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Your Favorite Book

Jmona

Jmona

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I know that there are several posts on this forum in regards of books, however I have looked and haven't found one except for the "What book are you reading now" that has hardly answered my question but found great recommendations there.
And that is; what is your favorite book in the world and why?

For my birthday, when family and friends want to surprise me with something, I make it easy for them. I always ask of them to gift me their favorite book and so far I've read a great amount of amazing literature out there thanks to that which its been happening for the last 20 years. 🙂

So having said that, What is your favorite book in the whole world, and if its too hard to choose, please post your top 10. 🙂 or 20 😛
 
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I generally read non-fiction but a book that stands out in my memory is Waiting by Ha Jin. I think I liked it so much because I find Chinese history and culture very interesting.

Nearly any book of poetry by Mary Oliver. I have many. I marvel at the precision of words skilled writers possess.
 
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Only one? That is an impossible question. Four books, off the top of my head, which would make me feel incredibly sad never to reread again are:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (My perspective changes every time I read it, and now to my great surprise, I even have a bit of sympathy for Huck's father.)
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

---
I anticipate smacking myself on the forehead in about 20 minutes for having forgotten at least 5 personal essential books.
 
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Herman Wouk: "The Hope", "The Glory".
Michael Barak: "The Secret List of Heinrich Roehm".
Robert Moss: "Moscow Rules".
Robert Ludlum Jason Bourne Trilogy.
Dan Brown: "Angels and Demons".
José Rodrigues dos Santos: "A Fórmula de Deus".
Boris Vian: "J’irai cracher sur vos tombes", "Elles se rendent pas compte".
Wesley Allison: "Princess of Amathar".
etc.
 
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This one might be unheard of but, i have a small list of books I've read, been read to and reading to my children which I love very much.
Favorite books list.
The Manual of the Warrior of Light by Paulo Coelho
The Hobbit, LOTR and Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien.
Moby Dick by Herman Merville
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Garcia Márquez
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
And Dune by Frank Herbert who co-wrote several other novels with my good friend Kevin J Anderson which I've got to say Clockwork Angels is one of the most fascinating books I've read in a longtime.
Now that I've read to my children are some of the above mentioned including the Enderverse series by Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game which is my 8 year olds son favorite book in the world. He's read that book and Ender's Shadow so many times for such a young age. He is a bookworm like his Mom.



Edit:
I'm aware that Orson Scott Card is homophobic and although I'm against it, the Enderverse series are very good and I enjoyed them very much growing up. No one is perfect.
 
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I am a pretty avid reader, yet I would find it very hard to refer to a single title as 'my favourite book'.

If it is about history (and I read a lot of history), - or politics - I want a book to be beautifully written, with wit and insight, as well as one that teaches me something new, or makes me look at something old in a new way. A book that straddles literature and history, a book where it is clear that the author is enthused by the subject being written about, and wishes to share this delight and enthusiasm with his or her readers.

Re fiction, it must be transformative; I ask of a memorable (or 'favourite', one that I wold wish to re-read) that it be well written, and tell a really good story, one that you can lose yourself in, without excessive self-indulgence or coy cleverness, on the author's part.
 
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Hard to narrow it down to one. A few of my favourite novels are The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and The Go-Between by LP Hartley.

I've probably missed out some better ones, but they're the books I thought of off the top of my head!
 
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Well, good historical and political writing is telling a story, as is good fiction.

One of my own personal all time favourites is a piece of work that manages to be a stunning work of extraordinary political and philosophical insight, a savagely brilliant story, and a piece of writing delivered in an impeccable, and deceptively clear prose. This is 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell.
 
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Tough question here!

While I would go off of some things I've read recently (like the entire Velgarth/Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey), leadership books (which mainly go toward my business), I'd say that my favourite book would have to be Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Why? well, two reasons. At the time (around 1984-1985), I found one of my mother's old college textbooks (I still have to this day), Basic Conversational French. I read that book back and forth, even though I knew nothing of the language. It was the scent of an old musty library book that kept me going back to it. Around that time, the cartoon based on this book aired in the US (I didn't know it was anime, nor made 6 years prior; Subsequently, the series was just re-released on DVD), which I not only found the book in my school's library, but next to it was the original print of it, completely in French. It fortified my wanting to learn French.

Second, and most importantly, as a reviewer had said, the book was an allegory of Saint-Exupéry's own life—his search for childhood certainties and interior peace, his mysticism, his belief in human courage and brotherhood.

In reading it, it reminds me of the simple, free, happy, and peaceful innocence of children. Something I actually wish I had again, especially now with having children of my own. There is the old saying of "If I knew then what I know now..." Well, I'm glad I didn't know then what I know now, as when you think about all the trials and tribulations in your life now, your life was much happier back then. If your world came crashing down, back then you knew that you could fix that by just going outside and playing. To have your youth, innocence of a child, and a wide open mind.. something one always yearns for.

As soon as I found them, again, I picked up two copies: Le Petit Prince, and The Little Prince (read: in French and English). I haven't read them in a while, because I see in my children what I see in the book, and with as much enjoyment that I get out of reading, playing with my children seems to take up all my free time. 🙂

BL.
 
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LadyX said:
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. An adventure thriller set in post-Napoleonic France.
Click to expand...

A book I very much enjoyed as a teenager.

Jmona said:
This one might be unheard of but, i have a small list of books I've read, been read to and reading to my children which I love very much.
Favorite books list.
The Manual of the Warrior of Light by Paulo Coelho
The Hobbit, LOTR and Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien.
Moby Dick by Herman Merville
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Garcia Márquez
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
And Dune by Frank Herbert who co-wrote several other novels with my good friend Kevin J Anderson which I've got to say Clockwork Angels is one of the most fascinating books I've read in a longtime.
Now that I've read to my children are some of the above mentioned including the Enderverse series by Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game which is my 8 year olds son favorite book in the world. He's read that book and Ender's Shadow so many times for such a young age. He is a bookworm like his Mom.



Edit:
I'm aware that Orson Scott Card is homophobic and although I'm against it, the Enderverse series are very good and I enjoyed them very much growing up. No one is perfect.
Click to expand...

Reading your list, it strikes me that I seem to have read almost all of those books, and agree that they are excellent.

I remember finding 'A Hundred Years Of Solitude' haunting; from a related stable, I thought that Vargas Llosa's superb 'The Feast of the Goat' was outstanding, but it is 'realist' (very realist) rather than magical realist in tackling similar and related subject matter.
 
Two I rather liked from the 1990s were 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' by Louis de Bernieres, and 'Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow' by Peter Hoeg.
 
I don't have a single favorite, it's too hard to choose. However a very small sampling of favorites:

A Song of Ice and Fie
The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings
To Kill A Mockingbird
Three Musketeers
Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
The Martian Chronicles
Honor Harrington Series
Southern Vampire Mystery series
The Eiger Sanction
Shibumi
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Catcher in the Rye
Slaughterhouse Five
The Shining
Skeleton Crew
Winds of War
The Killer Angels
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
The Borne Identity
Deliverance
Gone With The Wind
Harry Potter series
 
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I have to say. I recently finished "The Martian" by Andy Weir and is by far one of the most science accurate books I've ever read if not one of the top 10 I've ever read. So. Needless to say, this one is bumping down quite a few of my old favorites. Book is FANFRIGGINTASTIC!
 
Jmona said:
I have to say. I recently finished "The Martian" by Andy Weir and is by far one of the most science accurate books I've ever read if not one of the top 10 I've ever read. So. Needless to say, this one is bumping down quite a few of my old favorites. Book is FANFRIGGINTASTIC!
Click to expand...

Is this the one the movie is being made from?
 
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And, yes, I would include the Harry Potter series on any such list; something tells me that this series will very likely stand the test of time.
 
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Huntn said:
I don't have a single favorite, it's too hard to choose. However a very small sampling of favorites:

A Song of Ice and Fie
The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings
To Kill A Mockingbird
Three Musketeers
Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
The Martian Chronicles
Honor Harrington Series
Southern Vampire Mystery series
The Eiger Sanction
Shibumi
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Catcher in the Rye
Slaughterhouse Five
The Shining
Skeleton Crew
Winds of War
The Killer Angels
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
The Borne Identity
Deliverance
Gone With The Wind
Harry Potter series
Click to expand...

I think I'll go on record in saying that this list is in pretty much good taste, because out of the 30 books listed here, half of them are on the banned list. 😉

BL.
 
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