What is the best book you have ever read?

[damnedgrubble]

I think mine has to be (at least at the moment) The House at the End of Hope Street because I grew up not far from there.

Which is your favourite book and why?

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

If I have to choose one it's the Count of Monte Cristo.

To Kill a Mockingbird -
Catcher in the Rye
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4
The Remains of the Day
Pride and Prejudice
Perfume
All perfect books

I think all my best/most memorable reads have been mentioned:

A Prayer for Owen Meany (and The Cider House Rules)
The Poisonwood Bible
Alias Grace

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes
Any Human Heart by William Boyd

We need to talk about Kevin

As a child my favourite was, I am David. As an adult, the Crow road

Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Moon of Gomrath
By Alan Garner

Read hundreds of times since 1973

I capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

Angela's Ashes

And Henry Williamson's animal books - Tarka the Otter, Salar the Salmon, Chakchek the Peregrine, Brock the Badger.

Wuthering Heights.
The Woman Who Walked into Doors
The House in Norham Gardens - nothing really happens, yet an inredibly deep book.

ReadyPlayerOne that is a fab book, one of my other usernames is a RP1 reference

I also loved All the Light We Cannot See - amazing

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Book of Night Women
The Grapes of Wrath
Pillars of the Earth

Not sure. Loved The Raj Quartet - brilliant story.

Read Les Miserables. Was tough going and took a few years from start to finnish but glad i picked it up again and persevered. Such sn epic, shocking and emotional book.

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates is a triumph.
Totally Nobel prize worthy, I doubt she'll ever get it though.

Can't pick one.

Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett
Nation, also by Terry Pratchett
True Grit, by Charles Portis
Fox Evil, by Minette Walters
The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy L Sayers

Heads up... don't read Disgrace if you're a sensitive dog-lover.

Sod that book.

My favourite is Middlemarch.

The Stand

I think.. it's tough, there's a few contenders really such as:

A Fine Balance
The Cider house Rules/ Owen Meany/ Garp
A Suitable Boy
The State Of Wonder
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Trouble With Goats And Sheep
All of Wally Lambs

Behind The Scenes At The Museum
Kitchen Gods Wife
Frankenstein

I can't choose as there are so many good books!

But ons that was really interesting was Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber

Charlotte Grey - Sebastian Faulkland

Faulks

Non-fiction - George Orwell's Collected Essays - there are some duds, but so often an item of news or of general chitchat reminds me that Orwell had the perfect (and most beautifully phrased) reflection on the subject.

Fiction - has to be Austen, and for me (though I know I'm in the minority) if I had to choose one it would be Mansfield Park. As a child my DM used to say that you could place every single person in an English village against a JA character, and it is just so very true.

Yay U2 another Wally Lamb fan!

I liked Engleby but I found the main character, Mike, very disturbing indeed.

I enjoyed So Much For That by Lionel Shriver more than We Need To Talk About Kevin.