embryonic ideas for production at least!

But A Dolls House is definitely one of the top of all time ever. And Hamlet. And Mercury Fur. And Faustus. And Angels in America. And anything by David Greig and Moira Buffini and Caryl Churchill. And Joe Penhall

I'll see you Larkin and raise you Andrienne Rich

Have to admit to positively hating pretty much all Austen. Give me a Bronte any day

I'm really bad at this but it has made me wander round Adult Fiction and I'm going to belatedly join the 50 books in a year thread....

I've read so many books I've loved, but To Kill a Mocking Bird will always be my favourite. I first read it as a teen, and after all the hundreds of books since, I still love it.
To anyone on this thread who hasn't read it, give it a go.