Best book you've ever read?

ToneControl

a few personal recent-ish favourites

Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch

Snowdrops by AD Miller

VimFuego

to my eternal shame I have never read any vonnegut, seeing as how his name has been mentioned several times here, what would be his seminal works, say 3 or 4 that are good places to start.

CHRISB50

The Corner by David Simon

BigLicks67

Literary Fiction
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy,
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Non Fiction
Meadowland - John Lewis Stemple
Sci-Fi
The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury
Historical Fiction
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa
Biography
Miles Davis - Ian Carr
Comedy
Hitler - My Part In His Downfall - Spike Milligan
Crime Fiction
Jar City - Arnaldur Indridason
Pulp Fiction
The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cornwell

GoldenEraGuitars

I don’t really read fiction tbh but the last book I read was James Hunts autobiography Shunt. Fantastic book

Kilgore

VimFuego said:

to my eternal shame I have never read any vonnegut, seeing as how his name has been mentioned several times here, what would be his seminal works, say 3 or 4 that are good places to start.

Difficult.
The one that most would agree on is probably Slaughterhouse Five.
For me it would then be Jailbird, Galapagos and Breakfast of Champions.

sev112

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

sev112 said:

Book of the year for me (and probably many years)
:
A man called Ove

bought it for summer holiday and finished it in 2 days.  Made me laugh out loud lots, and made me cry - seriously, and I’m a 51 year old man. 
wife and teenage daughter were intrigued. So daughter took it and cried several times in 2 days and couldnot put it down, and loved it.
Mrs then had to, and it even broke her frosty exterior as well.

took us a couple of months to find the Swedish film of it on Prime. Was worth it and the subtitles.  Even though we all had read the book, we were all 3 of us crying and laughing through the film

fabulous.
hope a few of you take up the challenge and run the whole range of your emotions.

In fact, given the interest that the “life changing” thread on here got, I wholly encourage you all to give it a go.

I absolutely loved the book, but didn't think the film was all that good to be honest. All came across a little bit twee in the film version.

Definitely a great read though. 

Yeah I agree a bit about the film- I guess that’s the challenge of getting so much into a 100 minute film

still couldn’t stop the odd tear coming out.  My daughter was crying throughout !

i havent read his others as they are women based, by my daughter said they were good as well

Sporky

LoFi said:

In my opinion, it's a fantastic idea, terribly written, which sums up most of Stephenson's recent work. He's achieved a significant stature (deservedly) as a writer which means he no longer has to submit his stuff to an editor, and unfortunately, he really needs one.

I do think he peaked with The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon.

Teetonetal

Oh another good one is the dice man.

munckee

Agree with the art of motorcycle maintenance and the bible, especially the old testament also:

The Truth of the Harry Quebert Affair
Pillars of the Earth
LOTR, I read it once every couple of years
Life of Pi
Dracula
I have to admit I don#t mind a Jack Reacher novel!

mart

ToneControl said:

siraxeman said:

Easily by a country mile + 10....the Bible!! worldwide best seller of all time!! no.2 book is about the bible - Pilgrims Progress.

I am not sure I know anyone who ever bought a bible
It is probably the most printed book, and the one given away free most often

here's the best selling books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books
 
The metro says that the Koran is more popular:
http://metro.co.uk/2015/07/15/the-most-popular-book-of-all-time-isnt-harry-potter-5297319/

Doh. How do people give away a copy of the bible unless they buy it in the first place? (Or do you think the printers produce copies for free?)

I love that the metro article says the Koran, in its 50 different translations, has sold 3 billion copies, and that the King James translation of the bible alone has sold 2.5 billion copies, and manage to claim that the Koran has sold more than the bible. Given the numerous other English translations of the bible, and the vast number in other languages, there is no way the Koran has sold more. (Yet!)

I disagree with @siraxeman on so many things, but let’s give him credit where his facts are indubitably correct.

Anyway, all that kind of sets the scene for the bias evident in the Wikipedia list. But, boy, is that a depressing list. Ok, Don Quixote gets the credit it deserves, but there is so much crap in those lists. Yes, ok, I guess I’m a bit of a literary snob.

Jalapeno

The book (well 3 books in one) that got me into Elmore Leonard - Stick/Swag/Mr Majestyk. I've read everything by "Dutch", including his Western stuff.  I love his style. Factoid - only Stephen King has had more films made of his novels (not including the TV Series Justified)

GSPBASSES

If you want to read something that will make you smile from ear to ear for hours on end, then the following 3 books are you. Very difficult to describe what they are about, only to say they are very silly, very funny, once you start reading, you won't be able to put them down. They could be described as the funniest and silliest sketches out Monty Python, The Goon show and some of the Michael Bentine shows. They do need to be read in the correct order, although each book is a story in itself they do follow on from each other. There are other books in the series, but these are the three that I particularly like.

The Portable Door,     Tom Holt

In Your Dreams,    Tom Holt

Earth, Air, Fire and Custard,     Tom Holt

 

If you like the Harry Potter books or the films then this might interest you. These are modern day police stories set in London were there is a branch of the Metropolitan police who deal with magic and use magic. By one of the writers of some of the earlier Doctor Who series Ben Aaronovitch. PC Peter Grant is like a trainee Harry Potter, but an adult policeman who happens to be able to see and talk to ghosts. These books are not for children, as there are some very adult themes in most of the books.

The Rivers of London Book 1  Ben Aaronovitch

There are 6.5 books in the series so far.

ICBM

mart said:

I love that the metro article says the Koran, in its 50 different translations, has sold 3 billion copies, and that the King James translation of the bible alone has sold 2.5 billion copies, and manage to claim that the Koran has sold more than the bible. Given the numerous other English translations of the bible, and the vast number in other languages, there is no way the Koran has sold more. (Yet!)

I disagree with @siraxeman on so many things, but let’s give him credit where his facts are indubitably correct.

You're both wrong. It's Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.




Disputed actually, it's only the upper end of the estimated range for Mao - 6.5 billion copies - that beats the bible. But impressive for something that's only been in print for a little over sixty years.

Megii

Impossible question, but I'll go for "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle" Haruki Murakami, just because I did love that.

Dopesick

Ham On Rye - Charles Bukowski

ThePrettyDamned

LuttiS said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

For me, I really enjoyed the Robert Jordan wheel of time series. I am also a big Brandon Sanderson fan.

I enjoyed them too.. for the most part... Started strong, kind of lost it in the middle, was bought back together for the end

Yes, book 10 is slow. The rest I find are fairly well paced - it dips in action, but the focus on character development between Mat, Rand and Egwene is all crucial - and good to read. 

Book 10 is really slow though... 

Contrast with game of thrones though - a couple of good books followed by mostly boring books with the occasional memorable bit. Bleurg. 

johnnyurq

The_Ethical said:

johnnyurq said:

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson. Well all 10 books in the  series actually, very epic with a very flawed protaganist.

Pips LOTR & The Hobbit etc for me.

His short stories, novellas and Sci Fi esque Gap series are excellent too, well worth seeking out and having a read.

I stand corrected, that'll teach me to engage my brain before posting.

Quite frankly I've loved all of his work so far and have just started Seventh Decimate (his latest).

Ha ha I must have been asleep, never noticed your post last night @The_Ethical .

Just finished re-reading the whole lot of The Chronicles. for the 3rd time lol.

Pretty much love everything he has done so far. Shame they can   never get it together for the Movie that has been coming since forever.

Nitefly

Loads of good things already mentioned - Mervyn Peake, Ray Bradbury, Iain (M.) Banks, Kazuo Ishiguro, and lots of others.  

Mt daughter asked me this question recently, and one of my answers was the first book I remember reading by myself, aged probably 6 - "The Wind In The Willows", by Kenneth Grahame.  It's probably a bit twee for modern tastes, but I loved it as a child.

VimFuego

ThePrettyDamned said:

LuttiS said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

For me, I really enjoyed the Robert Jordan wheel of time series. I am also a big Brandon Sanderson fan.

I enjoyed them too.. for the most part... Started strong, kind of lost it in the middle, was bought back together for the end

Yes, book 10 is slow. The rest I find are fairly well paced - it dips in action, but the focus on character development between Mat, Rand and Egwene is all crucial - and good to read. 

Book 10 is really slow though... 

Contrast with game of thrones though - a couple of good books followed by mostly boring books with the occasional memorable bit. Bleurg. 

is that the last one he wrote before dying? I seem to recall one that was so slow it almost literally went back in time. Was so bad I kinda gave up on it after that, so burned that I'm not at all tempted to get the one/s his son finished.