What is the most beautiful book you have ever read?

[umbrellabird]

I've had a tough year and just want to surround myself in good things...

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Very sad but lovely.

Funny how subjective these things are. I think the Grapes of wrath is one of the more unpleasant and depressing books I have ever read!

I concur with The Summer Book and H Is For Hawk. I read the latter a little while ago and when I finished it I had to start it all over again! Captivating, strange and compelling.

Also anything by Marilynne Robinson.

The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry.

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, for the beauty of Lyra's world the other two are a bit rubbish though

And Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. Glorious.

Love is where it falls - Simon Callow .
Breath taking in its beauty and clarity of what is right in the world.

Like Water for Chocolate -Laura Esquivel
Adore both of these books and read time and time again

Graeme Greene 's The end of the Affair is so moving on many levels and the last few lines will always make me cry. Beautifully written and atmospheric.
Maybe not for cheering up though!

Cider with Rosie is full of sunshine and countryside and being young so that might do the trick.

Love 'the giant under the snow' too by john Gorden.

It's a childrens book but like Harry potter not childlike. Better written too, and magical and mysterious. Happy ending so definitely will cheer you up.

The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing
The Possession of Delia Sutherland - Barbara Neil
The Girls - Lori Lansens
Genesis - Michel Serres
Most things by Haruki Murakami or David Mitchell

Lovely thread, there are some great suggestions here Taking notes.

Lovely thread; so many of my favourites already mentioned. I think Le Guin is my favourite writer simply for her beautiful prose.

Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell
Feast by Nigella Lawson

Maybe a bit of poetry?

Tennyson 'Come into the garden, Maud' is what I often read when feeling a bit bruised by life.
Also George Herbert, 'Love bade me welcome'

Cold Comfort Farm is surprisingly beautiful.

Recently, I have loved 'the Paris wife', and 'newlyweds(?)' both very beautiful, lyrical stories about love.

The Humans by Matt Haig is a beautiful, warm, funny, uplifting book. He wrote it while suffering from depression....I can't put into words how good this book is. Everyone should read it.

Definitely The God of Small Things. The most beautiful book ever - the language is absolutely stunning. It's hard to describe - you just have to read it.

I also agree with The Remains of the Day (beautifully understated and terribly moving at the same time) and Gilead (some gorgeous stand-out passages).

Amongst Women by John McGahern is a quiet masterpiece that has an austere beauty about it.

You can't go wrong with Winnie the Pooh and The House and Pooh Corner for a meditative read

I also really enjoyed Vikram Seth's From Heaven Lake. About travelling in China and Tibet and beautifully written.

And lastly, Khaled Hosseini's And The Mountains Echoed. It's the first book I've read for ages that I could not put down.

Oops, meant The House At Pooh Corner!

"Paula" by Isabel Allende makes me weep every time I read it. It is heartbreaking and exquisitely written and very moving. I think it's an absolute masterpiece, and don't say that lightly.

Steinbeck's, "Of Mice and Men" packs such a lot into just six small chapters, and certain lines in it will always haunt me.

Some of the sections of Stephen King's Dark Tower series are also hauntingly beautiful. Without giving spoilers, there is a section where a character is being buried in a wood at the side of the road, and it is so, so powerful. I've read it over and over again and it just breaks me, every time.

My Antonia. Beautiful beautiful book.

The great gatsby.

Two different visions of America equally breathtaking.

Another really beautiful book is In the Place of Fallen Leaves by Tim Pears - his debut novel.

It is set in Devon during a long, hot summer, about an adolescent girl and a rural community. It is uplifting and quite simply beautiful. It is probably almost 20 years since I read it but I still remember many parts of it vividly.

Just remembered, "Breakfast at Tiffany'." A bit of an out there choice, maybe, but some of the lines are perfect poetry.

Also, and these might be less popular choice, both, "Lolita" and, "A Clockwork Orange" describe horrible things in absolutely impeccable prose.

I love how Le Guin has maintained her brilliance. I remember getting A Wizard of Earthsea from the school library, 40 years ago and being utterly transported by it.

And, only recently, Powers, which she wrote a couple of years ago, had me completely mesmerised.

I love how she's grown so very, very wise and empathetic over the years.

Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee for the descriptions of character and settings, it's like being at the cinema only better.

I recently read A Small Island by Andea Levy which dealt with a difficult theme (racism and immigration in the 1940s) very movingly. The main characters were so very human - flawed, exasperating, occasionally hateful, often admirable. And it was witty. A beautiful book.

I also loved The God of Small Things and I'm also a big fan of David Mitchell. But two other beautiful written books I enjoyed are Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mists

I also love The God of Small things.
Also, Love in time of Cholera and Perfume.
Complicity by Iain Banks and anything by Evelyn Waugh make me happy,