Your favourite books?

[Graye]

As a spin-off from Ina's post about authors she likes I spent ages thinking about which book is my absolute favourite and which I could read over and over again, taking into account all the books I can ever remember reading. In the end I couldn't decide between three (two of which we read at school and which I still go back to now and then).

So my favourite three are

The Shetland Bus by David Howarth
The Kon Tiki Raft by Thor Heyerdhal
South from Granada by Gerard Brenan

Strangely enough, none of them are fiction. What about everyone else?

[boboff]

Jude
The Go Between
Catcher in the Rye

Mainly teenage angst there then!

[lazyspice]

I never get bored with Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children books (Clan of the Cave Bear, etc) - the film was dire though

And I like Anne Rice's vampire books

I don't read as much as I did when I was younger - I was a voracious reader at school and literally read everything in the library!

[Green Aura]

I'm not sure I can name specific books but I do have several favourite authors, whose books I read again and again. I have all their books and I'm afraid they're un-lendable - in case I don't get them back.

My all time no.1 is Marge Piercy, followed by Christopher Brookmyre, Jane Austen, Terry Pratchett and Joanne Harris, in no particular order.

I'm very fond of the Harry Potter books and OH bought me the entire set, in hardback for our wedding anniversary a couple of years ago. Strangely though, although I reread each book every time the next one came out, now I've read them through to the end, I'm not sure I'll ever read them again. Maybe in a few years eh?

I'm also very partial to any book which can make me laugh out loud, so the Barney Thompson series by Douglas Lyndsay (?) and many Tom Sharpe books, particularly The Throwback, would come into that category.

Finally, for various reasons - Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes, Condition of the Working Class... Engels and the Communist Manifesto, Marx.

That's enough.

[Millymollymandy]

I don't often read books twice but one book that I found really enjoyable and remarkable was 'London' by Edward Rutherford - especially as it is a lot of short stories set through 2000 years of history in London and I don't go for short stories at all!

Otherwise anything by Ken Follett, Nelson DeMille, Wilbur Smith and Jilly Cooper.

[oldfella]

I have the complete set of Alexander Kents "Richard Bolithos Novels" and never tired of rereadiding them and for a change I too enjoy the Earth Childrens series.

[Flo]

Only one book I've ever read more than three times - Cry the Beloved Country.

[StripyPixieSocks]

Favourite books? ALL of them! Except trashy (Mills & Boon style) novels... don't like those!

I love Chuck Palahniuk Books, James Herbers, Anne Rice, Virginia Andrews...

I have hundreds of books and I love every single one of them

[pumpy]

H.M.S. Ulysees....... Alaister Mclean.
Puckoon........ Spike Milligan.
Any book that gives advice about growing veggies.

[MuddyWitch]

I read the Herriot books as a teenager, then re-read them whilst very pregnant (she's 18 now!) & have just read them all again.

I also like Stephen Fry's writting style

MW

[the.fee.fairy]

Argh! I don't have a favourite book!
Ooh..no...i do...The Complete Works of Shakespeare! I love Shakespear, he is God of my Library, Chaucer is Demi-God and Enid Blyton is the Supreme Goddess of all!

Other than those, i like Anne Rice, Stephen King, Mike Gayle, Scarlett Thomas and true-crime (especially ones involving murder and forensics)...

Umm...all books are good. Even the bad ones...for they are books.

[Mylovelyhorse]

I'd really struggle if I was put on Desert Island Disks, as I wouldn't be able to think of ONE other book to be shipwrecked with...

I read quite a lot, and most of the stuff I read is 'read once only' material.

Sometimes, and only sometimes, books make it into the 'worth a second read' category.

And some make it onto the bookshelves. Where they will be taken down whenever needed, and read again. I have no idea what criteria I use when books make it onto the 'long-term favourites' list. But it contains (among many others): Pride and Prejudice, the works of Diana Gabaldon (these are probably favourite of all at the moment), Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, Shogun by James Clavell, The Last Coin by James P Blaylock, North and South by Mrs Gaskell, Precious Bane by Mary Webb, Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett, Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley, The Fires of Bride by Ellen Galford and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

A right old rag bag, I'd say.
:-)

[red]

i could always read any of Jane Austins again .

I read lots - and only keep books I might read again or feel are important to me.. so not many make it to that high standard.. most are passed on.

i have found there many 'classics' that himself has not read, and I wantt o be able to share referrences and memories of them with him.. so i buy them for him, and re-read them myself

these include books like . 'a town like alice', '39 steps' etc

the book i have read the most times is watership down - i read it 17 times as a child.

my all time favourite book is 'a door into summer' Robert heinlin. its not a great book, but has interesting concepts and i read it at an important time in my life. and i have a cat that is always looking for a door into summer on rainy days

[yugogypsy]

The knitting mysteries by Maggie Sefton. I've read up to #5 and am anxiously awaiting the release of #6 in paperback

Lois

[Millymollymandy]

I've just remembered a book which I have read and reread - I got it as a prize for being top of the school in about 1965 . It is 'Caroline and her friends' and on googling I had no idea it was written by a frenchman!!! It is absolutely enchanting and has the most amusing illustrations. Something that any age group can look at and enjoy.



I am now the proud owner of a Millymollymandy book too, thanks to Andy!