Favourite Book(s)

[Ariel]

My current favorites include:

• The Color Purple
  
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower
  
• Speak
  
• Annie on my Mind
  
• The Mists of Avalon
  
• The Book Thief
  
• Island of the Blue Dolphins
  
• World War Z
  
• Franskenstein
  
• The Harry Potter Series (of course)
  

[Mary Sandals]

*squeals* I am so happy to see a fellow Palahniuk fan and also a fellow Murakami fan

• Harry Potter
  
• Vampire Chronicles
  
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
  
• Anything by Chuck Palahniuk (Haunted, Choke, Fight Club, and Invisible Monsters being the favorites)
  
• The Handmaid's Tale
  
• American Gods
  
• Slaughterhouse Five
  
• Lord of the Rings
  
• The Bell Jar
  
• Franny and Zooey
  

I am very bad at picking favorites

[Dodger Thirteen]

Favourite books? Why not just ask me to choose my favourite child?

Just kidding, I have no children.

My favourites, in no particular order, are:

• Macbeth
  
• Number the Stars
  
• Bridge to Terebithia
  
• The Horse and His Boy (from Chronicles of Narnia)
  
• The Hobbit
  
• Macbeth
  
• Discord's Apple
  
• Cat's Cradle
  
• American Gods
  
• Neverwhere
  
• Grimm Fairy Tales
  
• The Canterbury Tales
  
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
  
• The Princess Bride
  

Yes, that's quite a few and not all of them are "high-class literature." But you asked my favourite books, not my favourite masterpieces.

[Mary Sandals]

Neverwhere is another good one. Gaiman is fantastic.

[cyanea]

TOTALLY not "literature", but I don't care.

The Belgariad and Mallorean series by David Eddings. The characters are so warm and the books themselves are written in such a plain, accessible style that it's relaxing and enjoyable every time I pick them up again. The fact that the series were designed to be a catch-all of fantasy tropes makes the sarcasm lover in me giggle with glee.

[Olive]

I had year where I binged on Fantasy... way too many Salvatore books in the summer, followed by enough Eddings that I had to stop visiting bookstores.

However, as far as perennial favorites,

• Neuromancer
  
• The His Dark Materials trilogy
  
• Fahrenheit 451
  
• Brave New World
  
• The Odyssey
  
• Much Ado About Nothing
  
• The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
• Lord of the Rings, of course
  

This list shifts every time because, really, there's probably 50 books that I have at some point thought of as "my favorite," though one of the first two is almost always the answer.

[cyanea]

May 30, 2011 7:25:27 GMT -5 Olive said:

I had year where I binged on Fantasy... way too many Salvatore books in the summer,

I know it's weird and petty, but I can't read Salvatore. Even though I know the higher-ups demanded it of him, he wrote the Star Wars book where Chewie died. :<

[embonpoint]

May 30, 2011 1:02:27 GMT -5 Dodger Thirteen said:

[/li][li]The Horse and His Boy (from Chronicles of Narnia)

[/list]

[/quote]

How did I forget Narnia?! I read them all so quickly, I find it hard to remember which book is which, but I think my favourite of the lot is either Voyage of the Dawn Treader or The Silver Chair.

May 29, 2011 20:09:35 GMT -5 Garth said:

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.

Awesome; I will keep my fingers crossed my library has it!

[invision]

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, is a fantastic book. I loved the sense of war and scarring the characters had, especially as children, throughout the book (and the series as a whole). I love Ender's double-edged sword - being a great military mind, but at the same time, having enough empathy to despise fighting and war, and being tricked into military action. It was definitely a fantastic book, although the rest of the series leaves a lot in want.

Then there's His Dark Materials, by Phillip Pullman. I just love ... almost everything about it. Phillip Pullman's description leaves me in awe, sometimes. The varied conflicts and races and worlds throughout Pullman's multiverse was fantastic, and gave the story a feeling of an extended, unlimited series of worlds, but at the same time, didn't seem like a ridiculous showcase of the setting like a lot of other fantasy authors have done. I can go on and on and on about this series, so I'll stop here.

Watchmen. I fucking love Watchmen. And how the author's picture on the back of the graphic novel makes him look like a heroin addict. I love the extended world, the character's pasts, the general world... It was just awesome. I'm starting to repeat myself. Oh well.

Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's totally literature. In television form. D:<

James

[Lizzie]

I can't even choose which books are my favorites.
My Goodreads gives a pretty good idea of what I like. www.goodreads.com/user/show/4930250-lizzie-tripolitis

Some of my favorites would have to be:

• The Harry Potter Series
  
• The Yellow Wallpaper, even though that probably doesn't count.
  
• Death of A Salesman, which probably also doesn't count.
  
• In Cold Blood
  
• The Things They Carried
  
• A Prayer For Owen Meany
  
• A Certain Slant of Light
  
• The Metamorphosis
  
• Slaughterhouse Five
  
• The Handmaid's Tale
  
• The Shining
  

[Zeffy]

May 30, 2011 7:25:27 GMT -5 Olive said:

followed by enough Eddings that I had to stop visiting bookstores.

Eddings?
"My Lord, I find thy face apelike and thy form misshapen. Thy beard, moreover, is an offense against decency, resembling more closely the scabrous fir which doth decorate the hinder portion of a mongrel dog than a proper adornement for a human face. Is it possible that thy mother, seized by some wild lechery, did dally at some time past with a randy goat?" That Eddings?

[embonpoint]

May 30, 2011 11:34:30 GMT -5 Lizzie said:

[/li][li]The Yellow Wallpaper, even though that probably doesn't count.

[/list][/quote]

Someone in my English class based their coursework on that! I meant to look it up and read it, but never got around to it; thank you for reminding me!

[tastyink]

Here's a few off the top of my head

Macbeth
The Metamorphosis
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
The Harry Potter series (of course)
The Crucible
Almost Home by Jessica Blank

My Goodreads has a more comprehensive list

[Olive]

May 30, 2011 12:24:28 GMT -5 Zeffy said:

May 30, 2011 7:25:27 GMT -5 Olive said:

followed by enough Eddings that I had to stop visiting bookstores.

Eddings?
"My Lord, I find thy face apelike and thy form misshapen. Thy beard, moreover, is an offense against decency, resembling more closely the scabrous fir which doth decorate the hinder portion of a mongrel dog than a proper adornement for a human face. Is it possible that thy mother, seized by some wild lechery, did dally at some time past with a randy goat?" That Eddings?

Yes, that Eddings. I told you, I went on a Fantasy binge...

[brosephargh]

May 30, 2011 14:07:09 GMT -5 embonpoint said:

May 30, 2011 11:34:30 GMT -5 Lizzie said:

[/li][li]The Yellow Wallpaper, even though that probably doesn't count.

[/list][/quote]

Someone in my English class based their coursework on that! I meant to look it up and read it, but never got around to it; thank you for reminding me! [/quote]

Ohh, I adore The Yellow Wallpaper! It's so deliciously crazy.