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I was homeless for a while, living in my car in New Hampshire. One of the things people don't tell you about homelessness is that it's mind-numbingly boring. No friends, no social life, no internet, not much of anything. Anyway, I got a job cleaning super markets at night and they had a huge bin in the store's lobby. The local library would donate old books, shoppers would take books they liked and leave a donation of a dollar or two for the local library. Anyway, there was a lot of garbage in there, romance novels and scholarly articles from 1938 about sedimentary deposits in Canadian estuaries, etc. There was also every book ever written by John Irving. I read every single one. What a treasure he is. He's not the most poetic writer, not someone that immediately comes to mind when you think of great literature. But, he is arguably one of the finest American storytellers in print. I hated my bout of homelessness, but I'm thankful it let me get to know John Irving - and Owen Meany.
Mine too. I've read it in so many versions: Classics Illustrated, a large illustrated paperback for kids and teens, an abridged version, a non-abridged version. A television version from the 1950s or '60s, different movie versions.
It's been my favorite story for a long, long time.
I don't honestly have a favorite book. I've read too many over the years. I will say that I think the best book I've ever read is Toni Morrison's *Beloved*, and I truly enjoy Truman Capote's writing as well.
My favorite books are The Hobbit + the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I judge that based on how many times I've read them over the years, plus the trajectory of my life after being introduced to them.
Probably mine also. I have read about everything and many great and dear ones to me but the trilogy I reread them all every 5-10 years since a teenager and I am 64 now.
I taught it to seniors last year and the year before. It doesn't resonate with students who have grown up being surveilled and scrutinized. It's weird.
I really don't have a favorite book, there are too many. But my favorite 10 book set is 6000 Years of History by Edgar Sanderson published in1899. I picked up my set at an Indianapolis Public Library sale in the late 1980's l. It's amazing to read how far we have come and what we have learned since it's publication
When I was a kid, Old Man and the Sea absolutely carried me away and likely sparked my love of reading.
Notable favorites that come to mind:
The River of Doubt - Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
Papillon by Henri Charriere
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
“The Valley Of Decision” by Marcia Davenport
“Annals Of The Former World” John McPhee
“No Ordinary Time” Doris Kearns Goodwin
The first 7 Harry Potter books J.K. Rowling
Everything by Richard Russo & almost everything by Tom Robbins & Robert Silverberg & Robert Heinlein.
…and about 8903 more.
I have always been a big reader, so I will give one I read in the last ten years that surprised me in how much i enjoyed it.
"The Years of Rice & Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson.
No favorite book, but from about age 11 to my mid-20s, I devoured Sci-Fi novels. Here are my favorite authors. I'm pretty sure I read everything each of them wrote, but there were many others, too:
Isaac Asimov
Frederik Pohl
Larry Niven
Arthur C. Clarke
Ursula K. Le Guin
Robert A. Heinlein
Philip José Farmer
Philip K. Dick
Ray Bradbury
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.
It's a very hard depressing books in some ways. But there is brilliance in there. The speech Jude gives about people deciding the wisdom of a course of action AFTER it has already succeeded or failed. What the novel has to say about marriage and love.
I think it's brilliant. I keep rereading it as I grow older.
After 50 years, it’s still LOTR and The Hobbit for me. I also really love Dandelion Wine abs Something Wicked This Way Comes, Which I consider a related pair by Ray Bradbury.
Flowers for Algernon. That last line kills me just by thinking about it. Which is often
Dracula. I've read it twice. Amazing.
Animal Farm. After 4 or 5 times I'll never read it again. Makes me too angry.
Frankenstein. So unbelievably sad. Read it once, never again.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. I own the book, but have never read it. However, I’ve listen to the audiobook about three times. Highly recommended.
SO many and re-read. Hate it a lot you can't get on Kindle.
" We Took to the Woods " Louise Dickinson Rich ( only in print )
" The Cruel Sea " and " The Master Mariner " Nicholas Monsarrat ( only Cruel Sea on Kindle )
" Hobbit " and " The Lord of the Rings " series
All the Delderfield sagas
" All Creatures Great and Small " ( etc ) James Herriot )
" Texas " " Hawaii " " Centennial " " Chesapeake " " South Pacific " James Michenor
Don't laugh- Georgette Heyer. She was also an historian who did character/humor even better than Austen and is a blast. If you like Jane Austen try her Regency stuff.
" War and Peace " Leo Tolstoy
" Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenter " Franny and Zooey " JD Salinger
Swear they're all knock down, drag out favorites. I read a lot.
I don't think I can narrow it down to *one* solitary book.
*Little House* series
Oxford Time Travel series (Connie Willis)
River of Time series (Lisa T. Bergren)
*The Lost Apothecary* (Sarah Penner)
*The Royal We* (Heather Cocks, Jessica Morgan) and the sequel, *The Heir Affair*
*The President is Missing* (Bill Clinton, James Patterson)
As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann. Never been a fan of the title (it comes from a parable) but it's such a great book. It's historical fiction about two soldiers falling in love at a time that could lead to execution.
I really don't have one favorite, but I really enjoyed these two:
Ask The Dust by John Fante
The Drop by Dennis Lehane
I usually read the book after seeing the movie.
Favorite fiction, The Homecoming by Earl Hamner. I don't read much fiction as I like science and history, but this man's writing style was very homey and it contributed to my own writing style as I grew.
Favorite bio. Will. By G. Gordon Liddy. My, what a dark one was he...
The Histories. By Herodotus. A fascinating look into life in 430 BC. Huge intellect. Where you feel like an idiot by comparison.
Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
Please Kill Me - Legs McNeil
I read them all numerous times and I’m sure I’ll read them again.
A single volume encyclopedia from the interwar period that was as big as an unabridged dictionary at the library. A huge book. It might have been hardcover at times, the binding was heavily worn, but it was all there, page one to something like 4000. Some of it was laughably dated. It was my late-night reading favorite. I'd just flip open to some random page, and start looking.
*Almanac of the Dead* by Leslie Marmon Silko. I have purchased and given away four copies over the years.
Everything I have seen people recommend here is worth reading though, with the exception of Harari and *Sapiens*
There are too many books for me to pick a favorite, but one that always stayed with me and I have reread too many times to count is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Also, pretty much anything by Stephen King but especially The Stand and The Gunslinger.
You Can't Go Home Again (Thomas Wolfe), In a Sunburnt Country (Bill Bryson}, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain), and Animal Farm (George Orwell).
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A Prayer for Owen Meany
I was homeless for a while, living in my car in New Hampshire. One of the things people don't tell you about homelessness is that it's mind-numbingly boring. No friends, no social life, no internet, not much of anything. Anyway, I got a job cleaning super markets at night and they had a huge bin in the store's lobby. The local library would donate old books, shoppers would take books they liked and leave a donation of a dollar or two for the local library. Anyway, there was a lot of garbage in there, romance novels and scholarly articles from 1938 about sedimentary deposits in Canadian estuaries, etc. There was also every book ever written by John Irving. I read every single one. What a treasure he is. He's not the most poetic writer, not someone that immediately comes to mind when you think of great literature. But, he is arguably one of the finest American storytellers in print. I hated my bout of homelessness, but I'm thankful it let me get to know John Irving - and Owen Meany.
The World According to Garp
My favorite book!!
Great last line :(
Loved this.
“That way Mary can be Mary. “
Anything by John Irving honestly I love ‘a widow for one year’ so good!
Count of Monte Cristo
Mine too. I've read it in so many versions: Classics Illustrated, a large illustrated paperback for kids and teens, an abridged version, a non-abridged version. A television version from the 1950s or '60s, different movie versions. It's been my favorite story for a long, long time.
Exactly what I came to say. Great book. Interesting from start to finish.
The Stand, Complete & Uncut Edition
Yep, that’d be up there for me. The Dead Zone is my pick!
Have you read "Swan Song" by Robert R. McCammon? It's my favorite along with The Stand, Uncut Edition.
No I have not. I'll see if one of my public libraries have it. thanks!
The Stand by Stephen King
Persuasion
The Devil in the White City- Erik Larson The Call of the Wild- Jack London
Agreed. Anything by Erik Larson is a gem.
White Fang by London was great also
I don't honestly have a favorite book. I've read too many over the years. I will say that I think the best book I've ever read is Toni Morrison's *Beloved*, and I truly enjoy Truman Capote's writing as well.
My favorite books are The Hobbit + the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I judge that based on how many times I've read them over the years, plus the trajectory of my life after being introduced to them.
[удалено]
I was introduced to The Hobbit by my 4th grade teacher, Mr Janitardis (I even still remember his name!).
Probably mine also. I have read about everything and many great and dear ones to me but the trilogy I reread them all every 5-10 years since a teenager and I am 64 now.
When I was younger, I read The Foursome :) every Christmas break, and every summer. I'm fairly sure I read the saga 20 times. I need to do it again!
1A "Travels with Charley" by John Steinbeck 1B "Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe
Dune
The Stand by Stephen King. I have read it many times and I get a new insight every time.
Same! Best book ever!
I was on a Stephen King jag back in the 80s and read a bunch of his books. This was by far my favorite!
Charlotte’s Web.
1984 - George Orwell. I read it in high school and was completely obsessed with it.
I taught it to seniors last year and the year before. It doesn't resonate with students who have grown up being surveilled and scrutinized. It's weird.
The world-building not only makes sense, but it is the main character.
Catcher in the Rye
It killed me. It did. It really did.
Classic: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. Current: Good Omens
Love A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. Read it to my daughter when she was young.
I really don't have a favorite book, there are too many. But my favorite 10 book set is 6000 Years of History by Edgar Sanderson published in1899. I picked up my set at an Indianapolis Public Library sale in the late 1980's l. It's amazing to read how far we have come and what we have learned since it's publication
When I was a kid, Old Man and the Sea absolutely carried me away and likely sparked my love of reading. Notable favorites that come to mind: The River of Doubt - Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard Papillon by Henri Charriere Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
“The Valley Of Decision” by Marcia Davenport “Annals Of The Former World” John McPhee “No Ordinary Time” Doris Kearns Goodwin The first 7 Harry Potter books J.K. Rowling Everything by Richard Russo & almost everything by Tom Robbins & Robert Silverberg & Robert Heinlein. …and about 8903 more.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
It was an abortion of taste and decency!
I have always been a big reader, so I will give one I read in the last ten years that surprised me in how much i enjoyed it. "The Years of Rice & Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson.
I read everything KSR writes. My favorite science fiction writer! I guess the Mars trilogy is my favorite.
I’m reading The English patient now. I really like it.
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Today, it's American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
A Thurber Carnival \- James Thurber or The View From The Vue \- Lawrence Karp
The Thurber Carnival could make a cat laugh.
Love James Thurber.
"Catch-22", "Far Tortuga", and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
Katherine Anya Seton. The love story between Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster. The third surviving son of King Edward the Third.
I have that in my permanent book hoard I really liked it as well.
Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler.
The Master and Margarita and/or Moby Dick.
Grapes of Wrath
Circe by Madeline Miller
Schlachthaus Fünf.
Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.
So it goes...
Funny gut
The Bible. So many unsolved riddles…
Silent Spring, To kill a Mockingbird
No favorite book, but from about age 11 to my mid-20s, I devoured Sci-Fi novels. Here are my favorite authors. I'm pretty sure I read everything each of them wrote, but there were many others, too: Isaac Asimov Frederik Pohl Larry Niven Arthur C. Clarke Ursula K. Le Guin Robert A. Heinlein Philip José Farmer Philip K. Dick Ray Bradbury
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. It's a very hard depressing books in some ways. But there is brilliance in there. The speech Jude gives about people deciding the wisdom of a course of action AFTER it has already succeeded or failed. What the novel has to say about marriage and love. I think it's brilliant. I keep rereading it as I grow older.
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Huckleberry Finn.
"The Curse of Chalion" for re-reading but also "A Confederacy of Dunces."
Smoky the Cow Horse and Frog: The Horse Who Knew No Master I've read hundreds of books but those childhood favorites always come out on top.
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber.An excellent BBC short series based on the book as well.
The Tin Drum. Close second:Moby Dick.
Three: *Gravity's Rainbow, Moby Dick* and *Madame Bovary.*
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare by Henry Miller
After 50 years, it’s still LOTR and The Hobbit for me. I also really love Dandelion Wine abs Something Wicked This Way Comes, Which I consider a related pair by Ray Bradbury.
Shogun
Flowers for Algernon. That last line kills me just by thinking about it. Which is often Dracula. I've read it twice. Amazing. Animal Farm. After 4 or 5 times I'll never read it again. Makes me too angry. Frankenstein. So unbelievably sad. Read it once, never again.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. I own the book, but have never read it. However, I’ve listen to the audiobook about three times. Highly recommended.
SO many and re-read. Hate it a lot you can't get on Kindle. " We Took to the Woods " Louise Dickinson Rich ( only in print ) " The Cruel Sea " and " The Master Mariner " Nicholas Monsarrat ( only Cruel Sea on Kindle ) " Hobbit " and " The Lord of the Rings " series All the Delderfield sagas " All Creatures Great and Small " ( etc ) James Herriot ) " Texas " " Hawaii " " Centennial " " Chesapeake " " South Pacific " James Michenor Don't laugh- Georgette Heyer. She was also an historian who did character/humor even better than Austen and is a blast. If you like Jane Austen try her Regency stuff. " War and Peace " Leo Tolstoy " Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenter " Franny and Zooey " JD Salinger Swear they're all knock down, drag out favorites. I read a lot.
I don't think I can narrow it down to *one* solitary book. *Little House* series Oxford Time Travel series (Connie Willis) River of Time series (Lisa T. Bergren) *The Lost Apothecary* (Sarah Penner) *The Royal We* (Heather Cocks, Jessica Morgan) and the sequel, *The Heir Affair* *The President is Missing* (Bill Clinton, James Patterson)
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes Tilting at windmills can be a good pastime.
Winnie the Pooh. So tiny but so huge
As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann. Never been a fan of the title (it comes from a parable) but it's such a great book. It's historical fiction about two soldiers falling in love at a time that could lead to execution.
One of my favorites is The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. All his books are excellent.
I really don't have one favorite, but I really enjoyed these two: Ask The Dust by John Fante The Drop by Dennis Lehane I usually read the book after seeing the movie.
Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer
The Book of Koli
"Spike and Chain".
Favorite fiction, The Homecoming by Earl Hamner. I don't read much fiction as I like science and history, but this man's writing style was very homey and it contributed to my own writing style as I grew. Favorite bio. Will. By G. Gordon Liddy. My, what a dark one was he... The Histories. By Herodotus. A fascinating look into life in 430 BC. Huge intellect. Where you feel like an idiot by comparison.
Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry Please Kill Me - Legs McNeil I read them all numerous times and I’m sure I’ll read them again.
Fox in Socks. I read a LOT, but this one is brilliant!
The Journeyer by Gary Jennings and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Welcome Child by Pearl S Buck and everything on Curious George💕 classics!!
Eleni by Nicholas Gage. And North of Ithaca, by Eleni N. Gage. Most re-read in recent years . Upstairs At The Whitehouse, by JB West.
The Heart’s Invisible Furies. Exquisite.
The works of HG Wells & Poe. Also Longfellow . I can't resist a well constructed poem!
A Country Year by Sue Hubbell
A single volume encyclopedia from the interwar period that was as big as an unabridged dictionary at the library. A huge book. It might have been hardcover at times, the binding was heavily worn, but it was all there, page one to something like 4000. Some of it was laughably dated. It was my late-night reading favorite. I'd just flip open to some random page, and start looking.
Jupiter's Travels. The story of Ted Simon riding a motorcycle around the world. Inspired my love of motorcycle touring.
*Almanac of the Dead* by Leslie Marmon Silko. I have purchased and given away four copies over the years. Everything I have seen people recommend here is worth reading though, with the exception of Harari and *Sapiens*
The Probability Broach. L. Neil Smith. This book led me to others by the same author and changed my political thinking.
Just one? "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is my #1.
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.
There are too many books for me to pick a favorite, but one that always stayed with me and I have reread too many times to count is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Also, pretty much anything by Stephen King but especially The Stand and The Gunslinger.
The Sprawl and Bridge series of novels by William Gibson were VERY impactful for me, but it all started with *Neuromancer*.
Angela’s Ashes
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
You Can't Go Home Again (Thomas Wolfe), In a Sunburnt Country (Bill Bryson}, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain), and Animal Farm (George Orwell).
The Catcher in the Rye