Your Absolute Favorite Book Of All Time

theowlbox
theowlbox Posts: 912 Member
It's just like the Highlander...but with books: there can be only One! What is your absolute favorite book of all time and why? Let us know why you loved it and/or why we should read it.

Replies

  • lunabellz
    lunabellz Posts: 20 Member
    I have a hard time picking my all time favorite so I'll post 2 that just touched me so emotionally #1 was Serenity by India R. Adams. #2 was Transcendence by Shay Savage. Both books were an emotional roller coaster ride and have stayed with me.
  • theowlbox
    theowlbox Posts: 912 Member
    Ok, I will totally try them! (Darn you Amazon for your 1 Click options).

    Ok, my favorite book of all time is probably from my youth: The Riddlemaster of Hed series by Patricia McKillip. They are 3 approximately 220 page books that were written in the 70's as a kind of "response" to the author reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And they are amazing!! I love this book so much that I offer to buy it for people who say they would be interested in reading it. I have a set of the on my shelf ready to give away as we speak. Is it the world's best book/series? No. But it is pretty GD great and it's easier to hand it to someone than try to explain why It's so awesome.
  • RunionX4
    RunionX4 Posts: 190 Member
    Favorite go to book for when I'm searching for a new book to read is Jane Austen pride and prejudice. I think I've read it about 10 times now. But I have so many favorites, its hard to pick just one. I also love Kay Hooper Noah bishop novels. I have read all the books in that entire series at least 6 times some of them even more times. I also fall back on the Harry potter series, hunger games, and divergent series.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 12,015 Member
    Creating a list of "Top 5" books would be so much easier! lol There's so many books I re-read on a regular basis, some of them every single year. But if I could only read a single book for the rest of my life, it would be

    Arena

    It's a Magic: The Gathering book. A world of wizards split into five houses is shattered when a corrupt wizard convinces four to turn against the fifth, killing all attached to the unlucky house. Or did they? Years later a stranger comes to town to take revenge on behalf of the fallen house.

    There's a good mix of intrigue and action, but the best part is every time I read it I can imagine myself right there, not only doing what the lead character is doing but also how would I do it differently. Of course the author in me also wants to rewrite certain sections to suit my tastes, lol.
  • theowlbox
    theowlbox Posts: 912 Member
    nossmf wrote: »
    Creating a list of "Top 5" books would be so much easier! lol There's so many books I re-read on a regular basis, some of them every single year. But if I could only read a single book for the rest of my life, it would be

    Arena
    That sounds great! Can you read it if you've never played or will it clue you in to the basics?
  • RunionX4
    RunionX4 Posts: 190 Member
    nossmf wrote: »

    Arena

    It's a Magic: The Gathering book. A world of wizards split into five houses is shattered when a corrupt wizard convinces four to turn against the fifth, killing all attached to the unlucky house. Or did they? Years later a stranger comes to town to take revenge on behalf of the fallen house..

    We love playing that game as a family so cool to find out there's books. Will have to check them out.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 12,015 Member
    theowlbox wrote: »
    That sounds great! Can you read it if you've never played or will it clue you in to the basics?

    Whether you've played the game or not the book is easily readable. Amusingly, there's a scene inside the book which references the card game, as the main characters observe a crowd playing a game which allows the commoners to experience life as a mage, lol.

    Magic: The Gathering has TONS of books out there, but be ye warned; they are wildly variable in quality. I've read a few, but the only one I care to re-read is Arena.
  • WickAndArtoo
    WickAndArtoo Posts: 773 Member
    arunion01 wrote: »
    Favorite go to book for when I'm searching for a new book to read is Jane Austen pride and prejudice. I think I've read it about 10 times now. But I have so many favorites, its hard to pick just one. I also love Kay Hooper Noah bishop novels. I have read all the books in that entire series at least 6 times some of them even more times. I also fall back on the Harry potter series, hunger games, and divergent series.

    Oh my god I love Pride and Prejudice, I could read the book (and watch the movie) over and over again forever.

    *********

    Harry Potter is my absolute end all be all favorite, I always read these as my fallbacks, and as my comfort books. I can't even put into words how much I love these books and this story, I think JK Rowling is a genius and she is my hero.

    Another amazing book I like to go back to is the Hobbit, such a wonderful adventure with special characters.
  • stacj27
    stacj27 Posts: 71 Member
    A favorite?!? However to choose! I think mine would be a tie between Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Iliad.
  • cw558
    cw558 Posts: 2 Member
    So hard to choose, but I keep coming back to Jane Eyre. It's such a good book, though so is Wuthering Heights...
  • WickAndArtoo
    WickAndArtoo Posts: 773 Member
    cw558 wrote: »
    So hard to choose, but I keep coming back to Jane Eyre. It's such a good book, though so is Wuthering Heights...

    I just finished Wuthering Heights last night, I think it might be tied for my favorite now. I haven't been able to get it out of my head! I haven't ready Jane Eyre yet though, but I can't imagine anything more incredible though. I guess now I'll have to find out :neutral:
  • lunabellz
    lunabellz Posts: 20 Member
    I just finished The series Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward. Has to be one of my favorites. Lord of the Ring also is a favorite. I have read over 200 books so far this year and I haven't read to many lemons. I'm a member of Goods read so participating in various challenges keeps me focused on reading.
  • hendrafellany
    hendrafellany Posts: 17 Member
    Yo! Well if the Stiegg Larsson series dont qualify as "one book", I'm gonna go with 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Couldnt put it down for days!
  • carrotsaregood
    carrotsaregood Posts: 57 Member
    I’d go back to my childhood and the only books I have read countless times. Little House on the Prairie. I grew up getting books for the library, but received this series as a gift. So I read and reread them between trips to the library. My experience as a young reader is completely entangled with these books. I usually don’t read the same book twice. There are just too many great undiscovered stories (it makes me sad because I will never finish my must read list).
  • wdnisbet
    wdnisbet Posts: 518 Member
    To Kill a Mockingbird. This is a stunningly wonderful book.
  • lilithsrose
    lilithsrose Posts: 752 Member
    I do not have an answer for this one. I can name a few of my favorite series or authors, but its impossible for me to name a single book.

    Generically, I guess that I could say Harry Potter is my favorite simply because its held my interest for almost 20 years now and I have read all of the books numerous times and I own a ton of HP merchandise.
  • ladyzherra
    ladyzherra Posts: 438 Member
    I have to say that I think Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy is still my favorite.
  • LadyCalico2
    LadyCalico2 Posts: 64 Member
    ladyzherra wrote: »
    I have to say that I think Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy is still my favorite.

    You're a stronger woman than I, ladyzherra, Jude left me so depressed I hardly had the energy to start another book!
  • LadyCalico2
    LadyCalico2 Posts: 64 Member
    edited June 2021
    I have 20 favorites on my Goodreads favorites list, and cannot choose one favorite literary child since each is special in its own way. How does one choose between Wendell Berry's so human Hannah Coulter or Kimberly Bradley Brubaker's magnificent YA The War that saved my Life or Connie Willis's oh so clever SiFi To Say Nothing of the Dog or Hanya Yanagihara's touching drama A Little Life or Norman Maclean's lyrical imagery in A River Runs Through It , or Raymond Brigg's heartwarming graphic novel Ethel & Ernest, or a time-tested classic like Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South ...Books touch us in so many ways at so many times, that I am just thankful that I can have them all and don't have to choose.
  • Catfish_Fan
    Catfish_Fan Posts: 519 Member
    To Kill A Mockingbird. I didn't like the "sequel" thing that wasn't a completed book that came out decades later, where Atticus was a racist and all of that. I try to forget that one exists.
  • Btrflydog
    Btrflydog Posts: 1,492 Member
    How to even answer this question? Hard to choose between the books that have touched my heart. One book that have read over and over - Gone with the Wind - by Margret Mitchell. Seems I always take away something new each time I read it.
  • Hanoverlady1
    Hanoverlady1 Posts: 21 Member
    The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne
  • beccaboo1276414
    beccaboo1276414 Posts: 880 Member
    From my childhood, I'd have to say my favorite book was Watership Down.