What is the best book you have ever read?

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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?

The Long Walk from the Bachman Books by Stephen King.

Watching with interest and trying to think of my own!

So many, so many!

These two I have re-read many times over the years, not the most high-brow perhaps, but just perfect in their own way -

My Side of the Mountain by Jean George

Forever by Judy Blume

We need to talk about Kevin - I love Lionel Shriver's detail on emotions

Secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 - still makes me laugh so much

The Stand - love a bit of dystopian future!

We need to talk about Kevin is a wonderful book. Shame the film adaptation was abysmal.

Love this thread. Loads of great reminders.

Pride and Prejudice is an all time favourite.

I loved A Suitable Boy, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Wasp Factory, and various by Barbara Pym that I've forgotten the titles of. Secret love of Rivals by Jilly Cooper too.

I can't possibly choose....but two of them are 'To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and 'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel. The former is so wise, warm and heartening and the latter is so evocative and immersive, with flashes of the sort of mischievous humour I enjoy.

May I say - I'm impressed with those of you who have read A Suitable Boy . It is the one and only book that has defeated me. I must try again!

Oh god can't believe I forgot about the Wasp Factory! Although I think I prefer Espedair Street and its homage to the bed hopping and nonsense of heyday Fleetwood Mac

A really odd one that I enjoyed was "The Bees" by Laline Paull.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold has always stayed with me.

I loved The Lovely Bones and We Need To Talk About Kevin.

I'm also unashamed to admit that I still love The Fault In Our Stars - I was still a teenager myself when I first read it and I keep re-reading it because it really spoke to me

All the Harry Potter books but especially the last one.

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier

I've just finished Shantaram it's been brilliant!

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the book I have re-read the most. The ending still gets me.
I really love Rupert Thompson's writing - The Insult is probably my favourite.
There are so many books that I love though, that it is really hard to decide.

One Hundred Years of Solitude was responsible for me choosing my degree course.

I'm another who can't choose by individual title but by author I'd go for:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
George Orwell
Graham Green
Evelyn Waugh
John Irving - I'm pleasantly surprised how many others have picked him
Orhan Pamuk
Gerald Durrell - The Corfu trilogy never fails to make me want to ditch everything and go to live in Corfu.

Ooh that's reminded me jingly. My sister recommended Shantaram. It's on my wish list! Is it a long read?

Such a hard question. Off the top of my head

Faire Tale Raymond E Fiest

The accidental Ali Smith

All families are psychotic Douglas Coupland

Crimson Petal and the White , can't remember authors name

Tulip Fever Deborah Moggach

There's probably soo many more.

My favourites are:
1984, George Orwell.
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte (I personally think Anne was the most talented of the Brontes).
The Devil of Nanking (aka Tokyo), Mo Hayder, made me cry and stayed with me a long time.

"The Long Walk from the Bachman Books by Stephen King"

Thanks - how had I not noticed this book? Just downloaded it from Audible.

I'm a Stephen King fan, the writing and the man. He's the only author I'm actively worried about dying - he's quite old now and I need him to carry on churning out novels for a least another thirty years, hopefully to see me out. Love him!

Impossible to choose just one. But, another vote for A Suitable Boy.

Also, The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

And A Passage to India by E.M. Foster.

And about a million others!

Has Annie Proulx had a mention yet?

Brokeback Mountain.

Ones I read over and over are Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Life After Life, wasn't struck on A God in Ruins though. Loved The Magic Circus, too.

A pp mentioned A Little Life which I read recently. It's very well written but not a book I would recommend as such because if the content, it's absolutely heart breaking and I don't think I would read it again.

The books I keep coming back to are:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• various by John Wyndham
• Illusions by Richard Bach
• the Harry Potters

A room of one's own and Orlando both by Virginia Woolf.
Wild Sarogassa Sea by Jean Rhys.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy.