Everyone has a fav book, come on what's yours?
I'm a bit moody today, my fav book was torn in my backpack when I unpacked it finaly.
Big Trouble, by Dave Berry a wonderfully comic novel.
Mine is/are the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've read it so many times I've lost count, starting at the age of 9. Must have read it at *least* thirty times since then, but who knows...? No other fantasy series has ever come close to it, IMO.
Music Upstairs by Shena McKay
Or
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Or
The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
Or
Angels of the Universe by Einer Mar Gudmundsson
Or
The Music of Chance by Paul Auster
Or
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Or
Possession by A.S. Byatt.
I know you said one, but how can you choose one? It's impossible. For lightness and easy-to-put in the pocket I guess Gatsby wins it. For sheer ferociousness of intellect and love of words it would be Possession. For an original voice written at the age of 19 Music Upstairs is unbeatable. Great Expectations is a psycological treat. The Music of Chance is bleak and turns your brain inside out. The Magic Toyshop is imaginative and exciting and full of tastes and touch.
Of course, Lolita is probably the best book ever written. Nothing beats that first read of it... that amazing style, the character of Humbert Humbert, the humour, the fact it was Nabokov's fourth language, or whatever it was, is just unbelievable.
ah The Lord of the Rings, I have the three, I still prefer the Hobbit to them.
Aside Catcher in the Rye and Harry Potter, I'd say Tim Allen's (the actor) Don't Stand Too Close To A Naked Man.
Give me the beat boys and free my soul! I wanna getta lost in ya rock n' roll and drift away. Drift away...
Agree with the Outsider, (Camus) but also one of my favourite books from school is Le Grand Meaulnes, by Alain Fournier. And.... The Good Soldier , Ford Madox Ford, Free Fall, William Golding, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, by that danish bloke, and Disgrace, by JM Coetzee.
Thats more than one, obviously.
To Kill a Mockingbird, it's just too gorgeous. Also: HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Nervous conditions(T. Dangarembga), and when I was younger Wild Magic(Tamora Pierce), and when I was very ickle The Animals of Farthing Wood Series(Colin Dann) and Mathilda...
...again more than one, I couldn't resist. By the way Mike, sorry to hear about what happened to your copy of Big Trouble, but sounds like it had a long and much-loved life. Just remember for next time: a book is for life, not just for backpacks.
Wuthering Heights has been my no.1 book for a long time, although I have several in second place,
The Tortilla Curtain (T.Boyle Coraghessian), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest (Ken Kesey), The Buddha Of Suburbia (only discovered it this year and love it), The Great Gatsby...there's loads more but can't be bothered to list them all.
(oh except Lord of The Flies!)
Phillip Pulllman's His Dark Materials trilogy, with annie proulx's the shipping news, to kill a mockingbird, the big sleep, hitchhiklers guide and moby dick all close behind.
Fave at the moment is the one I'm reading, "Jonanthan Strange & Mr Norrell" (Susanna Clarke)... although towering above everything, for all time, is...
Hitchhikers Guide... pure timeless genius!!
:-) * P * :-)
( Read my blog! - www.oddcourgette.blogspot.com )
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
The World According to Garp - John Irving
and yes, me too - Wuthering Heights.
(Read it as a teenager on holiday on the Yorkshire moors. I was the only one sleeping on the ground floor of a converted farmhouse. I don't think I looked up from the book all week.)
Since LOTR has been chosen I'll plump for Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.
Not as laugh-out-loud funny as, say, Hitch-Hiker's Guide but full of dark humour and satire. Especially Part III in which he visits Laputa etc. which seems to sum up so much of modern life :O) Japan is also a treat.
Give me the beat boys and free my soul! I wanna getta lost in ya rock n' roll and drift away. Drift away...
"I have a room for life at the Home for the Chronically Groovy."
The All New Pepsoid the Second!
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www.fabulousmother.co.uk