What Are Your FAVORITE Ever Books?

[Jill]

Of all the books you have read, which are your favorites? The ones that really touched you?

My favories are both by Stephen King... The Stand and the Dark Tower series.

There are probably 100's of books I have really enjoyed, but those two above really GOT into me and stand out.

What about you? What are your favorite books?

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

Black Beauty

The Dragonriders of Pern series- the older ones. Don't care for the newer ones.

The Harry Potter series

The Sookie Stackhouse series

I read these ones over and over and over.....

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Well, you KNOW that I have to say the Harry Potter series. Lol. But if I had to pick just one book...I'd go with Jo Gibson's The Dead Girl. It's a really small book for young teens, but it helped start my love for reading when I was 12.

 

[ohmt]

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Eyre

A Song of Ice and Fire series

Harry Potter, of course

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Amanda, have you read the Game of Thrones series? I wanted to, but there are sooooo many characters, I don't know how I'd remember who's who. Lol

 

[lucky seven]

Lonesome Dove, book and mini series.

Tom Clancy-The Hunt for Red October

Gary Paulsen-Winterdance, The Fine Madness of Running THe Iditarod

BIll Bryson-A Walk in the Woods

 

[lucky seven]

Sara Gruen-Riding Lessons and Flying Changes. Gave those books away, wished I still had them.

 

[susanne]

.

Here are just a few, in no particular order...

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck

Cannery Row, John Steinbeck

Pale Rider, Pale Horse, by Katherine Anne Porter

The Moonflower Vine, by Jetta Carleton

The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse, short story by William Saroyan

The Forsyte Saga, by John Galsworthy

Mrs. Mike, by Benedict Freedman

I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven

Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

Everything by William Shakespeare

Everything by Jane Austen

plus about 5 million I'm forgetting...

.

 

[lucky seven]

Susanne, I'm with you. In school I loved poetry especially Frost. Walter Farley among so many others. Now I find that I get "into" certain authors and read every book they put out but can't tell you the titles because they are so alike. RIght now I'm reading Robert Crais novels. When I need a feel good story that isn't too long I read Richard Paul Evans.

 

[ohmt]

Yep, I've read the Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire) series. Doesn't get much better

There are definitely a lot of characters, but because the books are so long they are all developed really well. It only gets confusing when he starts using nicknames and even then it would only take me a page or two to figure it out. One of those series you just can't put down! The only downside is that it has taken the author up to 10 yrs to write just one book and now with the tv show I guess he hasn't even started the next one (only 2 left). I am very anxiously awaiting it as are a lot of people. I just hope it doesn't take a decade lol.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Ohhh! See, I didnt realize that was the Ice and Fire series. I just recognized his name when I looked up the series in your response. I hate when authors take so long to write a book. I'm always afraid something will happen to them and then there wont be an ending book. Or that the book wont have the same feel as the last one because too much time has passed.

 

[susanne]

lucky seven, I had to add that I'm currently reading (I'm notorious for reading several books at a time, so this is my current nonfiction title) A Walk In the Woods. A good friend of mine hiked the Appalachian Trail last summer and the Pacific Crest Trail this summer, so as I followed his blog, I also read Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, and A Walk In the Woods.

I love studying the settings of books I'm reading on Google Maps/Satellite and Bing Bird's Eye views. I used to do this with atlases, but really enjoy the computer version. I just finished studying old New Jersey and NYC as I re-read the Terhune Lad and other collie books.

Another current title, Winter's Tale, by Mark Halprin, has a fascinating in 19th century New York City and surrounding area, including the old Harlem River siphons and pressure tunnels that brought water into NYC, and the Baymen of coastal New Jersey. This book has yet to really grab me, but it has already taken me into new worlds. THIS is why I love reading!

My current titles are:

Winter's Tale

A Walk In the Woods

Riding Lessons

Clair de Lune, by Jetta Carleton (I thought the Moonflower Vine was her only work -- I'm thrilled to find this)

The Faith of a Collie

I just finished:

The Light Between Oceans, ML Stedman

My Abandonment, Peter rock

Stud: Adventures in Breeding, Kevin Conley

Lad: A Dog, Albert Payson Terhune (reread)

The Further Adventures of Lad, Albert Payson Terhune (reread)

Bruce, Albert Payson Terhune

Kicking and Dreaming, Ann and Nancy Wilson (of the band, Heart)

So many books, so little time -- good thing I'm a fast reader!

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Wow Susanne, it's amazing that you can read more than one book at a time. I think I'd start to confuse story details, blending them together, and making each book a whole lot more adventurous then it was. Lol.

 

[susanne]

.

LOL!

I started doing this while in high school when I had a summer job at the library. I had a book I was reading at home and a book in the employee's lounge for breaks, but all the books I was shelving kept calling to me. Later on, I began keeping a book (usually nonfiction) in my car, which kept me from getting impatient at stoplights or in line at the bank/gas station/whatever, and it grew from there.

At any one time, the books I'm reading are of totally different types. I'll have a serious literary fiction book, a trashy summer reading book, a nonfiction "pick-up" book, and so forth. Then there are the books that I always have around to re-read sections, like Heike Bean's Driven Dressage.

I've probably developed a divided brain doing this...not sure if that's good or not!

 

[wildoak]

I've posted this one before, but all time favorite, West with the Night... wonderful book, beautifully written. Going back a little further - yes, absolutely King of the Wind... read it until the book was falling apart (and I still have it lol).

All of Dick Francis books.

Ride the Wind, the story of Cynthia Ann Parker..

The Origin, Irving Stone.

Hawaii, James Michener (and several of his other books)

And a million others I can't remember offhand.

Jan

 

[KanoasDestiny]

At any one time, the books I'm reading are of totally different types. I'll have a serious literary fiction book, a trashy summer reading book, a nonfiction "pick-up" book, and so forth.

I sooo wish I could do this! Instead, I have one book that I carry wherever I go until I finish it. It's terribly rotton when I forget it at home and find that I have some free time and nothing to read.

 

[Kendra]

I enjoyed reading this thread! Hadn't noticed the new forum before today!

I'm not good at favorites - I love ALL books, hence my excessive collection - but I do have books that I re-read on a regular basis.

A Little Princess and The Secret Garden have been favorites since I first read them as a little girl.

The Harry Potter books, of course!

I started reading my Grandad's Louis L'amour books when I was little too, and I'm usually re-reading one or another from my now vast collection - I really enjoy the Sackett books, but I think my favorite is Conagher.

I love, love, love Jennifer Crusie - Bet Me, Faking It and Getting Rid of Bradley especially. And my most re-read book of all is Agnes & The Hitman, co-written by Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer - makes me laugh, over and over.

One book that I'll probably never read again, but that I feel deserves mention as a favorite is The Book Thief. It broke my heart, but it is so powerful and so unique that I'm grateful I read it.

Also love Jane Eyre and Pride & Prejudice. I have beautiful hardcovers of both of these books, always good for a re-read!

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Kendra, I've been debating whether or not to add The Book Thief to my wishlist. Is it really sad? I don't handle sad very well. I tend to be an emotional person who cries during animated movies, commercials, happy movies, sad movies...lol.

 

[susanne]

I almost forgot to mention Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce mysteries. These are well-written, yet light and fun to read. They're set in England on a formerly grand estate, with a rather precocious young heroine. Quirky and fascinating, and the mysteries are not easily solved (my big complaint about most mysteries). There are four books already out, with a new one due this winter.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

(first in the series)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sweetness-Bottom-Pie-ebook/dp/B0027G6XDS/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1352064983&sr=1-3&keywords=flavia+de+luce+series

 

[Kendra]

Kendra, I've been debating whether or not to add The Book Thief to my wishlist. Is it really sad? I don't handle sad very well. I tend to be an emotional person who cries during animated movies, commercials, happy movies, sad movies...lol.

Me too. Those darn commercials get to me all the time!

I cried through half of The Book Thief. And yet, it does have as happy an ending as you could hope for, given the setting and situation. Very powerful book.

I know what you mean though - I read for enjoyment. I don't read Jennifer Weiner anymore because her books are TOO real. It was the sequel to Good In Bed (I must have blocked the title hehe) - I bawled my eyes out and was sad about it for a week, and there is enough sadness in real life, I'm not interested in getting depressed over a fictional character, no matter how well crafted.

The Book Thief wasn't like that one - nothing entirely unexpected happens in The Book Thief, in fact the narrator (Death) tells you right from the start what happens. I guess I'm not sure what to recommend, but even though I cried (a lot) I'm absolutely glad that I read it.