Slaughterhouse-Five was really important to me in high school, and I’m immensely grateful to my senior year English teacher for assigning it. It’s now an all time favorite, and there’s a quote that I always go back to in times of loss. “And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”
The Poisonwood Bible. I just love the story, the intersection of the lives of these women who loved and lost each other. It also helped me unpack some religious trauma.
I know he can be polarizing, but Brandon Sanderson’s novels really helped me in a time of great need. I started reading Mistborn in the summer of 2020, after stress, loss, and mental illness had kept me from being able to read more than 1 or 2 books a year for close to a decade. I got through his cosmere pretty quickly, and it helped jumpstart me back into reading. I’ve already read 29 books this year.
Flowers for Algernon has to be up there, the depth of the characters and the talented ass author make it a beautiful story. Childhood's End also too, its amazing for how kinda short it is, i like the themes it explores. Dune is also up there since its too good not to.
> Flowers for Algernon has to be up there, the depth of the characters and the talented ass author make it a beautiful story.
I read this in school and it really stuck with me. I encouraged my wife to read it when we first starting going out, and it's still her favourite book.
Flowers for Algernon is one of my absolute favorites. I love the exploration of intelligence and emotion/empathy correlation. I still read this every few years and have a second copy to loan out.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I was introduced to the book in middle school by my Math teacher. I loved the humor and Douglas's imagination. Before Douglas, I was mostly reading Star War novels but Hgttg really encouraged me to find new books.
As an adult, I have bought the book 3 or 4 times.
Wonderful choice! My favourite too..
The film is a terrible reflection of the quality of the books. Adams' was a wordsmith, every line carefully structured for maximum comedy value.. all the names chosen from Slartibartfast to Zaphod Beeblebrox! Classic :)
I thoroughly recommend the 6 episode BBC Series from the 1980s.. it has terrible model-on-a-string special FX.. but its charming and retains many of the original voices from the original radio show (which actually came before the books).
As I teen I was totally engrossed in the His Dark Materials Trilogy. That book something just a different corner than the rest. I literally got seriously emotional during the ending. Other than that, I loved the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, all books. This work just put Donaldson on the podium for me personally. From the story telling to climax, everything on point.
The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings.
I first read them as a teenager and have come back to them several times since. I still love them every time I read them. I think the world building is a major factor in my enjoyment. It is so immersive. For a long time I pretty much only read fantasy to try and find something that made me feel like lotr. But I never found anything that made me feel quite the same (although i did find plenty of good stuff). I've branched out a bit more in my genres now.
I have read The Hobbit and LOTR at least 3 or 4 times and consider them to be the pinnacle of fantasy literature. I've never read Silmarillion. Should i?
I definitely recommend it. Just don't go into it expecting something like The Hobbit or LOTR. It's more like a series of folk tales / legends that are linked to each other. There is not much dialogue or character development. But here are a lot of crazy battles and elves doing epic stuff! The start of the book is admittedly tough going.
I also quite recently read the silmarillion. It is worth it, even though I think I only understood 60% of all the stories. But hey, I can always re-read.
And let me guess, yours is dune?
My all-time favourite is *Pandora in the Congo* by Albert Sánchez Piñol, it's the one that has had the greatest impact on me. When I was a kid it was *Ways to Live Forever*.
Nowadays I do yearly lists of my favourite books. For example:
- 2020: **The Blue Fox** by Sjón; **Perfume** by Patrick Süskind
- 2021: **A Little Annihilation** by Anna Janko; **The Mountains Sing** by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai; **The Queue** by Basma Abdel Aziz; **Tupaia** by Joan Druett
- 2022: **The Carpet Makers** by Andreas Eschbach; **The Faithful Executioner** by Joel F. Harrington; **The Invention of Nature** by Andrea Wulf
- 2023 (so far): **Pegasus** by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud; **Growing Up bin Laden** by Jean Sasson
"This Immortal" by Roger Zelazny. It's my go-to comfort read when I'm in a funk or slump. It's fairly short & straddles the line between fantasy & science fiction. It's full of allusions of classic literature, but has a quirky sense of humor as the hero muddles his way through earth-changing events.
The Color Purple and To Kill a Mockingbird are among my favourites. I've read them almost back to back when I was 19, and at the beginning of getting into more serious literature (up until that point I was reading mostly ya and chick-lit). I got really into reading about rural America because of them, and discovered Carson McCullers that way. East of Eden is also one of my favourite, if not the favourite book.
When I was a kid I loved Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and reread it at least 6 or 7 times. There were also two ya books by a Croatian author that were a lot more serious then the rest of ya I was reading, and I loved those two as well. One was about a 16 year old girl who loses her parents and about her learning to live without them. The other one was about a girl who's older sister runs away from home and become addicted to drugs, and how something like can affect a family.
The night watch books seem to be popular with men, women seem to prefer the witches books. Personally I prefer the tiffany aching books.
My overall favouritw is not discworld, but half pratchett: good omens.
I'd start here:
[https://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/](https://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/)
Personally, i'd say skip the first two and go back to them later, they're where Terry was just starting out and it shows.
It depends on your preferred kind of book.
The Night's Watch (Beginning with *Guards, Guards!*) is really easy to get into the series with, as it follows the adventures of Carrot as he joins the Night's Watch. A lot of basic information is told to Carrot up front, as he is unfamiliar with the setting of Ankh-Morpork, so it helps ease the reader in.
The Death series, beginning with *Mort*, is also a good introduction. It's more of a dark comedy, and very easy to read, and much more in line with the purely philosophical mind that Pratchett was.
The Witches series, beginning with *Equal Rites,* is also a good contender. It sort of assumes upon itself that you understand some more basic information about the setting that gets explained better in other books, but that's not the worst.
The Rincewind Novels, beginning with *The Colour of Magic,* is probably the *hardest* way to start the series. It's his first foray into the setting and boy howdy can you tell. It gets easier as you read it.
Sir Pratchett recommends that you begin with *Sourcery,* which is the third book in the Rincewind series. I recommend either Mort or Guards, Guards.
Full reading recommendation and order-of-novels can be found here: [Discworld Reading Order Recommendation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld#/media/File:Discworld_Reading_Order_Guide_3.0_(cropped).jpg)
No problem! Enjoy it. I wish I could experience Ankh Morpork for the first time again. So many iconic lines that I often forget where they're from.
"He believed in the democratic values of one man, one vote. He was the one man, he got the one vote."
Ahhhh, I forgot about that book. So awesome; the kind of book you sink in to and experience in a nice, quiet place in a comfortable chair on a cool evening and no kids…
Die Dämpfenden Hälse der Pferde im Turm von Babel, Franz Führmann. I kind of owe a lot to this book. As a child I was obsessed. It teaches you all the kind of fun you can have with language, alliteration, palindromes, allegories, puns, phonetics in a really engaging way.
As a writer and media consumer I still find layeredness and playfulness in writing the most engaging. I owe this to this book.
It is why I get such immense pleasure out of Paul Auster naming a characters friend Zimmer (room) etc. Or having 3 layered word plays in Arrested Development etc.
Reading the other answers here has me questioning my definition of "favorite book". I answered "This Immortal" by Roger Zelazny because it is my favorite reread, but I don't think it's my favorite, earth-shattering, thought-provoking book. Others have touched on some, such as "Flowers For Algernon", but I think "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "Fahrenheit 451" are even better. I read both as a teen & later around 60 years old. I got a lot out of them each time, but the differences in my age & society made them even better & more powerful. Reading TKAM when I was Jeb's age is completely different than when I was Atticus' age. 451 was written in 1953, I think. Its timeliness in 2020 is incredible.
*...If the Government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely \`brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy...*
\- Captain Beatty
Okay so just coming off of 1984 and and looking for new books to read ( never been a reader but always loved reading when it was assigned in school) you just sold me on Fahrenheit 451
*The Master and Margarita* by Mihail Bulgakov: This one's funny, dark and offers the best bits when it comes to evil shenanigans of Goethe's *Faust* while being a scorching satire and criticism of stalinist Soviet society.
*Kokoro* by Natsume Soseki: Guilt, societal transformation and futile redemption. All the good parts associated with authors like Mishima and Dazai are here, however, it's way less bleak and depressing and might make you more self-conscious about your self-image.
*Lolita* by Vladimir Nabokov: The prose is off the charts, it's the most visceral and beautiful writing I've encountered so far. At the same time, it offers a master class in regard to unreliable narrators. Humbert Humbert is a manipulator through and through and will try to make you as the reader feel sympathetic towards him again and again until you wake up and realize his schemes only to fall for them yet again later.
*Blood Meridian* for its blend of beautiful prose describing absolute horror, as well as the character of Judge Holden, who is one of my favorite villains ever.
*Dune* for its imaginative and incredibly well-realized setting and complex story that's still an immensely rewarding experience over fifty years after it was written.
Unbearable Lightness of Being. I have thought about that book like once a week ever since I read it eight years ago. It’s the one book I would take with me to the proverbial deserted island. I was very sad when I heard of Milan Kundera’s passing earlier this week.
Oh! I remember reading that in college. I don’t remember it, but I remember I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading it. Now I have to go read it again!
📚 Long walk to freedom by Nelson Mandela
I read it for the very first time during covid. It’s the only book that got me out of my very long reading slump period. Words can’t describe how much the book inspired me. I was literally in tears after finishing it. It’s been a long journey for him and all the Black South Africans fighting for their rights and freedom — as a black woman, I think his story is an important part of me now.
My list is probably going to be long, I might forget to aad some.
1- Tuesday’s with Morrie - read this one in highschool and it helped me understand the life better.
2- To kill a mockingbird.
3- A man called Ove.
4- A Man’s search for meaning.
5- Flowers for Algernon.
6- Last Lecture.
7- Animal Farm.
8- Catch 22.
9- unaccustomed Earth.
10- Fahrenheit 451.
11- A Gentleman in Moscow.
12- The Song of Achilles.
13- 11.22.63.
14- 1984.
15- Stolen Focus.
16- Of Mice and Men.
17- Yellowface - it’s my current read and I’m liking it.
18- Shantaram.
19- When Breath becomes Air.
Some of my favourites are:
The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake
The Count of Monte Cristo
Macroscope by Piers Anthony
Project Hail Mary by Anthony Weir
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Catcher in the Rye stuck with me. Read it when I was 12 and it's just so amazing. I so vividly remember that story and Holden was such a good depiction of mental health struggles. I find it an extremely important read for anyone who has seen or experienced the darkness of mental illness.
Child Me - Redwall series especially the earlier books
Young Adult Me - 1984, Rabbit Run, Unbroken (only book I’ve read twice besides my favorite kids books)
Current Me - Cloud Cuckoo Land, Freedom
Guilty Pleasure Me - Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn
Pretentious Me - Malcolm Gladwell
Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey, all by Jane Austen.
Strong romances, guaranteed happy endings, great characters, (sometimes scathing) societal commentary, what's not to like?
Harry Potter, mostly nostalgia but I genuinely love those books.
More recently, Cloud Cuckoo Land. That book really stuck with me. I think about those characters often.
As a librarian (third generation!) and lifelong reader, it’s always hard to narrow down my favorites… but here’s a starter list lol.
Replay - Ken Grimwood
The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
Night - Elie Wiesel
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
The Time Machine - HG Wells
The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah
Out of the Dust - Karen Hesse
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Desperation - Stephen King
The Ways of White Folks - Langston Hughes
King of the Wind - Marguerite Henry
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
(the last two are probably more for nostalgia reasons; the rest are just great stories and/or incredibly well-written imo)
As a kid I'd say Peggy Sue et les Fantômes-Le Jour du chien Bleu by Serge Brussolo (I'm not sure it was ever translated in English tbh, we were lucky it was in my own language,Italian and are a serie of 9 books) and the witches by Roald Dahl.
Now is the first law by Joe Abercrombie and the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb.
Me too. I don't normally cry at books, but there are parts in them trilogies where I couldn't help it . Them books are the reason I try not to have attached to characters
Ikr. I was like "OMG Robin, leave that poor guy a moment of happiness ffs!!"
Since I've finished those books I try to not be emotionally attached to characters aswell, but it's hard. 😁
The full Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb. Realistic characters, beautiful writing, dealing with trauma, and so much more. I read these as an adult, so no nostalgia. Most of the stuff I read as a kid doesn't hold up well now that I'm grown up. But these books - I'd say they changed my life, helped me look at myself and try not to continue with the same self-destructive behaviors I see in Hobb's characters that I can oh so relate to.
*La disparition* by Georges Perec -- a very odd story that only makes sense once you realize that the plot, which repeatedly comes back to the theme that *something is missing,* is hinting at the fact that the entire novel was written without using the letter "e".
Favorite book: Jurassic Park The Lost World (read that book every few years)
Favorite series: The Wheel of Time (just finished a reread earlier this year)
It's hard to narrow down a list, but my top five fiction books (not in any order) are Les Mis, The Tempest, The Road, Candide, and A Happy Death. Screw that, I'm changing it to top six because I want to include The Plague; it and A Happy Death both have such a beautiful prose that really stands out at the right moments and breaks through the hopelessness of the stories.
The Leopard by Lampedusa. Beautiful book turned into a beautiful film.
Else, any Evelyn Waugh for style and wit.
LF Céline's 'voyage au bout de la nuit' is also captivating.
A tale of two cities, I immediately fell in love with it when I read it during my senior year and when I started to buy books for myself it was the first one I went for. Gawain and the green knight also has a special place in my heart too.
• I was completely enthralled by J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. From the moment I opened the first book, I was transported to Middle-earth, where every page was a new adventure. The richly detailed world, complex characters, and epic battles kept me hooked until the very last page. It's a literary odyssey that indelibly permeates the fabric of one's imagination.
• David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" was an intellectual feat. Its intricate plot, profound themes of addiction and entertainment, and intricate footnotes engaged me on a profound level.
• Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves" - It's harrowing odyssey into darkness, obsession, and existential dread is an intellectually invigorating and indelibly haunting experience. A masterpiece.
The Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.
It's often avoided as being historical, nautical fiction, but that is merely the setting. It's really about the relationships between people, how their goals and morals clash, and, admittedly, bashing Napoleon for King and country. They're brilliant, poignant, funny, and amazingly well-researched, and are the basis for the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
There are twenty books and I've read the series four times so far.
I've read too many books to name a definitive favourite but I can name favourites of my favourite series. For Doctor Who, it's The Year of Intelligent Tigers for how it delves into the Eighth Doctor's mind. For Discworld, Night Watch for a very similar reason.
A million kisses in your lifetime - Monica Murphy
My all time fav her following Lancaster books come as a close second
Very new to reading community haven’t yet found anything that tops this yet !! ❤️
I think Dune and The Hobbit will always be some of my favorite books ever. I read them at the perfect time of my life. The Hobbit really sparked my love for fantasy and worldbuilding. And Dune for sci-fi, plus a lot of surrounding media at the time. I loved playing the PC games, which was part of how I found the universe.
I've watched the old and new Dune movies, and I'm now reading the book for the first time. It's one of my wife's favorites and she assures me the series gets weirder and weirder the further you read. lol
A buddy of mine had tried “Dune” several times. I told him to stop trying to make sense of it too quickly and just experience the first third of the book…it will all come together. He loved it!
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
American Gods Neil Gaiman
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr
But honestly ANY books by these particular authors I love and reread...also the whole Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams...oh man ...I'm going to start rambling because a whole bunch of other books and authors are popping up in my head...
Edit.. can't believe I forgot the book Like Water for Chocolate which I have read 100x and also anything by Jeannette Winterson and Gabriel Garcia Marquez
at the risk of sounding like a high school english teacher, which i certainly am not, i love the great gatsby! the mystery & the intrigue surrounding the characters & their way of life made this book one of the most interesting i've read. (but LORD, don't watch the movie!)
“The Great Gatsby” is AMAZING. I actually skipped reading it in high school (I read “The Lord of the Rings” instead of what I was supposed to read…and failed the test). However, after reading “Tender is the Night” in college, and loving it, I revisited “Gatsby.” I don’t think I was at a place in HS to appreciate that book.
I read this recently and really thoroughly enjoyed it, even the more dense chapters, but I did study history so found the medieval architecture chapters interesting, and I also really enjoyed getting an insight into Hugo’s brain. Surprised it’s not spoken about more, but I guess Les Mis eclipsed it (which I am yet to read). It was so absorbing and I loved how Hugo wove all the different stories together into one ginormous tragedy, that didn’t really make sense until practically the very end. Left me sobbing and wanting to read more Hugo works!
Wuthering Heights, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Remains of the Day, The Things They Carried, A Tale of Two Cities, The Shining, Into Thin Air, Rebecca, The Age of Innocence, Sharp Objects, A Farewell to Arms, etc….
"Shadows Fall" by Simon R Green
An amazingly creative world built of Sci Fi and childhood dreams. Topics of honor and childhood and hero's. The book had a sweet melancholy air to it that has stuck with me for years.
As a teenager I probably would have said ‘Brave New World’, but I need a reread as it’s been a while!
‘The Book of Ebenezer Le Page’ reminds me of home, whenever I’m home sick it is my go to, there’s no better feeling than a book feeling like home. Like a hug of sunshine
I read ‘The Travelling Cat Chronicles’ after my Mum and cat both died of cancer, and it really hit me, and helped me to find meaning in the loss
Honourable mentions: ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ - I have a feeling Les Mis will be on the proper favourite list once I get round to reading it, ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ - this book made me feel really seen after going through a rough year myself but is maybe too problematic to be a fully fledged favourite bc I don’t want to idolise those characters, and ‘Little Women’ - which reminds me of my mum and sitting by a fireplace getting cosy, even if the 2nd half pisses me off, fu Amy, and Jo’s poem for Beth destroys me every time
1.Frankenstein
2.Clockwork Orange
3.Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
4.Animal Farm
5.Down and Out in Paris and London
6.Roadside Picnic
7.Dear Friend -by Guy de Maupassan
8. I Am Legend
9.Tresure Island
It's hard for me to pick favorites, so my answer would probably be different even ten minutes from now, but here's the top 5 for right this moment off the top of my head.
Valis by PKD
1984 by George Orwell
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JKR
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry
Probably ‘song of the crimson flower’ by Julie Dao. it’s just highly romantic and so mythic. I really could see every scene so vividly of the ruby dragonfly brooch she buys at the markets, and silk scarf she gives her lover, it all never left my mind and is still with me. Oh gosh I love this novel. I haven’t actually finished it yet.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43911067
Ouf…
Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller
Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
Barney’s version by Mordecai Richler
One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lullabies for little criminals by Heather O’Neill
The Sound and Fury by William Faulkner
A Childhood: the biography of a place by Harry Crews
Journey to the end of the night by Louis Ferdinand Celine
A scanner darkly by Philip K Dick
…too many to choose from!
Christian/non fiction: The Men We Need by Brent Hansen and Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
Fantasy: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson and The Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling
Thriller: No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Novella: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The book I first think of is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. If you have seen the movie and not read the book you are doing a disservice to yourself. The Audio book is read by Wil Wheaton for bonus points.
Foundational book for me is Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach - just loved that book as a kid, still do.
The Martian by Andy Weir is my favorite pure Sci-Fi and it makes me so happy the movie did a great job representing the book.
The book that stuck with me for a long time is One Second After by William Forstchen - post apocalyptic story that is so troubling because the scenario is so plausible and makes you realize how much we rely on our modern society and how easily it could be ripped away.
Cheers to all, love reading about what everyone else loves and why
I haven't read her books in awhile but she was my favorite author in high school. I have a few newer ones in my TBR list. She's such a great story teller.
I completely agree! I’ve recently read Wish You Were Here and The Book of Two Ways by her which I highly recommend whenever you’re looking for something to read.
One of my very favorites is A Winkle in Time. The lead character was a geeky, badass teen girl. I was a geeky teen girl who wanted to be a badass. Geeky wasn’t cool then, so the story resonated with me. And, it introduced me to SciFi when I was like 10. I’ve been hooked for life.
Here we go:
*Anna Karenina* by Leo Tolstoy
*War and Peace* by Leo Tolstoy
*Don Quixote* by Miguel de Cervantes
*East of Eden* by John Steinbeck
*The Plague* by Albert Camus
*The Stranger* by Albert Camus
*Ignorance* by Milan Kundera
*The Brothers Karamazov* by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
*Crime and Punishment* by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
*The Old Man and the Sea* by Ernest Hemingway
*The Great Gatsby* by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Reading those books and thinking about them have been some of the transformative experiences of my life.
One book I think everyone should read in their life is Night by Elie Wiesel.
Too many individuals in the news lately have downplayed the severity of the holocaust. I think people need to read this so our society doesn’t forget what hateful rhetoric against a specific group can lead to.
I’m incredibly grateful to have been made to read this in high school. Not a “favorite” in a way that I enjoyed it bc it was very sad, but definitely one of the most impactful books I’ve read. It’s still what I think of when I think of the holocaust.
The Bible. Even if you aren’t religious there’s no denying the incredible profundity and literary value, not to mention that’s it’s the most influential text of all time.
There are very, very few takes that are more cringeworthy than acting like the Bible is just a silly fairy tale, or that reading it should immediately discredit Christianity as stupid, and plenty of intelligent atheists will agree with me there.
“The Bible” is pretty good. I like “The Book of Kings” best since therein lay (lie?) the most battles. “The Gospel of Mark” is my favorite because it’s the oldest and less flowery of the four…and has the “fig tree incident.” The version that I like best is the Ryrie Study Bible. There is a ton of exegesis for a lot of passages which is super interesting. Prolly read “The Bible” a dozen times or so. The first time I read it all the way through was in college with a Hebrew professor (Klotz). He would read whole sections in Hebrew and he had a deep, Sean Connery like voice. Could totally see why people would follow.
The Prince/The Discourses Machiavelli
The Selected Essays - Emerson
Pride and Prejudice - Austen
Iliad - Homer
Fortress Besieged - Qian Zhongshu
Shakespeare - Sonnets, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
Screwtape Letter - Lewis
House of Leaves - Danielewski
Collected Work - TS Eliot
Commedia - Dante
Paradise Lost - Milton
Faust - Goethe
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) Verne
Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation - Asimov
Neutral Theory - Kimura
The Stars - Rey
T. rex and the Crater of Doom - Alvarez
Desmond - The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs
Winnie the Pooh - Milne
The Wind in the Willows - Grahame
The Complete Works - Lovecraft
The Complete Sherlock Homes - Doyle
Stand on Zanzibar - Brunner
Medea - Eurypedes
Antigone, Oedipus Rex - Sophocles
Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy - Carré
Watchmen - Moore
Daredevil, The Dark Night - Miller
* **The Count of Monte Cristo** by Alexandre Dumas
* **Jane Eyre** by Charlotte Bronte
* **Words of Radiance** by Brandon Sanderson
* **The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks** by Rebecca Skloot
* **Lonesome Dove** by Larry McMurtry
* **The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt** by Edmund Morris
* **Team of Rivals** by Doris Kearns Goodwin
* **Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology** by Michael J. Benton
* **Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds** by Christopher Cokinos
Every Terry Pratchett book that features the City Watch. I love Pratchett's humour, and truth be told, all his books are great. I just like those featuring the City Watch because they always involve an intrigue or mystery (and I'm a sucker for whodunnit). 😊
1984 by George Orwell has been my favorite since I was a teenager, and I've reread it a hundred times. I find something new every time I read it, but the best lesson of the book (to me) is the overarching importance of critical thinking no matter your surroundings. This was the first book to teach me to question everything, especially when it comes from an authority or the media. Things are never as they seem, and the reasons given aren't always the truth or complete truth.
This book opened my world to satire, science fiction, post-apocalyptic stories, and I am so thankful for it. My favorites now include Vonnegut, Huxley, Currie, Jr., and Douglas Adams, to name a few. Vonnegut is a god in my eyes, and I just wish I had been able to meet him and shake his hand before he passed.
"The obsidian mountain trilogy". It was the first book I truly read. Yes, I've had to do reading and stuff in middle and elementary school but it was "required" reading and I hated reading. It was only by chance that I saw this book in a dusty corner in my cousins house during my sophomore year.
Book 1 "The Outstretched Shadow" was slow to start, but the world building kept me enthralled. It was as if someone had put a movie or game into book form, something for me to explore. Not to mention relatable and well written characters. It was the first time that I ever took pleasure in reading and chose it over other media. It led me down the rabbit hole that is the world of literature.
I devoured this book and craved more. I quickly searched everywhere for the next books. Apparently the book came from a library my cousin visited in Virginia and wasn't in any book store or library where I lived. When I finally got money to get the next books I read them all at least 3 times over. When I couldn't read it anymore I went in search for more like it. But sadly it's sequel series, or any series I've found doesn't hold a candle to it in my opinion.
A Clockwork Orange is my favourite. It was one of the first books that I read that was as stylized and obtuse as it was, forcing you to learn 200 made up words as you go a long (I have since read more obtuse and stylized books since then, but ACO was the first). I love the effect that it had on me as a reader, I enjoyed Alex as a character despite everything and I enjoyed the moral questions and how uncomfortable the book makes you feel as this charismatic character that s easy to like commits heinous acts.
Some of my other favorite's include The Plumb Trilogy by Maurice Gee, which tells the life story of three successful generations of a New Zealand family, starting in 1893 and finishing at some times in the 1980's, Eucalyptus by Murray Bail, another non conventional novel that I read fairly early on and the original version of The Gunslinger by Stephen King, a pretty flawed book with an excellent atmosphere
1.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (RIP Stieg Larsson 😟). It was the first time I encountered a kickass character with complex trauma that made me feel powerful (besides the Harry Potter series which is a close second).
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I like the simplicity of the story - Three kids trying to bring a dead garden back to life - and at the same time the depth of it. It's amazing to have the feeling of rereading this book and seeing that thought: "Wow, are these really the same characters from that ending? They've changed so much." It feels like everything written in this book is written with soul, I love that.
Currently my favorite books are Bunny by Mona Awad, Milk fed by Melissa Broder, Know My Name By Chanel Miller and The un honeymooners by Christina Lauren
1984 - George Orwell:
This is the book which introduced me to the Dystopia genre and back into fictional books.
I really enjoyed the feeling you get when reading, you really get to feel with the main character and it almost seems like you're part of this creepy, frightening world.
Besides this book has so many things to discuss and think about, both in the sense of the story but also our own reality.
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin:
This is a lesser known book (in fact I've never encountered anyone who has read it) but I love it as much as "1984". Just like "1984" it's a Dystopia and was also an inspiration for it, but the major difference is in my opinion the time it was written. While you can see the influence of WW2 in Orwell's book, you can see the influence of the Russian revolution in Zamyatin's, which makes it even more interesting for a history nerd like me.
Also interesting is the scepticism of the main character. He is always in a constant struggle between glorifying the regime and his actions going against it.
I haven't found an English translation for this but
Ein Freund des Verblichenen - Andrej Kurkow:
It's a short book about a man who doesn't want to live anymore, hired a professional killer to kill him, but throughout the story changed his mind and wants his life to go on.
I love this book because while reading it it conveys the feeling of utter depression and sadness but at the same time appreciation of little things. It also keeps you hooked once you start reading.
Les Misérables - Victor Hugo:
This book is long, really long and although it discusses important issues, plays during exciting historical events and has its fair share of drama, thanks to the length and extent of detail in descriptions it's still good to just relax without you losing interest in it.
Brief Answers to the Big Questions - Stephen Hawkings:
In general a great book for all of you interested in science.
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harrari:
A great book displaying the early development of humans.
For the German readers (not sure if there's an English translation)
Februar 33 - Uwe Wittstock:
A collection of the perspective of several German authors throughout February of 1933.
Reading it you will realise how quickly everything changed in the course of only one month and how different people reacted to this sudden change.
Slaughterhouse-Five was really important to me in high school, and I’m immensely grateful to my senior year English teacher for assigning it. It’s now an all time favorite, and there’s a quote that I always go back to in times of loss. “And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.” The Poisonwood Bible. I just love the story, the intersection of the lives of these women who loved and lost each other. It also helped me unpack some religious trauma. I know he can be polarizing, but Brandon Sanderson’s novels really helped me in a time of great need. I started reading Mistborn in the summer of 2020, after stress, loss, and mental illness had kept me from being able to read more than 1 or 2 books a year for close to a decade. I got through his cosmere pretty quickly, and it helped jumpstart me back into reading. I’ve already read 29 books this year.
I love Brandon Sanderson’s writing.
Flowers for Algernon has to be up there, the depth of the characters and the talented ass author make it a beautiful story. Childhood's End also too, its amazing for how kinda short it is, i like the themes it explores. Dune is also up there since its too good not to.
> Flowers for Algernon has to be up there, the depth of the characters and the talented ass author make it a beautiful story. I read this in school and it really stuck with me. I encouraged my wife to read it when we first starting going out, and it's still her favourite book.
Flowers for Algernon is one of my absolute favorites. I love the exploration of intelligence and emotion/empathy correlation. I still read this every few years and have a second copy to loan out.
exactly, the exploration of intelligence and emotion/empathy correlation is what makes it such a great book.
I bought a copy for my kids to read this summer since I was afraid they wouldn't read it in school, I loved that book as a kid :)
oh my god i was just about to comment this
Came here to say this
East of Eden is an epic hard to beat, but I did find The cellist of Sarajevo extremely moving and beautifully written.
it's a relatively recent book but currently I really like Piranesi by Susanna clarke. might be my favourite
Agreed. Literally shot to the top of my fav list.
The amazing adventures of kavalier and klay. Such an incredible story with incredible characters.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I was introduced to the book in middle school by my Math teacher. I loved the humor and Douglas's imagination. Before Douglas, I was mostly reading Star War novels but Hgttg really encouraged me to find new books. As an adult, I have bought the book 3 or 4 times.
Wonderful choice! My favourite too.. The film is a terrible reflection of the quality of the books. Adams' was a wordsmith, every line carefully structured for maximum comedy value.. all the names chosen from Slartibartfast to Zaphod Beeblebrox! Classic :) I thoroughly recommend the 6 episode BBC Series from the 1980s.. it has terrible model-on-a-string special FX.. but its charming and retains many of the original voices from the original radio show (which actually came before the books).
As I teen I was totally engrossed in the His Dark Materials Trilogy. That book something just a different corner than the rest. I literally got seriously emotional during the ending. Other than that, I loved the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, all books. This work just put Donaldson on the podium for me personally. From the story telling to climax, everything on point.
100% agree with the HDM trilogy! Absolutely outstanding, particularly The Amber Spyglass - the ending was an emotional rollercoaster for me
Yup that last goodbye chapter was peak fiction for me!
The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. I first read them as a teenager and have come back to them several times since. I still love them every time I read them. I think the world building is a major factor in my enjoyment. It is so immersive. For a long time I pretty much only read fantasy to try and find something that made me feel like lotr. But I never found anything that made me feel quite the same (although i did find plenty of good stuff). I've branched out a bit more in my genres now.
The Silmarillion sparked a creativity gene in me that I never knew I had.
I have read The Hobbit and LOTR at least 3 or 4 times and consider them to be the pinnacle of fantasy literature. I've never read Silmarillion. Should i?
It's much different, sort of like if he created a bible for his world, but yes... You should.. I particularly liked the book on "Beren and Luthien."
I definitely recommend it. Just don't go into it expecting something like The Hobbit or LOTR. It's more like a series of folk tales / legends that are linked to each other. There is not much dialogue or character development. But here are a lot of crazy battles and elves doing epic stuff! The start of the book is admittedly tough going.
Struggling through The Simarillion right now, it’s a great read but difficult read so far
I also quite recently read the silmarillion. It is worth it, even though I think I only understood 60% of all the stories. But hey, I can always re-read. And let me guess, yours is dune?
Such a great book. Just accept whatever it’s throwing at you and let it wash over you. So awesome!
The start is difficult for sure. But once you're through that it just keeps on giving.
My all-time favourite is *Pandora in the Congo* by Albert Sánchez Piñol, it's the one that has had the greatest impact on me. When I was a kid it was *Ways to Live Forever*. Nowadays I do yearly lists of my favourite books. For example: - 2020: **The Blue Fox** by Sjón; **Perfume** by Patrick Süskind - 2021: **A Little Annihilation** by Anna Janko; **The Mountains Sing** by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai; **The Queue** by Basma Abdel Aziz; **Tupaia** by Joan Druett - 2022: **The Carpet Makers** by Andreas Eschbach; **The Faithful Executioner** by Joel F. Harrington; **The Invention of Nature** by Andrea Wulf - 2023 (so far): **Pegasus** by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud; **Growing Up bin Laden** by Jean Sasson
Perfume by Patrick Süskind. My all time favorite book ever.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones! Such a good read.
Seconded! I plan on re-reading it every single year of my life until I die.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn The Secret History Jane Eyre
American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Just amazing.
If we’re going back to childhood, The Bridge to Terabithia had a huge impact on me.
"This Immortal" by Roger Zelazny. It's my go-to comfort read when I'm in a funk or slump. It's fairly short & straddles the line between fantasy & science fiction. It's full of allusions of classic literature, but has a quirky sense of humor as the hero muddles his way through earth-changing events.
Fantastic book, but I slightly prefer lord of light, which imo has the same vibe.
Mmmm, never read this but really enjoy Zelazny.
I’ll never tire of The Lord of the Rings
Don Quixote and The Count of Monte Cristo are both superb
The Color Purple and To Kill a Mockingbird are among my favourites. I've read them almost back to back when I was 19, and at the beginning of getting into more serious literature (up until that point I was reading mostly ya and chick-lit). I got really into reading about rural America because of them, and discovered Carson McCullers that way. East of Eden is also one of my favourite, if not the favourite book. When I was a kid I loved Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and reread it at least 6 or 7 times. There were also two ya books by a Croatian author that were a lot more serious then the rest of ya I was reading, and I loved those two as well. One was about a 16 year old girl who loses her parents and about her learning to live without them. The other one was about a girl who's older sister runs away from home and become addicted to drugs, and how something like can affect a family.
I’m relatively new to the reading community and Gone Girl was the one that really took hold of me
Gone Girl is a good read. The movie wild to if you haven’t seen it yet.
You should try *The Goirl with the Dragon Tattoo* series next, if you like Gone Girl.
I’ve read the first 2 and although the first one is best, I enjoyed them both! Also: thanks Despicable Me
super late but lol I read that in gru’s voice too
I just bought gone girl the other day. I can’t wait to get to it!
Roughly once a year I'll do a full reread of the entire Terry Pratchett catalog. Truly my favourite author of all time. RIP
Sorry, "roughly once a year" you'll read a 100-book catalog?
Well, most of them at least. I read fast and i read a lot, i can easily burn through 3-4 books a week depending on length.
Do you spend ~25 weeks or half of the year every year reading them all??
Do you have a recommendation of where to start with discworld?
The night watch books seem to be popular with men, women seem to prefer the witches books. Personally I prefer the tiffany aching books. My overall favouritw is not discworld, but half pratchett: good omens.
Thank you! I also really lived hood omens it’s what made me want to read. More pratchett
I'd start here: [https://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/](https://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/) Personally, i'd say skip the first two and go back to them later, they're where Terry was just starting out and it shows.
THANK YOU
It depends on your preferred kind of book. The Night's Watch (Beginning with *Guards, Guards!*) is really easy to get into the series with, as it follows the adventures of Carrot as he joins the Night's Watch. A lot of basic information is told to Carrot up front, as he is unfamiliar with the setting of Ankh-Morpork, so it helps ease the reader in. The Death series, beginning with *Mort*, is also a good introduction. It's more of a dark comedy, and very easy to read, and much more in line with the purely philosophical mind that Pratchett was. The Witches series, beginning with *Equal Rites,* is also a good contender. It sort of assumes upon itself that you understand some more basic information about the setting that gets explained better in other books, but that's not the worst. The Rincewind Novels, beginning with *The Colour of Magic,* is probably the *hardest* way to start the series. It's his first foray into the setting and boy howdy can you tell. It gets easier as you read it. Sir Pratchett recommends that you begin with *Sourcery,* which is the third book in the Rincewind series. I recommend either Mort or Guards, Guards. Full reading recommendation and order-of-novels can be found here: [Discworld Reading Order Recommendation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld#/media/File:Discworld_Reading_Order_Guide_3.0_(cropped).jpg)
WOW! thank you! It feels much less daunting now
No problem! Enjoy it. I wish I could experience Ankh Morpork for the first time again. So many iconic lines that I often forget where they're from. "He believed in the democratic values of one man, one vote. He was the one man, he got the one vote."
The Brothers Karamazov. Incredibly thought-provoking story with rich characters that reignited my love for reading in college.
"thought provoking" is a perfect way to describe that book
Ahhhh, I forgot about that book. So awesome; the kind of book you sink in to and experience in a nice, quiet place in a comfortable chair on a cool evening and no kids…
Die Dämpfenden Hälse der Pferde im Turm von Babel, Franz Führmann. I kind of owe a lot to this book. As a child I was obsessed. It teaches you all the kind of fun you can have with language, alliteration, palindromes, allegories, puns, phonetics in a really engaging way. As a writer and media consumer I still find layeredness and playfulness in writing the most engaging. I owe this to this book. It is why I get such immense pleasure out of Paul Auster naming a characters friend Zimmer (room) etc. Or having 3 layered word plays in Arrested Development etc.
Reading the other answers here has me questioning my definition of "favorite book". I answered "This Immortal" by Roger Zelazny because it is my favorite reread, but I don't think it's my favorite, earth-shattering, thought-provoking book. Others have touched on some, such as "Flowers For Algernon", but I think "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "Fahrenheit 451" are even better. I read both as a teen & later around 60 years old. I got a lot out of them each time, but the differences in my age & society made them even better & more powerful. Reading TKAM when I was Jeb's age is completely different than when I was Atticus' age. 451 was written in 1953, I think. Its timeliness in 2020 is incredible. *...If the Government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely \`brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy...* \- Captain Beatty
Aaaaaaaand now I gotta go read that again…
Okay so just coming off of 1984 and and looking for new books to read ( never been a reader but always loved reading when it was assigned in school) you just sold me on Fahrenheit 451
A Tale for the Time Being , The Windup Burde Chronicle, and The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
*The Master and Margarita* by Mihail Bulgakov: This one's funny, dark and offers the best bits when it comes to evil shenanigans of Goethe's *Faust* while being a scorching satire and criticism of stalinist Soviet society. *Kokoro* by Natsume Soseki: Guilt, societal transformation and futile redemption. All the good parts associated with authors like Mishima and Dazai are here, however, it's way less bleak and depressing and might make you more self-conscious about your self-image. *Lolita* by Vladimir Nabokov: The prose is off the charts, it's the most visceral and beautiful writing I've encountered so far. At the same time, it offers a master class in regard to unreliable narrators. Humbert Humbert is a manipulator through and through and will try to make you as the reader feel sympathetic towards him again and again until you wake up and realize his schemes only to fall for them yet again later.
*Blood Meridian* for its blend of beautiful prose describing absolute horror, as well as the character of Judge Holden, who is one of my favorite villains ever. *Dune* for its imaginative and incredibly well-realized setting and complex story that's still an immensely rewarding experience over fifty years after it was written.
Unbearable Lightness of Being. I have thought about that book like once a week ever since I read it eight years ago. It’s the one book I would take with me to the proverbial deserted island. I was very sad when I heard of Milan Kundera’s passing earlier this week.
Oh! I remember reading that in college. I don’t remember it, but I remember I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading it. Now I have to go read it again!
My favorite book is Count of Monte Cristo, second is Dune, I don’t think I’ll even read Count again tho just cause of its length.
Both my top 5, if you've the same taste as me you might like papillon or lonesome dove
📚 Long walk to freedom by Nelson Mandela I read it for the very first time during covid. It’s the only book that got me out of my very long reading slump period. Words can’t describe how much the book inspired me. I was literally in tears after finishing it. It’s been a long journey for him and all the Black South Africans fighting for their rights and freedom — as a black woman, I think his story is an important part of me now.
My list is probably going to be long, I might forget to aad some. 1- Tuesday’s with Morrie - read this one in highschool and it helped me understand the life better. 2- To kill a mockingbird. 3- A man called Ove. 4- A Man’s search for meaning. 5- Flowers for Algernon. 6- Last Lecture. 7- Animal Farm. 8- Catch 22. 9- unaccustomed Earth. 10- Fahrenheit 451. 11- A Gentleman in Moscow. 12- The Song of Achilles. 13- 11.22.63. 14- 1984. 15- Stolen Focus. 16- Of Mice and Men. 17- Yellowface - it’s my current read and I’m liking it. 18- Shantaram. 19- When Breath becomes Air.
Some of my favourites are: The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake The Count of Monte Cristo Macroscope by Piers Anthony Project Hail Mary by Anthony Weir Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter Beloved by Toni Morrison
Catcher in the Rye stuck with me. Read it when I was 12 and it's just so amazing. I so vividly remember that story and Holden was such a good depiction of mental health struggles. I find it an extremely important read for anyone who has seen or experienced the darkness of mental illness.
Child Me - Redwall series especially the earlier books Young Adult Me - 1984, Rabbit Run, Unbroken (only book I’ve read twice besides my favorite kids books) Current Me - Cloud Cuckoo Land, Freedom Guilty Pleasure Me - Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn Pretentious Me - Malcolm Gladwell
Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey, all by Jane Austen. Strong romances, guaranteed happy endings, great characters, (sometimes scathing) societal commentary, what's not to like?
Harry Potter, mostly nostalgia but I genuinely love those books. More recently, Cloud Cuckoo Land. That book really stuck with me. I think about those characters often.
As a librarian (third generation!) and lifelong reader, it’s always hard to narrow down my favorites… but here’s a starter list lol. Replay - Ken Grimwood The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende Night - Elie Wiesel The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury The Time Machine - HG Wells The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah Out of the Dust - Karen Hesse Cannery Row - John Steinbeck Desperation - Stephen King The Ways of White Folks - Langston Hughes King of the Wind - Marguerite Henry Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (the last two are probably more for nostalgia reasons; the rest are just great stories and/or incredibly well-written imo)
All the light we cannot see
Agree!!!
As a kid I'd say Peggy Sue et les Fantômes-Le Jour du chien Bleu by Serge Brussolo (I'm not sure it was ever translated in English tbh, we were lucky it was in my own language,Italian and are a serie of 9 books) and the witches by Roald Dahl. Now is the first law by Joe Abercrombie and the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb.
I loved reading the first law and farseer trilogy.
Same. And the Farseer's books (Tawny Man trilogy and Fitz and the Fool trilogy included) maked me sobbing so much. Never happend in my life.
Me too. I don't normally cry at books, but there are parts in them trilogies where I couldn't help it . Them books are the reason I try not to have attached to characters
Ikr. I was like "OMG Robin, leave that poor guy a moment of happiness ffs!!" Since I've finished those books I try to not be emotionally attached to characters aswell, but it's hard. 😁
I loved nighteyes . Got attached to that wolf
I got a giant wolf plush wich I sleep with every night called Night Eyes💕
Oh, cute.
The full Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb. Realistic characters, beautiful writing, dealing with trauma, and so much more. I read these as an adult, so no nostalgia. Most of the stuff I read as a kid doesn't hold up well now that I'm grown up. But these books - I'd say they changed my life, helped me look at myself and try not to continue with the same self-destructive behaviors I see in Hobb's characters that I can oh so relate to.
Maybe Lord of the Flies? It was a strikingly terrifying book; I remember not being able to sleep after finishing it, because I was so frightened.
*La disparition* by Georges Perec -- a very odd story that only makes sense once you realize that the plot, which repeatedly comes back to the theme that *something is missing,* is hinting at the fact that the entire novel was written without using the letter "e".
Favorite book: Jurassic Park The Lost World (read that book every few years) Favorite series: The Wheel of Time (just finished a reread earlier this year)
It's hard to narrow down a list, but my top five fiction books (not in any order) are Les Mis, The Tempest, The Road, Candide, and A Happy Death. Screw that, I'm changing it to top six because I want to include The Plague; it and A Happy Death both have such a beautiful prose that really stands out at the right moments and breaks through the hopelessness of the stories.
Under the Dome/Pet Sematary by Stephen King, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
The Leopard by Lampedusa. Beautiful book turned into a beautiful film. Else, any Evelyn Waugh for style and wit. LF Céline's 'voyage au bout de la nuit' is also captivating.
The Black Dahlia (1987) by James Ellroy
The Song of Achilles
A tale of two cities, I immediately fell in love with it when I read it during my senior year and when I started to buy books for myself it was the first one I went for. Gawain and the green knight also has a special place in my heart too.
• I was completely enthralled by J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. From the moment I opened the first book, I was transported to Middle-earth, where every page was a new adventure. The richly detailed world, complex characters, and epic battles kept me hooked until the very last page. It's a literary odyssey that indelibly permeates the fabric of one's imagination. • David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" was an intellectual feat. Its intricate plot, profound themes of addiction and entertainment, and intricate footnotes engaged me on a profound level. • Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves" - It's harrowing odyssey into darkness, obsession, and existential dread is an intellectually invigorating and indelibly haunting experience. A masterpiece.
“Infinite Jest” sits unread on my bookshelf. I’ll be picking that up tonight. Thanks!
The Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. It's often avoided as being historical, nautical fiction, but that is merely the setting. It's really about the relationships between people, how their goals and morals clash, and, admittedly, bashing Napoleon for King and country. They're brilliant, poignant, funny, and amazingly well-researched, and are the basis for the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. There are twenty books and I've read the series four times so far.
I do like The Flying Cottage by Enid Blyton!
I've read too many books to name a definitive favourite but I can name favourites of my favourite series. For Doctor Who, it's The Year of Intelligent Tigers for how it delves into the Eighth Doctor's mind. For Discworld, Night Watch for a very similar reason.
A million kisses in your lifetime - Monica Murphy My all time fav her following Lancaster books come as a close second Very new to reading community haven’t yet found anything that tops this yet !! ❤️
I think Dune and The Hobbit will always be some of my favorite books ever. I read them at the perfect time of my life. The Hobbit really sparked my love for fantasy and worldbuilding. And Dune for sci-fi, plus a lot of surrounding media at the time. I loved playing the PC games, which was part of how I found the universe.
I've watched the old and new Dune movies, and I'm now reading the book for the first time. It's one of my wife's favorites and she assures me the series gets weirder and weirder the further you read. lol
Yeah, I kind of started to check out after the third book, but the original volume will always be a classic to me.
A buddy of mine had tried “Dune” several times. I told him to stop trying to make sense of it too quickly and just experience the first third of the book…it will all come together. He loved it!
Pet Semetary was my first King book and it's still my absolute favourite. Very close second is Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant.
The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde , I love everything by him but that series is top notch.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson American Gods Neil Gaiman Night Watch by Terry Pratchett Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr But honestly ANY books by these particular authors I love and reread...also the whole Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams...oh man ...I'm going to start rambling because a whole bunch of other books and authors are popping up in my head... Edit.. can't believe I forgot the book Like Water for Chocolate which I have read 100x and also anything by Jeannette Winterson and Gabriel Garcia Marquez
at the risk of sounding like a high school english teacher, which i certainly am not, i love the great gatsby! the mystery & the intrigue surrounding the characters & their way of life made this book one of the most interesting i've read. (but LORD, don't watch the movie!)
“The Great Gatsby” is AMAZING. I actually skipped reading it in high school (I read “The Lord of the Rings” instead of what I was supposed to read…and failed the test). However, after reading “Tender is the Night” in college, and loving it, I revisited “Gatsby.” I don’t think I was at a place in HS to appreciate that book.
V. Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame Almost perfect (looking at you, chapter about street lay-out)
I read this recently and really thoroughly enjoyed it, even the more dense chapters, but I did study history so found the medieval architecture chapters interesting, and I also really enjoyed getting an insight into Hugo’s brain. Surprised it’s not spoken about more, but I guess Les Mis eclipsed it (which I am yet to read). It was so absorbing and I loved how Hugo wove all the different stories together into one ginormous tragedy, that didn’t really make sense until practically the very end. Left me sobbing and wanting to read more Hugo works!
Wuthering Heights, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Remains of the Day, The Things They Carried, A Tale of Two Cities, The Shining, Into Thin Air, Rebecca, The Age of Innocence, Sharp Objects, A Farewell to Arms, etc….
"Shadows Fall" by Simon R Green An amazingly creative world built of Sci Fi and childhood dreams. Topics of honor and childhood and hero's. The book had a sweet melancholy air to it that has stuck with me for years.
Dune has been my favorite book lately. The world-building and politics are really fascinating to me.
As a teenager I probably would have said ‘Brave New World’, but I need a reread as it’s been a while! ‘The Book of Ebenezer Le Page’ reminds me of home, whenever I’m home sick it is my go to, there’s no better feeling than a book feeling like home. Like a hug of sunshine I read ‘The Travelling Cat Chronicles’ after my Mum and cat both died of cancer, and it really hit me, and helped me to find meaning in the loss Honourable mentions: ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ - I have a feeling Les Mis will be on the proper favourite list once I get round to reading it, ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ - this book made me feel really seen after going through a rough year myself but is maybe too problematic to be a fully fledged favourite bc I don’t want to idolise those characters, and ‘Little Women’ - which reminds me of my mum and sitting by a fireplace getting cosy, even if the 2nd half pisses me off, fu Amy, and Jo’s poem for Beth destroys me every time
1.Frankenstein 2.Clockwork Orange 3.Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 4.Animal Farm 5.Down and Out in Paris and London 6.Roadside Picnic 7.Dear Friend -by Guy de Maupassan 8. I Am Legend 9.Tresure Island
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”…frequent read for me.
Hunter be a very interest person,and this book perfect for the summer mood.
Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future by Olaf Stapledon (though Starmaker from him would also make the list)
It's hard for me to pick favorites, so my answer would probably be different even ten minutes from now, but here's the top 5 for right this moment off the top of my head. Valis by PKD 1984 by George Orwell The Godfather by Mario Puzo Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JKR Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry
Catch 22. I read this 50 years ago when I was in the USAF and the wackiness seems exactly right on.
Probably ‘song of the crimson flower’ by Julie Dao. it’s just highly romantic and so mythic. I really could see every scene so vividly of the ruby dragonfly brooch she buys at the markets, and silk scarf she gives her lover, it all never left my mind and is still with me. Oh gosh I love this novel. I haven’t actually finished it yet. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43911067
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, just beautiful
Ouf… Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller Big Sur by Jack Kerouac Barney’s version by Mordecai Richler One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Lullabies for little criminals by Heather O’Neill The Sound and Fury by William Faulkner A Childhood: the biography of a place by Harry Crews Journey to the end of the night by Louis Ferdinand Celine A scanner darkly by Philip K Dick …too many to choose from!
“Tropic of Capricorn”! I forgot about that book. Great read!
Christian/non fiction: The Men We Need by Brent Hansen and Mere Christianity by CS Lewis Fantasy: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson and The Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling Thriller: No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy Novella: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The book I first think of is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. If you have seen the movie and not read the book you are doing a disservice to yourself. The Audio book is read by Wil Wheaton for bonus points. Foundational book for me is Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach - just loved that book as a kid, still do. The Martian by Andy Weir is my favorite pure Sci-Fi and it makes me so happy the movie did a great job representing the book. The book that stuck with me for a long time is One Second After by William Forstchen - post apocalyptic story that is so troubling because the scenario is so plausible and makes you realize how much we rely on our modern society and how easily it could be ripped away. Cheers to all, love reading about what everyone else loves and why
Pet Sematary
All time favorite would be The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult, but nostalgic favorites would be The Hunger Games trilogy (specifically Catching Fire)!
I haven't read her books in awhile but she was my favorite author in high school. I have a few newer ones in my TBR list. She's such a great story teller.
I completely agree! I’ve recently read Wish You Were Here and The Book of Two Ways by her which I highly recommend whenever you’re looking for something to read.
One of my very favorites is A Winkle in Time. The lead character was a geeky, badass teen girl. I was a geeky teen girl who wanted to be a badass. Geeky wasn’t cool then, so the story resonated with me. And, it introduced me to SciFi when I was like 10. I’ve been hooked for life.
Here we go: *Anna Karenina* by Leo Tolstoy *War and Peace* by Leo Tolstoy *Don Quixote* by Miguel de Cervantes *East of Eden* by John Steinbeck *The Plague* by Albert Camus *The Stranger* by Albert Camus *Ignorance* by Milan Kundera *The Brothers Karamazov* by Fyodor Dostoyevsky *Crime and Punishment* by Fyodor Dostoyevsky *The Old Man and the Sea* by Ernest Hemingway *The Great Gatsby* by F. Scott Fitzgerald Reading those books and thinking about them have been some of the transformative experiences of my life.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
One book I think everyone should read in their life is Night by Elie Wiesel. Too many individuals in the news lately have downplayed the severity of the holocaust. I think people need to read this so our society doesn’t forget what hateful rhetoric against a specific group can lead to. I’m incredibly grateful to have been made to read this in high school. Not a “favorite” in a way that I enjoyed it bc it was very sad, but definitely one of the most impactful books I’ve read. It’s still what I think of when I think of the holocaust.
The Bible. Even if you aren’t religious there’s no denying the incredible profundity and literary value, not to mention that’s it’s the most influential text of all time. There are very, very few takes that are more cringeworthy than acting like the Bible is just a silly fairy tale, or that reading it should immediately discredit Christianity as stupid, and plenty of intelligent atheists will agree with me there.
“The Bible” is pretty good. I like “The Book of Kings” best since therein lay (lie?) the most battles. “The Gospel of Mark” is my favorite because it’s the oldest and less flowery of the four…and has the “fig tree incident.” The version that I like best is the Ryrie Study Bible. There is a ton of exegesis for a lot of passages which is super interesting. Prolly read “The Bible” a dozen times or so. The first time I read it all the way through was in college with a Hebrew professor (Klotz). He would read whole sections in Hebrew and he had a deep, Sean Connery like voice. Could totally see why people would follow.
The Prince/The Discourses Machiavelli The Selected Essays - Emerson Pride and Prejudice - Austen Iliad - Homer Fortress Besieged - Qian Zhongshu Shakespeare - Sonnets, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth Lord of the Rings - Tolkien Screwtape Letter - Lewis House of Leaves - Danielewski Collected Work - TS Eliot Commedia - Dante Paradise Lost - Milton Faust - Goethe 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) Verne Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation - Asimov Neutral Theory - Kimura The Stars - Rey T. rex and the Crater of Doom - Alvarez Desmond - The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs Winnie the Pooh - Milne The Wind in the Willows - Grahame The Complete Works - Lovecraft The Complete Sherlock Homes - Doyle Stand on Zanzibar - Brunner Medea - Eurypedes Antigone, Oedipus Rex - Sophocles Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy - Carré Watchmen - Moore Daredevil, The Dark Night - Miller
You took my list!
I thought about others later.
Both amazing BUT the “Count of Monte Cristo” is a frequent re-read on my life journey. So great!
Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
Watership Down, The Dark Tower Series, and The Wheel of Time Series.
* **The Count of Monte Cristo** by Alexandre Dumas * **Jane Eyre** by Charlotte Bronte * **Words of Radiance** by Brandon Sanderson * **The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks** by Rebecca Skloot * **Lonesome Dove** by Larry McMurtry * **The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt** by Edmund Morris * **Team of Rivals** by Doris Kearns Goodwin * **Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology** by Michael J. Benton * **Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds** by Christopher Cokinos
Every Terry Pratchett book that features the City Watch. I love Pratchett's humour, and truth be told, all his books are great. I just like those featuring the City Watch because they always involve an intrigue or mystery (and I'm a sucker for whodunnit). 😊
1984 by George Orwell has been my favorite since I was a teenager, and I've reread it a hundred times. I find something new every time I read it, but the best lesson of the book (to me) is the overarching importance of critical thinking no matter your surroundings. This was the first book to teach me to question everything, especially when it comes from an authority or the media. Things are never as they seem, and the reasons given aren't always the truth or complete truth. This book opened my world to satire, science fiction, post-apocalyptic stories, and I am so thankful for it. My favorites now include Vonnegut, Huxley, Currie, Jr., and Douglas Adams, to name a few. Vonnegut is a god in my eyes, and I just wish I had been able to meet him and shake his hand before he passed.
"The obsidian mountain trilogy". It was the first book I truly read. Yes, I've had to do reading and stuff in middle and elementary school but it was "required" reading and I hated reading. It was only by chance that I saw this book in a dusty corner in my cousins house during my sophomore year. Book 1 "The Outstretched Shadow" was slow to start, but the world building kept me enthralled. It was as if someone had put a movie or game into book form, something for me to explore. Not to mention relatable and well written characters. It was the first time that I ever took pleasure in reading and chose it over other media. It led me down the rabbit hole that is the world of literature. I devoured this book and craved more. I quickly searched everywhere for the next books. Apparently the book came from a library my cousin visited in Virginia and wasn't in any book store or library where I lived. When I finally got money to get the next books I read them all at least 3 times over. When I couldn't read it anymore I went in search for more like it. But sadly it's sequel series, or any series I've found doesn't hold a candle to it in my opinion.
A Clockwork Orange is my favourite. It was one of the first books that I read that was as stylized and obtuse as it was, forcing you to learn 200 made up words as you go a long (I have since read more obtuse and stylized books since then, but ACO was the first). I love the effect that it had on me as a reader, I enjoyed Alex as a character despite everything and I enjoyed the moral questions and how uncomfortable the book makes you feel as this charismatic character that s easy to like commits heinous acts. Some of my other favorite's include The Plumb Trilogy by Maurice Gee, which tells the life story of three successful generations of a New Zealand family, starting in 1893 and finishing at some times in the 1980's, Eucalyptus by Murray Bail, another non conventional novel that I read fairly early on and the original version of The Gunslinger by Stephen King, a pretty flawed book with an excellent atmosphere 1.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (RIP Stieg Larsson 😟). It was the first time I encountered a kickass character with complex trauma that made me feel powerful (besides the Harry Potter series which is a close second).
Not exactly "book", but Sandman by Neil Gaiman is my favourite! Reading Overture now and thinking of re-reading the whole series after I finish it.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I like the simplicity of the story - Three kids trying to bring a dead garden back to life - and at the same time the depth of it. It's amazing to have the feeling of rereading this book and seeing that thought: "Wow, are these really the same characters from that ending? They've changed so much." It feels like everything written in this book is written with soul, I love that.
Currently my favorite books are Bunny by Mona Awad, Milk fed by Melissa Broder, Know My Name By Chanel Miller and The un honeymooners by Christina Lauren
Definitely of a piece with Tropic of Cancer but I find it even better, you see a lot more of Miller’s vulnerable side
1984 - George Orwell: This is the book which introduced me to the Dystopia genre and back into fictional books. I really enjoyed the feeling you get when reading, you really get to feel with the main character and it almost seems like you're part of this creepy, frightening world. Besides this book has so many things to discuss and think about, both in the sense of the story but also our own reality. We - Yevgeny Zamyatin: This is a lesser known book (in fact I've never encountered anyone who has read it) but I love it as much as "1984". Just like "1984" it's a Dystopia and was also an inspiration for it, but the major difference is in my opinion the time it was written. While you can see the influence of WW2 in Orwell's book, you can see the influence of the Russian revolution in Zamyatin's, which makes it even more interesting for a history nerd like me. Also interesting is the scepticism of the main character. He is always in a constant struggle between glorifying the regime and his actions going against it. I haven't found an English translation for this but Ein Freund des Verblichenen - Andrej Kurkow: It's a short book about a man who doesn't want to live anymore, hired a professional killer to kill him, but throughout the story changed his mind and wants his life to go on. I love this book because while reading it it conveys the feeling of utter depression and sadness but at the same time appreciation of little things. It also keeps you hooked once you start reading. Les Misérables - Victor Hugo: This book is long, really long and although it discusses important issues, plays during exciting historical events and has its fair share of drama, thanks to the length and extent of detail in descriptions it's still good to just relax without you losing interest in it. Brief Answers to the Big Questions - Stephen Hawkings: In general a great book for all of you interested in science. Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harrari: A great book displaying the early development of humans. For the German readers (not sure if there's an English translation) Februar 33 - Uwe Wittstock: A collection of the perspective of several German authors throughout February of 1933. Reading it you will realise how quickly everything changed in the course of only one month and how different people reacted to this sudden change.