What is your favorite book?

It's in my profile, but my favorite book is still Peter Pan. The whole thing could be considered poetry, it's so beautifully written. Children can enjoy it, and there's a whole sublevel for adults to take meaning from. I cried the first time I read it. It's the most lovely book I have ever read, by far.

I'm still looking for it.

Bag of Bones by Stephen King. Its my favorite because it has some of the realest characters I've ever read. They stuck with me long after I finished it. Sometimes, I will read a book and I like the characters and they seem real, but when I'm done with the book, that's it. I don't go on thinking about them and the story. With Bones, that wasn't the case at all. It really stuck with me. I loved the characters just as much after I finished the book as I did when I was reading it.

Also, I love it because its so in depth and insightful to the main character, Mike Noonan's mind. Its told in first person POV. It was just like being in his mind, knowing exactly how he felt and thought about everything.

Another reason its my favorite is because it touched on different emotions. It made me laugh, it made me cry (a lot.) It got to me. Its a close look at a lost love's enduring bonds, so it carries a lot of emotion with that.

That said, its my favorite book now and has been for awhile, but I could end up with another favorite. Whether it will always be number one or not, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it will always be at the tops for me.

Now I'm all sentimental and verclempt...

Moby Dick is a book I've read quite a few times. Hmmm. I'd have to say Edgar Allen Poe though, oo, or maybe Will Self, or maybe Iain Banks.

The Alchemist

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one book I can definitely say changed how I made decisions in my life. When faced with opportunities I always thought I was like the boy who could always go back and be a shepherd (I could always go back and Personal Train in my home town).

I wonder if I would have done half the things I have without the shepherd in my subconscious.

Wilber Smith’s books are some of those I have found most enjoyable to read. I loved the books set in ancient Egypt – especially River God. There are still many of his I have not read and currently am making my way through Africa.

The horse whisper kept me awake all night. Forest Gump, the book is much better than the movie. The red tent should get a mention.

Then there are the great non-fiction books. Nuts, Behind the Arches, Losing my Virginity (Richard Branson’s book), Good to Great, Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway… arrrh so many great books out there. Sometimes I could just pour the knowledge in – or zap it like on the matrix.

I don't have a fav. I have favs. Can't pin it down.

They are:

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Franny & Zooey by JD Salinger
The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
Trestessa by Jack Kerouac
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maughan


I can go on and on...but I can't pick a fav.

Gone With the Wind, followed closely by The Thorn Birds.

And, believe it or not, the first 22 of the original Nancy Drew mysteries.

A short list, by no means complete:

“The Sheltering Sky” Paul Bowles
“Underworld” Don DeLillo
“Stone Junction” Jim Dodge
“Justine” Lawrence Durrell
“For Whom the Bell Tolls” Ernest Hemingway
“Fiskadoro” Denis Johnson
“East of Eden” John Steinbeck

It’s impossible for me to choose my favourite Grahame Greene, so I offer four:

“The Comedians”
“The Heart of the Matter”
“The Power and the Glory”
“The Quiet American”

Only one? Impossible.

Catch-22, Joseph Heller
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Mystic River, Dennis Lehane
Red Dragon, Thomas Harris

Maryn, who must have five or six copies of Mockingbird in the house at any given moment...

I always have a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" in my pocket.

I would have to say my fav. book would have to be "HoneyMoon" by James Patterson.

Why?- I've never got close to the main character as I did in this novel. I've laughed, cried, and have gotten excited through out the whole book. You'll just have to read it to know what I mean.

Hmm a hard one

Recently, when I was really stuck, I read SK's On Writing and it helped me heaps!! He knows his stuff.

I love reading young adult stuff. A lot of aussie authors...when I was a kid it was the english authors such as The Pullien-Thompson sisters and Ruby Fegurson (Jill series) and Monica Edwards (Wish for a Pony)...I always had dreams of writing my own pony books
Still have a large collection of pony books written from the 1930s onwards! I love them all!!

I've already posted a list somewhere on this site, but it's probably obsolete by now. I cannot write down my favorite because it will be something else by the time I finish typing.

Sometimes it's Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, others it's Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I really enjoyed The Talisman by King and Straub, and Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. The Thief of Always comes to mind often as well, and I'd say it's a must-read for any fan of dark YA fantasy. I read it in 7th grade and the memory is still with me.

Daniel Keyes's Flowers for Algernon opened up a new dimension of storytelling for me. And I only have a few gripes about George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. There's something good about nearly every published novel out there. If you find that good thing, the book will be worth reading, no matter the genre, length, reading level or cover art.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I think the characters are interesting and well-written. I have a battered 1st edition that I got from a garage sale as a kid and that book is always the first thing I unpack when I move. Brought it with me the day I set off for college, for graduate school, always bring it if I have to go to the hospital. It's like having an old friend with me when I'm feeling lonely.

I love so many books, it would be difficult to choose one favourite. Some of my loves include:

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

I have many books I adore so much but none ever came close to that one. But there are about 20 books coming close second.

I can't say I have a favorite. You mean something that I'd actually read more than once?


It has never happened.

Although I have 5 new books containing collections of Robert E. Howard stories, 3 of which feature Conan stories I read in a different incarnation back when Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Campe were "collaborating" postumously with REH and created a collection of 12 Conan books in the late 60s and early 70s.

So those REH stories are probably the closest to my having a favorite "book."

Hard to narrow down just one. But here's a few that I'll read over and over again:

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Colour Puple - Alice Walker
The Alchemist - Paolo Coehlo
The Stand - Stephen King
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
On Writing - Stephen King

...and the list just goes on and on from there...

Hi new, jumping right in

My all time fav books are
Lonesome Dove and The Stand. I don't know how many times I have read those two books. I have many more but those are my top 2. When ever I get in the mood I read them again. Love them

All time favourite: The Brothers Karamazov

FlyByNight said:

I always have a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" in my pocket.

Click to expand...

Mark, is that you?

No favorite book really...

No, wait a minute. Quite a few years back I got a book out of the library called Watership Down, and I thought it was the most fascinating book I had ever read. After that, I bought the paperback version, and I read it again. And then I read it a few more times.

There are so many for me, but here are a few I always seem to go back to. It also depends on my mood at the time...

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien. When I want to escape into a wonderful fantasy.
True at First Light - Hemingway. When I'm after some truly incredible writing.
The Stephanie Plum Series - Evanovich. For when I want to laugh out loud.
Mystic River - Lehane. When I want to sink my teeth into a mystery/thriller.

Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien. When I want to lose myself in a completely different world among characters that seem like real-life friends.

The Stephanie Plum series - Janet Evanovich. When I want to laugh out loud at a toughie Jersey girl (hmm...shades of myself ) who lives in Trenton (I get lots of giggles about that, too, because my hubby works in Trenton).

The Belgariad - David Eddings. This is one I've dubbed "jokey Tolkien" because of its unabased humor. Plus the characters are great; my faves are Belgarath and Silk. This is for when I want to lose myself in a different world but with a lighter, funnier touch.

The Fifth Ring - Mitchell Graham. This is a fantasy with the typical "young hero who doesn't know he has certain powers" bit. But it's told in a fresh, engaging way, with some great characters. This is book 1 of a trilogy, and I've read it 3 times.

The Burning Land - Victoria Strauss. No, not trying to be a brown noser here ; I really did enjoy this book. Although I haven't re-read it as yet, it is in my "to re-read" pile. I just found the premise of a religious man whose beliefs are upended to be fascinating. It moves along at a pretty quick pace, and the characters are interesting as is the religion Victoria came up with for the book.

That's about it as far as current books (from what I can think up). Classic books?

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee. An amazing book that talks deeply and intelligently about racism.

I was on a kick after high school to read the books some old movies were based on (being an old movie buff), so:

Rhubarb - James Thurber. Hilarious. This one's about a cat whose owner dies and is bequeathed a baseball team, The New York Loons. Doesn't sound like much, but Thurber was a humorist, and this is pretty funny.

King's Row - [size=-1][font=verdana,arial,helvetica][size=-1]Henry Bellamann. This is movie where Ronald Reagan gave a fantastic performance [/size][/font][/size]as a man who has a certain type of surgery done to him... (and, yes, you read that right - he gave a good performance; Bedtime For Bonzo was in his future). A truly harrowing, dark tale ("sordid" leaps to mind, too) about the divide between the "Haves" and "Have Nots" and all the under the cover stuff that goes on in a small town.

~Nancy