Since I accidentally revived the dead thread and got it locked, I figured I'd start my own thread for this. Please tell me your favourite book! What do you like about it? Does it have any flaws? Who is your favourite character? Who would you recommend it to?

Here's my favourite book, copied and pasted from the now-locked thread.

My favorite book is currently Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira. It's a story about how a girl is learning to cope with the death of her older sister, told through letters to dead famous people. That kind of makes it sound boring but it's a great story with beautiful writing in it. I couldn't put it down and ended up reading the entire book in the store before buying it. n_n;

These days I hardly find myself reading, but most recently I was into non-fiction like Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Sierstad, and Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, which I got for Christmas two years ago and have not finished...

My favourite works of fiction are quite a few, but generally I like fiction that is written artfully, in which at times I find it hard to tell if I'm reading prose, poetry— or a bit of both. Examples of books I've experienced this feeling with are:

Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (absolutely tear jerking for me) Tamarind Mem by Anita Rau Badami Ten Thousand Lovers by Edeet Ravel The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

I usually consider the most recent book I've read my favorite book because I usually get so excited/involved hahaha, and it's sooo hard for me to choose one...

I will probably have to say The Goloden Compass, though. I was 13 when I first read it and since then I will reread it at least once per year (I'm almost 23 now). So it's not like I like the others less but I've simply read it more times than any other book I've read ❤

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones :)

I have a couple of books that are tied for first place. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak was my favorite for a while, mostly because of the writing style and the way he told the story. Then Ready Player One by Ernest Cline became my favorite. Basically, it's the Hunger Games inside a video game/alternate reality console. And one of my more recent reads, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, is just...like, when I hear "beauty" I think of this book. The writing was wonderful, it was fast-paced and interesting (I finished it in one day) and the story was beautifully told. There are some really good quotes from this book and the ending kinda killed me.

Mine is absolutely Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. It's a fantasy series that takes place namely in "London Below", with some interesting puns on location names for stuff you can find down there. The characters are really fascinating; and one of the characters, Door, has one of the most interesting and unique powers I've ever heard of. (The power to "open" anything.)

Honestly, though, the reason I love it best is because it has the kind of ending that I wish so, so many stories of its kind had. To explain would be spoiling it, though!

Neil Gaiman is a really good writer in general, though, so I'd definitely recommend his stuff. American Gods and The Ocean at the End of the Lane are ones I enjoyed a lot, too.

I've never heard of Christos Tsiolkas but his books sound intriguing based on your descriptions. I tend to like "controversial" books, so I might just check him out.

The Virgin Suicides is one of my favorite books of all time. You're definitely right in describing it as artfully written. His book Middlesex has an entirely different topic but it also has the same kind of feel to it.

I have heard only good things about Neil Gaiman (particularly American Gods) but the only thing I've read by him so far was Good Omens, which was co-authored by the late great Terry Pratchet. I would describe it as a fantasy-thriller with a heavily comedic overtone and I'd recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor.

I personally haven't been reading much lately, but I recently went to the bookstore and picked up a few books by Haruki Murakami. I suppose I'd say that my favorite book at the moment is his The Elephant Vanishes. It's a collection of short stories that all have his bizarre "magic realism" style. If I'm not mistaken, one of the stories is a first draft of the first chapter of his famous Windup Bird Chronicles.

I sadly do not have a favorite book, mostly because if I find a book or series I enjoy, it becomes my favorite until it is finished, and even then for a little while after I will reflect on it until I am ready to move on.

Though I suppose Tsar by Ted Bell is a personal favorite even if I have not read the other books in his series, this one I have read about 3 times and still enjoy it.

My favorite book has to be Dragons of Summer Flame by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Although the whole Dragonlance series of books are a great read, Dragons of Summer Flame is by far my fave.

Phantom By Susan Kay follow by The hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien those are my top two favorites

Neverwhere, Pride and Prejudice, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

I'd have to say A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. It has probably my favorite meeting between humans and an alien species. You read passages regarding the lives and development of the species interspersed with chapters regarding the humans observing them. The aliens are very spiderlike and many-limbed which I really appreciated amidst all the bipedal human analogues. This is just one aspect to the story, there's tons of plot threads and themes, major ones being mind control and brain enhancement (and the ethics thereof), intensely extensive surveillance, and a society built on deception and control. All of this has a firm grounding in reality, which was probably what made the whole thing interesting to me Obviously once you get into the Zones of Thought it gets a little silly, but that is Vinge's answer to making the Singularity writable. Even that has an internal consistency.

Good Omens is my interchangeable second, almost anything by the late Terry Pratchett or Kurt Vonnegut kills me.

Oh, and a lot of the stuff from the weird fiction era, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Algernon Blackwood, some of Arthur Machen and of course the cute little book by Lord Dunsany and Poe, which combined are Lovecraft lol.

EDIT: baha didn't see Good Omens or Gaiman were mentioned before this. Read everything from Gaiman as far as I know except for the Graveyard Book.

The entire Redwall series will always been at the top of my list. It was the one series that I would consistently read and reread and cross reference maps.

My favorite book is, and will always be "The Neverending story" by Michael Ende. It's just my childhood. ❤️

Lately I also really enjoyed the Destiny trilogy from the Star Trek universe.

This is such a tough question!!! Maybe The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami? I'm not sure though, I love so many books a lot!

The Dragonrider Series by Anne McCaffrey is one of the best series I've ever read; I love to spend time in the world she created - Pern - and her characters are wonderful. Her son took over the writing of the series just recently and has done really nicely with it. It is recommended that the series be read in the order they were published, and I think that does make for the best experience.

One of my favourite books is "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski.

'Monsoon' by Wilbur Smith. The book that started my addiction for his works. 'The Stand' by Stephen King. Read it 3 times so far. 'Redwall' by Brian Jacques (RIP). The book that ignited my love of his books.

To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis. Smart, funny, and by funny I mean it gets very very silly, complex, I still find something new every time I read it. Science fiction - time travel.