What are your most favourite books ever?

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It was too creepy for me. I couldn’t finish it.

Also another too creepy book is The Dark Sacrament. A book about exorcism. It was frankly the scariest book I’ve ever read.
 
Harry Potter series and the Percy Jackson series come to mind. Hard to pick a specific favorite book of the sets. Also really enjoyed The Running Man by Stephen King
 
Solzhenitsyn’s three-volume “Gulag Archipelago” series.
 
I guess my favorite would be The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. It’s a story about a guy named Christian and all of the struggles that he faces as a christian.
 
Fiction?

Brideshead Revisited

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Ender’s Game

Voyage to Alpha Centauri

Childhood’s End
 
drac16 said:
I guess my favorite would be The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. It’s a story about a guy named Christian and all of the struggles that he faces as a christian.
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I love this book, too, and I consider it a requirement to be able to get the most out of Little Women.

I wrote a musical based on this book. My daughter (who is part of the entertainment industry) wants me to enter it is various Broadway show contests–I didn’t even know there were such contests! Maybe someday.
 
jzea1992 said:
Fatherless Generation
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This sounds like an interesting book.
I understand that this is an oversimplification, but I personally believe that a lot of today’s problems (such as young men hanging out in gangs to some young women who are attracted to an “old man” boyfriend) are related to absent or poor role model fathers.
 
Its been a while since I’ve read it, but the whole Robots-Galactic Empire-Foundation series (back to back in that order) by Isaac Asimov is a ton of fun. Some of the best sci fi ever written. That I, Robot movie with Will Smith was abysmal, though.
 
Re: P. G. Wodehouse.
BartholomewB said:
Agreed. Pigs Have Wings, one of my personal favorites, must rank as one of the best English novels written in the twentieth century.
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Also a man charmingly naive to the evils of the world. At the start of WWII he was living in France (I think) and was incarcerated by the Germans. He did a humorous broadcast for them, with all positive intent. He was condemned by the English and later investigated for treason, but they found that he really just had no idea of the significance of his actions. The ultimate bookworm. He had volunteered to fight in WWI but was rejected because of his extreme short-sightedness.
 
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A Night to Remember is one of (if not) the best books about the sinking of the Titanic.
 
I read “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” at least once a year. It’s my all time favorite!

I am a HUGE fan of mysteries and suspense novels and I love to re-read some of Mary Higgins Clark’s earlier books (especially when she illustrates her characters’ Catholic faith,)

Aimee Thurlo (a dear friend and mentor, RIP) wrote a mystery series about a cloistered nun in a monastery in northern New Mexico. I swear she was writing about my own sister-in-law! It’s the Sister Agatha series and well worth the read if you can find it!

I enjoy a lot of non-ficton, one of my favorites being “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson, which is simultaneously about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and it’s impact on America as well as the story of H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer (don’t judge me; I’m a mystery writer and I read all kinds of weird things!) I also enjoyed “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon” by Michael Ghiglieri and Thomas Myers, which not only catalogs the deaths that have occurred in the Canyon since it became a National Park, but also gives a fascinating history of the Canyon.

I also love reading cookbooks! 👩‍🍳
 
bluerose said:
“Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson, which is simultaneously about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and it’s impact on America as well as the story of H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer
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I’ve read that one at least 3 times!! Love Larson’s writing.
 
bluerose said:
one of my favorites being “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson, which is simultaneously about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and it’s impact on America as well as the story of H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer (don’t judge me; I’m a mystery writer and I read all kinds of weird things!)
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Dude that’s tame compared to what I read and watch all day when I’m not doing Catholic things.

Fun fact: H.H. Holmes was a Catholic, got the last rites from a priest before he was executed, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the huge Catholic cemetery near Philly.
Much of the stuff about him in that “Devil” book is wrong or untrue though. The author was more interested in writing a good book than in confirming his facts by actual research.
 
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bluerose said:
I also enjoyed “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon” by Michael Ghiglieri and Thomas Myers, which not only catalogs the deaths that have occurred in the Canyon since it became a National Park, but also gives a fascinating history of the Canyon.
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Yes, I LOVE that book, even though it scares me and makes me sad for all who lose their lives in that beautiful place.

Have you read Over the Wall: Death in Yosemite? It’s another book by the same authors. It’s really good, too.

What makes these books so good is the expertise of the authors! I can’t imagine working with SAR–but then, I live in the Midwest, where a 15 degree angle is considered “steep.” (Except in Galena, IL–lotsa hills!–but nothing compared to Grand Canyon and Yosemite.)
 
yankeesouth said:
Centennial, Chesapeake, Poland and Texas all by James Michener
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Loved all of these as well as Hawaii but my absolute favorite Michener is Travels With Charlie! His non fiction of traveling the US with his dog, Charlie!
 
My own preferences are strongly English first, and then Australian, and then pickings from the rest of the world, including the US.

Looking through the posts here it seems similar for the Americans - English first, and then the US, then the rest.

I’ve browsed The Western Canon by US critic Harold Bloom (a survey of the “greatest” literature) and he has a similar approach.
While I’m here then, some of my own favourites.

Australian

My Brother Jack - George Meredith. Considered to be “The Great Australian Novel”, apart from Patrick White’s more literary efforts. Highly recommended!
The Road from Coorain - Jill Ker Conway
The Seed’s Inheritance - Colin Thiele

(btw, the major Australian author is considered to be Nobel prize winner Patrick White, but I haven’t yet read anything of his. He has a reputation for being “heavy”)

Others

A Portrait of the Artist…, Dubliners - James Joyce
The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh
The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy.
Kidnapped, Treasure Island and short stories. Robert Louis Stevenson.
The Power and the Glory Grahame Green
not Dickens. I’m a slow reader, and his books are just too long for me
Catch-22 Joseph Heller
Mark Twain - by reputation, I’m afraid, but every quip and quote of his impresses to me.
 
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I have not read the Yosemite book yet… I don’t want to be afraid of visiting and we haven’t had a chance to get there yet!

I admit, I bought “Over the Edge” as a rather macabre souvenir the first time we visited the canyon and I got heat exhaustion just from hiking back up from Indian Garden (in October, I might add.) I didn’t “buy the farm” but as my husband said, I sure “checked out the property”! I guess I re-read it from time to time to remind myself how lucky I am to still be here!
 
I know Harry Potter is controversial, but I read it when I was 7-8, before I knew that witchcraft was even a real life thing, and I probably enjoyed it most out of any other book(a) after that point.
 
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