What's your favorite book and why?

[Linda]

 

I just finished Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean today, it was an awesome book, both in the characters, but also in what you will learn about Western American wildfires.

That's interesting, if only for the fact that I've been thinking about getting into the wildfire prevention profession. I'll  have to look it up at the local libraries.

[Natasha]

the singer's crown by elaine isaak (it's fantasy). i loved it, first of all, because even though it has a standard fantasy plot, it has a twist that redeems it. i couldn't put it down. and the cover, unlike so many others of its genre, is very unpreposessing. no vast conquering armies, or dragons, or muscled out warriors and half naked damsels in distress. it was very intriguing.

[tinkerbell]

Well, since everyone seems to be citing more than one book, I just have to say that I totally get lost in the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez; hence, he's always on my must-read list (i.e. Cien años de soledad, El amor en los tiempos del cólera,  Crónica de una muerte anunciada, El general en su laberinto, La Mala Hora)  I also love Mario Vargas Llosa (Peruvian author)...e.i. La casa verde. La Tia Julia y el escribidor, Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto, Lituma en los Andes, etc.. but I have to admit that he is a bit...ummm....depressing sometimes.  Okay, most of the time. 


Katia:  hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii   


tink

[Pica Pica]

i really enjoy the english translation of a hundred years of solitude

[europopprincess]

I had absolutely fallen in love with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.  The book is absolutely hilarious!  The one thing that I will advise is that you read the book before seeing the movie, or else the movie just seems like nonsensical crap.

[Janet_Girl]

All of the books in the series are absolutely hilarious.

whatever you do......Don't Panic.  And have your babel fish handy.

Janet

[PolskaPanda]

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

It is my favorite because his logic is spot-on

[imaz]

"Creatura di Sabbia" - Tahar Ben Jelloum

Wonderful and mystical transgender novel set in Morocco.

There's also a part two called "Notte Fatale".

Maybe available in English, the original was written in French.

[Virginia87106]

"The Lord of the rings" by JRR Tolkien, I have probably read more than 20 times.

"No Death, No fear" by Thich Nhat Hahn, is a primer on living life without fear and in peace.

[Brielle]

Colin Wilson 'The Occult'
Camille Paglia 'Sexual Personae'

Wilson's book is the most influential of my life - it led me into numerous other classic authors who influenced me immeasurably, and Wilson had a way of weaving strings in a sort of metaphysically positive and entertaining way.

Paglia's book reveals the mask, the masked, the self.

[Birdie]

Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block. Set pretty much in my neighborhood, it opened my eyes--I never saw the city as anything but a place where I lived before I read DA.

That is my all-time, must-have, top of the top five most favourite books ever! I've never actually met anyone who's ever read it before either, but I must have bought about a dozen copies for friends since highschool. Dangerous Angels and Girl Goddess #9 completely changed my life. 

Other books would be the short fiction of Amy Hempel (Reasons to Live, The Dog of the Marriage, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom and Tumble Home), The City of Shy Hunters by Tom Spanbauer and probably anything by Marquez.

I always have my nose in someone's books. 

[imaz]

I forgot to mention four novels written by Pramoedya Ananta Toer which are known as "The Buru Quartet".

Apart from being a wonderful writer the truly amazing thing about these novels are that he had no way of writing them down while confined as a political prisoner on Buru Island and recited them orally to his fellow prisoners. ( http://www.iht.com/articles/2000/03/15/jak.2.t_0.php )

The translation into English is absolutely brilliant and the novels tell the story of the awakening of the Indonesian Independence movement through firstly a love story and then finally through the eyes of an oppressor. What is beautiful is how there is a subtle progress from romance to political consciousness accompanied along the way by a humane treatment of the many issues Indonesia suffered and continues to suffer.

http://www.amazon.com/This-Earth-Mankind-Buru-Quartet/dp/0140256350/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236089410&sr=8-1



    Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind) (1980)
    Anak Semua Bangsa (Child of All Nations) (1980)
    Jejak Langkah (Footsteps) (1985)
    Rumah Kaca (House of Glass) (1988)

[Jaimey]

Oh! I'm glad I decided to start lurking around in other forums!  I <3 books!

Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami.  I like all of his books and he is by far my favorite author, but this one is absolutely my favorite (and it seems to be the one no one has read).  I highly recommend him to anyone who hasn't read him.  He's brilliant.  (particularly Norwegian Wood, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and Kafka on the Shore.  Very surreal, cynical, and funny.  One of his books was described as "verbal anarchy". 

I also love Gaiman, although I couldn't get through American Gods.  I should try again.  Love Good Omens, love Sandman, love Neverwhere.

Diana Wynne Jones is another favorite author.  Howl's Moving Castle and all of the Chrestomanci books are my favorites.

I can't believe I forgot this one!  I'm writing a paper on it.  Now Is the Hour by Tom Spanbauer.  There aren't even words to describe how beautiful his writing is.  I want to take a Dangerous Writing course now...

[riotgrrl101]

Mine include:

A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
The War of The Worlds - H.G. Wells
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson

and many others - yes, I'm a Sci-Fi nerd

[LightlyLuke]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
This book amazes me each time I read it. It's just the story of a father/son motorcycle trip. Or maybe it's an encapsulation of western philosophy, form versus function, and the author's obsession with "Quality." Pirsig sent the outline of this book to more than 700 editors before one accepted the project. And I'm not surprised-- who would have thought he could make it into a book worth reading.

The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw
This book is dedicated to anyone who has felt Different. It's the story of a girl who is half fairy, half human and must deal with her own strangeness amid cruel village folk. I thought the ending was a little too tidy.
Post Merge: October 28, 2009, 12:44:01 PM
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbot
This is a 19th century fable about a 2-dimensional being in a 2-dimensional world who encounters a sphere.

The sphere initially appears as a circle changing size over time. I often look at the changes our world produces over time and wonder what sphere my "2-dimensional" eyes are not seeing.

[axlred66]

I liked The Time Machine.  Mostly because I want to go back in time as well.  I would never like to go into the future though.   

[Janet_Girl]

Anything H.G.Wells is awesome.  I love War of the Worlds.


Janet

[katherine]

Of the books I've read, my favorite is still "Trinity" by Leon Uris.  I also very much enjoyed "Exodus" by the same author.

[Cindy]

So Many

My Family and Other Animals. Gerald Durrell. Kept me from leaving this world as a teenager, 'cos it kept me laughing.

Recently I read Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame) again after (cough) 40 plus years, a nice book but it's been censored according to my memory ,there was no piper at the gates of dawn, but maybe my memory fails me. Tolkein for escapism. Peter Medawar for scientific truth, David Gemmell for fantasy. Spike Milligan for just straight out stomach hurting painful aching laughter.

Cindy

Cindy

[Washu Chan]

The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series would have to be my favourite series of books, I found it amusing how Arthur Dent found himself in one ridiculous situation after another. I also found it interesting how it used humour to point out some very serious flaws in society.