What's your perfect book?

[StevesFlappyCap]

I think I'll always re-read Pride and Prejudice, watch all the TV versions repeatedly as well. It's just the perfect book imo.

I have other favourites too that I do go back to (Persuasion included!) but I can repeatedly read that and never tire of it.

Do any other MNers have a perfect book?

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Austen, of course.

Ballet Shoes
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
84 Charing Cross Road
Charlotte Sometimes
The Little Women series

I don't know about 'perfect' but Armistead Maupin's Tales of the city series are my most read books in the last 20 years. And I've only just discovered he's recently written 3 more! My favourite Jane Austen is Northanger Abbey.

I don't know about 'perfect' but Armistead Maupin's Tales of the city series are my most read books in the last 20 years. And I've only just discovered he's recently written 3 more! My favourite Jane Austen is Northanger Abbey.

Thanks for the replies,

I realise "perfect' is not applicable to many books but P&P is that to me, can't fault it.

I could never get into Little Women and don't know why.

Other re-readable contenders for me are: Bleak House/The Go-Between/Lady Chatterly's Lover -not just for the C-word/Crime and Punishment/Birdsong/The Stand/The Yellow Wallpaper...there are more but can't think now!

Adding a lot of these to the TBR list :)

I also love Judy Blume books, can re-read them endlessly, even the kids ones!

Loved those as a teen metal. Maybe should try a re-read.

Jilly Cooper. I have worn out all my hard copies with endless re-reading so now have them all on my Kindle. I never get tired of them.

And Elizabeth David. Such sharp, witty writing.

Still noting these!

Georgette Heyer's regency ones too, they all follow a standard form but so readable. And so good if you're feeling ill, pure escapism :)

Anne of Green Gables; also The Morning Tide by Audrey Howard; and A Time to Love by Beryl Kingston.

Unlike most Anne-fans, I didn't take to Pride & Prejudice, at all; I had to endure it, studying it for A-Level.

Just popped on to say I love Charlotte Sometimes too Remus.

All the Mapp and Lucia books, anything by Elizabeth Jane Howard, .
I Capture the Castle, and The Greengage Summer.

Jane Eyre (re-reading again and snivelled home on the tube yesterday, even though I know Helen is going to die.
Mansfield Park
The post-birthday world - Lionel Shriver
Ender's game - Orson Scott Card
The chrsalids - John Wyndham
Behind the scenes at the Castle museum - Kate Atkinson
Anything by Terry Pratchett

Nancy Mitford - Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love, in terms of being happy to re-read them over and over again. I also think Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is pretty much a perfect book in terms of being a page-turner though not so cheery so less inclined to re-read.

I love Jane Austen, but surprised you would pick Mansfield Park as her stand out work. It's probably m least favourite along with Northanger Abbey. As a child Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden were the books I read over and over again.

Rebecca, East of Eden, Gone With the Wind and No More Meadows.

Oooh yes - how could I forget Daphne du Maurier? My favourite is My Cousin Rachel.

All the Discworld Books, Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series, Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies. I used to love Poppy Z Brite but I suspect they wouldn't stand up to re-reading. My secret weakness is for the Dandy Gilver stories by Catriona McPherson,

I would choose Mansfield Park as my perfect book too. I do love P&P and S&S, but neither quite measures up to MP for me.

The other stand out book for me is Absolute Beginners by Colin McInnes - it just feels like it captures a place/moment in time perfectly.

Memoirs of a geisha and the memory keepers daughter.

Loved Judy blume when I was younger... Might indulge again

Vanity Fair by Thackery
Middlemarch - George Eliot for ultimate comfort

The Netherworld - George Gissing
L'Assomoir by Emile Zola
for more darkness and tears

My perfect book is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I agree that it is all about suffering but it is also enriched with bitter love which touches the reader's heart. The plot in it is totally different than all the new novels I've read. So from all the books I've read so far, I would still give it #1.

Invisible Monsters (Chuck Palahniuk) I don't know why it's so comforting to read when it's anything but

I think my favourite Jane Austens are Persuasion and Emma ..

(and the others !)

I've always liked Mansfield Park more than most people seem to but my favourite Austen is Persuasion which is as close to book perfection as I think is possible.

I re-read pretty much all Dorothy L Sayers Wimsey novels regularly. They are my ultimate comfort reads: The Nine Tailors, Five Red Herrings and Gaudy Night are my favourites.

And, finally, Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido. I'm on my third copy, having worn out two previous ones.

Gerda I like Dandy Gilver books too. A few (4 or 5?) years ago someone on here said they'd enjoyed them. I would probably never have tried them if it hadn't been for that recommendation.