What is your favourite book of all time?

Hard to choose... Dune (Not the whole cycle, just the first book). I'm fan of the saga, but the first book is soooo fabulous that I'm absorbed by this novel each time I read it. And in second place : Songmaster from Orson Scott Card.
 
My favourite books of all time, wait for it, are.....

Weaveworld by Clive Barker
1984 by George Orwell
The Stand by Stephen King
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

They might not up there with the classics but they are all great reads.

Ps To Brian, I read 'The Glass Bead Game' by Hermann Hesse when I was about 16, I bought it in a charity shop for 50p, I really need to read it again. :)
 
I'm with knivesout - this is a difficult question - but a good one! Well, my favorite NON-fiction book is the Bible. And I guess my favorite work of Fiction is...probably...Dune by Frank Herbert...OR...The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman.
Now, there are several VERY close second place books which could be considered my favorite "depending upon the weather" (an old mountain phrase :D). They would be: Dracula (Bram Stoker), The Hobbit (Tolkien), White Gold Wielder (Stephen R. Donaldson), The Elfstones of Shannara (Terry Brooks), Game of Thrones (GRRM), Call of the Wild (Jack London), and Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes).

So many books...so little time.
-g-
 
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Definitely a tough call...though I'm going to take a page from JP, the two I've picked are books that I can read over and over and be just as embroiled in each time. They are:
Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
Battlefield Earth, L. Ron Hubbard

Although it may just be that I've not read enough books because I've never read The Glass Bead Game by Hesse and only perused War and Peace when I couldn't get through it. Strikingly, the Russian short stories I read in college were so much better written than the Tolstoy Tome - and I cannot remember a name of a single one of them...what a horrible student.
 
All right as it seems to have been stated multiple times - what a tough question to answer! I will take the easy way as some others have....and name a few!

According to my 2 and 1/2 year old - The Very Hungry Caterpillar! (have to admit that I love that book as well) his close second is with the rabbits Guess How Much I Love You. If you can find the out of print children’s book Alexander and The Magic Mouse by Martha Sanders it is a wonderful story and fantastic art.

My all time favorite, even though I can read the ones listed below over and over as well, has got to be Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. His descriptive writing, the fact that I read this book as the same age as the main characters, and it doesn’t belong in just science fiction, but a whole different realm of literature makes this book one that when I think of it I still get chills.

For me there are a few categories -
Classic - Les Miserables
Scifi - Dune followed by Jurassic Park followed Battlefield Earth followed by Contact
Fantasy - Lord of the Rings (Can you just name one of the four - I think not!) followed by Song of Ice and Fire particularly Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings
Humor - Hitchhikers Guide
Horror - The Stand by Stephen King followed very closely (even though technically not a book but contained in a anthology) Sandkings by GRRM

And the few that fit into various other categories - Wrinkle in Time (ML) , Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine (RB), Eyes of the Dragon (SK), Essential Calvin & Hobbs (just kidding)

js
 
Again, here's someone who finds this question very difficult to answer, I've read so many! Where to begin?

I was thinking about which books I had read again and again, and the first that popped into my head was Hitchhikers, but I honestly think I enjoyed Dirk Gentlys' Holistic Detective Agency more. It's a tough call, it really is.

As the last books were humour, my Stick of Fantasy Gold has to go The Saga of The Exiles by Julian May, although it could be argued that it is both sci-fi and fantasy. Still a great set of books, and then Intervention and The Galactic Milieu Trilogy top it off nicely.

As for pure/hard sci-fi I am leaning towards Consider Phlebus (sp?) by Iain M. Banks. I really like all his Culture novels though, and it was really hard to choose between my first choice and Player of Games which was a truly stunning novel. They kinda remind me of Hamiltons universe with the Edenists and Voidhawks being somewhat similar to the Culture.

Then you get to books that I enjoyed as a kid, and to be brutally honest, and this often baffles people, I think my favourite was All Quiet On The Western Front by... *Googling* ...Erich Maria Remarque. I think it is still being used today in schools the world over, but it needs to be, it is a great book.
 
Whoa! Just one? Goddamn Lace, watcha try'n to do to us!!!? *teirs brain on the brink of self implosion*

This is just impossible..but i will say this...
The book that is currently my favorite and effected me the most was Fool's Fate. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't think straight! I tried not to rush through it, but instead pace myself so that would remember all of it and the enjoyment would last longer. This resulted in me, when i wasn't reading that is, wondering aimlessly around the house not being able to focus on anything but THAT BOOK! It was my entire focus. After I finished it, i spent my time daydreaming about it. That was at least a couple years ago now and i STILL think about it. It affected the way a look at things and until another book can do the same it will remain my favorite book of all time. I'm fool and fitzy obsessed:rolleyes: :D :D
 
Timeline by Michael Crichton. The movie sucked, but I can read the book over and over and find a new reason to love it each time.
 
i will go with On A Pale Horse, by Piers Anthony, because reading that was the first time i really realised how brilliant and magical books could be...
 
Lord of the Rings because it is one of the most beautiful books ever written.
 
Just another quickie...

Upon slithering around in my attic looking for a very old edition of Something Wicked This Way Comes (a strong desire to re-read came about when responding to this post earlier) happenstance delivered a favorite book to me from my childhood. If you have never read The Year the Yankees Lost the Penant by Douglass Wallop it is a fun read.

Was turned into a movie and a broadway musical called "Damn Yankees." Wallop wrote around a dozen books, but you would be hard pressed to find any more popular than this. The best part about read this book is nostalgia that, for me. comes from the description of the neighborhoods and setting. I grew up in Washington, D.C. so I guess that matters.

You could do a lot worse with your time than reading this.:rolleyes:
 
If I had been here a week ago I would have said the Gormenghast Series but now I am going to have to say
Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins, it is so politically funny, even if it is from 1991, my dad was the one who recommended it and I thought it was great, Although now my highschool has banned Tom Robbinns books cause there are a lot of sex jokes in it I am working on fixing that though.
 
This is one of the toughest questions ever....

Here is a short list (sorry there cannot just be one) I will add to again and again.

The Dragons Of Autumn Twighlight, Dragons Of Winter Night and Dragons Of Spring Dawning - Weiss & Hickman.
Aurian, Harp Of Winds, Sword Of Flames and Dhiammara - Maggie Furey.
The Redemption Of Althalus - David Eddings.
Waylander's - David Gemmell.
Downfall, Betrayal and Redemption - Jean Rabe.
The Belgauriad - David Eddings.
Mallorian - David Eddings.
 
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