What's Your Favourite Book?

[ABSpareEditor]

It's World Book Day today. We're asking members to share Amazon links to their favourite books, giving a brief explanation of why they like the book.

Get involved! What's your favourite book?

[Lie-in King]

Impossible to pick one, but - in no particular order -

To Kill a Mockingbird (I read it aloud to the class, it stuck with me)
The Dark Tower Series (+ The Stand & so many more of Mr King's)
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit
His Dark Materials
Anything by Terry Pratchett

...there'll be more, but I need to catch a bus...

PS brian j john @ 11:07 - possibly the most ignorant comment I've ever seen on AB (& there's some stiff competition), joke or not.

[ichkeria]

My favourite book is The Wind On The Willows - the first more or less i ever read, so I don't know what that says about either me or all the others.
Anyway, it's an odd choice for an Amazon link, so insteas here are two more:
Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[naomi24]

LiK, //PS brian j john @ 11:07 - possibly the most ignorant comment I've ever seen on AB //

If he's never read them he'll never know. ;o)

Come on SpareEd. Get involved. What's your favourite book and why?

[ichkeria]

Well, that didn't work, for some reason
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy and Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
I'm not going to do any more links (!)

[MargoTester]

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott which started my lifelong love of reading. I remember sobbing my heart out when Beth died, caused ng my Mum to rush upstairs to see what was wrong!

[JJ109]

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

It is the only book that I have read multiple times and got more out of it, every time I read it.

Unfortunately I bought another of his books, thinking it woud be the same, and that was total dross!

[choux]

The one I pick up the most:
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

Favourite book will depend on my mood/thoughts - biography, reference, fiction. I love perusing a good dictionary or atlas.

[brian j john]

Lie-in king .

I think i should get best answer

[naomi24]

Have you really never read more than one book, Brian?

[The Builder]

From my favourite writer, John Steinbeck: "East of Eden."
Generally considered to be his greatest work.
This from Wikipedia:

"Steinbeck's inspiration for the novel comes from the fourth chapter of Genesis, verses one through sixteen, which recounts the story of Cain and Abel. The title East of Eden was chosen by Steinbeck from Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 16: "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the Land of Nod, on the east of Eden""

But don't let that put you off. It's a family story (particularly, two brothers) concerning settlers in California in the 1800s.
It's long, but you just don't want it to end.
Steinbeck's skill was in taking pretty serious themes and telling the story with a light, familiar touch.
I'm biased, but I've rarely come across a writer with more interesting relatable characters.

Forget that god-awful film version. It deals with only a quarter of the book, and leaves out the most important character.

[Ellipsis]

A Tale of Two Cities - Amazon.com User Recommendation

[bednobs]

his dark materials Philip Pullman

[Canary42]

Impossible to choose a single one, so many candidates, some of which have already received a mention.

I'm currently halfway through Jules Verne's Journey To The Centre Of The Earth - amongst other things it's an intriguing insight into the known geology (and other science) of the mid-Nineteenth Century.

[naomi24]

That's a good point, Canary. I set myself the challenge of reading every Agatha Christie work - and having completed it my lasting impression was of the enormous changes in social attitudes. Our Agatha definitely didn't do political correctness!

[carolegif]

As a child it was Noddy Books, then the Famous Five. At 11 I was given Jane Eyre on leaving primary school, and it was my favourite for decades.
When Covid hit and we were in Lockdown I read The Murmur of Bees by Sophia Segovia. Not a good choice at the time, as part of the book covers The Spanish Flu outbreak in Mexico! It is a wonderful book, beautifully written and translated.
Another recent favourite is Still Life by Sheila Winman. Set in Italy and the East End of London during the war, then forwards in time in Florence, covering the history and the floods in the 1960’s.
I am an avid reader - 84 books in lockdown (2 years roughly). Everything from Maigret to North and South, som were rereads.

[barry1010]

Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

[ichkeria]

"
Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame "

BA there :-)

[naomi24]

That was one of the first books I ever owned, Barry - and Carole, I always say Noddy taught me to read. :o)

[fitdarren]

OMG Margo that could have been me writing that! Little Women was the first book I ever read, my lovely Mum bought it for me, and it started off my lifelong love of books.

I've read so many over the years, I can't really decide, but Peter Robinson's books on DCI Banks have me gripped from start to finish.

[gumboot]

Any of the Dr Thorndyke stories by R Austin Freeman. He's a lot cleverer than Sherlock Holmes and a scientific genius. "The Dr Thorndyke Casebook" is outstanding.