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?

I love any book by Barbara Erskine

I don't think I have any favourite favorite books, well I do but there are lots of them

Love Phillipa Gregory

Watchers by Dean Koontz is a great read, love it.

I've just started Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen by Alison Weir

As far as I know she will be writing one about all the Tudor queens

Whatever Love Means by David Baddiel. Genuinely the cleverest, most brilliant book I have ever read. His first novel, Time for Bed is a close second.

Also loved One Day by David Nicholls and The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffneger.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I bloody love that book.

The grapes of wrath

Barbara windsors autobiography

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters.

Absolutely loved it from start to finish, brilliantly written, fantastic structure, really romps along at pace.

And just when you think she can't go any lower... !

James Herbert - enjoyed many of his books.

The Poldark series were a fantastic read.

Cathrine Cookson (i know, i know) - i lived her Tilly Trotter Trilogy.

As a child Alice Walker - Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry made a big impact.

batteriesallgone I would say my favourite book is Foucaults Pendulum. It's thought provoking, full of humour and a really good read.

Sadik Mansfield Park is my favourite Austen, but I think I like the wrong characters the best. I like Mary and Henry Crawford

Lots of great books named. I'm currently rereading E F Benson. Mapp and Lucia which is so brilliantly written.

Harry Potter & A Street Cat Named Bob

The puppet boy of Warsaw.

It's about a Jewish boy growing up in the ghettos in Warsaw during the war he is given a coat with secret compartments which belonged to his grandfather. He starts performing puppet shows to the kids of the ghetto but when the Germans discover his talent he is forced to entertain them

Cod by Mark Kurlansky.
A fiction book, so many disassociated bits of history fell into place. Boston tea party, doh obvious.

A non fiction book [whoops]

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

The Handmaid's Tale would just about be #1. It was the book that set me on the road to feminism, and it's one of the most well-drawn dystopias ever. Atwood uses every word with a poet's precision.

Others that would make the top 10:

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood again
HP & the Deathly Hallows
The Collector - John Fowles
From The Beast to the Blonde - Marina Warner
The Dark Is Rising (love the whole series but particularly the eponymous book) - Susan Cooper
Rachel's Holiday - Marion Keyes
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantell
Lords & Ladies - Terry Pratchett (narrowly, just nosing ahead from pretty much every other Discworld novel)

The Count of Monte Cristo for me, but I have many close seconds.

The most well thumbed is
Keri Hulme, The Bone People

Close contenders
Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night
David Brin, Earth
Ursula LeGuin, The Dispossessed
Pride & Prejudice
Terry Pratchett - the witches books in particular
Diana Wynne Jones, various, but will plump for Dark Lord of Derkholm
Chris Moriarty Spin State

Not very high brow but I loved Jilly Cooper's Riders and have thorroughly enjoyed all her other books. I want to read the new one Jump!

The LymondChronicles - Dorothy Dunnett
Anne of Green Gables

(quite a contrast there!)

Bambambini I had to stop reading James Herberts Rats. Absolutely bloody terrifying.

English Passengers - Matthew Kneale
Red Shift - Alan Garner
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Goodnight Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian
Human Croquet - Kate Atkinson
Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse
Room at the Top - John Braine
Restoration - Rose Tremaine

For some reason, books I read in childhood have stayed with me longer than those read more recently.
My list off the top of my head:
Tom's Midnight Garden
Z for Zachariah
Goodnight Mister Tom
Les Miserables

Jings - reading Goodnight Mr Tom now with my son. Lovely book but tough reading in parts.

I'm surprised to see The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on the list! I would rate it as the very worst book I have had the misfortune to read (for a book club) in recent years. I thought it was truly abysmal!

Wuthering Heights. Read it a few times every time I fall in love with it a bit more

Other favourites
Americanah
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
Of Mice and Men
Giovanni's Room
The Invention of Wings
The Bonesetters Daughter
Wild Swans
The Glass Palace
The Kite Runner
Paddy Clark ha ha ha
The Crimson Petal and the White

Crinkle - i read Rats (the trilogy) when i was 11 - scared me silly and loved it at the same time.