whats you favorite book and why

post which book you like to read and why


example

auther:
bookname:
what its about:
why you like it:


i will post my fav in the morning

I don't know, either:

1984 by George Orwell
You all know the story, totalitarianists, Big Brother, ect. What I like about it is how real it is becoming now.

Or:

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Do I need to explain it?

Or:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Earth gets blown up five minutes before its massive computer figures out the Question to the Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything; the answer being 42.

[Edited on 30-11-2004 by invader_chris]

The forgotten realms books. They rule, and I especially like the dark elf books by R.A Salvator. Theyre so detailed, and it just sucks you into the story.

and the characters are cool, they all seem to have a very complex history and role in the story.

Well....It's hard to pick just one....

I read as much as I can, mostly I've been trying to buff up on some of the classics of literature that I was supposed to read in college but never did....

But when it comes to a good read, that I can sit down and enjoy time and time again....I always reach for a Stephen King book...

My favorite? Desperation!

The story is compelling, the characters are dark and often ominous...The story keeps you on your feet for well over a thousand pages - so you're entertained for a good while....All in all, just some great, gory, fun that shows off what can happen when King is at the pinnacle of his talent....


[edit on 12/4/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

I am an avid book reader; thus I can not come up with just one book.
Therefore I offer the following 3 favourites, which are books I can read again and again, and learn something new each time:

Author: Scott Peck

Book Name: People of the Lie

What it's About: Human evil and how it hides, lies, and distorts facts to manipulate those around it.

Why you like it: It provides from a psychologist's perspective deliberate human evil.



Another fav:


Author: Truddi Chase

Book Name: When Rabbit Howls

What it's About: The author has 92 multiple personalities. Her book is a factual account of her life as a multiple.

Why you like it: It is a non-fiction autobiography of a multiple, and there are few such accounts published that I'm aware of.


Last fav:

Author: Susan Forward

Book Name: Toxic Parents

What it's About: The effects of mental and emotional abuse inflicted by parents on children

Why you like it: I think every human being should read this book. It gives you significant insight if you grew up in a dysfunctional family, and unveils the negative patterns of behavior abused children may grow up and repeat when they become parents.

this is mine ( i have more but this came out 1 for me )

auther: Chris ryan
bookname: Land of fire
what its about: its mostly about him gettiong out of the falklands
after his mission is compramised.
why you like it: the detail that he goes into things are the best

Snow Crash, by Neil Stephenson. Cross The Fifth Element with William Gibson's Neuromancer, set it in a hyper-America of the not too distant future taken to the extreme and you get a book that will keep you grinning for the entire ride. This is the kind of book that makes you wish there was more of it to read.

Of course, I have to mention Lord of The Rings. Depth. There is so much depth to everything in it, especially when one goes on to read The Silmarillion and gets to learn the history and cosmology that The Lord of The Rings only hints at.

Any of the "disc world" series by Terry pratchett ! ledgendary humourist,
shows up the foibles and quirks of humanity through fictional characters who live on a flat world which sits on the backs of four giant elephants which stand on the shell of an enormous turtle whch swims through space.
Theres someone we can recognise in every character.
I reccomend it to those who enjoy lighthearted fare.

I've been re-reading my collection of Discworld books over Christmas break.

LotR and the Hitchhiker's Guide are also amongst my favorites, as is Stephen King's book The Stand... I should throw Bram Stoker's Dracula in there too.

auther: Patrick Suskind
bookname: Perfume
what its about: A perfumer with extreme olfactory sense kills virgins to try and capture their scent.
why you like it: It's a magnificent story. Absolutely wonder ful - excellent characters, and it's just am amazing read.


auther: Ayn Rand
bookname: Anthem
what its about: Workers in a collectivist society realize their individualism
why you like it: It's in the dystopic theme, which I love, and it's a beautifully written book. Very short (under 100 pages) but very effective in its intent without any lacking, IMO.

I Love Jurrasic Park for a few reasons

1# It Had a wonderfully original story line

2#It had plenty of action and good detail

3#It Had planty of suspense

my only Complaintr was that Mr. Crichton lacks good character devolpment in his books,

Any tom clancy books like rainbow six, shadow watch, The hunt for red october, the sum of all fears, and my all time favorite Netforce

Any tom clancy books like rainbow six, shadow watch, The hunt for red october, the sum of all fears, and my all time favorite Netforce

i like netforce because its not all politics its action to
it also takes place 4 years from now with when it was written it wouldve been like 11 but still its an awsome book

Hmm, Watership Down's one I need to read again.....
About the secret lives of 'da bunnies....
Actually VERY good.

Hey All

When I was in high school I totally disliked fiction of any sort that would have been assigned to us.. books that had no bearing on my life etc.. I keep think Charles Dickens Great Expectations when I think back to those years.

Finally when I was a junior I had a teacher in a summer school format who assigned books that were modern and kept my interest. One of those was what I consider my all time favorite book mainly because it sparked a interest that hasnt left in Fiction.

Kurt Vonnegut
Cats Cradle

It's impossible for me to pick one favorite book out of everything I have read, however one of the best set of books I have read in a long time is:

Author: Stephen Donaldson
Title(s)
Thomas Covenant Series:
1) Lord Foul's Bane
2) The Illearth War
3) The Power That Preserves

The 2nd Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
1) The Wounded Land
2) The One Tree
3) White Gold Wielder

For a complete list of his works see www.fantasticfiction.co.uk...

I love these books because:
1) I will read anything labeled fantasy
2) His command of the english language is simply amazing. He uses weird and crazy words like 'execrate', 'gelid', 'condign', 'penultima' like they are a normal part of everyday speech. I did have to have a dictionary handy while reading these, however. I know a lot of wierd and wacky words (I play a lot of Scrabble) and he still had stuff I'd never seen.
3) He actually knows how to write an ending, unlike many of even the very best authors. The 2nd series especially, the ending is exactly what it should be.

He's creating a 'Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant' as we speak; the first book is already out, but I don't have it yet.

The Magic Mountain, by German Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann, about life in an asylum for terminal TB patients in Davos, up in the Swiss Alps. It was like nothing I had ever read, with such thorough depictions of the various characters and situations that it's more real than real life.

(Also, anything by Ray Bradbury. In his case the subject is irrelevant. Whatever he set out to write turned out to be amusing. He had the writer's Midas touch. Everything his pen touched turned into gold.)
*

There are so many... Thank You For Smoking & Little Green Men, both by Christopher Buckley are favorites, mainly because Buckley's sense of humor is dark, wry and I actually laugh out loud when I read his writing. The first book is about a tobacco lobbyist who gets kidnapped by overzealous anti-smokers who try to kill him by covering his body with nicotine patches. He survives, but as a result he can't smoke, making his job difficult. "Little Green Men" is about a disgruntled government operative who works in a black ops program responsible for abducting and anal-probing ordinary American citizens in order to propagate the belief that aliens do exist. He gets drunk and abducts a conservative Senator, and well, the story gets really funny and interesting.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is probably my favorite book with The Fountainhead a close second--both because of the epic scope of the stories and because reading both of these books is an emotional experience. I usually reread either of these before starting a new job or if I've ended a bad relationship.... if it was a really bad relationship, I'll read both of them.

Other favorites are Vox by Nicholson Baker (a brilliant short novel that spans a telephone conversation between two people that meet over a phone-sex line), A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (hysterical, creative, pathetic and unfortunately reminds me of several of my family members), White Noise by Don Delillo (a funny, subtle novel about a family that is having difficulty dealing with postmodern technology, alternative lifestyles, death and toxic waste. The novel fictionalizes the consequences of the mid-80's experience of watching life on TV instead of experiencing it)--also Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy & almost anything by William Gibson and Philip K. Dick.

Originally posted by lmgnyc
.... & almost anything by William Gibson and Philip K. Dick.

Yeah, it's amazing how few people actually know who Phillip K. Dick was, but they have been watching movies based on his work all their lives.

Originally posted by Ambient Sound
Yeah, it's amazing how few people actually know who Phillip K. Dick was, but they have been watching movies based on his work all their lives.

A Scanner Darkly is next-directed by Richard Linklater, with Winona Ryder & Keanu Reaves.

Did you see Abre Los Ojos? It was the Spanish film that Vanilla Sky was based on (Abre Los Ojos is much better)--although Dick wasn't credited, there are concepts in the story that are similar to Ubik. It is hard to imagine that the screenwriters didn't read it.