What's your favourite Book ?

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horusd

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Just finished the second book of the border trilogy by Cormac McCarthy(author of The Road). The three books are All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain. Kinda western style stories, but achingly beautiful writing. Got me to thinking what's my favourite book of all time. If I had to pick one (okay maybe two) it would be a choice between The Incredible Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, or To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. What's your favourite book?
 
My favourite is Bram Stoker's Dracula , I loved it as a child and have re read it several times since.

I also love anything by H P Lovecraft - now there's a man with a very strange mind !
 
Lovecraft is great. The Call of the Cthulu was brilliant. But he was a racist so and so. Poe is another great one if your into the gothic, as is Hawthorne. He wrote two really chilling stories I remember well, "The Scarlet Letter" and "The Minister's Veil".
 
I must look up the Hawthorne stories .

In a totally different genre , I'm particularly fond of all Raymond Chandler's books.

My late father remembered him holidaying in Waterford , Chandler's mother was from a well known Quaker family in the City - there is one of those blue plaques on the house where he stayed on his holidays in the City centre.
 
Have just re read Uncle Tom's Cabin as it was free on the Kindle, enjoyed it many years ago and was very moving this time around, if not a favourite then a book everyone should read once in their life time.
My all time favourite Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkes.
 
Deiseblue said:
I must look up the Hawthorne stories .

In a totally different genre , I'm particularly fond of all Raymond Chandler's books.

My late father remembered him holidaying in Waterford , Chandler's mother was from a well known Quaker family in the City - there is one of those blue plaques on the house where he stayed on his holidays in the City centre.
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Recommend any particular books from Chandler Deise? BTW there is a very good Norton series on American literature (I think it's volume 2) that includes Hawthorne's works. You can get it from the Library.
 
horusd said:
Recommend any particular books from Chandler Deise? BTW there is a very good Norton series on American literature (I think it's volume 2) that includes Hawthorne's works. You can get it from the Library.
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Thanks for the recommendation , will look it up in the library.

There is a recent Chandler compilation entitled " The Big Sleep and other novels " which is great value as it also includes " Farewell my Lovely " & " The Long Goodbye " - " The Big Sleep " being my favourite with the other two not far behind.
 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Diamonds-Great-English-Dynasty/dp/0670915424

Black Diamonds by Catherine Bailey

Covers the rise and fall of an English family. In the 1900's worth billions and by the 1970's, lost their title and money.
Lawyers got a lot of it, isn't that always the way!

Covers accusations of swapping a child at birth so there were issues of inheritance
And covers lots of issues like the conditions of miners and the rise of unions and the Labour Party
And contrasts them with the lords and Dukes and realy, if you want to see scandals and infidelity and scheming and cheating, it wasn't the working class at it! No, it was the so called "betters" with their expensive educations
Even Joe Kennedy and his family got involved. Secret World War II commando missions too

Loved that book.........and it's not fiction, all true
But then I liked Downton Abbey also, same kind of theme but so much more
 
For me, like music, it depends on mood, state of mind etc.

However, John Irving's The world according to Garp would certainly be high on my list.
 
I loved the New Testament... an incredible book of fiction...God you couldn't make it up :p

As a kid I used to love the Gone with the Wind / Gone to Ground series of books about foxes.
 
I like the Ross O'Carroll Kelly books, not very "worthy" but plenty of laughs, ideal "de-stress" light reading.
 
The Wheel of Time series (fantasy like LOTR, but much better, more detailed, but slower).
Misery and The Dark Half by Stephen King. Read Misery in one sitting when I was 16 and loved it ever since. The Dark Half still makes me tingle when I think about it.

For non-fiction, I thoroughly recommend Fingerprints Of The Gods....seriously makes you wonder.

Memoirs of a Geisha is good.

I love the old Irish Mythology ones too, any will do.
 
Pique318 said:
The Wheel of Time series (fantasy like LOTR, but much better, more detailed, but slower).
Misery and The Dark Half by Stephen King. Read Misery in one sitting when I was 16 and loved it ever since. The Dark Half still makes me tingle when I think about it.

For non-fiction, I thoroughly recommend Fingerprints Of The Gods....seriously makes you wonder.

Memoirs of a Geisha is good.

I love the old Irish Mythology ones too, any will do.
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We have very similar tastes Pique. I loved King and LOTR. I'll pick up the dark half for a look see. You might like Joyce Carol Oates of u havent come across her yet, and Margaret Atwood, ( The Handmaid's Tale particularly). I loved Mythology too. Didnt read so much of the Irish stuff, but did read a lot of Roman, Greek and Egyptian stuff as a young adult.
 
I read Chapter 1 of Ghost Light last night, I actually bought it months ago but never got around to starting it and the current One City One Book campaign prompted me to open it last night.
 
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