Favorite Book?

[Punisher]

Due to three of my four classes this semester being literature based(if anyone must know they are World Lit, American Lit, and Mythology) I've gotten a larger dosage of novels, poems, and other things with words than I have my entire high school career. And in Mythology, we recently read The Iliad(which I had read before but never really thought much of it) and I've discovered what an awesome story it is. Maybe partly because this time I was using a modern English translation, but the point remains the same. And as such, I'm going to have to call it my personal favorite book. The way Homer describes how the battle plays out and his epic similies have really won me an appreciation for Greek Literature. Also, nothing is more badass than when Diomedes attacks and wounds two different gods on the same day, one being the god of war himself! Awesome.

I'd also have to say Desperation by Stephen King is also great. I don't have much of a taste for anything that has religion as a central theme, but I was able to overlook it for this occasion. Jurassic Park is also a personal favorite, and after reading it the movie lost some of its appeal, which reminds me, War of the Worlds is another beloved book, but the movie left such a sour taste in my mouth that I haven't been able to bring myself near the novel since.

So, what's everyone's favorite book? Explain why, I'm hoping to get more stuff to look into from this thread.

 

[KPTitan]

My favorite book...I think it's called The Breathtaker. What it's about is there's this guy that's a serial killer somewhere in the Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas area of the country, and when he kills someone it's during a tornado. Reason why during a tornado is when he was a little kid him and his dad would go around and rob people's houses during a tornado and after his dad died from an F-5 (now EF-5) tornado it grew into a killing obsession thing. It's not mostly about that guy though. The main characters are the police officer, his daughter, and his father. It's my favorite book because it's a murder mystery and meteorological tornado events combined into one.

 

[Hanshotfirst1138]

Tolkien's The Hobbit. Though, while it's technically a play, I'd say that Hamlet would have to be on the list. Just a great story. To Kill a Mockingbird would have to be on the list too.

 

[Daxdiv]

"To Kill A Mockingbird" and "The Kite Runner" They were the only books that I read in high school that I that didn't confuse me like "Lord of the Flies", or think that was boring/stupid like "Catcher in the Rye".

In college, the only book I read that I fully read and like was "Color of Water: A Black Man Tribute to His White Mother." I did like "Nickel and Dimed. On (Not) Getting By in America" My only regret is not finishing that book.

Yeah, I really don't read books that much.

 

[silverfox1027]

Black Boy by Richard Wright (his autobiography, essentially). It's rather different from most of the other Jim Crow-era books that I've read in that it didn't only focus on the overt racism Wright faced from society, but also on the friction within his family. I thought Wright was extremely relatable, which made the book even more depressing than it already was. It was also interesting to see a not-so-rosy depiction of the North (ie. the people didn't necessarily believe in Jim Crow, but did nothing to oppose it). Definitely a good read.

 

[purplehairedwonder]

I took a Mythology class last semester and read Homer's works as well. The English translation we used was really beautiful. Loved them.

I'm taking a Brit Lit class this semester and we read Pride and Prejudice, which I absolutely adored. It's definitely on my list of favorite books now. I'm also a hopeless romantic (Mr. Darcy makes me swoon ), so that doesn't hurt. I plan to read more Austen over the summer when I have some time.

Other books I adore are ones I read in high school:
To Kill a Mockingbird - Do I really need to explain this one?
A Tale of Two Cities - "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The build up of the French Revolution really takes its toll and everything is turned on its head. Really great.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Absolutely insane and wonderful. It's very funny and yet has a disturbing/dark undercurrent.

I also love the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Eragon, and all that fun fantasy stuff as well.

 

[GregX]

God, so many.

Crime and Punishment
War and Peace
A Tale of Two Cities
Dracula
Othello (yeah, technically a play)
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Hell, everything by Faulkner.
The Godfather
The Iliad
The Shining
Les Miserables
The Odyssey
Paradise Lost

 

[silverfox1027]

I'm taking a Brit Lit class this semester and we read Pride and Prejudice, which I absolutely adored. It's definitely on my list of favorite books now. I'm also a hopeless romantic (Mr. Darcy makes me swoon ), so that doesn't hurt. I plan to read more Austen over the summer when I have some time.

Strange thing with me and Pride and Prejudice. When we had to read it for my 12th grade Comparative Lit class, I sparknoted it (my normal routine for high school books, I'll admit). While reading the sparknotes, however, I was thinking "Damn...this is actually really interesting!", so I immediately regretted not reading it.

Luckily enough, the book reappeared on the syllabus of the Lit Humanities class I took during my first year of college. I actually read it that time, but I was...disappointed, strangely enough. I'm not a fan of Austen's prose. The plot itself is great, though, and Darcy is a stone cold fox (all the girls in my 12th grade class loved him...the boys were kinda frustrated by this, since they all thought he was a jerk ).

And so this isn't totally off-topic, I'll round out my top five list (sorta...I only have a definite #1...everything else is rather jumbled):
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (if you're a Death Note fan, you have to read this one...the parallels are obvious. It's clear that Ohba was a fan of this book)
Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country

 

[mookie75]

I hope everyone will forgive me for not describing all the books that I'm about to list, but it's late and I'm feeling lazy.

I'll begin with a list from my favorite author just so I can get him out of the way:

Salem's Lot
The Shining
It
Firestarter
The Dead Zone
The Stand
every book in The Dark Tower series (although I like the first four more than the last three)
The Tommyknockers

There's so many I could list, but I'll just leave it with those and say that, in my opinion, they stand out among the rest.


Now I'll move on to everyone else (in no particular order):

Dracula
The Grapes of Wrath
The Bell Jar
Wuthering Heights
Moby Dick
Robinson Crusoe
I Am Legend
Catch-22
The Haunting of Hill House
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (and most everything else written by Poe)
The Time Machine
The Invisible Man
The War of the Worlds
The Inferno
The Sound and the Fury
The Deerslayer (I'm sure I would enjoy the rest of Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales" but I haven't read them yet)....

I'm sure I'm forgetting several that I haven't read in many years, but it's still a decent list.

 

[Antiyonder]

- To Kill A Mockingbird
- The Count Of Monte Cristo
- The Shrinking Man
- Dead Zone
- Cujo

 

[Lavenderpaw]

To Kill A Mockingbird.- Harper Lee
Silver-Norma Fox Mazer
Girlhearts-Sequeal to Silver.
Both Sides Of Time-Caroline Clooney.

Read Mazer's books!

 

[HG Revolution]

I haven't read The Illiad yet, but The Odyssey is amazing (yeah, I dunno why my school had us read the sequel first).

The His Dark Materials trilogy is probably my favorite series of all time. It's thought-provoking, exciting, and at times disturbing, with some great characters.

Of course I'm a Harry Potter fan. I actually find JK Rowling's writing more enjoyable than Tolkien's (Tolkien is a genius, but one with a very strange sense of pacing).

While I'm not big on Orson Scott Card in general (his sequels tend to repeat the same thing over and over again, and I'm don't like some of his political views), Ender's Game has a powerful and original story.

I need to read more Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse Five is one of the funniest books I've ever read.

If we're counting graphic novels, Persepolis is very well-done (though I'd say the movie is actually slightly better).

 

[Captain Zechs]

I can honestly say I have never liked To Kill a Mocking Bird for whatever reason.

Ender's Game is a classic, who doesn't like genius' destroying another race?

The Iliad- Do I really need to explain this one?

Harry Potter- I enjoyed all but 2 and 6, I just felt they were kind of bland, the 7th really took the books up a knotch though.

Lord of the Flies- For whatever reason I just enjoyed the imagery, and I just thought the story was well done.

My mind if failing me right now...so I will get back to you with some more later...

 

[Surreal Kangaroo]

Wow I didn't know that many people liked To Kill A Mockingbird. I mean its alright but I garage saled my copy (I think).
Anyways I will have to say The Jungle but Upton Sinclair. I don't know why but I like it.

 

[James Bester]

I found Beowulf to be a very exciting story. After all, it basically introduced the whole concept of epics. I was also a big fan of The Hobbit. I'm more into the adventure/epic genre of books. Stories with heroes, fighting, forests, mountains, all that good stuff.

 

[HG Revolution]

After all, it basically introduced the whole concept of epics.

Gilgamesh and Homer would prove otherwise.

 

[James Bester]

Gilgamesh and Homer would prove otherwise.

Well, I meant to say heroic epic, but I guess Homer and Gilgamesh did come far before it.

 

[Patchwork]

I can honestly say I have never liked To Kill a Mocking Bird for whatever reason.

Nice to see I'm not the only one. I recognise it's a good book in a number of ways, but I still don't like it. I'm not sure why, I usually love southern gothics.

Anyway, I've a good, long list of favorite books I've read over time, but I think if I absolutely had to choose just one as my top favorite it would have to be Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn .

I think it takes a while for a book to be labeled as one's favorite. To be a favorite, it has to be able to remain it's likeability over number of years, and be able to give you the same feelings you had upon your fifteenth rereading as it did when you first cracked open the cover. While a few other books have been able to have this effect (those being Watership Down, Farenheit 451, 1984, Animal Farm and A Whisper of Wings, respectively) none quite so much as this one has.

I'm never really good as describing why a book is my favorite. I think for me, it's usually some sort of X factor, hidden deep between the letters that can't really be formed into words.
I dunno.

 

[Harvey Two Face]

My favourite book at present would either have to be 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' or 'Basilisk'.

 

[Jade_GL]

This is difficult, but I will try to only list a few.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is a book that I have read many times. I love it. The use of language and especially of the created slang nadsat is one of my favorite aspects of the book. I also love the ideas at the core of the book.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift was a book that I didn't fully read for enjoyment until I graduated from college. I love it. The satire is fun (just get an annotated version so you're not in the dark) and the story itself is engrossing. I found the third portion to be the most intriguing by far even though a lot of people I have talked to find it to be the weakest of the four sections. Your mileage may vary.

Watership Down by Richard Adams was a book that I read when I was in middle school. I had read Redwall and The Hobbit and I tried this on a recommendation. It is by far one of the best books I have read. Out of the books I have listed, it is probably the one I have read the most times (7 or 8 at last count I believe) and the one that always seems to be on my mind as something to reread.

Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor was a book that I found to be very challenging. I read it over the summer between 7th and 8th grade. Even though I found it to be a hard book to read because of peculiar punctuation and a story that jumps from character to character, it was an absolutely fantastic journey. A great Civil War book.

The Time Machine by HG Wells is my favorite science fiction book and the last book that I will list. I really enjoyed the idea of time travel and how it was portrayed in the story, as well as the characters. This is another book that I have read multiple times and I always get the same joy out of it.

Those are the main ones that I can think of at the moment. I know it looks like I just read a bunch of classics, but I read a lot of stuff. These just happen to be the ones that jump out from the pack.