Favorite book?

[Siwenna]

I'm sure this has been posted before, but I didn't find anything with a quick search. Sorry if I missed an obvious thread.

What is/are your favorite book(s) and why?

I love Second Foundation by Asimov. The characters are interesting, and the plot has interesting twists and turns. It's fairly short but manages to pack quite a bit in, without seeming rushed.

Ender's Game is also great. The plot is great, the characters are wonderful, and it looks at some serious moral questions.

I love Animal Farm as well. ORwell manages to show so much of what humanity is like in such a small book. I know it was meant as a parady of the Soviet Union, but it goes so much deeper than that.

[Semidi]

Favorite is Orwell's 1984. Animal Farm is good, but not as transcending as 1984 in this reader's humble opinion.

Followed by, though it's more so a collection of works rather than a novel, Collected Works of E.A. Poe. I've read most of his short stories, essays and poems.

Lastly, Catch 22. Yossarian is one of my favorite characters ever.

[Dr._Weird]

Oh man, I came into this thread thinking (As one of the options) Ender's Game too. That or something in the ASOIAF series, but I couldn't choose a book as the series really builds on previous books.

[sun_tzu]

Bernard Werber's "Les Fourmis" ("The Ants") trilogy, with Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court" a close second.

[factotum]

I hate to be predictable, but it would have to be The Lord of the Rings--I've read that book more times than any other in my collection.

[bugsysservant]

Favorite book, and author: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I also love The Importance of being Earnest, and his other comedies; he is my favorite playwrite. But for my favorite series, definitely The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I also love The Silmarilion, and have always prefered it to The Lord of the Rings.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Wow, I think this forum is full of Card fans because Ender's Game is probably my favorite book as well.

Runner ups...

Flinx/Commonwealth series, Dune, Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, Discworld series, Narnia series, Xanth series, MYST series, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, Silent Planet trilogy, A Wrinkle In Time series, Fahrenheit 451, Count of Monte Christo, Dracula, Mind Fields, Neverwhere...

[Ozymandias]

The Brothers Karamazov. Gödel, Escher, Bach is a close runner-up, although I haven't actually finished it yet.

[Dane_Bramage]

Ken Follett... Pillars of the Earth.

I highly recommend it.

[Namaste123]

i like The Dark Tower series alot, by Stephen King, which Dr. Wierd is reading. Another of my favorites is Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King.

[Alarra]

I cannot choose a favorite book. I can however, choose a favorite series. Will that do? And that would be: Kushiel's Legacy by Jaqueline Carey. All 4 books are amazing. They're the only books I've read in a really long time that I literally could not put down. I would carry them with me everywhere on the off chance that I may get a spare second to read, and no matter what time I went to sleep, I would read until my eyes wouldn't stay open any longer. It's the only time I've finished a series and immediately wanted to start back at book 1 to look for things I'd missed. Her writing is great, the world is so immersing, and I've never felt such an intense connection to one character in anything I've read. I recommend them to everyone. Well....everyone over a certain age, as they're um...graphic, to put it mildly.

[ravenkith]

Ok...favorites change with time and genre, of course...but my favorite of all time, despite it's formulaic nature, has to be the Belgariad & Malloreon pentads by David Eddings.

I credit Pawn of Prophecy with being the book that really jump-started my love of fantasy during one long, bronchitis-fueled imprisonment in bed, yea, all those years ago in the late eighties.

I still own those same books...the very copies that helped me through a tough time way back when.

It's really the series that turned me into a bibliophile.

Same thing with R.A. Salvatore's Dark Elf trilogy.

Beyond that, Enders Game was the first science fiction novel that really sparked my interest.

I've got to say that Robert Asprin writes a mean comedic novel (Phule, Myth), Piers Anthony's Adept series was great. David Drake does some good things, as does David Webber (Honorverse, anyone?).

John Ringo's kind of hit or miss, but his 1632 has me frothing for more.

Anne McAffrey's dragonriders books were excellent.

George R.R. Martin's work on the Wildcards series was most appreciated...

Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos is just plain amazing.

Heinlein's got some wicked punch...

Horatio Hornblower is a great character...and Dickens has written some things that have real endurance.

Of course, the master of endurance is Shakespeare...Othello and Midsummer Night's Dream have always held my interest.

Ah.....books.

God help me, I love 'em.

[prongs43]

Mine's a tie between Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Lemony Snicket books are really well put together, and have so many complications in them, it's fun to figure out the mysteries he doesn't explain, and the Harry Potter books are just plain awesome.

[Capt'n Ironbrow]

My favorite has to be Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guangzhong with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time as a close second

[Rob Knotts]

For several years I had a cycle of rereading the first three Dune books, the first four Hitchhiker's books*, and Good Omens. That lasted until my copies all fell apart.

The books I've enjoyed most recently have been the Maximum Ride books (haven't read the third yet). Nothing fantastically new in it, I've just been marvelling that these easy-read "young adult" novels are so much better written than most other modern fantasy/scifi I've read. On the other hand, I still really like Starship Troopers as well. Maybe editors have just been letting mainstream fantasy/scifi go to hell over the last 20 years or so...

*Mostly Harmless was a nasty mess, which seemed to be written when Adams was having a bad day. Apparently he's admitted as much in interviews about the book.

[Jayabalard]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein

[Shaoc]

Another vote for The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordon, I've read many fantasy series and have yet to find anything as addictive and compelling as WoT.

[Alarra]

The problem with the WoT series....And I'll not deny that it is a good series....Is that Jordan doesn't seem to know how to end it. I will freely admit that when I first started reading it, I loved it. It was superb. The first 5 books rocked my socks off. Since then....it has gone a bit downhill. Maybe there's too many characters, maybe it's gotten overly complex, maybe Jordan wants to keep it going forever to keep sucking money from his loyal fan base....but it gets to a point where....(in I believe book 11, it may have been 10 or 12, I'm not all that sure on my numbers, they blur together after awhile)....where you get an entire book of filler and not A SINGLE PLOT is progressed. Now, I realize that these worlds cannot be exciting 24/7....and I certainly see the need for filler at times, and the building up to things, and imparting of information that will be relevant later.....and a couple hundred pages here or there, sure....but there is no excuse for an entire book to be like that. I slogged my way through that one, and it disenchanted me from the entire series. I bought the next book....in hard cover, when it came out, because hey, that's what I do with series I get really into....but I haven't read it yet. It's been on my shelf for almost 2 years I think, and while I've heard that he does get better in the next book, I've been loath to start it.

Truth be told, I love Jordan, I think he's a very good writer. I just don't know what happened to him. And because of this inconsistency over time and the general deterioration of the series, I feel I cannot list him anywhere near my favorites. Not like Carey, or Pullman, or Mieville, or hell, George RR Martin, who's series only manage to get better with time. Although actually, a feast for crows, was far from my favorite in ASOIAF. I can still claim that I liked it, that his writing was spot on, but it failed to engage me as the others did. Now, with him, I know it's a byproduct of it getting too complex and too many characters. And he knows it, which is why it had to be split into two books. And really, the fact that my favorite characters are featured in the next book had much to do with my experience of it. Hmm...speaking of....Is Dance With Dragons out yet? *wanders off to look, but is instead smacked with a club labeled 'Thesis Protocol'* Oh....right...*slinks off again*

[Argent]

If I had to pick one single favorite book: "Cryptonomicon", by Neal Stephenson. Come on, how can you not love a book that combines really snarky humor, cryptography, World War II, deep sea diving and high finance? (And does it well.) Awesome stuff.

Following closely: Stephenson's "Snow Crash", George RR Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, Max Barry's "Company", Steve Perry's Matador series, Simon Green's Deathstalker series, Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel", and god help me, the Belgariad.

[Alarra]

Snow Crash is awesome on so many levels. And cryptonomicon has been on my shelf and to read list more than a year.

@v....ooooh ooooh oooh, that's a super good one too. I looooooove Gaiman. Stardust rocks. And Anansi Boys....and Good Omens (Gaiman's darkness splashed with Pratchett's humor? pure genius)...not to mention the Sandman books......Hey, can I hang out in this thread all day? No? Dang... *shuffles off to continue on thesis* I am working, I swear....

[SDF]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. No doubt.

[Rob Knotts]

Snow Crash is awesome on so many levels. How did I forget about Snow Crash? I read it again 3 months ago. I love briging it up whenever people start getting prententious about cyberpunk and post-modernism. They hate admitting that it such a good cyberpunk while being such a good satire of cyberpunk at the same time.

[Kitya]

ONE book??! How bout a Series instead? *chuckles*

For me, my favorite series would be the ENTIRE Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey. ALL of em. I am constantly rereading them, usually in order, sometimes just individual books. I'm currently rereading Magic's Price again for the umpteenth time.

But if we're going with which book I have read the most in my entire life, it would have to be Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My copy is so worn out that I may need to replace it soon for when my daughter is old enough to read.

Second favorite series would be Discworld. *grin* Followed by the Rowan books and other Anne McCaffreys.

[Flabbicus]

The Brothers Karamazov. Gödel, Escher, Bach is a close runner-up, although I haven't actually finished it yet.

i like The Dark Tower series alot, by Stephen King, which Dr. Wierd is reading.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein

Funnily enough I inted to read all of those books sometime over the summer.I already have The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and I just ordered The Gunslinger. I've got to finish my two Vonnegut books first though. :smallwink:


American Gods by Neil Gaiman. No doubt.

That was a great read. Unfortunately I barreled through it and read it over the course of a single day. I loved the mythology and I was disappointed when I didn't recognize some characters, although it was easy to infer who a lot of them were. There wasn't any overlaying moral message though, so I can't say it was the best book I read, though certainly one of the best.


For me the best books I've read are Ender's Shadow, 1984, A Game of Thrones, and Flowers for Algernon.

[Alarra]

And yes...The Dark Tower series is superb too. Some of King's best work. Although.....Insomnia and The Stand have to rank up there as well, and Hearts in Atlantis (although newer, was still excellent) One of the things I REALLY loved about the Dark Tower series, was the way that King managed to bring in aspects from so many of his other novels. One of these days when I have time, I'm going to reread it, along with all of the periphery novels (Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, Salem's Lot...umm....I know there's a lot more, I just can't think right now)

The Dragonrider's Series (McCaffrey) is also very good. I particularly like...umm...what's the title? the one where they originally colonize the planet. And the one where they make the computer. (sorry, names escape me) What I like about this series is that they're smaller, lighter, and less complex reads than a lot of fantasy series. Also, while there's a chronology in them, they didn't necessarily come out in chronological order, and they don't really play off previous books much, so you can pretty well pick up any in the series and have it stand alone. It leads to a less pressurized reading experience.

Ahk! Also.....a few more, I may have somehow missed. I mentioned Mieville, but the Scar, by him is one of the best books I've read.

Shadows by John Saul was my favorite book for yeeeears, and may be again once I reread it.

And anything by Augusten Burroughs particularly Dry (at least in my opinion) will leave you in tears of laughter. Seriously, that memoir was amazing. When a book about a struggle to overcome alcoholism can have you rolling on the floor in laughter, you just have to give it props. I mean, there were points that had you almost crying too though. That book was really....emotionally impacting. Which I find an important component of anything I really like. And it being true made it even better.

[trollhammeren]

The orc trilogy. I its favourite book but i just love the trilogy so much that i have to mention it.

[Fax Celestis]

A tie between Snow Crash, Zodiac, and The Diamond Age: A Young Girl's Illustrated Primer.

...well, anything by Neal Stephenson, really, but those three mostly.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Y'know, Neil Gaiman is an odd writer. I mean, not in the obvious way, but in that I never know if I'll like his books.

Neverwhere, the first of his I read, I was enthralled by.

Stardust however, while interesting and I'm told is similar to my writings... didn't impress me. Its like it had potential but never did anything with it. I was frankly disapointed. It was imaginative, but the plot stunk.

Anansi Boys had me laughing and nodding in satisfaction at the wit within... but I still didn't like it.

Never run into that before where I enjoyed reading it yet still didn't care much for it.

[smellie_hippie]

I might just have to say Watership Down. I could give it some more thought... but that book is just wonderful.

[North]

Princess Bride- By William Goldman

Aside from being awesomely amazing and simultaneously stupendous its also insanely quotable. For stand alone book most favorite ever!!!!

For series the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Its like Harry Potter on fire times a thousand with a boomstick
I recommend this series to anyone and everyone

[MrsbwcMD]

Usually, for me, my favorite book is the last one I just finished reading. I've been on a Lois Lowry kick, lately, so I'd have to say The Giver is definitely at the top of my list of favorites. I've read it about four or five times in my life, and each time I read it, the ending has a different meaning for me. So far, I haven't found another book like it.
As for favorite author, Neil Gaiman is my all-time favorite. I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't read any Sandman, yet, but of the novels and short story comps of his that I've read so far, I'm definitely hooked. American Gods is first, followed by Neverwhere and Stardust.

[Siwenna]

Favorite is Orwell's 1984. Animal Farm is good, but not as transcending as 1984 in this reader's humble opinion.

I need to go back and reread 1984. I was 10 or 11 when I read it, so I'm sure there was a bunch of stuff I missed.

I just finished reading Songmaster, by Card, and it is now one of my favorite books. It's a bit like ENder's Game in some respects, but delves deeper into human nature, among other things. I don't like it quite as much as Ender's Game, but it is wonderful.

[TheRiov]

A Prayer for Owen Meany meant a lot to me when I read it, its been ages though. (same author as World According to Garp and was re-made into the movie Simon Birch --by chopping out most of what was meaningful about the movie....

Catch-22 is fantastic --if you're a fan of Douglas Adams, this book proceeded his works by quite a bit and is very... ecentric--in a funny way.

My Guilty reads: Robert Asprin's Myth-series --aimed more at young teens, the books are still humorous.

I've taken a liking to Episodic novels in the Star Wars line, particularly the New Jedi Order timeline (omg 20 novels??! *sigh* pass me the next three... must...complete.... story....)


One that is not on anyone's list, but... I'm not a huge Star Trek fan, but I do enjoy some stuff. The novel Uhura's Song is a fantastic novel of a 'first contact' series-its Original Series era, but the plot and scripting of this novel are so tight and its woven togeather in an amazing way (the author just weaves the plot so well so that all the 'little bits' of information that they gather in the course of first-contact all show a final picture that is amazing and appeals to me as a writer as much as anything. Diane Duane wrote a TOS era series called Rihannsu that I really really liked too.


As far as epic Fantasy, Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow & Thorn trilogy is very rich and detailed and has a definate beginning, middle and end (unlike crud like the Wheel of Time that just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on....)
Also by Tad Williams but in the Sci-Fi/semi-Cyberpunk genere is the Otherland series. This one has some fantasy elements in that the characters spend 95% of the novel traveling from VR world to VR world, some of which include recreations of Alice in Wonderland, the Fall of Troy, etc. The novels are actually ABOUT the stories we tell and pass down, but worth the reads.

All of Tad Williams stuff is pretty wordy (~900-1600 pages per novel) but always worth the read.


Other books I've enjoyed (without comment)
Harry Potter Series
Neuromancer
All Quiet on the Western Front
Ringworld

[Cush]

Ah out of books I've read recently I would have to say Gaimen's - American Gods and also in the The Lies Of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

Eddings' Belgariad and Elenium are always on the list though. Also 3 Musketeers by Dumas has always been a favourite.

I suppose thats more than one but its sooo hard to choose an absolute favourite.

[Dancing_Zephyr]

Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov

[Lord of the Helms]

The problem with the WoT series....And I'll not deny that it is a good series....Is that Jordan doesn't seem to know how to end it. I will freely admit that when I first started reading it, I loved it. It was superb. The first 5 books rocked my socks off. Since then....it has gone a bit downhill. Maybe there's too many characters, maybe it's gotten overly complex, maybe Jordan wants to keep it going forever to keep sucking money from his loyal fan base....but it gets to a point where....(in I believe book 11, it may have been 10 or 12, I'm not all that sure on my numbers, they blur together after awhile)....where you get an entire book of filler and not A SINGLE PLOT is progressed. Now, I realize that these worlds cannot be exciting 24/7....and I certainly see the need for filler at times, and the building up to things, and imparting of information that will be relevant later.....and a couple hundred pages here or there, sure....but there is no excuse for an entire book to be like that. I slogged my way through that one, and it disenchanted me from the entire series. I bought the next book....in hard cover, when it came out, because hey, that's what I do with series I get really into....but I haven't read it yet. It's been on my shelf for almost 2 years I think, and while I've heard that he does get better in the next book, I've been loath to start it.


T'was book ten, Crossroads of Twilight. Utter turdbore. The follow-up, Knife of Dreams, is an awesome return to form. Best WoT since... I dunno, book five or six? Excellent, anyways. Helped me over the trauma that was A Feast for Crows :smallmad:

Anyhow, for me it's either Wheel of Time, sans book ten, or The Silmarillion.

[....]

The Dark Tower cycle are the only books to ever make me cry.

So they're number 1.

Others include:

Sabriel by Garth Nix, the other two weren't so good.

Tithe, Ironside, Valiant by Holly Black

Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (pretty much all of them), by A. Conan Doyle

Watership Down by Richard Adams

And lots more... I read voraciously.

[BrokenButterfly]

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami is my favourite book by a long way.

I am also a fan of the Dark Tower series, though only up to the fourth book so far, (I'm a very on/off reader). I think that the characters are well written, and the imagination of King in this series has been extraordinary. I adored The Wastelands, (I thought that Lud was a fantastic setting) particularly the dramatic climax of the novel.

[Fishies]

The Hobbit, or maybe that Discworld novel The Truth.

Wait, wait. I know what my favourite book is now. The Dungeon Master's Guide v3.5 for sure. All that stuff about keeping the game balanced? Pure humour.

[Wojiz]

Harry Potter is set on a pedestal above everything else, except maybe my absolute favorites, so it isn't really fair to include that :P

I'd probably say Ender's Shadow and Game through Shadow of the Giant as my other favorite series, I really can't rate them against each other. The Foundation series is definitely up there as well. Anything by Asimov or Orson Scott Card, really...

[Fishybugs]

A two book series by Stephen Donaldson...Mordan't Need (The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through).

I thought they were brilliant fantasy. I've tried reading some of his other books though....apparently Mr. Donaldson spent his entire store of brilliance on these two because I just didn't enjoy any others.

[Argent]

Princess Bride- By William Goldman

Aside from being awesomely amazing and simultaneously stupendous its also insanely quotable. For stand alone book most favorite ever!!!!

For series the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Its like Harry Potter on fire times a thousand with a boomstick
I recommend this series to anyone and everyone


If you liked Princess Bride, check out Goldman's other stuff -- that snarky sense of humor keeps popping up over and over in his novels. I'd recommend "Marathon Man" (and its sequel "Brothers") and "Heat".

[Indon]

The Great Book of Amber; a compilation of the first 10 novels in the Amber series, written by Roger Zelazny.

So, really, my favorite book _is_ a series.

After that, the number of books I loved is too great to count. Books I feel I should still mention, however, include Asimov's Foundation novels (the first three, anyway), David Brin's The Practice Effect, Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, and Stephen R. Donaldson's White Gold Wielder.

[Alarra]

The Amber books are amazing. Really really good.

As is The Years of Rice and Salt...nice choice. That book had such a unique premise.

Oh...and I'll add Sarum by Edward Rutherford
amazing book.

[dehro]

any tolkien book (specially LOTR and silmarillion)

any pratchett book (discworld series, the other simply don't work for me)

any david Gemell (he's a genius when it comes to epic tales, Druss is reminishent of achilles or lancelot, with a slice of gandalf's wisdom..)

moorcock, eddings, leguinn, martin... there's too many

and then of course the not fantasy authors... umberto eco, poe, lovecraft, asimov, hugo, verne, legoff, clavell, ludlum, kipling, the dumas, clancy, maurensig, christie, simenon, dard ..

if I really had to single out 1 book to bring on a desert island and reread, it would have to be LOTR (a bit like a good catholic "should" say the bible, I just can't choose any other book)

[LCR]

The Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, City of Glass and Moon Palace by Paul Auster, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver by Michael Ende.

I guess I'm going to be crucified for saying this here, but the Lord of the Rings didn't impress me literature-wise. I admire Tolkien for the world he created, the language, the depth, the fake history of Middle-Earth, but the book didn't overly thrill me.

[Dark Demon Lord]

I love the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and i'd say they're my favourite.

Books like Harry Potter, Redwall used to be my favourites but i've outgrown them now.

[JabberwockySupafly]

I just can't choose one to be honest. I have a favourite book for basically every genre.

Poetry would be Howl, And Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg. This is kind of cheating, as I listen to it on CD more than I read it (i have the recordings recited by Ginsberg).

Classical Literature would be The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde or Ulysses by James Joyce (yes, I'm a wanker, I know).

Contemporary Fiction would be a really recent read, surprisingly, which is The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I was extremely surprised by a book that in all respects should have been a "chick Lit" Love Story kind of book, and, well, just isn't.

Sci-Fi, and i mean classic Sci-Fi, would be either A Scanner Darkly or Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. D.ick (it censors his name otherwise *hurt*)

Modern Fantasy would be American Gods by Neil Gaiman. If I had to choose an all-time best of the lot I have posted, it would probably be this one for just sheer numbers of times i have read, re-read, and re-re-read this book. This is a book I truly enjoy every time I read it.


"Classic" Fantasy (ala swords & sorcery) would easily by any of the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. While the stories are not exactly standard Swords & Sorcery, the world it is set in is. So, with no doubt in my mind, I can easily choose the Discworld books as my creme de la creme in that department.

I don't really read much of any other style or genre, not that there are many remaining.

[Conrad Poohs]

To agree with earlier posters, I would list Animal Farm and 1984 (though I've only read about a chapter from the latter) among my favourites, along with The Narnia Chronicles' Prince Caspian and The Magician's Nephew. I'd also list Duncton Wood, the Bible's Song of Solomon (for its amusing eroticism), Molvania (fake travel guide) and I guess The Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe, though I've only heard excerpts for it. Now, the best for last, Monty Python's Big Red Book - why has nobody mentioned it?! :smallfurious: . Fortunately for you it is your first offence, so I'll let you off with crucifixion :smallamused:

[Dragor]

I might just have to say Watership Down. I could give it some more thought... but that book is just wonderful.

Watership Down made me cry. I love that book.

However, my favourite book would have to be Abhorsen, the last in the Sabriel series. I love the fantasy that Garth Nix wove together in that book; certainly, it may not be the best, but I really cared about the heroes, and villains, in those books.

Runners-Up would have to be Series of Unfortunate Events (all of them, although Carnivorous Carnival is my favourite, I think), This Thing of Darkness and 1984.

[bosssmiley]

any david Gemell (he's a genius when it comes to epic tales, Druss is reminishent of achilles or lancelot, with a slice of gandalf's wisdom..)

Good choice Dehro. I'm on a Gemmell kick again atm.

"Legend" is the most accessible, readable low-magic sword-and-sorcery I've read yet. All of it is straight cut-and-pastes from history and existing fantasy, but it's done well. Heck, Gemmell even manages to do Errol Flynn and Elric rip-off characters (Bowman and Serbitar of The Thirty) and make them interesting and admirable.

Sniffled a little when Caessa(sp?) cracked-up at the end...

Read the Fangorn comic of the book if you ever get the chance. The art fits the story perfectly.

[Mc. Lovin']

MY FAVOURITE BOOKS ARE HARRY POTTER AND ERAGON.

Seriously though, I liked inheart, really clever and exciting book ( although I did read it ages ago, and may have grown out of it). And I did like harry potter, no matter how much people say it sucks

[CurlyKitGirl]

This is too hard.
Discworld is an amazing series that makes fun of anything, plus it's serious at the same time. I can't pick a book out of the lot as my favourite.
Narnia is good,
Eddings-Belgariad, Mallorean, The Redemption Of Althalus.
Shakespeare
Ivanhoe
Karin Slaughter, her murder books are full of detail and very realistic.
The Pern books by Anne McCaffrey, especially the ones about Menolley and the 'main' books about solving the Thread problem.
The Earthsea books
WoT series is good, although I agree with the majorit, 10 wass the worst, 1-6 were brilliant. The series returned to form after 10.
And Gemmel.

[Evil DM Mark3]

Nightwatch by Terry Prachett.

Honourable mention to Matilda by Roald Darhl (first book I ever read through on my own).

[Hawriel]

I gotta second your opinion on Rober Jorden Alarra. I loved the first 5 books but after that it started getting insane. an intire chapter devoted to a travel montage in book 10 with Mat and his wife to be getting to know each other and jorden ends it with, that was day two of the journy. OMG i wanted to hit my head on somthing. The other big contridiction. is with Egween. ok going to end there befor I rant and spoil.

ok I do really like the Wheel of time but its kinda love hate right now.

I really loved the Hitchikers guide to the galaxy. have not enjoyed a set of books more than that.

I like Michael Stackpole alot. he wrote the origional battletech novels. also he is most famous for his x-wing books. Stackpole and Timothy Zahn are the best writers to have written for star wars. oh and for the ladies wanted a good women writer Ann Crispin wrote the Han Solo trilogy.

Glen Cook's Black Company series is a good read. Green Ronin puplished a campain book for them afew years ago. I like it alot. nice alternative way to do magic in D20.

Nigel Findly wrote 4 novels, and game books for Shadowun. His novels are
very noir.

Juliet Mckenna Tales of Einarinn was a very good read. She created a beleavable world you could feel.

ok I love history so here is a short list.

Ulysses S. Grants memoirs. Very honest and a good history of the Civil war.
James Mcphearson is a must read. I recomend Ordeal by Fire or Battlecry of Freedom. (or about reconstruction in Ordeal) and Grimsly's Hard hand of War.
Russle Wiegly's The American way of war. I also just finished Ian Toll's Six Frigates. its about the founding of the US navy. end of the revolution through the war of 1812.

ok sorry this was long. I hope I pointed out some good books for peaple.

[Midnight Son]

So many good books!

Alarra, the Kushiel series is awesome. I love that she uses mysticism instead of high magic. It allows the characters to be more real and less defined by their powers.

I really enjoy the WoT series. It did bog down there for a while, but the last two books have picked up and there's only one more to go.

I enjoyed the Dragonriders of Pern series up till they took the fight offworld. Stopped reading after that.

Another really good series is Symphony of Ages by Elizabeth Haydon. Like most people, I totally fell in love with Rhapsody, but it's Achmed that really makes that series fun.

And of course, A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin. He's thrown so many twists into that series that I've stopped trying to guess at anything.

My favorite, though, is The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. It is the only book that has ever drawn me so fully into the world that, when I went to sleep, I dreamed about it and, when I woke the next day, I was still dreaming about it. I spent the entire day at work that day in the company of soldiers. That was one surreal experience.

[Alarra]

My favorite, though, is The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. It is the only book that has ever drawn me so fully into the world that, when I went to sleep, I dreamed about it and, when I woke the next day, I was still dreaming about it. I spent the entire day at work that day in the company of soldiers. That was one surreal experience.

Since I agree with everything you've said of every one of the other books/series on that list....I suppose I'll have to look into this one.

[Midnight Son]

Since I agree with everything you've said of every one of the other books/series on that list....I suppose I'll have to look into this one.Hope you enjoy it every bit as much as I did, though, to be honest, having a bunch of medieval type soldiers running around the grocery store that day was not conducive to productive labor on my part. I probably should'a just stayed home and read some more.

[open_source.exe]

Dr. Fegg's Encyclopaedia of all world knowledge.

Has anyone else heard of this book, because I've only seen one copy of it. Ever.

[Tiben]

The Song of Fire and Ice series
probbaly with the first book A Game Of Thrones as the best

[CurlyKitGirl]

Yeah, ASOIAF is amazing simply because all the characters are grey intent. There is no good and evil in this book. Just many many shades of grey.
Still, people see the same characters as good and others as bad. Dany is a grey area herself, most of the Starks are classed as good while many of the Lannisters are classed as evil.
They're all the same.
Night World by L J smith is fantastic. But no matter how hard I look bk 10 is nowhere (pardon that grammer). The series turns the normal rules for werewolves, vampires, witches etc. on their heads and creates an entralling series.
Yet bk 10 is nowhere. People are complaining because 9 was released in 2000 or thereabouts.
Kristen Britain writes a good series, even if I don't know what it's called.
Mercedes Lackey and her Valdemar books are good too.
For murder Karin Slaughter and her Grant County books are great if you want a police series revoving around a few central figuers. Lee Child and his Jack Reacher novels are for those who favour an anti-hero type solving murders and crimes his own way.

[Arameus]

Although it's a ridiculously tough choice to make for me, I'd like to nominate Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. This won a Pulitzer Prize, I believe, and was made into an excellent miniseries. The book, startlingly, contains all the elements of a Greek Epic, qualities that combine to make a Western more than just a Western, but a literary classic that captures the spirit of an America very much in flux, expressed through the tale of two aging Texas Rangers, who are Epic Heroes in every sense of the word. This book has the distinction of being the only book ever to draw a tear from me; the death and burial of [A CHARACTER] made me cry my eyes out, a fact I admit only to further reinforce the book's greatness. It is so well-written that it puts most other great authors to shame, even household names like Wolfe, Heller, and Golding.

Now I know you hear that word Western and immediately stop listening, but believe me when I say that this book does for its own genre what Lord of the Rings did for fantasy, albeit to much slighter celebrity. Reading this book could very well change the way you view literature. Read it.

[Icewalker]

There are so many books I really liked that I can't remember all of them.

At the top, in no particular order:

Trickster's Choice, Trickster's Queen, Dune, Ender's Game, Ice Station, Wolfspeaker, Emperor Mage, the Reality Dysfunction trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, The Naked God), The Golden Compass, and loads of others I can't remember off the top of my head.

I'm generally a pretty positive guy when it comes to liking things. Also, I never read a book I don't like, I just stop a few chapters in.

There are a lot of books which I know are good which I haven't read, primarily most of the works of Terry Pratchett.

[Arameus]

Fantasy fan, are we? I swear, the place is crawling with 'em! :smalltongue: Odd, huh?

[Natania]

I could list all the literature that I've read and loved... but as lots of you are doing that...
At the moment I'm reading 'Good omens' by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and it's really funny. It's a short yet very enjoyable read that doesn't have a moral lesson at all...
also 'the sheep of Glennkill' by Leonie Swann is very funny. It's written from the perspective of sheep which just makes it such a good read.
'the Shadow of the wind' I loved reading as well.
and last but not least 'I love you like a tomato' a wonderful book from the perspective of a young child.
oh and 'exodus' it took me some time to get into but in the end it gripped me like no other book has done in some time... I cried more then once while reading that book...

[Hell Puppi]

Plauge dogs and watership down by richard adams.

Don't get me wrong I've loved a lot of others but for some reason The Plauge Dogs has really stuck with me for a long time.

[Robberbaron]

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The list for honourable mentions goes on and on, so I'll leave it at that.

[Quincunx]

Dystopian roll-call!

The Giver - Socialist utopia survives without cruelty; the cost of the utopia still pushes it into dystopia. Written in the mid-'90s, it's the most modern dystopian novel on the list.
Brave New World - Mercantile society treats humans as commodities. It was written in the 1930s, and didn't hesitate to lampoon some current institutions, which still give its world familiarity with ours.
Animal Farm - Human morals dwell in an animal fable. Written in the mid-1940s, it was nonetheless not a product of the post-WWII loss of confidence in humankind.
We - Reason and logic rule humankind. Written in the 1920s, well before computers--what is the equivalent novel for the Electronic Age?
1984 - Socialist society wages war against itself. It's famous for its title being an inversion of the year it was written, 1948, amid the continuing post-WWII material and spiritual poverty.

[Telonius]

"The Little Prince" and "Lost Horizon" are up near the top for me. Both have their problems, particularly Lost Horizon, but I always seem to go back to them.

[Evil DM Mark3]

Dr. Fegg's Encyclopaedia of all world knowledge.

Has anyone else heard of this book, because I've only seen one copy of it. Ever.

Heard of it, read it, didn't rate it much.

[Siwenna]

It is the only book that has ever drawn me so fully into the world that, when I went to sleep, I dreamed about it and, when I woke the next day, I was still dreaming about it.

It's weird that you say that. I just finished re-reading the first three ASOIAF books (it's amazing how much I missed the first time,) and I've dreamed about it the past two days. At least I think so. I don't really remember last night's dreams, but I remember thinking afterwards that I had dreamed about it again.

[Hawriel]

yep had that happen. I started the WOT books when number 8 was already out. I read 5 in a row. I was dreaming about the books for weeks off and on. I had to stop reading them for afew months.

[InsaneOrb]

Well, in rough order of preference:

ASOIAF series
Watch series (Sergei Lukyanenko, translated)
Thud! (Terry Pratchett, Thud is probably my single favourite Discworld book, even over Interesting Times)
The Godfather (Mario Puzo)
Lord of the Rings (I know, Cliché)
His Dark Materials Trilogy (Philip Pullman)

Currently I'm reading through Umberto Eco's diabolically clever Foucault's Pendulum, which could well get added to this list.

A couple of other particularly good ones:

The Rule Of Four - Can't remember
Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield

[LordShaper]

Slaughterhouse 5 by Vonnegut (I jut love it), 2001: A Space Odyssey by Clarke (read it again and again and again in elementary school), Hyperion Cantos (read it in high-school, adore Simmons for being such a goddamned good writer of literary sci-fi that I'll never be), Sandman by Gaiman (I'll duel anyone who says this is not one long, epic novel:smalltongue: :smallmad: ), Watchmen by Moore (same thing as for Sandman), Dresden Files by Butcher (so full of great ideas and characters:smallsmile: )

Then there's the rest of Simmons, Gaiman and Moore bibliography, I also love anything by Koontz (especially Odd Thomas series) and King I can get my hands on,Billingham for crime/thriller...

[Hawriel]

Id like to add some more books that I liked.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series.

It is a good hard sci fi story about colonising and tarraforming mars.

[Pendragonx]

The Dark Is Rising sequence of books by Susan Cooper.

(as an aside, I'm absolutely appalled at what they've done to the movie)

[Ashtar]

I really liked Zamyatin's "We", John Wyndham's "The Day of the Triffids" and Heinlein's "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress".

I find some of the Arthur C. Clark's short stories to be very compelling, but I wouldn't single out any particular one.

[Hannes]

Orhan Pamuk's Snow. It's just... Perfect. The point of the book is hidden, but very straightforward, the main character reminds me of... Myself, yes... GO FOR IT!

[Alyorbase]

I like Timothy Zahn's Star Wars books about Admiral Thrawn (Heir to the Empire, The Lost Fleet, The Last Command).

those may not be literary masterpieces but they do entertain...much better than anything George Lucas has done since the Original Trilogy.

I also liked Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

[nagora]

I'm sure this has been posted before, but I didn't find anything with a quick search. Sorry if I missed an obvious thread.

What is/are your favorite book(s) and why?


The various Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever. Book 5 was a bit weak but I love Donaldson's ability to make the central character a pain in the arse but still enough of a hero to believe in. Plus I liked the whole way he handled the "is it real or fantasy" angle. Looking forward to book 8.

The Dying Earth books by Jack Vance, and not just because they're the origin of D&D magic and ioun stones. Far superior to Gene Wolfe's later attempt at the same background.

Robert E Howard's Conan books. The various people who write Conan stories are talentless tossers, but Howard had ideas that are magical. He said that the stories came to him as if he was sitting out in the wilderness and a big old, scared and grizzled barbarian had walked out of the dark into the campfire's light, sat down on a log and started telling him the story of his life. And that's how they feel. Wonderful.

Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman.

Nightwatch by Pratchett. It really pays off the investment in the characters over the previous 16 years, which gives the emotional force needed to carry off a very nasty villain and a very grim hero even in a comedy setting.

The Moomin books by Tove Jannson. Weird, spooky, inventive and fun.

The Naked Sun by Asimov. Insightful predictive SF at its best, with the two greatest characters in the whole genre.

[talsine]

Hyperion Cantos (read it in high-school, adore Simmons for being such a goddamned good writer of literary sci-fi that I'll never be)

QFT, i love the Cantos, i have, at least, 3 or 4 copies of each of those books cause i'd lend them out, forget, buy a new one, get it back, rinse/repeat. I read this probably every 6, 7 months.

Dead Girls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Girls) by Richard Calder
Post modern psuedo cyberpunk gender war. Read this book as a teen, and its haunted me ever since. The whole series is good, but this one is the best

[Rare Pink Leech]

My absolute favourite books are The Wheel Of Time series. They're so good I can more than forgive the slow books. It also helps that there were eight books out when I read it, which meant that I didn't have long waits to build up the anticipation only to be disappointed when 7 & 8 were slow.

Second on my list is probably Alan Moore's Watchmen. Absolute masterpiece. That is all I have to say about it.

A close third is probably The Hitch Hiker's Guide. Other runners-up include Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and the first two sequels (I don't think I read beyond those, but I'm not sure why), and Michael A. Stackpole/Aaron Allston's X-Wing series. What can I say? I love Rogue Squadron.

If you had asked me five years ago, I would have inclued Animorphs. That series was my world. Now, though, everything about it seems so juvenile (including the writing) which is a major shame.

[Jauranna]

So many books that have already been mentioned that I absolutely adore. My top three (at the moment, anyway, you know how it is):

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Seriously, all of you fantasy lovers NEED to read this book. It just came out in paperback, and the sequel is out at the end of this month. I can't wait!

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey has been one of my favorite authors since I was a teen, and I've read just about everything by her. This one I absolutely LOVE because I've always been into classic fairy tales.

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
The one I've read and re-read. It's just a classic to me.

And the one I couldn't get into:
A lot of people on this thread have said how much they like George R. R. Martin's series. I worked at a bookstore for 5 years and people would recommend it and I finally got around to reading it now that I've quit. I'm sorry, but I only got 3/4 through the first book and couldn't go any further. It just dragged for me, and jerked me around too much, and I can't think of a single character in it I actually liked. ::shrug::

And I was SERIOUSLY pissed when they killed Lady. :smallfurious:

[DomaDoma]

Yeah, ASOIAF is amazing simply because all the characters are grey intent. There is no good and evil in this book. Just many many shades of grey.

Eh, there's plenty of black. Gregor Clegane, anyone? Mirri Maz Durr? And there's plenty of grey as well - though some shades are darker than others. But the only really white character is Tyrion, and he's pulling for the darker-grey side. (I've only just started book three, so if this becomes incorrect, please don't tell me.)

Well, I guess Ned could be considered white as well, but too unsubtle to actually do any good with it. He was my favorite character in book one, but now I, like everyone else, have joined the Tyrion fan club.

At any rate, my love for Song of Ice and Fire is incredible, especially considering I have absolutely no desire to enter that world.

My favorite fantasy would still have to be Harry Potter, though; even in the seventh book, it's a world worth fighting for.

My favorite sci-fi is Ender's Game, followed by Shadow of the Giant. Dune is up there, but it falls behind because the writing style is so freakin' weird. (Though if you don't like Orson Scott Card's politics, I imagine youd be put off by the latter.)

By the way, is it honestly politically incorrect to say sci-fi?

My favorite mystery not written by Arthur Conan Doyle is The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurel K. Hamilton. Which is still a Sherlock Holmes spinoff, mind.

I don't like horror, but I have to take this opportunity to recommend The Green Mile. Not horror, but it is Stephen King. I think I will get around to reading Stephen King's It one of these days, though.

My favorite play is Macbeth, all the way. We owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to Shakespeare and Tolkien for keeping the adjective "fell" in circulation, and it has some of the boldest lines of all Shakespeare. "I have no words; my voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain than terms can give thee out!" (I have often obliquely referred to MacDuff in my FF6 fanfic in lieu of bringing in Cyan - can't get over the fact that no one else in the universe talks that way.)

My favorite J-fiction is either Song of the Gargoyle by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, or Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. I guess what I like in J-fiction is resourcefulness.

My favorite realistic fiction would be The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Issues Fiction, no less!), but by and large, I can't get into the genre.

My favorite editorial book is Parliament of Whores by P.J. O'Rourke, though the specifics are very dated by now. The best piece of his, though, is his account of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which is scattered all over loads of his collections, but not that one.

I don't have much of a preference when it comes to history, just gobble it all up. Probably a good thing; a distinctive style is not the first thing you look for in a history book.

My favorite nonfiction is Ancient Mysteries by Peter James and Nick Thorpe, where they do their best with the given information to determine the perpetrators of hoaxes and the grains of truth (if any) in classic legends and supernatural claims. There are some no-brainers, like Dracula, but you've got to check out the King Arthur and Omm Seti sections.

[Sly Reference]

I'll try to list a few:

Declare and The California Trilogy by Tim Powers.
There are so many good things in these books, especially if you've read about mythology and the books influenced by them. They mix ancient myths, modern tech, ghosts, the Grail legend, Shakespeare, poker, wine, the Arabian Nights and psychiatry in an ineffable combination. Supremely good.

A Civil Campaign and Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
The latest in the Miles Vorkosigan series, these use and advance elements that existed in the earlier books to great effect. And they tell their own stories in a wonderful, witty way.

Jhereg by Steven Brust
The first of the Vlad Taltos series, a fine piece of detective fantasy. The characters come alive, the dialog sings and the ending, well, when the narrator figures out the enemy's plan and is so amazed by it that he says if the knife he just dropped had landed on his foot point down he wouldn't have noticed it, you believe him. The rest of the series has been inconsistent, but still head and shoulders above most of the things out there.

[K2]

The Brothers Karamazov