What are your favourite books?

aulsmith: This book explained so many things that happened to me and my friends. A brilliant analysis of how humans create new ideas

aulsmith: I swore off middle-aged academic angst novels after Herzog, but I couldn't put this one down and thought it was spectacular at the end.

aulsmith : All the Freudian undertone really turned me off to his and Lawrence in general.

ahef1963: So evocative that I can see England, smell it, almost touch it.

bluepiano: Not in my top 500 but listing it because other comments have made me want to read it again. Evokes socially-striving working class in the north of England, invites a Freudian approach, explains Lawrence's twerpiness.

aulsmith : I really dislike the Bennetts.

ahef1963: My absolute favourite for many years. First read when I was 16. I had no idea until that point that classic fiction could be funny.

aulsmith : I found the allegory too over-the-top to enjoy this one.

aulsmith : Didn't age well for me. I now find it misogynist and sentimental.

ahef1963: I had no idea that a book could make me cry that hard, twice. Brilliant and heartbreaking story.

aulsmith : I find most of Hawthorne tough going. Too much character and too little action.