A Novel You Love

[dask]

The Hound Of The Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. Don't make a habit of rereading novels usually but have read this three times and each time it accomplishes what it set out to do with 99.9% perfection.

 

[Foxbat]

Have you read the abridged version? I've thought I should, but it seems wrong!

No. It does seem wrong but, in truth, would probably suit me better.

 

[tinkerdan]

Have you read the abridged version? I've thought I should, but it seems wrong!

That would be:
Abridged Over Troubled Waters
Right?

 

[Rodders]

A novel I've always loved is Iain M. Banks's "The Player of Games". I'm not sure what it is about the novel, but I went back to it many times and it is one of the few books that seemed to get better with each re-read. I think Banks's Surface Detail was the better book, but TPoG will remain my favourite.

I also love The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Again, another book that has massive re-read appeal and it's one that walks that line between SF and Humour and walks it very well. It's a series that I have also enjoyed in TV, Radio Drama and movie.

 

[Parson]

This is such a personal opinion question. I've read in this thread of at least one favorite that I could not read to the end and several I felt were just "meh." But for me if I had to pick one Ender's Game. Perhaps surprising is I've only read it once. On the other hand, I've read On Basilisk Station by David Webber (the first of the Honor Harrington series) at least 5 times and my favorite book in the Honor Harrington series is book 4 On the Field of Dishonor. So really hard question.

 

[paranoid marvin]

How can I say anything other than LOTR. But if that's excluded, then HHGTTG.

 

[Elckerlyc]

A very hard question. You can love a certain novel for various, personal, reasons, which love overtime may shift to another novel. Also, love and appreciation for a novel is not the same as ranking it as the best ever novel, I suppose. Which ranking still would be something very personal.

Anyway, I can only measure my love for a novel by the number of times I have reread them, until that fades away. At least that is my personal experience. Books I have read at least 3 times:
In my youth a book of which I do not recall title or author, only that it was situated in South-Africa, about 2 boys journeying into the wilderness in search of their fathers.
After that, in order of their (temporal) grip on me:
The Last Frontier by Alistair MacLean
Dune by Frank Herbert
Durdane by Jack Vance
Rat Race by Dick Francis
(The Fall of) Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Lately is has become a bit quiet on that front. Can't I love novels anymore?

 

[Randy M.]

This is such a personal opinion question. I've read in this thread of at least one favorite that I could not read to the end and several I felt were just "meh." But for me if I had to pick one Ender's Game.

There is a degree of subjectivity in loving a book. "Meh" was my reaction to EG. On the other hand, Speaker for the Dead was one of the best s.f. novels I read in the '80s; I found it exciting and thoughtful in ways EG just wasn't -- for me.

An afterthought: Sometimes it depends on when you come across a book. My first reading of Moby Dick didn't do much for me; I read it after the class I'd bought it for had run out of time to read and discuss it. I plowed on, but I became impatient and just finished it. I had reason to read it again a few years later, when I wasn't fatigued and didn't become impatient. Somehow it had gained something in that time. The whole made more sense to me. I do wonder what I'd think of it now.

 

[Guttersnipe]

It's a toss-up between Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis and White Fang by Jack London.

 

[Extollager]

I haven't read many novels, but Replay by Ken Grimwood usually comes to mind first. I loved Wolf's Brother by Megan Lindholm too. I was very invested in the main character in both.

What novel do you love?

Demons, by Dostoevsky. I’m reading it for the 8th or 9th time now. That’s the one I had in mind when I posted at the beginning of this thread.

The Secret Agent, by Conrad, is another novel I love.

 

[Parson]

There is a degree of subjectivity in loving a book. "Meh" was my reaction to EG. On the other hand, Speaker for the Dead was one of the best s.f. novels I read in the '80s; I found it exciting and thoughtful in ways EG just wasn't -- for me.

Interestingly (or at least to me), Speaker of the Dead, which I didn't enjoy as much but was clearly a superior novel, changed the way I did funerals. It was xenocide that I found "meh." But even that beat those later semi-clones.

 

[J-Sun]

Hmm, not sure. I love a few perhaps, but maybe I’ll name just one: Foundation.

Yep - I love several and going outside of SF would open up more books but, focusing on SF, I'd have to go for the whole Foundation Trilogy (which is an actual omnibus, so one book, if not strictly a novel) as my most-loved book. I've re-read it several times but hadn't for a long time until last year and it was still a great experience.

 

[Universal_Blonde]

I loved a lot of novels growing up, but I think the book that most warms my heart, the one I quote the most and obsessively turn to, would be Paradise Lost by John Milton. Is it a little long winded? Yes. Was it the first book I ever felt I HAD to annotate? Also, yes. But did it enchant me with its beautiful language? I'm still swooning.

 

[Extollager]

It hasn't had a lot of traffic, but there is a place here at Chrons for the discussion of Milton!

John Milton (a Father of SF?): Poet of the Beautiful and the Sublime

There may be some Chrons people who have a mild intention of reading Milton -- Paradise Lost, "l'Allegro," "Il Penseroso," "Lycidas," Comus, etc. Here's a place where we can encourage one another to act on that wish, because he really is one of the great fountainheads of imaginative literature...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Steve Harrison]

I love too many novels to list, but the ones I love enough to read again every few years are THE STAND by Stephen King and the first five FLASHMAN novels by George Macdonald Fraser.

 

[Universal_Blonde]

It hasn't had a lot of traffic, but there is a place here at Chrons for the discussion of Milton!

John Milton (a Father of SF?): Poet of the Beautiful and the Sublime

There may be some Chrons people who have a mild intention of reading Milton -- Paradise Lost, "l'Allegro," "Il Penseroso," "Lycidas," Comus, etc. Here's a place where we can encourage one another to act on that wish, because he really is one of the great fountainheads of imaginative literature...

www.sffchronicles.com

Thank you for letting me know!

 

[BAYLOR]

Others on ,my list of favorites

War and Peace by Tolstoy A long read, but well worth it .

Night Has A Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich . This a detective noir novel, but not quite. His plot lines and stories are bizarre, as are the motivations of his main characters and, this book , is no exception. The thing about his books is , once you start reading, even and if you don't understand what's going on , you can't it down . Once you hop aboard the Woolrich Rollercoaster, you're in for the full ride and, its quite a ride .

 

[Astro Pen]

Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury
Apart from the incongruous inclusion of the happiness machine chapter it is a joy.

 

[BAYLOR]

Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury
Apart from the incongruous inclusion of the happiness machine chapter it is a joy.

Yes , that's a really good one !

It was also first Bradbury book I read.

 

[Saiyali]

Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

It's not Sci-Fi exactly, but it closely resembles sci-fi in a sort of absurdist, literary way. It's one of very few books I'd love to have written (or even be capable of writing!) ... originally in Italian, but there are good English (and other) translations available almost anywhere.