Best book you've ever read

[Tattooed Goddess]

In spirit of the worst book, how about the best book

Never Suck a Dead Mans Hand

A hilarious and morbid book written by a real life CSI.

 

[prince_will]

The World According to Garp - John Irving
A Widow For One Year - John Irving
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Carrie - Stephen King
Harry Potter series (especially Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows)
In The Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
The House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

and that's off the top of my head. i love a good book.

 

[Hand_Solo]

It's virtually impossible to pick just one, but one of the strong contenders for me is Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.

 

[whatireallywant]

I have quite a few, actually, but right now two stand out in my mind. Not sure if I'd consider them the best books I ever read, but they have affected me greatly.

Anguished English (and More Anguished English) by Richard Lederer - hilarious books of mistakes in the English language, often culled from high school essays, etc. My alternate screen name is a reference to something in one of these books. I pick up these books when I need a good laugh.

The Valley of Horses by Jean Auel - truly The Book That Changed My Life. This book contains THE verbalization of my sexual fantasy. I wasn't able to put it into words until I read this book, and now I think about it way too much! :biggrin1:

 

[smudgey]

Hmm that's hard, but I'd say "The Hobbit", so much better than the LOTR series I reckon.

 

[Mandee]

Hmmmm

My mother made me read "The Grapes of Wrath" in jr high and I really liked it... and then in high school my senior year we were required to read "The Great Gatsby" and it was the only thing I read that entire year that I liked. lol. I am currently reading "Memoirs of a Geisha" and I am liking it a lot.. I haven't seen the movie.

 

[Guy-jin]

Too many to pick one, honestly, and it depends on my mood. My favorite books are:

Underground, by Murakami
Naomi, by Tanizaki
Fires on the Plain, by Ooka
Black Rain, by Masuji
Cat's Cradle, by Vonnegut
Heart of Darkness, by Conrad
Les Miserables, by Hugo
The Lord of the Rings, by Tolkein
Foundation, by Asimov
Neuromancer, by Gibson

I have a veritable library of non-fiction, 20th century Japanese literature, and assorted English classics in my bedroom. It really turns on the ladies.

 

[66057]

Literature:

The Outsiders

Some may call it childish, as I think I read this when I started junior high, but it's remained one of the largest influences in my outlook on life.

Other:

The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band

This is Motley Crue's autobiography. It's out of control, and written so well that I read all 480 pages in less than 24 hours.

 

[Mandee]

Literature:

The Outsiders

Some may call it childish, as I think I read this when I started junior high, but it's remained one of the largest influences in my outlook on life.

My little brother (13 and in the 8th grade) recently read this and he LOVED it... and he isn't much of a reader, unless it's WWII history.

 

[palmit]

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Mostly because it is exactly what the tittle says, I guess it's the kid in me.

The Stranger, The Fall, The Plague by Albert Camus
So great, I can't even articulate why I like it.

Survivor: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
I imagine that this story really is the way that celebrities are made, minus psychic whores.

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
It's a love story, but it sucked me in, the movie was awful though.

 

[prince_will]

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Mostly because it is exactly what the tittle says, I guess it's the kid in me.

The Stranger, The Fall, The Plague by Albert Camus
So great, I can't even articulate why I like it.

Survivor: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
I imagine that this story really is the way that celebrities are made, minus psychic whores.

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
It's a love story, but it sucked me in, the movie was awful though.

oh, i forgot that! loved that book.

 

[B_Hung Jon]

I'm with Mandee on her picks especially Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby". I've read it many times & it's just so amazingly written.

Hmmmm

My mother made me read "The Grapes of Wrath" in jr high and I really liked it... and then in high school my senior year we were required to read "The Great Gatsby" and it was the only thing I read that entire year that I liked. lol. I am currently reading "Memoirs of a Geisha" and I am liking it a lot.. I haven't seen the movie.

 

[Hellboy0]

Too many to count, so I'll just list a few that come to mind:

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
All three books in The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
Moonheart by Charles de Lint (any of his books rock!)
The Devil You Know by Mike Carey (also rest of the developing series)
Curfew by Phil Rickman (again, any of his books will do)

 

[guyface]

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Mostly because it is exactly what the tittle says, I guess it's the kid in me.
Haha. I remember that one. I read almost all the books by the same author. They were all very funny when I read them as a kid.

The Stranger, The Fall, The Plague by Albert Camus
So great, I can't even articulate why I like it.

Survivor: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
I imagine that this story really is the way that celebrities are made, minus psychic whores.
Psychic whores and steriod buffed celebrity messiahs. Awesome.
-And Serial killer twin brothers, and a religious death cult, and a "crisis hotline" that makes people commit suicide.
I loved Survivor. Dark, yet bizzare, yet no so unrealistic the book is ruined. First of Palahniuk's book I read, most of the other ones I read I didn't care too much for (every main character has the same pessimistic voice, blah).
I actually did a chapter as a monolouge (with minor editing) in highschool.
I can still remember the lines...
"The way I live... It's hard enough to bread a veal cutlet..."
Sweet stuff.

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
It's a love story, but it sucked me in, the movie was awful though.

--------------------
The Shannara fantasy books were pretty good, very similar to Lord of the Rings, but not as boring (yeah, I said it).

And I guess the LotR books too.

And the Sano Ichiro - samurai detective, mystery novels are all good reads.

 

[Not_Punny]

I have read so many books that I have almost no RAM left in my brain, which leaves me unable to compute the task of deciding which books were superior... :tongue:

 

[palmit]

Survivor: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
I imagine that this story really is the way that celebrities are made, minus psychic whores.
Psychic whores and steriod buffed celebrity messiahs. Awesome.
-And Serial killer twin brothers, and a religious death cult, and a "crisis hotline" that makes people commit suicide.
I loved Survivor. Dark, yet bizzare, yet no so unrealistic the book is ruined. First of Palahniuk's book I read, most of the other ones I read I didn't care too much for (every main character has the same pessimistic voice, blah).
I actually did a chapter as a monolouge (with minor editing) in highschool.
I can still remember the lines...
"The way I live... It's hard enough to bread a veal cutlet..."
Sweet stuff.

Now I want to read it again

 

[The Dragon]

Quatum Mechanics by Albert Messiah.

What ever happened to Cold Fusion by David Goodstein.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

The Quest by Wilbur Smith.

 

[simcha]

OK, I have many "favorite" books and authors.

So, I love almost everything that Ursula K. Le Guin has written. My favorites are the entire "Earthsea" trilogy and "Tehanu." Also, "The Left Hand of Darkness" was brilliant.

I adore much of what J.R.R. Tolkien has written even beyond LOTR.

Anne Rice is another favorite author of mine. Beyond her "Vampire" series she wrote, "Servant of the Bones" which I found particularly entertaining.

Also, I'm enamored with Anita Diamant. "The Red Tent" was a good read and her books on Judaism are fantastic.

And I can go on.... and on... and on....

Oh, and the Fantasy Novels by David Eddings. are entertaining. The series "The Belgariad" and "The Malloreon" kept me reading in high school. They aren't exactly brilliant literature but they have great character development. And actually "The Losers" was a great novel and I felt it showcased his more serious literary talents.

 

[2322]

The Lord of the Rings. It changes those who read it for the better.

 

[Not_Punny]

The first time I read the Hobbit, I was 8.

I read it again when I was 13.

I read the Lord of the Rings when I was 14. I skipped school, work, EVERYTHING for the three days it took me to read the books.

I have since read the Lord of the Rings two more times, and I'm hoping to read it again when enough time has passed by.