Your favourite book of all time?

@karen1969 (1779)
May 17, 2010 11:02am CST
What is your favourite book of all time? Mine is Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon, which has the title of Outlander in the US. I love her books as they have a bit of everything - drama, romance, family saga, etc. I also love Jane Austen and classical literature and my favourite of her novels are Persuasion, as well as Pride and Prejudice.
3 people like this
14 responses
@lmurdock (56)
• United States
17 May 10
I love reading. This is a tough question. It is hard to determine my favorite book of all time. There are so many great books in so many different genres. For nostalgia, history, and southern fiction I like Huckleberry Finn - controversial, I know, but it can be read and taught to demonstrate how things were and contrast them with how things should be between the races. It is also deeply psychological in nature, and just a good story. I love Catherine Coulter's FBI series. I love Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. I just finished Picoult - House Rules. Great book. It seems like when I'm reading a book or have just finished one it is usually the best. All I know is that one day I would like to be a favorite novalist. It seems like I like more drama, action adventure than the book you have listed, but then one can't tell a reader by one book. Another example: I loved The Kite Flyer and A Thousand Splendind Suns though both were profoundly heart-breaking at times.
@karen1969 (1779)
17 May 10
Interesting to hear your views, I love hearing what people enjoy reading. I have House Rules but haven't had chance to start it yet. I went to a Jodi Picoult talk and book signing and she is a fascinating and entertaining speaker. I studied Dickens at school (Bleak House) but I hated it! That book put me off his work, so I have never read another of his books, but I guess I should try one really. My daughter read The Kite Runner and thought it was an amazing book, but I haven't read it myself yet. Another favourite of mine is The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.
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@kel1483 (986)
• United States
17 May 10
I love Catherine Coulter's FBI series as well. The newest one comes out June 15th and I'm pretty excited for it.
@karen1969 (1779)
17 May 10
I haven't heard of those FBI books, are they realistic fiction? I enjoy CSI so I wonder if they would appeal to me.
@med889 (5941)
17 May 10
A book becomes my favorite once its written by my favorite author who is James Paterson and I never miss a single opportunity present to me to read the book by him so his every books are my favorite and I can read then again and again.
@thekelz (277)
• United Kingdom
17 May 10
I too like James Paterson, his Alex Cross novels are very enjoyable,Especially 'Along came a spider' which is my favourite of the .I've just been on holiday where I read 8th confession and 9th judgement, which were both good novels, I am now going to go read the back catalogue of that series. I also read one about a cop called Michael Bennent and I really enjoyed that one.
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@karen1969 (1779)
17 May 10
I have only read one of his books amd I didn't enjoy it. I think it was Roses Are Red. I have heard a lot of good things about his writing though, so maybe I just read a bad one?
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@kel1483 (986)
• United States
17 May 10
It's so hard to choose just one book. I read so much and there are so many good ones. I guess if I had to choose, I would say "Midnight" by Dean Koontz. It's one of those books that I can re-read tons of times and still love it and find it interesting. Currently, I'm really loving Kay Hooper's 'Biship/SCU' series.
@karen1969 (1779)
17 May 10
I have heard lots of good things about Dean Koontz but haven't read any of his novels yet myself.
@allamgirl (2140)
• Philippines
17 May 10
mine would be 'the little prince'. i've read this over and over again and i do not get tired of it. i love the simplicity of the story, yet it has a great depth to it. i even have the french version of it, even though i can't speak french ;)
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@allamgirl (2140)
• Philippines
18 May 10
i guess i like children's books better :)
@karen1969 (1779)
17 May 10
My daughter read and enjoyed that book.
• Malaysia
17 May 10
i'm totally in to the science fiction fantasy that we all know as starwars. it's such a cool story. and it moves way beyond just books and movies. the storyline is a linear one with all the necessary bits to make it as exciting as possible. but the way George Lucas builds on his stories and creates little universe's and sub-universe's is just amazing. i've got about 120 starwars novels now..
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• Malaysia
18 May 10
Doctor Who? hehe.. that's a good series too. with the right amount of intrigue and mystery to keep us on our toes and eager to see what's on the next page. good choice
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@karen1969 (1779)
17 May 10
I've never really been into Star Wars but I am a big fan of Doctor Who :-)
@thekelz (277)
• United Kingdom
17 May 10
I have only really started reafing about 4 years ago, but now read every night, and I have to say that, 'To kill a mockingbird' is my favorite book. I just think it's a nice,easy leisurely read.
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@karen1969 (1779)
18 May 10
I haven't read that one yet, but I have heard it is good.
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
17 May 10
i guess it would have to be the Bible, then a book called 'bird by bird' by anne lamot, several craft books and history books that i havent got the title of at the top of my head.
• United States
18 May 10
Oh darn it. I wish people would stop asking this question, because I really can't pick! I'm a mad-crazy avid reader and I typically finish 2-3 books in a week. I rarely re-read books even though there are lots that I love. There's just so many new stuff for me to read! I don't want to miss out on it all. But then, I'm never really sure what my favorite book is. The few that I've read more than once are This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, and The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.
1 person likes this
• United States
20 May 10
It's not that I don't EVER re-read books... it's just that I rarely re-read them. When I was re-reading Twilight a teacher of mine asked me why on earth I would read a book again if I already knew what was going to happen. I thought that was an absurd question. I mean, why do you watch a movie again or listen to a song again? Isn't it the same? But like you, I often want to enjoy something new. I can never get enough of new world and new stories, but I will occasionally go back and read something I enjoyed before. I've been thinking about re-reading The Last Unicorn, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, This Present Darkness, and The Little White Horse again. But it'll have to wait until I finish my big stack of new books. :D
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@karen1969 (1779)
18 May 10
Yes, I know what you mean, there are so many great books out there. I recently read Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson and that was very good too. I have only read Twilight out of the books you mention and I enjoyed that too. I don't re-read books either, there's not enough time and already too many books I want to read for the FIRST time!!
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@camomile07 (1420)
• Germany
6 Jun 10
Reading is my big hobby, I really love books and I read almost everything. But my favourit book is the Holy Scriptures (the Bible). It is the only one I repeat reading it. There are so many points to learn and I always learn something new every time I read it.
@mokkka (881)
• Bulgaria
20 May 10
Jane Austin is a great choice indeed.I also love Pride and Prejudice but since I read The picture of Dorian Grey there is nothing that may influence me so hard.It shows in great details what we should or shouldn't do and be,how life treats different acts of different people and many other important things that make us consider all our acts.
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@karen1969 (1779)
20 May 10
Oh yes, I read Dorian Gray some years ago (the late 1980s, I think) and it is a very good book too.
@oldchem1 (8132)
17 May 10
Mine is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
@karen1969 (1779)
17 May 10
I believe that is my Mum's favourite book :-)
27 May 10
hey karen im not a huge reader and have only read around 3 books since i was 5ish and my favourite has to be the devil wears prada. i seen it in the co-op when i was with my mum when i was 14 and i liked the look of the cover and my mum said i'd probably never read it (she was probably right). but i wanted to prove her wrong and read the whole thing before the movie came out and i adored it, it was a pretty long book but it compelled me to read it. i watched the movie not long after and was disapointed as i feel it missed out some very important aspects of the book. i've bought the gossip girl series of books on amazon, 6 of them came but the first one is missing so i can't read until it's here so i'm looking forward to that :)
@karen1969 (1779)
6 Jun 10
My 17 year old daughter loves those kinds of books too. I got her the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada but I can't remember the title now.
@Rodman77 (13)
• United States
27 May 10
Boys Life by Robert Mccammon A comming of age novel set in the deep south with history and fantasycoupled with a boys immagination a wonderful read
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@taiiina (17)
• Latvia
8 Jun 10
My favorite book is "Master and Margarita" by Michail Bulgakov. It is Russian book. It is really amazing! When you start reading it, it seems like fantastic, unreal, but then you understand that it is a real life, but with some fantastic elements.
@karen1969 (1779)
11 Jun 10
I have read quite a lot of Russian Literature over the years including Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Pushkin, etc. But I haven't read any Bulgakov.