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your favorite book?

rae121452

rae121452

Literotica Guru
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Posts
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pbs is starting a new series where you vote for your favorite book. how does that even work? my favorite changes by decade, if not year, if not month.

the only consistent favorite has been "play it as it lays" by joan didion, because i lived through that time and it's the best representation of it.

are you able to say, "this is my favorite book"?
 
There are many books I particularly enjoyed, some I still do in rereading, and I expect to find many others that I like in the future. They don't fall into any particular genre or style. What I like best about books is the same as what I like about everything -- the diversity.
 
Probably Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. I re-read it every five or six years, it keeps calling me back to another world.

John Banville puts his hooks in as a favourite writer, I reckon, but no single novel over any other. Possibly because he writes characters like I'm starting to (but way, way better written). Some of his sentences I'll read over and over, they're so good.
 
I have books that I re-read every two or three years - Graham Greene, James Joyce, Anthony Burgess, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Graham Swift, an Australian author named Robert Drewe (I've only read one of his books, but I must have read it at least ten times), E L Doctorow, etc, etc - but I'm not sure that I could pick one as 'the' favourite.
 
Animal Farm by George Orwell without a doubt.

This novel is so clever with its subtle satire, Orwell never once expressly stating that the pigs are doing anything wrong.
 
That's surprisingly easy. "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Despite being almost thirty years old at this point, many of the jokes and references have hardly aged. It's funny and thought-provoking. I find myself coming back to it regularly.
 
If I can cheat, then my 'Complete Tales and Poems' anthology of Edgar Allan Poe's work. That book goes with me just about everywhere and has been read many times; some tales reread more than others.

If only one story is allowed though, ironically my top pick would not be Poe. I would have to pick 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde as my favorite book.
 
There is no favorites.
I love some, hate a few (and I really wish I could unread "Sword of Truth" and "Wheel of Time" - many hours wasted waiting for the stories to actually have a point and then - nope - was just a jerk fest by self-indulgent authors who didn't even has a clue where they was going).
Singling out a good story is hard cause it depends on mood which is best. Sometimes a David Eddings story is best, sometimes a JRRT one is (not often, but sometimes the mood hits). I even can has times where Piers Anthony is what I need (some of his best stuff is not suitable for children - his anti-child-abuse stories hit hard if you pay attention to the words). Xanth stories is fun if you is a pun fan (I isn't, being a person what has trouble with words).
 
rae121452 said:
pbs is starting a new series where you vote for your favorite book. how does that even work? my favorite changes by decade, if not year, if not month.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's me too, but...

Blind_Justice said:
That's surprisingly easy. "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Despite being almost thirty years old at this point, many of the jokes and references have hardly aged. It's funny and thought-provoking. I find myself coming back to it regularly.
Click to expand...

This one is consistently on my favorites short-list, for the reasons BJ mentioned.
 
How can you pick one book? Is it limited to just fiction?

To cheat, is pick the Taltos series by Steven Brust. I’ve been reading it over the past 3 decades and it’s interesting how my interpretation of the books changes over the years.

And yeah, love Neil Gaiman (though Neverwhere is probably my favorite).

Non fiction would be “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson
 
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My favourite book?

If the question was:

My favourite thousand books? I might be able to answer sensibly.

If it was to be just one book, I'd want a large one:

Perhaps one of these:

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales or preferably complete Chaucer
Complete Shakespeare
Cervantes Don Quixote
1001 Nights (unabridged)
Swift Gullivers Travels
 
I can't say I have one favorite, but I can think of a few.

Charlotte's Web and James and the Giant Peach were my two favorite books as a child. I still think Charlotte's Web is one of the most beautifully written stories I've ever read. James and the Giant Peach influenced my way of looking at things: twisted but tolerant, mordant but basically hopeful about people.

Like RetroFan, I would have Animal Farm on my short list. I read that when I was young and it definitely influenced me.

All-time favorite adult novel is a toughie. Maybe Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Joyce has the most amazing prose style of any fiction writer in English I can think of.

Some others that pop into my head: Tom Jones, Pride and Prejudice, Huckleberry Finn, Blood Meridian, Lonesome Dove, Age of Innocence, Bleak House.

For Sci Fi, I loved Snow Crash. It's my favorite Stephenson book, although Cryptonomicon was good too.
 
My default re-read is 'the Wind In The Willows', the unabridged version; it's travelled the world with me, and kept me company in Basra, Lashkar Gar and Kabul, East Timor, Rwanda, and Mogadishu. Older American editions always seemed to omit the 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' chapter, possibly because of its overtly pagan connotations. which is a shame, because it's possibly the most lyrical and beautifully written chapter in the entire book. Hopefully that's changed now.

For an adult favourite read, I'd always pick 'Oroonoko' by Aphra Behn, a restoration-era female writer, spy for King Charles II, libertine, and all-round fun-girl.
 
I have three for fiction:
  • The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
  • The Subtle Knife, Phillip Pullman
  • Lords and Ladies, Terry Pratchett

Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, get Notable Mention

I’m still mulling over what to pick for non-fiction. Mill’s On Liberty is in the running.
 
Hypoxia said:
Goode's World Atlas
Click to expand...

Or just any good atlas. Sometimes I need relief detail, sometimes just where the roads, cities, and borders are. But I love atlases and have quite a few.

Never would have thought to include one in a list of favorite books, but Hypoxia hit it on the head of the nail.

An atlas.
 
49greg said:
Or just any good atlas. Sometimes I need relief detail, sometimes just where the roads, cities, and borders are. But I love atlases and have quite a few.

Never would have thought to include one in a list of favorite books, but Hypoxia hit it on the head of the nail.

An atlas.
Click to expand...


okay, confession time and apology to hypoxia. i actually have two oversized atlases next to my bed that, whenever i'm bored, i page through. i always wind up going...."i didn't know that".
 
I only own two filing cabinets filled with maps and charts, and maybe fifteen shelf feet of atlases. Goode's is my fave. but I wish I had the giant Pergamon I perused decades ago.
 
There was a time when my favorite books were comic books. Hollywood /Disney took over. Although it’s great to see some of the stories told on the big screen, I enjoyed them just as much when my imagination could interpret the things I read in the pages of comic books
🌹Kant👠👠👠
 
Kantarii said:
There was a time when my favorite books were comic books. Hollywood /Disney took over. Although it’s great to see some of the stories told on the big screen, I enjoyed them just as much when my imagination could interpret the things I read in the pages of comic books
🌹Kant👠👠👠
Click to expand...
I was formerly a dealer and player in 'underground' comix and I've delved into mainstream. I downloaded online comics additively till I transitioned to a much smaller display screen in a more visible space. I loves them comix. But my eyes have gone to shit and anyway they're mostly memorized by now.
 
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I've read The Lord of the Rings about a dozen times, appendices included. Just by that, I'd guess it's my favorite.

Honorable mentions are "Midworld" by Alan Dean Foster, "This Alien Shore" by CS Friedman, "Creature's of Light and Darkness" by Roger Zelazny, and "The Lord of the Light", also by Roger Zelazny.

Oh, also "The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven and Pournelli (sp?), and "Inferno" by the same.

Oh! And also... [rattles on for another hour]
 
Agota Kristof's trilogy The Notebook, The Proof and The Third Lie. Her minimalistic approach to the written word is pure genius. Jerzy Kozinski's The Painted Bird runs a close second.
 
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