Post by 5urvey on Jul 10, 2013 22:30:04 GMT
The best book list from Tuesday 9th July...
Question 5. What's the best book you've ever read?
One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Making history by Stephen Fry
Can't pick between 5. The Count of Monte Christo, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Possession, Dracula and To Kill a Mocking Bird. And there are others to be honest but those are the top five for today at least.
Birdsong -Sebastian Faulks
The Fermata, by Nicholson Baker. Really interesting story, and well told.
Argh too many to have one favorite! I loved "The lost continent" and "The dead fathers club" also "her fearful symatary" and "life of pi" and loads more. p.s I don't hate tennis I just don't give a shit about it!
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Not the most well written book ever, but tells me how to live without drinking.
The Third Policeman
To Kill A Mockingbird
Life After God by Douglas Coupland. First book to ever make me cry.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
The curious incident of the dog in the night time.
I'm going to cop out of this one; there are too many good books!
The book thief
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Crimson Petal & The White.
Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
Sacred hunger
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
Never let me go -Kazuo Ishiguro.
Catcher in the rye
Weave world - Clive Barker
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Polo by Jilly Cooper
Gents - Warwick Collins
Don't make me choose.
The dice man
The Never Ending Menstrual Cycle.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is my favourite book.
Haynes manual for the Land Rover Defender.
The Colour of Memory by Geoff Dyer
The Dice Man - Luke Reinhardt.
Great Expectations.
The Wasp Factory.
Roger's Profanisaurus.
The hungry caterpillar
Definitely one of the Harry Potter's. Kids books my arse
How bout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird.
Modernistic Cuisine
I don't read books any more, I read Twitter. I miss @princessmissdee
'The House if God' by Samuel Shem.. right of passage for all medics
'The House if God' by Samuel Shem.. right of passage for all medics
'The House if God' by Samuel Shem.. right of passage for all medics
This thing of Darkness
Good Omens
Well, my favourite book ever is On the Road by Jack Kerouac. The Joy of Sex is pretty good too.
Complicity by Iain Banks. This is the first survey I've completed and shall reveal myself as @rebecr.
The bible.
'That's not my car' a tactile book for toddlers. I can vividly see my son's finger discovering different surfaces. Magic.
Don't be ridiculous. It is never possible to choose one book - or one film or one song or one person to spend eternity with to the exclusion of all others. I want them all. They all bring something important, even if it's just the horror of their awfulness. That is still an experience that adds something to your life and opinions.
Don't be ridiculous. It is never possible to choose one book - or one film or one song or one person to spend eternity with to the exclusion of all others. I want them all. They all bring something important, even if it's just the horror of their awfulness. That is still an experience that adds something to your life and opinions.
The Stars my Destination/Tiger Tiger by Alfred Bester.
There is no one single best book. I've got a favourite from each era and genre but you can't compare Bocaccio with Camus with Atwood. They just appeal to different moods. Yes I'm a book cunt.
I am Legend.
The Crow Road.
Book Of General Ignorance
Catch 22
Weaveworld by Clive barker. Phenomenal book. My copy was borrowed some years ago and I never got around to replacing it. Not available on kindle either.
Gravity's Rainbow
The Goalkeeper's Revenge And Other Stories
To many to mention.
Johnny Got His Gun
99 ways to give @missprofanity an orgasm.
Dave Pelzer's 'A Child Called 'It'
The Road
Nineteen eighty four
I cannot possibly answer this. There are too many books.
Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series. I know it's not just one book. No, you fuck off.
Ronald Dahl's Boy. (And Going Solo). If we're talking adult books then "Death and the Penguin" and Tom Sharpe's Riotous Assembly were fab
IBM's "z/Architecture Principles of Operation". It's my bible, but unlike other bibles, it's internally coherent and doesn't contain any religious bollocks. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/Architecture
1984
Derren browns tricks of the mind. That or the bible
The Bible. Even the world's most informed atheist would learn a life lesson.
Vulcan 607 or Sniper One. Or 8 Lives Down. Aarrgh
The Harry Potter series.
There's An Ouch In My Pouch.
Grimms Fairy Tales
Whatever I've just finished
Charlottes Web
The Stand by Stephen King
No Way To Treat A First Lady - Christopher Buckley Well, it's my favourite. Probably not the *best* - that suggests a worthy choice?
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Recently...I've really enjoyed the daughter of smoke and bone, which is the first of a trilogy. The best book however is much harder to name because I love so many over many periods of my life (I'm a total bookworm ) . Up there with my best are The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Faraway Tree, the chalet school series .... Please make me stop...
The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.
House Rules.
Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris gripped me so much when it first came out it went everywhere with me. First book to ever do that
If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - Richard Feynman
This is an insanely difficult question to answer! A few favourites: LA Confidential by James Ellroy, Gates Of Fire by Steven Pressfield, Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor, The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming, Danny The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. These are my favourites, of course they are not "The Best" I have read, as that would be Tolstoy or Dickens or Dumas but this ain't a literature degree, it's a 5urvey. Go read my favourites.
Can't read.
Can't read.
Noddy goes to town. Interesting, great characters you care about, great description so you can really picture it (the pictures help with that too), good plot building and totally unpredictable. 5 stars.
Just one? Have three: Sniper One by Sgt Dan Mills, Perfume by Patrick Süskind, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.
The Silver Sword: Ian Serraillier
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Aw that's like asking for favourite Beatles song. The God Delusion, 1984, Hard Times, Weaveworld, The Bridge, Kidnapped, Cosmos, Contact, Webster's Dictionary 1911 edition 1920 revision, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The World According to Garp... The list goes on and on.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Bernard Cornwell - The Winter King
A Song of Ice & Fire
I really couldn't name the best. I always like books that leave you a bit sad that you've finished the book and have to leave the characters. Danny Wallace's Charlotte Street did that to me recently as did Jonathon Coe's 'What a Carve Up' although I'm not sure I'd say they were the best books I've ever read. Others that spring to mind as favourites include; The Wizard of Oz, To Kill a Mockingbird, Down and Out in Paris and London. The worst book I've ever read was probably Catcher in the Rye however. Overrated toss!
That's a dilemma because unlike the mindless fucks I notice on these quizzes most of the time I enjoy things that are good. Fuck this bullshit
The Wasp Factory
Mr Marvellous, it's a fantastic read as is everything about him.
'An Evil Cradling' by Brian Keenan. The true (obvs) story of his time as a hostage. What he endured is mind-blowing. Oh, and the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. Bloody great books those.
127 Hours
Thomson Local -Bethnal Green & Tower Hamlets
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
The world according to Garp
I would say my own novel, but Glory Road by Robert Heinlein
The stand
The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Tigana
A Child in Time - McEwan
Tell No One by Harlen Coben. I love classics and highbrow stuff but the way that book sucked me in was something special.
The Vanished Man by Jeffery Deaver.
Birds without wings by Louis De Berniere
How could I possibly choose? Possibly H2G2.
Hyperion - Dan Simmons. Science fiction at its very best
Jude the Obscure - only book that has ever made me cry
A secret history by Donna Tartt
A million little pieces
Probably Dune. Or The Hungry Caterpillar. Hard to choose between them.
Hard to decide. can't wait to read the answers to this one though to get some inspiration
Can't choose just one. Harry Potter series.
The Oversight by Will Eaves
I have a few favourites. the game of thrones series, pride and prejudice, Jane Eyre and recently sepulchre by Kate Mosse.
Well, I've re-read the Harry Potter books several times so I guess it would have to be those but I also adored Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. There's always my own 80k word WIP too.
Memoirs of a Geisha - have re read so many times.
Catch-22
I find this hard to answer. At the moment, it's 100 Years Of Solitude, but a toss up between that, Jane Eyre and Where The Wild Things Are.
Factual: Wildwood, by Roger Deakin Fiction: The Grapes of Wrath, by Steinbeck
Jigsaw Man
Too many to mention.
A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold (it is better if you read it as part of the series it's in - the Miles Vorkosigan books - so as to get all the nuanced background).
Bury my heart at wounded knee.
Believe it or not, a Jackie Collins novel called rockstar. It had me reading almost solid for two days.
The end of faith by Sam Harris
Shantaram. Superb
Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
Gormenghast trilogy (as an adult); The Little White Horse (as a child).
American psycho
'Love Is An Uphill Thing' by Jimmy Savile.
Has to be @lindseykelk as I am having cocktails with her on Friday
?
Reed all about me - Oliver Reed
To kill a mocking bird- harper lee
The Princess Bride
Running With Scissors was a very good book. Lord of the Flies really left an impression on me too.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Idlewild
The Stand by Stephen King, The Hobbit & To Kill A Mocking Bird. Genuinely couldn't separate the 3.
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro or
This is a tough one. I HAVE to say "Catcher in the Rye" as I read it at a young age & then moved onto a whole new genre of literature that I may not have discovered.
Girl 4 by Will Carver. He follows me on Twitter. Nearly shat my pants when he did.
A Song of Ice and Fire
The Collected Short Stories of Arthur C Clarke
Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
Forever by juby Blume. Can't remember the plot or whether it was any good- but I was about 11 and it had the sexiest sexy scene in it. Never been able to find it since though- so I may have made it all up in my young, filthy mind.
A Prayer For Owen Meany
I read so many it's impossible to pinpoint one.
Books?
The Satanic Witch
The unbearable lightness of being.
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith. Beautiful, sad, funny, clever and utterly compelling
LETTERS OF A WOMAN HOMESTEADER BY ELINORE PRUITT-STEWART - you should ALL read it, it's very good and free on kindle.
Tales of the City. All of them!
Bravo Two Zero.
The glass palace by Amitav Ghosh
A clockwork orange. I usually give books away when I've read them so others can enjoy them too. After I read A clockwork orange, I kept the book. I re-read it every so often. Never seen the film.
To many to just pick one but White Line Fever the biography of Lemmy, also the Biographies of Ronnie Wood & Eric Clapton
Catch 22
The God Delusion by Dawkins and for fiction Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Too many to choose from
Nemesis The Warlock - it's a graphic novel.
Watership down
Bill Bryson, History of Nearly Everything
Harry Potter
Of mice and men
"The Seed and the Sower" by Laurens van der Post
Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne.
Don't think I've got a best - read loads of really great books though.
Dead Famous by Ben Elton
Maus
Jayne Eyre
Charles Dickens: I can't narrow it down to one though! Currently reading The Pickwick Papers again and it just gets funnier with every read. If you haven't read Dickens before I'd recommend starting with Bleak House or David Copperfield.
Snow crash - Neal Stephenson
The Bible. No seriously. Stop laughing. (Either that or My Sister's Keeper. That was fantastic.)
Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe
Warm Bodies
The Angel: A novel by James H. Pence
A little nerdy, but Rang and Dale's Pharmacology
Stephen King - The Stand
1984
Charlotte's Web
Hitchhikers?
Probably something by Iain Banks or Kim Stanley Robinson
'The stars tennis balls' by Stephen Fry
But I have hundreds of "best books"!
Any human heart. I wept. Oooh and Outliers and perfectly predicable have changed my views on lots of stuff like 'geniuses' and 'natural atheletes'
The World According To Garp by John Irving
Three Men In A Boat
Cosmic Banditos makes me laugh
Cosmic Banditos makes me laugh
The Stealers of Dreams, a doctor who tie in book. Fabulous, well thought through dystopia.
The Merchant of Venice. I know it's a play. But it was presented to me with two covers and pages in between when I read it, so it's a book too.
Dune
The Secret.
The Book Thief
Joy of Sex
The Straw Men by Michael Marshall.
Run Baby Run, by Nicky Cruz
Talking of books, I'd like to fingerblast @rugbycupcakes
I can't read
Hunger Games Trilogy
It's a trilogy. Nella Last's War, Nella Last's Peace and Nella Last In The 1950s. They are the mass observation diaries of an ordinary Northern woman. They are the most moving books I have ever read. I turn to them again and again when I need comfort.
Oh lawds. Far too many to choose from! I love The Rats trilogy by James Herbert and have read them time and time again since I was a kid. I'll go with that.
Simon Reynolds "Energy Flash"
Man and boy. Tony parsons
Spanish Steps by Tim Moore, truly funny heartwarming tale of a man and his donkey doing the pilgrimage. He's a great travel writer, more enjoyably sweary than Bryson.
Robinson Crusoe
Under the dome by Stephen king
Noddy goes to Toyland and fucks some bitches right up.
The time travellers wife
Fatherland
All of Harry Potter. Sorry.
Atonement/ To kill a mockingbird/ The time travellers wife
Not sure it's the best book I've ever read, but American Psycho is the one I've read most.
Harry potter
To Kill a Mockingbird.
To Kill a Mockingbird.
I enjoy every book while I'm reading it.
The girl with the dragon tattoo
Winnie the Pooh
Bombardiers by Po Bronson
Shit my dad says.
Wild Swans by Jung Chang.
Before I Die - Jenny Downham
Not sure but Stephen King's Misery is perfectly crafted
Misery
Harry Potter.
Yes Man by Danny Wallace
The Name of the Rose.
The other Boleyn girl or world without end, oh or the help! I can't decide!
I heart New York
American Caesars, about the US presidents of the last 120 years.
I can not answer this... I've Been thinking about it for ages and just can't commit to an answer...
The very hungry caterpillar.
robert langdon books
Alchemist
The dictionary.
River at the Centre of the World by Simon Winchester. A travel book going along the Yangtze river. Brilliant writing.
Saigon by Anthony Grey
That's a tough one. Harlan Coben never usually disappoints
BFG
I cant read
Thinner by Richard Bachman aka Stephen King
Don't make me choose between them! Also Q3 why no 'more so for a man than a woman' option?
To Kill A Mockingbird
I've read too many good books to pick the best one.
This is where we should come up with some classic book but I don't care I love Riders by Jilly Cooper. Read it a dozen times. Also Adrian Mole. Close Relations by Deboroah Moggach. The Truth About Melody Brown by Lisa Jewell. Recent favourites include 'into the darkest corner' 'before I go to sleep' and 'until you're mine' . Bet no one picks Judy Finnigan's Eloise. It was so bloody awful I couldn't finish it.
Mr Nice
Life of Pi
a farewell to arms by Ernest Hemingway
Loads - can't pick a winner. Snow Crash, The Savage Detectives, Cairo Trilogy, Rings of Saturn, Austerlitz, Light Years, Cloud Atlas, The Man in the Wooden Hat. Many more, probably.
Terry Pratchett "Soul Music"
The Greatest - Muhammad Ali.
Le Petit Prince
When I Was 5 I Killed Myself - Howard Buten
Chances Jackie Collins
Last time I checked, being celibate was not the same as not getting married, FFS.
Memnoch the Devil - Anne Rice.
Ooh tricky. Fave book ever is Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
Um, where was the "more so for a man than a woman" option for Q3??? All these religious men who are 'celibate' and all that....
The Fault in our Stars by John Green.
Now that's a bloody hard one. Love Gatsby. Love Catcher in the Rye. But also love properly written erotic filth.
Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma.
Microserfs - Douglas Copeland.
A series of autobiographies by Joyce Fussey including one called Cats in the Coffee
A côte de chéz Swann by Marcel Proust.
I've loved the catcher in the rye since my school days.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Too many to name
That's a toughie, there are so many brilliant books that I can't possibly name one so here's a few: The Book Thief To Kill a Mocking Bird The Wrong Boy
That's a toughie, there are so many brilliant books that I can't possibly name one so here's a few: The Book Thief To Kill a Mocking Bird The Wrong Boy
That's a toughie, there are so many brilliant books that I can't possibly name one so here's a few: The Book Thief To Kill a Mocking Bird The Wrong Boy
George's Marvellous Medicine. Something for everyone in that one.
George's Marvellous Medicine. Something for everyone in that one.
I have many favourites and would recommend different books for different people. Pride and Prejudice is pretty hard to beat.
The Handbook of How to Win at Life. Oh, wait - that book doesn't exist.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The Da Vinci Code
Any Roald Dahl books, they made my childhood and continue to be my favourite stories as an adult.
Clive Bakers, Weaveworld which I now have signed by the man himself
The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
American gods by @neilhimself
Howls moving castle Diane Wynn jones
The Approximate. By Parson Falls
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. More for sentimental reasons than anything else.
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. More for sentimental reasons than anything else.
Kill Your Friends by John Niven. Twisted and hilarious.
A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle
Breaking dawn
Earth Abides by George R Stewart. The Stand by Steven King? King credits George Stewart as inspiration. All those post apocalyptic cross-country American dystopia stories? Earth Abides was written in the 40s... A major influence in that genre of corner of science fiction. The story had a profound impact on me when I read it at 15. Amazing.
Too many to mention. I loved Wuthering Heights and Birdsong, all Jane Austens, all novels by Ian banks and Iain m banks. Lord of the rings. First 3 terry prattchets. First light by spitfire pilot. One Day. Always the last book I've just finished.
Bloody hell, that has to be the toughest question ever asked on here! ... I'm going to go with Caught On A Train by Carlo Gebler (/Gabler, sorry my spelling is horrendous) ... and I will of course change my mind on this answer in the next thirty seconds
That is a tricky question. For non fiction Homicide life on the streets. For fiction I don't know
Hungary games
A suitable boy - Vickram Seth
The Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
That's an impossible question. I can't answer that.
The Sex Olympics
1984
Spike Milligans war diaries
The BFG made me cry with laughter as a child
Fingersmith
remains of the day
How hard is that question? 'The time travellers wife' and 'a million little pieces' are my current two favourites and have been for a number of years. I expect this will change though.
Consider Phlebas. First Iain Banks book I read
one hundred years of solitude
Crime and Punishment.
Perdido street station by china mieville
Harry Potter
'The Wasp Factory' - Iain Banks or 'Glory Road' - R. A. Heinlein
The book of John from the Christian Bible
Winnie the Pooh. Or Carrie's War. Or all of The Famous Five. Yes. I'm old .....
It's difficult to pick! I love Cecelia Ahern's books so probably one of them, maybe 'Where rainbows end' or 'Thanks For The Memories' or Jojo Moyes 'Me Before You' or Ali Harris' 'The Last Kiss'. I love books! Oh Victoria Hislop's 'The Island' is also good!
Catcher in the Rye.
The twilight saga
As a woman I find the last option on question 3 somewhat offensive.
Lord of the Rings trilogy
"Empty World" by John Christopher. I was eleven years old and never read anything and complained to the teacher that all books were "girly". She dragged me to the library and found Empty World for me and it shaped my fiction tastes for ever.
Garry Nelson Autobiography - Left Foot Forward. Charlton legend and sexual beast
great expectations
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. Geez, this is way too hard.
Christie Malry's Own Double Entry by b s johnson.
I, Claudius
Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith.......Renko is my hero.
1001 DIY enemas by @davielegend.
I can't decide... I love many books. "The Little Bookroom" is one of my favorites in my childhood.
Absolutely loved Donna Tartt's The Secret History.
Iain Banks - the wasp factory. I'm going to miss that writer
Question 5. What's the best book you've ever read?
One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Making history by Stephen Fry
Can't pick between 5. The Count of Monte Christo, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Possession, Dracula and To Kill a Mocking Bird. And there are others to be honest but those are the top five for today at least.
Birdsong -Sebastian Faulks
The Fermata, by Nicholson Baker. Really interesting story, and well told.
Argh too many to have one favorite! I loved "The lost continent" and "The dead fathers club" also "her fearful symatary" and "life of pi" and loads more. p.s I don't hate tennis I just don't give a shit about it!
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Not the most well written book ever, but tells me how to live without drinking.
The Third Policeman
To Kill A Mockingbird
Life After God by Douglas Coupland. First book to ever make me cry.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
The curious incident of the dog in the night time.
I'm going to cop out of this one; there are too many good books!
The book thief
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Crimson Petal & The White.
Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
Sacred hunger
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
Never let me go -Kazuo Ishiguro.
Catcher in the rye
Weave world - Clive Barker
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Polo by Jilly Cooper
Gents - Warwick Collins
Don't make me choose.
The dice man
The Never Ending Menstrual Cycle.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is my favourite book.
Haynes manual for the Land Rover Defender.
The Colour of Memory by Geoff Dyer
The Dice Man - Luke Reinhardt.
Great Expectations.
The Wasp Factory.
Roger's Profanisaurus.
The hungry caterpillar
Definitely one of the Harry Potter's. Kids books my arse
How bout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird.
Modernistic Cuisine
I don't read books any more, I read Twitter. I miss @princessmissdee
'The House if God' by Samuel Shem.. right of passage for all medics
'The House if God' by Samuel Shem.. right of passage for all medics
'The House if God' by Samuel Shem.. right of passage for all medics
This thing of Darkness
Good Omens
Well, my favourite book ever is On the Road by Jack Kerouac. The Joy of Sex is pretty good too.
Complicity by Iain Banks. This is the first survey I've completed and shall reveal myself as @rebecr.
The bible.
'That's not my car' a tactile book for toddlers. I can vividly see my son's finger discovering different surfaces. Magic.
Don't be ridiculous. It is never possible to choose one book - or one film or one song or one person to spend eternity with to the exclusion of all others. I want them all. They all bring something important, even if it's just the horror of their awfulness. That is still an experience that adds something to your life and opinions.
Don't be ridiculous. It is never possible to choose one book - or one film or one song or one person to spend eternity with to the exclusion of all others. I want them all. They all bring something important, even if it's just the horror of their awfulness. That is still an experience that adds something to your life and opinions.
The Stars my Destination/Tiger Tiger by Alfred Bester.
There is no one single best book. I've got a favourite from each era and genre but you can't compare Bocaccio with Camus with Atwood. They just appeal to different moods. Yes I'm a book cunt.
I am Legend.
The Crow Road.
Book Of General Ignorance
Catch 22
Weaveworld by Clive barker. Phenomenal book. My copy was borrowed some years ago and I never got around to replacing it. Not available on kindle either.
Gravity's Rainbow
The Goalkeeper's Revenge And Other Stories
To many to mention.
Johnny Got His Gun
99 ways to give @missprofanity an orgasm.
Dave Pelzer's 'A Child Called 'It'
The Road
Nineteen eighty four
I cannot possibly answer this. There are too many books.
Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series. I know it's not just one book. No, you fuck off.
Ronald Dahl's Boy. (And Going Solo). If we're talking adult books then "Death and the Penguin" and Tom Sharpe's Riotous Assembly were fab
IBM's "z/Architecture Principles of Operation". It's my bible, but unlike other bibles, it's internally coherent and doesn't contain any religious bollocks. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/Architecture
1984
Derren browns tricks of the mind. That or the bible
The Bible. Even the world's most informed atheist would learn a life lesson.
Vulcan 607 or Sniper One. Or 8 Lives Down. Aarrgh
The Harry Potter series.
There's An Ouch In My Pouch.
Grimms Fairy Tales
Whatever I've just finished
Charlottes Web
The Stand by Stephen King
No Way To Treat A First Lady - Christopher Buckley Well, it's my favourite. Probably not the *best* - that suggests a worthy choice?
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Recently...I've really enjoyed the daughter of smoke and bone, which is the first of a trilogy. The best book however is much harder to name because I love so many over many periods of my life (I'm a total bookworm ) . Up there with my best are The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Faraway Tree, the chalet school series .... Please make me stop...
The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.
House Rules.
Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris gripped me so much when it first came out it went everywhere with me. First book to ever do that
If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - Richard Feynman
This is an insanely difficult question to answer! A few favourites: LA Confidential by James Ellroy, Gates Of Fire by Steven Pressfield, Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor, The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming, Danny The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. These are my favourites, of course they are not "The Best" I have read, as that would be Tolstoy or Dickens or Dumas but this ain't a literature degree, it's a 5urvey. Go read my favourites.
Can't read.
Can't read.
Noddy goes to town. Interesting, great characters you care about, great description so you can really picture it (the pictures help with that too), good plot building and totally unpredictable. 5 stars.
Just one? Have three: Sniper One by Sgt Dan Mills, Perfume by Patrick Süskind, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.
The Silver Sword: Ian Serraillier
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Aw that's like asking for favourite Beatles song. The God Delusion, 1984, Hard Times, Weaveworld, The Bridge, Kidnapped, Cosmos, Contact, Webster's Dictionary 1911 edition 1920 revision, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The World According to Garp... The list goes on and on.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Bernard Cornwell - The Winter King
A Song of Ice & Fire
I really couldn't name the best. I always like books that leave you a bit sad that you've finished the book and have to leave the characters. Danny Wallace's Charlotte Street did that to me recently as did Jonathon Coe's 'What a Carve Up' although I'm not sure I'd say they were the best books I've ever read. Others that spring to mind as favourites include; The Wizard of Oz, To Kill a Mockingbird, Down and Out in Paris and London. The worst book I've ever read was probably Catcher in the Rye however. Overrated toss!
That's a dilemma because unlike the mindless fucks I notice on these quizzes most of the time I enjoy things that are good. Fuck this bullshit
The Wasp Factory
Mr Marvellous, it's a fantastic read as is everything about him.
'An Evil Cradling' by Brian Keenan. The true (obvs) story of his time as a hostage. What he endured is mind-blowing. Oh, and the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. Bloody great books those.
127 Hours
Thomson Local -Bethnal Green & Tower Hamlets
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
The world according to Garp
I would say my own novel, but Glory Road by Robert Heinlein
The stand
The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Tigana
A Child in Time - McEwan
Tell No One by Harlen Coben. I love classics and highbrow stuff but the way that book sucked me in was something special.
The Vanished Man by Jeffery Deaver.
Birds without wings by Louis De Berniere
How could I possibly choose? Possibly H2G2.
Hyperion - Dan Simmons. Science fiction at its very best
Jude the Obscure - only book that has ever made me cry
A secret history by Donna Tartt
A million little pieces
Probably Dune. Or The Hungry Caterpillar. Hard to choose between them.
Hard to decide. can't wait to read the answers to this one though to get some inspiration
Can't choose just one. Harry Potter series.
The Oversight by Will Eaves
I have a few favourites. the game of thrones series, pride and prejudice, Jane Eyre and recently sepulchre by Kate Mosse.
Well, I've re-read the Harry Potter books several times so I guess it would have to be those but I also adored Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. There's always my own 80k word WIP too.
Memoirs of a Geisha - have re read so many times.
Catch-22
I find this hard to answer. At the moment, it's 100 Years Of Solitude, but a toss up between that, Jane Eyre and Where The Wild Things Are.
Factual: Wildwood, by Roger Deakin Fiction: The Grapes of Wrath, by Steinbeck
Jigsaw Man
Too many to mention.
A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold (it is better if you read it as part of the series it's in - the Miles Vorkosigan books - so as to get all the nuanced background).
Bury my heart at wounded knee.
Believe it or not, a Jackie Collins novel called rockstar. It had me reading almost solid for two days.
The end of faith by Sam Harris
Shantaram. Superb
Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
Gormenghast trilogy (as an adult); The Little White Horse (as a child).
American psycho
'Love Is An Uphill Thing' by Jimmy Savile.
Has to be @lindseykelk as I am having cocktails with her on Friday
? Reed all about me - Oliver Reed
To kill a mocking bird- harper lee
The Princess Bride
Running With Scissors was a very good book. Lord of the Flies really left an impression on me too.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Idlewild
The Stand by Stephen King, The Hobbit & To Kill A Mocking Bird. Genuinely couldn't separate the 3.
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro or
This is a tough one. I HAVE to say "Catcher in the Rye" as I read it at a young age & then moved onto a whole new genre of literature that I may not have discovered.
Girl 4 by Will Carver. He follows me on Twitter. Nearly shat my pants when he did.
A Song of Ice and Fire
The Collected Short Stories of Arthur C Clarke
Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
Forever by juby Blume. Can't remember the plot or whether it was any good- but I was about 11 and it had the sexiest sexy scene in it. Never been able to find it since though- so I may have made it all up in my young, filthy mind.
A Prayer For Owen Meany
I read so many it's impossible to pinpoint one.
Books?
The Satanic Witch
The unbearable lightness of being.
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith. Beautiful, sad, funny, clever and utterly compelling
LETTERS OF A WOMAN HOMESTEADER BY ELINORE PRUITT-STEWART - you should ALL read it, it's very good and free on kindle.
Tales of the City. All of them!
Bravo Two Zero.
The glass palace by Amitav Ghosh
A clockwork orange. I usually give books away when I've read them so others can enjoy them too. After I read A clockwork orange, I kept the book. I re-read it every so often. Never seen the film.
To many to just pick one but White Line Fever the biography of Lemmy, also the Biographies of Ronnie Wood & Eric Clapton
Catch 22
The God Delusion by Dawkins and for fiction Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Too many to choose from
Nemesis The Warlock - it's a graphic novel.
Watership down
Bill Bryson, History of Nearly Everything
Harry Potter
Of mice and men
"The Seed and the Sower" by Laurens van der Post
Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne.
Don't think I've got a best - read loads of really great books though.
Dead Famous by Ben Elton
Maus
Jayne Eyre
Charles Dickens: I can't narrow it down to one though! Currently reading The Pickwick Papers again and it just gets funnier with every read. If you haven't read Dickens before I'd recommend starting with Bleak House or David Copperfield.
Snow crash - Neal Stephenson
The Bible. No seriously. Stop laughing. (Either that or My Sister's Keeper. That was fantastic.)
Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe
Warm Bodies
The Angel: A novel by James H. Pence
A little nerdy, but Rang and Dale's Pharmacology
Stephen King - The Stand
1984
Charlotte's Web
Hitchhikers?
Probably something by Iain Banks or Kim Stanley Robinson
'The stars tennis balls' by Stephen Fry
But I have hundreds of "best books"!
Any human heart. I wept. Oooh and Outliers and perfectly predicable have changed my views on lots of stuff like 'geniuses' and 'natural atheletes'
The World According To Garp by John Irving
Three Men In A Boat
Cosmic Banditos makes me laugh
Cosmic Banditos makes me laugh
The Stealers of Dreams, a doctor who tie in book. Fabulous, well thought through dystopia.
The Merchant of Venice. I know it's a play. But it was presented to me with two covers and pages in between when I read it, so it's a book too.
Dune
The Secret.
The Book Thief
Joy of Sex
The Straw Men by Michael Marshall.
Run Baby Run, by Nicky Cruz
Talking of books, I'd like to fingerblast @rugbycupcakes
I can't read
Hunger Games Trilogy
It's a trilogy. Nella Last's War, Nella Last's Peace and Nella Last In The 1950s. They are the mass observation diaries of an ordinary Northern woman. They are the most moving books I have ever read. I turn to them again and again when I need comfort.
Oh lawds. Far too many to choose from! I love The Rats trilogy by James Herbert and have read them time and time again since I was a kid. I'll go with that.
Simon Reynolds "Energy Flash"
Man and boy. Tony parsons
Spanish Steps by Tim Moore, truly funny heartwarming tale of a man and his donkey doing the pilgrimage. He's a great travel writer, more enjoyably sweary than Bryson.
Robinson Crusoe
Under the dome by Stephen king
Noddy goes to Toyland and fucks some bitches right up.
The time travellers wife
Fatherland
All of Harry Potter. Sorry.
Atonement/ To kill a mockingbird/ The time travellers wife
Not sure it's the best book I've ever read, but American Psycho is the one I've read most.
Harry potter
To Kill a Mockingbird.
To Kill a Mockingbird.
I enjoy every book while I'm reading it.
The girl with the dragon tattoo
Winnie the Pooh
Bombardiers by Po Bronson
Shit my dad says.
Wild Swans by Jung Chang.
Before I Die - Jenny Downham
Not sure but Stephen King's Misery is perfectly crafted
Misery
Harry Potter.
Yes Man by Danny Wallace
The Name of the Rose.
The other Boleyn girl or world without end, oh or the help! I can't decide!
I heart New York
American Caesars, about the US presidents of the last 120 years.
I can not answer this... I've Been thinking about it for ages and just can't commit to an answer...
The very hungry caterpillar.
robert langdon books
Alchemist
The dictionary.
River at the Centre of the World by Simon Winchester. A travel book going along the Yangtze river. Brilliant writing.
Saigon by Anthony Grey
That's a tough one. Harlan Coben never usually disappoints
BFG
I cant read
Thinner by Richard Bachman aka Stephen King
Don't make me choose between them! Also Q3 why no 'more so for a man than a woman' option?
To Kill A Mockingbird
I've read too many good books to pick the best one.
This is where we should come up with some classic book but I don't care I love Riders by Jilly Cooper. Read it a dozen times. Also Adrian Mole. Close Relations by Deboroah Moggach. The Truth About Melody Brown by Lisa Jewell. Recent favourites include 'into the darkest corner' 'before I go to sleep' and 'until you're mine' . Bet no one picks Judy Finnigan's Eloise. It was so bloody awful I couldn't finish it.
Mr Nice
Life of Pi
a farewell to arms by Ernest Hemingway
Loads - can't pick a winner. Snow Crash, The Savage Detectives, Cairo Trilogy, Rings of Saturn, Austerlitz, Light Years, Cloud Atlas, The Man in the Wooden Hat. Many more, probably.
Terry Pratchett "Soul Music"
The Greatest - Muhammad Ali.
Le Petit Prince
When I Was 5 I Killed Myself - Howard Buten
Chances Jackie Collins
Last time I checked, being celibate was not the same as not getting married, FFS.
Memnoch the Devil - Anne Rice.
Ooh tricky. Fave book ever is Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
Um, where was the "more so for a man than a woman" option for Q3??? All these religious men who are 'celibate' and all that....
The Fault in our Stars by John Green.
Now that's a bloody hard one. Love Gatsby. Love Catcher in the Rye. But also love properly written erotic filth.
Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma.
Microserfs - Douglas Copeland.
A series of autobiographies by Joyce Fussey including one called Cats in the Coffee
A côte de chéz Swann by Marcel Proust.
I've loved the catcher in the rye since my school days.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Too many to name
That's a toughie, there are so many brilliant books that I can't possibly name one so here's a few: The Book Thief To Kill a Mocking Bird The Wrong Boy
That's a toughie, there are so many brilliant books that I can't possibly name one so here's a few: The Book Thief To Kill a Mocking Bird The Wrong Boy
That's a toughie, there are so many brilliant books that I can't possibly name one so here's a few: The Book Thief To Kill a Mocking Bird The Wrong Boy
George's Marvellous Medicine. Something for everyone in that one.
George's Marvellous Medicine. Something for everyone in that one.
I have many favourites and would recommend different books for different people. Pride and Prejudice is pretty hard to beat.
The Handbook of How to Win at Life. Oh, wait - that book doesn't exist.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The Da Vinci Code
Any Roald Dahl books, they made my childhood and continue to be my favourite stories as an adult.
Clive Bakers, Weaveworld which I now have signed by the man himself
The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
American gods by @neilhimself
Howls moving castle Diane Wynn jones
The Approximate. By Parson Falls
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. More for sentimental reasons than anything else.
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. More for sentimental reasons than anything else.
Kill Your Friends by John Niven. Twisted and hilarious.
A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle
Breaking dawn
Earth Abides by George R Stewart. The Stand by Steven King? King credits George Stewart as inspiration. All those post apocalyptic cross-country American dystopia stories? Earth Abides was written in the 40s... A major influence in that genre of corner of science fiction. The story had a profound impact on me when I read it at 15. Amazing.
Too many to mention. I loved Wuthering Heights and Birdsong, all Jane Austens, all novels by Ian banks and Iain m banks. Lord of the rings. First 3 terry prattchets. First light by spitfire pilot. One Day. Always the last book I've just finished.
Bloody hell, that has to be the toughest question ever asked on here! ... I'm going to go with Caught On A Train by Carlo Gebler (/Gabler, sorry my spelling is horrendous) ... and I will of course change my mind on this answer in the next thirty seconds
That is a tricky question. For non fiction Homicide life on the streets. For fiction I don't know
Hungary games
A suitable boy - Vickram Seth
The Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
That's an impossible question. I can't answer that.
The Sex Olympics
1984
Spike Milligans war diaries
The BFG made me cry with laughter as a child
Fingersmith
remains of the day
How hard is that question? 'The time travellers wife' and 'a million little pieces' are my current two favourites and have been for a number of years. I expect this will change though.
Consider Phlebas. First Iain Banks book I read
one hundred years of solitude
Crime and Punishment.
Perdido street station by china mieville
Harry Potter
'The Wasp Factory' - Iain Banks or 'Glory Road' - R. A. Heinlein
The book of John from the Christian Bible
Winnie the Pooh. Or Carrie's War. Or all of The Famous Five. Yes. I'm old .....
It's difficult to pick! I love Cecelia Ahern's books so probably one of them, maybe 'Where rainbows end' or 'Thanks For The Memories' or Jojo Moyes 'Me Before You' or Ali Harris' 'The Last Kiss'. I love books! Oh Victoria Hislop's 'The Island' is also good!
Catcher in the Rye.
The twilight saga
As a woman I find the last option on question 3 somewhat offensive.
Lord of the Rings trilogy
"Empty World" by John Christopher. I was eleven years old and never read anything and complained to the teacher that all books were "girly". She dragged me to the library and found Empty World for me and it shaped my fiction tastes for ever.
Garry Nelson Autobiography - Left Foot Forward. Charlton legend and sexual beast
great expectations
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. Geez, this is way too hard.
Christie Malry's Own Double Entry by b s johnson.
I, Claudius
Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith.......Renko is my hero.
1001 DIY enemas by @davielegend.
I can't decide... I love many books. "The Little Bookroom" is one of my favorites in my childhood.
Absolutely loved Donna Tartt's The Secret History.
Iain Banks - the wasp factory. I'm going to miss that writer