Best book you've ever read

[Rev. Austin]

Next it would be The Good Guy, call them brick bonds mister Koontz?

Ah!  Thanks for reminding me about this one, Caz!  I read this and Velocity back-to-back a little while ago and really, really liked The Good Guy.

Actually, my list would have to include Cold Fire by Koontz, as that one literally blew me away.

And come to think of it, The Hobbit was the first 'proper' fantasy book I read (I used to be addicted to Fighting Fantasy - the ones you played with dice!) and I used to borrow it from the school library every few months to read.

I'd love to put Bentley Little on the list but I don't really have a favourite of his, except maybe his Collection as that introduced me to him AND gave me the willies!

aaarrrghhh so many choices now the floodgstes have been opened!

And Geoff - I found NIGHT OF THE CRABS in Geoff Blore's bookshop in Nottingham - I'd been after that bad boy for yyyyeeeaaarrrsss!

[desertwomble]

I picked up a copy of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' from a street vendor in Khartoum in 1985 and probably read it half a dozen times in a couple of years.

Translated from German and written in the present tense, it brings home the horror as well as the comeraderie of the First World War.

Definitely my favourite book. A story of hope in adversity and of a fulfilment of destiny.

DW

[Rook]

Oooh, tough one...

I would have to name my favorite book, (and probably get a bullet through the gray matter) 'You Bright and Risen Angels' by William T. Vollman. Absolutely brilliant read!

It has to be one of the best examples of Sci-Fi I have ever read - a wonderful balance of prose and action. It's not a light book, though; it is utterly bizarre and beautiful.

Of course, if I was more interested in keeping my skull intact, I would probably go with something like The Stand, or Lord of the Rings. A complete volume of Sherlock Holmes might come in handy, too. (I don't know how many times I've read them, and I would think even a meth addict could gleen some entertainment from the Holmes stories.)

I walked into a Goodwill and found King's 'On Writing' the day after I decided to buy it! For twenty-five cents.

[Robert Essig]

This is an impossible question to answer.  To pick one book is...wrong on so many levels, at least for me.  I also concuir that what is my favorite today may not be next week, or next year (particularly if I read something mind blowing in that time).

Richard Laymon's Night in the Lonesome October.  This book was great on all levels, though most of Laymon's fiction, to me, is far too preposterous.  This is my vision of the perfect horror novel chock full of mystery and suspense.

George Orwell's Animal Farm.  A great classic.  Nuff said.

I'll leave it at that, though I have to say the story that started me on reading and writing was Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.  That's my favorite story of all time, but never quite like the first time I read it.

[Missy]

I've been away from here for ages but I like this thread!
I can't pin it down to just one, sadly.
Love In The Time of Cholera is one of my favourites.  I like that magic realism thing, when I half believe it and half don't and it's also exotic somehow.
On Chesil Beach is another. So subtle and clever and moving and absolutely left me feeling gobsmacked by how anyone could write like that and I'm not a massive fan of Ian McEwan, although I liked thingy, the one made into a film with Keira Knightley.
A Suitable Boy which hooked me from the first word. I wanted to know what happened to everyone and was totally involved with the family and the story all the way through. And it's so big! I salute anyone who can write anything longer than a 250 word flash and not lose track of what's going on.
How To Be Good by Nick Hornby. I just love him and this is my favourite one. He makes it look easy and says things the way I would and that I've thought about.  I've read this a few times and the first time I was determined not to like it and wasn't impressed but then read it again when a couple of people raved about it and I liked it very much indeed. The thing I like about his books but that also annoys me a bit is that the people always seem to 'settle' they sort of roll over and carry on with what they have rather than striking out and finding someone new. Which is rather like real life I think.
Trainspotting. Again, blown away by how anyone could write like that. 

[Humpty Hump]

Oh God, this is so humiliating.


Harriet the Spy . . . yeah, that's right.



My sister took it out of the library and I picked it up one rainy day, and read it over ten times since.


The reason that I consider it the best book that I've ever read is that it got me hooked on reading.

Hardly a day goes by that I don't read a couple of short stories, or a chapter or two of a novel, and add that to my newspaper, magazine, internet reading, and it all goes back to Harriet the Spy.

[HellsBelle]

Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver: quieter time, little-populated area, wonderful imagery and good charater development

Jack Frost - Darren Franz: sobering look at the human mind and isolation

[eagle37]

Now if we're talking what got us started in reading, I would have to say the UNEXA series by Hugh Walter and Dragonfall 5 (Both sixties books I think)

Contemperorareaneoulsy, varies like many others. I swing like to loathe with bother versions of Ian Banks, but these days I find there is so much new and interesting stuff out there I don't really have much time to back to old favorites.

Example: I do audio books a lot (long drive) and one of the books that has impredded me most this quarter is a girly-teen-vampire-trash work called 'Sucks to be Me' by Kimberly Pauley. Stunningly well writeen, with a plot predictable enough for most be with enough twists for the more experienced reader, superbly narrated by Nancy Wu

(Should point out I do NOT normally listen to or read teeny girly books - I have just finished a YA SF novel and I was looking for comparisons - honest)

[jsorensen]

Kate Chopin's The Awakening or Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness--why?  Excellent reads that both cover the complexities of the human spirit and its ability to either transcend or be completely wiped out by its own realization...or The Little Prince or Frakenstein for man's ingenuity...or  Go Dog Go just to be a wise ass...

[starktheground]

Love The Awakening. It's definitely in my top ten.

[Craig Herbertson]

Next it would be The Good Guy, call them brick bonds mister Koontz?

Ah!  Thanks for reminding me about this one, Caz!  I read this and Velocity back-to-back a little while ago and really, really liked The Good Guy.

Actually, my list would have to include Cold Fire by Koontz, as that one literally blew me away.

And come to think of it, The Hobbit was the first 'proper' fantasy book I read (I used to be addicted to Fighting Fantasy - the ones you played with dice!) and I used to borrow it from the school library every few months to read.

I'd love to put Bentley Little on the list but I don't really have a favourite of his, except maybe his Collection as that introduced me to him AND gave me the willies!

aaarrrghhh so many choices now the floodgstes have been opened!

And Geoff - I found NIGHT OF THE CRABS in Geoff Blore's bookshop in Nottingham - I'd been after that bad boy for yyyyeeeaaarrrsss!

Strange, the Hobbit was probably he 'first' best book I ever read. Found it aged nine or ten in the reading box at primary school. Then when I was sixteen I was recommended Lord of the Rings and amazed to rediscover the wonderful book I had read and whose title I had forgotten. So Lucky. Since then my tastes have changed.

'All Quiet...' is also a great book.  

[Woody]

My best book ever has to be "Weaveworld" by Clive Barker, only just beating "Swan Song" by Robert McCammon

[Robert Essig]

My best book ever has to be "Weaveworld" by Clive Barker.

Love Weaveworld.  Some really twisted villains in that one.