# What is your favorite book?



## bb152005 (Mar 19, 2011)

Just wondering what was some of the good reads you guys found. My favorite is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I guess because I used to read it when I was a kid.


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## AnnetteL (Jul 14, 2010)

Can't pick just one, but one that was big for me growing up that's still a favorite is _Rilla of Ingleside_.


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## bb152005 (Mar 19, 2011)

AnnetteL said:


> Can't pick just one, but one that was big for me growing up that's still a favorite is _Rilla of Ingleside_.


Never heard of it. I will have to check that out. Thanks


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## CharlieLange (Nov 22, 2010)

I have four books that I often share with other readers: Booked to Die, by John Dunning. Battle Royale, the Japanese to English book by Koushun Takami. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein. And Ender's Game. If you don't know who wrote the last one, Google it, it's epic!


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I don't have any one particular favorite, I have dozens (out of the 5-6 thousand I have read over the years).

And it changes from time to time.

Mike


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

If I base it on the number of times I've read it, I'd have to pick Roger Zelazny's "Amber" series. (As far as I'm concerned it's one book in 5 volumes.)

If you forced me to pick a single book that is available on Kindle, I'd probably have to go with Terry Pratchett's _Night Watch_. (It's part of the "City Watch" story arc of his "Discworld" series, but like most of them is a stand-alone story in its own right.) I've read it several times, though it has a long way to go to catch up with the original Amber series -- but then Zelazny had at least a couple decades' worth of a head start on my Pratchett reading.


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## peter darbyshire (Jan 22, 2011)

Yeah, the Amber series for me, for the sake of nostalgia, if nothing else. 

I also love Catch 22, which is mentioned in another thread.


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## JMArray (Mar 4, 2011)

I must admit I haven't really read as much as I want. But, I am a time traveling whore and although it might sound kind of gay from my part to say so, I think Time Traveler's Wife is a pretty awesome book.


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## dmburnett (Feb 4, 2011)

When I was in high school, it was all about the VC Andrews books.  Then I discovered Anne Rice.  I'd had to say Stephen King has always lurked on my bookshelf too.  I can't ever pick just one!


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

bb152005 said:


> Just wondering what was some of the good reads you guys found. My favorite is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I guess because I used to read it when I was a kid.


Funny thing, but I picked up Hatchet a few years ago as a gift for my boy. I read it first, and then had to go and pick up another copy because I knew I would reread this book many times. I've since gathered up a whole shelf full of Paulsen's work - the man is that freaking prolific. Some of it is better than others.

In grown-up books I really enjoy Stephen Hunter's work - particularly his book PALE HORSE COMING. I don't know if I'd call that my favourite, but I've read it more times than I ought to have.


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

Night Watch: a story of camaraderie, the brave, the bizarre, and the choices which make us who we are and shape our fate - also a cast of characters that only Pratchett could conjure up. A six star book. (One line of "All The Little Angels" brings tears of real feeling to my eyes every time.)


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

bb152005 said:


> Just wondering what was some of the good reads you guys found. My favorite is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I guess because I used to read it when I was a kid.


Been pretty constant since I first read it in 1973 -- THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler

LOTR is up there too, with Stephen King's Salem's Lot, Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword and William Hjortsberg's Falling Angel making up a top 5, for this week anyway.


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

*Girl Meets God* by Lauren F. Winner is probably my favorite. I have found myself rereading it with a regularity, which I've never done before.

Dawn


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

I have a number of favorites, but I'd say some of my long-standing favorites are the following:

Stephen King's _''Salem's Lot_
Jane Austen's _Pride and Prejudice_
Nelson DeMille's _Plum Island_
Nelson DeMille and Thomas Block's _Mayday_
Pat Conroy's _The Prince of Tides_
Janet Evanovich's _Four to Score_

Newest among my favorite books is David McAfee's _33 A.D._

I've been a reader all of my life, and there are so many wonderful books that naming even a few makes me feel a bit disloyal to the hundred of others that I really like. I did it anyway.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin Series

(not available for Kindle yet)


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## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

Lately I've reread the Earth's Children series by Jean Auel, since her final volume comes out in about a week.


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

I'm not sure it is my absolute favorite but I've read and re-read Hemingway's A Moveable Feast more than any other book. It is just brilliant.


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## Bill Talcott (Mar 19, 2011)

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.

http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Abides-George-R-Stewart/dp/0345487133/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300555945&sr=1-1


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## joepr (Mar 16, 2011)

the name of the rose


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

Kathleen Valentine said:


> I'm not sure it is my absolute favorite but I've read and re-read Hemingway's A Moveable Feast more than any other book. It is just brilliant.


I really enjoyed that as well - but my favourite Hemingway remains The Old Man and the Sea. Love that story.


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## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

I have three books, but they are in different genres:

THE LONG GOODBYE by raymond Chandler
STRAIGHT MAN by Richard Russo
LOVE ON A BRANCH LINE by John hadfield


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## brianrowe (Mar 10, 2011)

BOY'S LIFE, by Robert R. McCammon. Simply the best.


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

1984
Brave New World
Clockwork Orange
The Martian Chronicles
The Firm


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## William BK. (Mar 8, 2011)

Beowulf, hands down.

Lord of the Rings
Ivanhoe
Frankenstein


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## sbaum4853 (May 3, 2010)

Dune
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Ender's Game
The Chocolate War (not on Kindle, sadly)


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## RChaffee (Mar 3, 2011)

I hate to support L Ron Hubbard in any way, but...Battlefield Earth was pretty awesome.


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

Kathleen Valentine said:


> I'm not sure it is my absolute favorite but I've read and re-read Hemingway's A Moveable Feast more than any other book. It is just brilliant.


Great choice! One of my favorites as well.
Dawn


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## phatpuppyart (Feb 26, 2011)

I love John Irving - 
"The World According to Garp"
and my all time fave
"A Prayer for Owen Meany"


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

Wm James Ch. said:


> Beowulf, hands down.
> Lord of the Rings
> Ivanhoe
> Frankenstein


I love all these books and have then on Kindle - except Lord of the Rings (I do love it, but don't have it on Kindle - but I do have three different editions of the trilogy in paperback for the occasions when all my family members wanted to read them simultaneously).


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## Mrs. K. (Dec 31, 2010)

brianrowe said:


> BOY'S LIFE, by Robert R. McCammon. Simply the best.


Agreed!


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

I'd have to say Night Watch, Terry Pratchett.  Sam Vimes is one of my favourite characters, and this is his greatest story.

Edit: The question actually stayed with me over the last few hours and I'd like to make one addition.  Although I'd still say that Night Watch is my favourite book, the book that most affected me would be The Little Prince.  I think about it at least once a week, most often the fox's story, and if I had to hold up one book as a representation of myself--one book that someone could read to better understand me--it would be The Little Prince.


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## Ian Hocking (Nov 11, 2010)

My favourite book is probably The Stand by Stephen King. When the web was young, back in the mid nineties, I wrote an epic review of it for a Stephen King fan site and broke the submission form! Happy days.


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## Miriam Minger (Nov 27, 2010)

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset.  

Miriam Minger


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

One slightly out of left field - The Silmarillion by Tolkien.  Not everyone's cup of tea but I've lost count of how many times I've read it.  Could be that I'm a history geek.

Honourable mentions got to Heinlein's Starship Troopers and most of Pratchett's Watch series.


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## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

Only one is impossible.

The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien)  it was the second book I read in English,  the sheer beauty of Ainulindalë (the Music of the Ainur) floors me every time.

The Lord of the Rings (the Professor, again)

Pride and Prejudice(Jane Austen)

A Canticle for Leibowitz (Walter M. Miller jr)

and

Murder in the Cathedral(T.S. Eliot) yes, I know it's not a book in the strict definition of the term, but I've only read it, never seen it performed.


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## RobynB (Jan 4, 2011)

_The Little Prince_ by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

Tossup between 1984 and Clockwork Orange.


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## pixichick (Mar 1, 2011)

My favorites are classics - and probably my most favorite would be an Agatha Christie like Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It's the twist at the end that really gets ya 

_--- edited... no self-promotion outside the Book Bazaar forum. please read our Forum Decorum thread._


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George - awesome read.


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## dnagirl (Oct 21, 2009)

I'm not sure I could pick one favorite.  Or even ten!  I love way too many books.


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## Aaron Pogue (Feb 18, 2011)

Wow. So many good books in this list!

I came here to post exactly what NogDog did, but I'd forgotten so many good ones already mentioned. _Hatchet, Ender's Game, Beowulf, Ivanhoe, Jonathan Strange,_ and _The Little Prince_. What a reading list!

The only one I can think to add to it is _The Three Musketeers_. Such a powerful story of friendship and adventure. Still, I'd put Amber and _Night Watch_ higher.


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen.

I could name a host of other books I love, but this one is just fantastic.


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## drenfrow (Jan 27, 2010)

Always hard to pick but three, in very different genres are _Lord of the Rings_, _Pride and Prejudice_ and _Watership Down_.

Speaking of _Hatchet_, since that's what started the thread--I just finished reading it to a class of sixth graders and they *loved *the book.


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## Stephen T. Harper (Dec 20, 2010)

Wm James Ch. said:


> Beowulf, hands down.
> 
> Lord of the Rings
> Ivanhoe
> Frankenstein


Beowulf? That's a pretty interesting selection. It's a great story but unexpected as a "hands down" favorite book. Are you a classics student?

For me, a couple 20th century classics jump out. Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." But if was a desert island situation, I'd probably go with LotR - just so much there, you can spend a lifetime reading it over and over again and still not get to the bottom of it.


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## nmg222 (Sep 14, 2010)

Fiction - The Stand by Stephen King
Non-fiction - The Bretheren by Bob Woodward


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## Javier Gimenez Sasieta (Feb 18, 2011)

My favourite book is "Moon is a harsh mistress", from Robert A. Heinein.

I also like The shadow of the wind, from Carlos Rius Zafón. 

Two different Styles!


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## Steven L. Hawk (Jul 10, 2010)

Add me to the list for *Ender's Game*, by Orson Scott Card.

For nostalgia's sake, it's *Green Eggs and Ham* by Dr Seuss. I read that to my sons so many times, I have the first half memorized.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

For me, it is a book that I've read at least ten times over the years. Mary Renault's _The Charioteer_. A novel about personal courage and honour. And, oh yes, love.


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## Josh_Stallings (Mar 18, 2011)

It is a real toss up between James Crumely's Dancing Bear (Not on Kindle yet!) and Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem http://www.amazon.com/Motherless-Brooklyn-A-Novel-ebook/dp/B004G8P7G4/ref=sr_1_4_title_1_ke?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301069907&sr=1-4

Both are great noir tales, both made me want to become e a writer, both continue to baffle me in their brilliance.


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## LDHesler (Mar 25, 2011)

Such a hard question to answer...

I have to count Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. Beyond that, Neil Gaiman's "American Gods", Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five", and Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" are all on my top ten list.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

_Catch-22,_ head and shoulders.

Contenders for second place would include _Snow Crash_, _Cat's Cradle_, _The Player of Games_, _Madame_, _Lolita_, _Lord of Light_, and _Ham on Rye_.


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## Aaron Pogue (Feb 18, 2011)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> Contenders for second place would include _Snow Crash_, _Cat's Cradle_, _The Player of Games_, _Madame_, _Lolita_, _Lord of Light_, and _Ham on Rye_.


Ooh, _Lord of Light_! I'd forgotten about that one, too.

I really should have mentioned _The Name of the Wind_ by Patrick Rothfuss. He's a fairly new contender against some incredibly venerable names on this list, but that book is magic.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Agreed. After I read it again it might well make my "Best Works in a Non-_Catch-22_-Related Field" lists.


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## triciatypes (Mar 25, 2011)

So hard to narrow it down to just one! If I had to choose, I would say _Interview With the Vampire_ by Anne Rice. Awesome, awesome stuff. Everytime I read it, I fall in love all over again.
Lots of good books in this here forum!


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## Les Turner (Mar 13, 2011)

'Cloudstreet' by Tim Winton. It's an Aussie novel, if you haven't read it I can't recommend it enough. It's awesome.

Honourable mentions would be 'Fight Club' by Chuck Palahniuk and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by... damn, forgotten his name, the Kite Runner guy.


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## adamwest01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Best book of all time? 'Love in the Time of Cholera' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

adamwest01 said:


> Best book of all time? 'Love in the Time of Cholera' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez


I really love "One Hundred Years of Solitude."


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## David Gurevich (Mar 16, 2011)

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett perhaps for fiction, though hard to choose.  Granny Weatherwax is my favorite of his characters, and it is great seeing her go up against the challenge of extremely powerful vampires.  Not to mention the theme of free will and choice, as well as the really nice handling of the preacher character, Major Oats (may be getting his name wrong)

For non-fiction, Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal.  Yes, he is full of it, but there are interesting and valuable lessons to be had from his book.  There is a weird type of honesty to it that is revealing and informative (as well as full of boyish brag).


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## EGranfors (Mar 18, 2011)

Very hard as this changes all the time.  Here are five:

The Book Thief
Pictures of You
The Year of Fog
State of Wonder (not out until June, Ann Patchett)
Room


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