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?

Many of mine have been mentioned:

Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
1984 - George Orwell
To kill a mockingbird - Harper Lee
Roll of thunder, hear my cry
Pillars of the earth - Ken Follett
Magician - Raymond E Feist
The Bullerby Children - Astrid Lindgren
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
careless whispers - Carlton Stowers
A twist in the tale - Jeffrey Archer

Will happily read any of these over and over and also any Jilly Ccopers

I will do hemanorshera I'm very good at reading other books that have been recommended to me.

Please do read Foulcaults Pendulum too.

The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson or the colour purple

Pillars of the Earth is the best book ever! The follow ons were good too, but nowhere close to Pillars.

However this is closely followed by the Earth's Children series by Jean M Auel (Clan of the Cave Bear, Plains of Passage... there's 6 altogether) Brilliantly researched and beautifully written.

Gone With The Wind
Shantaram
Brave New World
Outlander
The Six Wives Of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser
Oliver Twist
Room
We Need To Talk About Kevin

The hamaids tale
Jane eyre
The mayor of Casterbridge

All had a great impact and have gone back to them since

Catkind- Bone People is my favourite also. The characters are the most real, heroic and flawed I've ever come across. Brilliant.

I can't pick. It's like choosing between your children.

Recent books I have loved are
The snow child
Americanah
A gentleman in moscow

Classics I could read over and over
Evelina
The reader
Vera drake.

Me too for The Magus by John Fowles, This Thing of Darkness is amazing despite a title I wouldn't have been drawn to.... I forget who it's by.

The mists of avalon I read as a teenager and stuck with me and is one I go back to. Also
Little Dorritt by Dickens,
little women,
Edge by Jeffrey deaver

Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
I know this much is True - Wally Lamb
Alias Grace and the Handmaids Tale - Margaret Attwood
The Stand - Stephen King
All of the Narnia books - CS Lewis

I would also say the Magus by John Fowles.

I read it years ago and I wonder whether I was just at the right age for it to make the impression that it did. Ive never re-read it. Now I'm older it might not be as good

I can't narrow it down to one but these are my favourites:

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
Good morning, midnight - Jean Rhys
Tess of the D'urbeyvilles - Thomas Hardy
Trainspotting- Irvine Welsh
The crimson petal and the white - Michel Faber
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
Oranges are not the only fruit - Jeanette Winterson
Remains of the day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Blonde - Joyce Carol Oates

And this thread has reminded me how much of loved A prayer for Owen Meany!

Birdsong, Watership Down and The Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy.

Jane Eyre, Wise Children by Angela Carter, The Humans by Matt Haig.

So many, but possibly John Fowles the Collector. Film did such a disservice to the book. I'm still horrified by it now and I read it when I was about 15, so 30 years ago.

PS I'd also recommend Deluge by Richard Doyle (nephew of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Too many, really, but I will mention the two I am most impressed with recently:

"The Goblin Emperor" by Katherine Addison
"The Red Abbey Chronicles #1" by Maria Turtschaninoff

Shogun by James Clavell

Anything by Robert Crais, Terry Pratchett, Carl Hiaasen and CJ Sansom.
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

So many to choose from however have narrowed it down to

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
Anybody Out There - Marian Keyes (full snotty sobs with every page turn) may be not good to read if you have had a recent bereavement.

I want to add my affection for "The Joy Luck Club", a book that I felt had an actual real life impact on my development when I read it in uni. Books are so personal that way - different meanings depending on the time and space the reader is in when consuming them.

Or to quote from that very book...."so many meaning depending on what you hold in your heart"

Just finished joy luck club (again on audio) and bought it because I love mah Jong! Really enjoyed it. Owen Meany was hit & miss for me-long sections where not much happened & overhyped but still good.

If by best book you mean one that I read over and over again then:

Pride and Prejudice
The time travellers wife
A fault in our stars
The girl you left behind
The handmaid's Tale (only read once so far but that was a month ago and I already want to read it again)

Thanks for the thread, I've topped up my wish list and found 2 books sitting on my bookshelf that I haven't read yet - Keep the aspidistra flying and A prayer for Owen Meany - so I am very happy.

I would be good if this thread were moved from chat eventually so we don't lose such a good list of books.

I love The Joy Luck Club. Amy Tan's novels are wonderful they take you on a spiritual journey

My favourite book of hers is The Bonesetters Daughter (as mentioned before)