Favourite Book(s)

[embonpoint]

Ok, so I would ask "what's your all-time, number one favourite book?" but I know that no one would be able to answer that!

But what are your, I don't know, top five? Top ten? Just which books are your favourite, ones that you return to time and time again etc. etc.?

For me, I think I actually do have an all-time, number one favourite book: The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice. It's not a classic; it wasn't written a hundred (or more) years ago; it's not particularly sophisticated or philosophical or ground-breaking; it's just absolutely lovely. It's the only book that makes me cry every single time. I've read it more times than any other and I could finish it and re-start it straight away. Everyone needs to read it!

Others that are up there:

• Pride and Prejudice
  
• Peter and Wendy
  
• Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
  
• Winnie-the-Pooh/House at Pooh Corner.
  
• The Hobbit.
  

[alyoshka]

My top favorites would come down to ..

-Gravity's Rainbow
-The Brothers Karamazov
-Oblomov
-An Invitation to a beheading
- Anna Karenin
-War and Peace
-Crime and Punishment
-Les Miserables

[atimethief]

Hi, so my all time favourite one has to be Wuthering Heights. It has been for two years since I was 12. I don't know why, I think it's because of Heathcliff and Catherine's personalities.

I also love: Dracula, HP and the Deathly Hallows ;D , Sense and Sensibility and The Hunger Games series because they're just brilliant

[Garth]

A favorite of mine has always been Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham. It was a great exposure to Walt Whitman for me. Outside of that, I love the His Dark Materials series, and Returning to Haifa, although that's really more of a collection of short stories than a novel.

Anything by Haruki Murakami is also a pleasure to read.

[embonpoint]

Yes! His Dark Materials! I always forget about those books for some reason, but I loved them; I think I'll re-read them once my exams are over, actually.

I've seen/read a lot of Haruki Murakami quotes but never anything more than that; is there anything in particular you'd recommend?

[Garth]

May 29, 2011 20:05:13 GMT -5 embonpoint said:

I've seen/read a lot of Haruki Murakami quotes but never anything more than that; is there anything in particular you'd recommend?

His books tend to be a little on the surreal side, so they definitely take some getting used to, but they're great for stretching your mind. I really loved The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, although his new novel coming out in October, 1Q84, is being called his "magnum opus" in Japan, so I'm looking forward to reading that one when it comes out.

[Alexi LeRue]

Mmmm, this is a tough question. I'd personally have to answer with...
Lolita, for one, is a long-time favorite of mine, despite the reactions I receive by...more prudent folk.
An American classic that I can never get enough of is Moby Dick, it really gets to me.
For the German language, I always loved the Sorrows of Young Werther.
Of course, I go without saying, my love for the Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, and the Dark Tower series is immense.
Oh, and for the sake of putting a contemporary novel on here, I really loved Never Let Me Go.

[Gina]

I have many favorites. I'm only a teen girl, so some of them are laughable, but I still like them.

In no order:

• Harry Potter series
  
• Pretty Little Liars series
  
• Gossip Girl series
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird
  
• The Catcher in the Rye
  
• The Great Gatsby
  
• A Tale of Two Cities
  
• The Scarlet Letter
  
• Winesburg, Ohio
  

Like I said, some of them are a bit childish.

[Garth]

May 29, 2011 20:12:28 GMT -5 Gina said:

I have many favorites. I'm only a teen girl, so some of them are laughable, but I still like them.

In no order:

• Harry Potter series
  
• Pretty Little Liars series
  
• Gossip Girl series
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird
  
• The Catcher in the Rye
  
• The Great Gatsby
  
• A Tale of Two Cities
  
• The Scarlet Letter
  
• Winesburg, Ohio
  

Like I said, some of them are a bit childish.

Ohhh, I loved Winesburg, Ohio. And no worries about the others - what matters is the impact the literature has on you, not how popular or how much of a classic it is.

[Gina]

May 29, 2011 20:20:10 GMT -5 Garth said:

May 29, 2011 20:12:28 GMT -5 Gina said:

I have many favorites. I'm only a teen girl, so some of them are laughable, but I still like them.

In no order:

• Harry Potter series
  
• Pretty Little Liars series
  
• Gossip Girl series
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird
  
• The Catcher in the Rye
  
• The Great Gatsby
  
• A Tale of Two Cities
  
• The Scarlet Letter
  
• Winesburg, Ohio
  

Like I said, some of them are a bit childish.

Ohhh, I loved Winesburg, Ohio. And no worries about the others - what matters is the impact the literature has on you, not how popular or how much of a classic it is.

Our AP Lang class was assigned an awesome presentation for WO- we were all assigned a chapter, and we had to teach it to the class in a 20 minute presentation that included a writing prompt. We picked our chapters before we started reading the book, and I got "Tandy". I couldn't find too much with my first read, so I pulled out some religious symbolism. I ended up totally pulling my writing prompt out of thin air- it was something along the lines of "The drunk man tells Tandy that the ideal woman has struggled, but out of her struggles, new qualities have been born. Write an argumentative paragraph in which you support, challenge, or qualify this statement". Something like that. I was the only person in the class who was excited about it; the presentation certainly made me appreciate the book even more.

[Dobby]

Oh, gosh, this is tough. Let's see...

1. I've been in love with the entire Harry Potter series ever since I was ten.
2. Emma, by Jane Austin
3. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
4. Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare
5. The Dictionary...that counts, right? I love to read the dictionary.

[Epif]

I think my favorite book would have to be Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. There's just something about a book where the "child" not only rebels but lashes back at the "parent" that makes me fascinated. I've only started reading Beowulf a while ago, but it's starting to seem that it too is to be one of my favorites.

I'm a bad English major; I haven't re-read any books yet! (I've yet to get to college.)

[Zeffy]

I spent a good week trying to figure this out earlier in the year.

1) The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. It is simply the most beautifully written, poetic, emotion-wrenching book I've ever read. I've never cried for a character except for in this book. No, not even for Dobby.

2) The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien, blessed be his name. Even though it's number two, no other book has had such an impact on my life. I never knew how much it would affect my future decisions.

3) The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks. Another book that affected my life greatly. It taught me there is more to life than Tolkien, and opened me up to writing.

4) The Belgariad, by David Eddings. I've always looked up to Silk and Belgarath as my idols.

5) The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch. Again, another bad idol I've always loved.

[cattink]

• Fahrenheit 451 (I've never related to a character so strongly as I do with Clarisse.)
  
• The Metamorphosis
  
• The Great Gatsby
  
• The Secret Garden
  
• Ella Enchanted (I literally read this dozens of times in fourth grade. It never got old.)
  

[rayyychul]

If someone were on their death bed and asked me to recommend one last book for them to read, it would be The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It took me 15 or so pages to really get into it but once I did, I did not put it down until the sun was creeping through my blinds. It was that good.