What's your favorite book in your library?

What is your favorite book that you own? Okay, okay... you can mention more than one.

Well, I don't have too many books in my collection, but of what I own I'd have to say I love Hackers by Steven Levy (no relation to the 90s movie) and the Harry Potter series, especially Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Hackers is pretty obscure, I'm sure, but I just love the author's writing style. He makes his subjects come alive and his passion for the topic shines through. No need to explain why I love HP.

WOW!

I'm so amazed that this group has members! Yay! *so excited*

I'll have to look into Hackers...

This is a tough one! I like different books for different reasons!

Medieval Reader is up there just because of the random fact that the copy I have used to belong to my mom's college professor, and I bought it 200 miles away from where my mom went to college, at a used book sale!

As far as books I like to read, The Brothers K is my favorite.

And then there are books that currently belong to my parents, but which I will acquire eventually. I really want to get my hands on Psalter und Harfe, which is a family heirloom dating 6 generations back!

Let's see...

The Price of the Ticket is one of my favorites... simply because Baldwin is one of the greatest essayists of all times...

Song of Solomon is my favorite novel as of yet... Gotta love Toni!

Writing Down the Bones is my fav book on writing... it really doesn't get much better.

There are a lot more that I absolutely love: Half of a Yellow Sun, Birds Without Wings, The Kite Runner and Middlesex ... but there would be far too many to name.

Favorite that I own? Oh dear, so hard...

Fragile Heritage by Sara Hylton, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, Babyville by Jane Green... It's so hard to narrow it down. I love all the Harry Potter novels, all of my LM Montgomery books... glory of glories, too many books to name! :)

I used to think I had abnormal taste for someone my age, but more and more I'm finding that is certainly not the case. Yay for 20-somethings. ;)

Middlemarch. Now and forever. I can open it at any point and just start reading. My weimaraner recently made short work of my trade paperback, though. grrr.

Great idea for a group, Lhea.

All the Tortall books by Tamora Pierce, and the Tomorrow series by John Marsden

Going through a tough break-up not of my choosing i've turned to Graham Greene's 'The End of the Affair'; nothing else captures the bizzare and contradictory relationship between love and hate quite so accurately or movingly. Then, when it all gets too much, there's always Alexander Solzyenitsyn's 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; just to let me know that no matter how bad i gets life goes on and the human spirit survives. And hey, at least i'm not doing 30 years in a Soviet gulag!

Darkatnoon,

Those sound like two books that I could use right now...

I'm always amazed by the power of books to help you through hard times just by letting you know your not alone and that everybody goes through the same things in their own way.

When its not all doom and gloom I'll go for pretty much anything by George Orwell, and Catch 22 has always had the ability to make me laugh and cry in equal measure. I still think "Where are the Snowdons of yesteryear?" is one of the most spine tingling phrases in english literature, but I have no idea why.

Other than that I owe an eternal debt to Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, without which i would probably be 'doing my duty' and dying for queen and country in the British army. I'm glad I read that one in time!!!

Im Westen Nichts Nues... definitely one of my favorite novels in the world. I haven't read it in quite some time...

As for Orwell, I think I like his essays more than I like his fiction.

On the whole I think I'd agree with your Orwell assessment, with England Your England and Homage to Catalonia topping my list, but I feel the political dimension of his fictional work makes up for his admittedly underwhelming prose. And who doesn't have a tear in their eye when Boxer gets carted off to the knackers? The death and betrayal of idealism summed perfectly in one page.

I'd never heard of James Baldwin, but I’ll certainly be checking him out when I get the chance. Is The Price of the Ticket the best place to start?

Oh geez, I'm almost embarrassed.

That's a great question... where to start.

Well Price of the Ticket is the complete collection of his essays. And, the only (of his nonfiction) that I own. I'm not even sure how his essays are bound in smaller series. By default, I'll say yes if you can find it in local bookstore or library it... it's the way to go.

The best I can do is offer a quote which I think describes Baldwin's own writing:

"There is an illusion about America, a myth about America to which we are clinging which has nothing to do with the lives we lead... this collision between one's image of oneself and what one actually is is always very painful and there are two things you can do about it, you can meet the collision head-on and try to become what you really are or you can retreat and try to remain what you thought you were, which is a fantasy, in which you will certainly perish." (whew) --Notes for a Hypothetical Novel

I think this quote best describes Baldwin's works. I'm not a Baldwin scholar by any means.... But he crafts works of words to meet head on with the collision of history versus myth, identity versus illusion, progress versus complacency. He holds a literary miror up to himself and to his country with the hope that it may change the present, the future, the nation and the world.

Gotta be a tossup between East of Eden and Sometimes a Great Notion. Both are amazing masterpieces that make you feel changed after you read them.

I don't have many books on my list yet (mostly consising of HP) but out of the ones i have i really enjoyed reading Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban, I love Sirius and Harry's relationship in this book.

Oh dear, how to choose... I'll name a few at any rate:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Quintet by Douglas Adams - his writing style just cracks me up.

Persuasion by Jane Austen - just read this one, and I think I liked it better than P&P, S&S AND Emma. If you ever want proof that people have not changed in 200 years, that's where you go.

Timeline by Michael Crichton. COULD NOT put this one down.

There's many more but (while mentioning Harry Potter as well) I will stop there. :D

Persuasion is my favorite of Austen's novels, too! I didn't like Emma much, nor S&S, but P&P and Persuasion are both quite entertaining. I'm glad I'm not alone in listing this as my favorite of hers.

I'd say my all time favorite book EVER is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - I am so in love with his writing, and this book in particular was just... incredible. It's a classic for a really good reason - it embodies everything a book should be!

Other favorites: The Once and Future King by T.H. White, Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, and The Godfather by Mario Puzo among many others! =D

My favourites are Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, which is like a thinking person's DaVinci Code. It is a fiercely intellingent mystery filled with ambiguity rather than the neat endings that make books like DaVinci Code as stimulating as a hollywood movie.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami is a surreal journey into the subconscious. It is about a boy coming of age and finding his inner strength, a bereaved woman who travels in time through the sheer strength of her desire and an old man mysteriously touched by an accident who can talk to cats.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is my favourite love story, written with all the lushness and magic realism that GGM is famous for.

Finally, Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie is a thought-provoking look at the interface of religion, tradition, modern urban society, again with a touch of dramatic magic to make things interesting.

These all fall more or less under "magic realism". Somehow I feel the postmodern world we live in is best expressed with elements of the supernatural to illustrate what goes on under the surface.

Do you agree, my fellow gen-y ers?

You know, my brother RAVES about the Satanic Verses. I have to get around to seeing what it's all about.

I just picked up Love in the Time of Cholera last month, but I honestly haven't got around to reading it yet.

Geez,
the more I read everyone's lists. The more I realize how far I am behind in my reading!

And yes, so far I love magic realism... but I haven't read enough to make an intelligible comment on it!

Favorite book I own?! Are you serious about this question?! How can I choose my favorite book of all the books in my library? That's like a mother choosing among her children!

BUT I will do my best here... I have the 50th Anniversary edition of The Lord of the Rings and it really is a gorgeous edition. Gilt-edged pages, leatherbound, lovely illustrations, and not a single typo to be found (you would be amazed how many typos there were in the leatherbound edition of The Hobbit!).

I also have a lovely hardback with a case of Henryk Sienkiewicz's Quo Vadis?, another book I absolutely adore. And I have the Everyman hardback of Wilbour's original translation of Les Misérables*, the one with the picture of Victor Hugo on the front.

So those are my top three books of all time — but they have about four hundred other books close on their heels. *hugs her library*

*Touchstone not working unless I lose the accented "e" and that I refuse to do :-P

Wow, there's a ton of books in this thread that just got added to my TBR list. Thanks, Lhea, for creating this group!

Absolute faves are hard to pick out, but if I had to pick just a few from my collection, The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse would be at the absolute top of the list. Others favorites in my collection include Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (I love Satanic Verses as well, but I think Midnight's Children far outstrips it for originality and importance), Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.

edited just to kick Touchstones...

My absolute most favorite favorite is Ada, or Ardor: a family chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov. I started rereading it a few weeks ago and on every page found myself saying, "yes, this is amazing, this is more amazing than you remembered it."

Probably my two next favorites would be Wuthering Heights and Hemingway's The Garden of Eden. If I let myself get past the top three there would be just too long a list....

I'll never manage to pick one! I love way too many books. My two absolute favorites are probably The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Recently, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro had a similar effect, but I'm not sure it'll last up there with those two. I also love all my books by Guy Gavriel Kay, Robin Hobb, George R.R. Martin, and Sharon Kay Penman, particularly The Sunne in Splendour.

(touchstones are dead)

A lot of new books on my TBR list as well...

The more I review the postings... the more I realize I'm not really a bibliophile, I've just been impersonating one.

(How could I forget Invisible Man, shame on me.)

I have The Remains of the Day, littlebookworm (can I call you lbw?) but I haven't read it yet. Recommendations always bump books up my interminably long to-read list :-)

Ugh, I had a horrible experience with Invisible Man. I'd never read it, and we went through it for my English class in my first semester of college. I had to read part of it aloud in class, and of course it was an embarassing part, when the black boys were involuntarily sexually aroused by a scantily clad white woman in a men's club, and then punished for it... I felt my face flaming as I read. And I cannot make myself pick up that book now. My loss, I am sure.

You can all call me lbw - I'm used to it. :) The Remains of the Day is a bit slow to start, but the subtleties of the emotion that Ishiguro gets across without even saying anything made it for me. It is an amazing book.

ah, i don't think i could ever just pick one favourite ...

here's a few on that list, though:
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
The Captain's Verses, Pablo Neruda
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

... and i could probably go on for a while.

among the top books for me, i would have to mention
Persuasion by austen,
jane eyre by bronte,
clockwork orange by burgess,
frankenstein by shelley,
one flew over the cuckoos nest by kesey
and fear and loathing in las vegas by thompson
love em!

Novel: Midnights Children by Salman Rushdie
Short stories: Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
Non-Fiction: Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence, The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski, Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk, Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault...

...and I would, of course, recommend any of the books in my library which are given four stars or above to anyone who is interested in the subject matter of the text in question.

(edited to add authors)

Hard to say considering I haven't got around to reading them all just yet. If I had to pick a single favourite, then probaby A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and Star Wars: Republic Commando: True Colors by Karen Traviss get honourable mentions.

Yes wisewoman! You must get past the prologue!
(Let me know what you think of it once you've finished.)

Gosh, I think I own The Remains of the Day, too. I haven't read it. *shame* I have far to many unread books on my bookshelves.

I'm really behind in my Austen. My sister lives by her though. Did anyone see the Jane Austen Book Club (or read the book, I guess). I loved it. It made me want to write Toni Morrison Book Club about 4 random Black Women in the City.

ah well,
all of these great books I haven't read is starting to depress me. I need to sign off of LT for a while...

Hmm. Hard to pick. I think LOTR gives me great joy. I read it twice now.
But the one I read over and over is The Reckoning: A Novel by James Byron Huggins. This book is just fun to read. I have read it at least 4 times.

Fiction:
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

Non-Fiction:
The Rebel by Albert Camus
Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset
The Orientalist by Tom Reiss
The Outsider by Colin Wilson

I really tried with the Gormenghast trilogy, but I got about halfway through the first book and just felt like I was forcing myself to read and not enjoying it at all. It's a shame, I know so many people who like it. I do love Fathers and Sons though.

If I'm really only allowed to chose one, my favorite would have to be Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay.

If I get to choose more than one, every book by Janny Wurts and all the rest of GGK. And maybe Heart of Darkness, too.

Gormenghast is very slow to start, but once you get into it... it's the most engrossing thing I've ever read. Several scenes are simply laugh out loud hysterical too.

Here's my top favorites in no order:

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
The Pharmako Trilogy by Dale Pendell

headwideopen: YES! YES! YES! I love the Gormenghast books too! Prunesquallor never fails to crack me up, and Irma too. I glory in Peake's splendidly detailed prose, and I can just feel my vocabulary expanding whenever I pick those up. And such Dickensian names! — Slagg and Steerpike and Swelter and Flay and Rottcodd. I love it. I am about due for another reread. Have you ever seen the BBC miniseries? If so, what did you think of it? I saw it... *reserves comments for another post*...

And aznstarlette, I just mooched I Capture the Castle the other day on BookMooch. Can't wait for it to arrive. It's been compared to du Maurier's Rebecca which I adored, and really I've heard nothing but glowing reviews on it.

And Les Misérables is my favorite novel of all time. WHAT a book.

i absolutely adore I Capture the Castle - a friend gave me a copy for christmas some years back and i still thank her to this day. i hope you enjoy it, as well!

and it's funny - the same friend who gave me that book, we both just loved Eponine from Les Mis.

Don Quixote. I think I've read it all the way through about four times in a little more than the past decade (what can I say, I started early), and I always find something different.

Whoa. reading all these lists makes me want to get going-off the top (in random order)
empire falls-richard russo
the rainbow- d.h. lawrence
catch 22- joseph heller
auschwitz and after-charlotte delbo
beloved- toni morrison
we were the mulvaneys- joyce carol oates
the corrections- jonathen franzen
I could just keep going. but i think each one of these books captures a "moments of being" (woolf), and society, and explores them in various ways.

Hmm, just off the top of my head:

Persuasion by Jane Austen - I really identified with Anne's personality, and Captain Wentworth was dreamy.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - Well, to be honest I've read about 90% of it, but I'm pretty sure it will be one of my favorites when I'm finished. :)

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis - such a knack for exactly describing the quirks of human nature that usually aren't touched upon

to aznstarlette:
It seems like most people either love or hate Catcher in the Rye. Unfortunately, I'm in the latter -- I just didn't see what all the fuss was about. Anybody else have that problem?

yes, i've had the same feedback about Catcher in the Rye. i love it because it's raw and almost like a stream of consciousness when Salinger wrote it. plus, i find Salinger endlessly fascinating. i even wrote to him once, back in high school. not surprisingly, he never responded (he's a committed recluse, if you didn't know).

the scene where holden buys the time of a prostitute because he was lonely - i found that both endearing and disturbing at the same time.

Ahh yes, I did enjoy that scene, and for a while after I read the book, I kept calling people and things "crumby" and "phony." I just got a little annoyed with his whiny complaints and kept waiting for something to really happen. That's all!

I fall into the hate category for The Catcher in the Rye primarily because I didn't think it was nearly as disturbing as I had been lead to believe. I didn't find it shocking at all, actually.

Jane Austen, LM Montgomery, and Jean Plaidy come to mind...

I loved Catcher in the Rye, and I thought all Holden's whiny complaints and observations were hilarious. I guess the whole book is one huge excercise in characterization which I found very successful and funny.

I'm reading Catcher in the Rye, right now... for the first time.

It's not what I expected it to be. And, I wish I had read it first at a younger age -- I might have enjoyed it more.

I can't think of a favorite book, I like so many, but the book that currently looks best on my shelf (an important consideration), is David Chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon. It dwarfs most everything else, since it's hardbound and about the length of War and Peace.

Here's my LT review for Catcher (one of the few that I've bothered to write), courtesy of my second profile (created specifically for books that I've read, but have never bothered to purchase):

"This is, without question, the most overrated book that I have had the grave misfortune to encounter. I will grant that, in its day, the book was probably read as a refreshing challenge to the generally accepted understanding of what means to be a youth, but, by today's standards, Holden is a seventeen year old kid struggling through a sixth grade existential crisis.

This book has not aged well."

I love it BGP! Thanks for that.

!!!

Why I must admit, that is the best remark I've read on LT all year!

And I love you for it, BGP. Geez.

Hands down my favourite book would have to be Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

Danielle

aw poor Holden has been run over by the biggest mass transit bus out there, back and forth, red feathered hat and all ...

not an attack on your opinions, btw. i'm just saying-

>58 aznstarlette:

LOL

Say/imply what you will, but Philosojerk's and LeahJLove's support only confirm the fact that Holden/Salinger had it coming!

I have no problem with Salinger's prose; I enjoyed Nine Stories, and would certainly recommend that text to anyone who was disappointed and/or bored with Catcher.

Ok, I've picked one for each genre.

Poetry--A House Waiting for Music by David Hernandez

Fiction--(it was a toss up but) Battle Royale by Koshun Takami (the book, NOT the comics) beat Kafka on the Shore by Hiruki Murakami

Nonfiction--Not That You Asked by Steve Almond

Short Story Collection--The Apple's Bruise by Lisa Glatt

Narrowing it down to one favorite book is terribly tricky, but I am compelled to choose Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card, a spectacularly well-written novel with both an exciting and original premise and a stunning execution.

Okay I am a huge Harry Potter fan but I would honestly have to say so far of the books I own my favorite would be Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz.

I'm going to take this question a bit differently. Yes, I own my favorite books of all time (they're listed in my profile, I think), but there are a few books that I prize because they're rare or mean a lot to me as gifts:
I have an old hardback copy of William Saroyan's The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, one of my favorites.
Several books that I bought at used shops in London, especially the script of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita
A copy of Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler that my first boyfriend bought me
My very well-worn copy of Ayn Rand's We the Living, which I read about 20 times in high school

aneffigy: if you have yet to read Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, you should pick it up (that is, sometime before your 21st reading of We the Living)...

I feel that I have to update my response to this question. I recently won an eBay auction for The Anti-Masonic Almanac for the Year of the Christian Era 1829 by Edward Giddins. Who happens to have been my great great great great grandfather. I haven't received the goods yet, but it is now officially my favorite.

I love Dracula by Bram Stoker i havent seen the film as i fear it just wouldnt be as good as the book. I also like Sea Glass by Anita Shreve.

I am a romance fan tough, so my favourite book in my library is Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas.

Like you guys, I have added so many more books to my wishlist after this thread. Will we ever get through them all? Mine's in the 400s now.

My answers:

Middlesex
Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
IT
In Cold Blood
Eat, Pray, Love
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--from there, they were all downhill from there.

Well, I haven't read it in a long, long time, but Where the Red Fern Grows is still probably my all-time favorite.

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.

My reading of Kidnapped was spoiled by reading an inferior copy of the book. I'm a bit of a pedant when it comes to grammar and spelling etc so I couldn't read through the book without getting frustrated. I looked in the bibliographic information in the front and discovered the book had been printed in Romania during the early 1990s so perhaps no one checked the spelling etc of the plates before it went to press. Oh well.

I few favorites for classics I love Kidnapped, Jane Eyre, Hamlet and Midshipman Hornblower.

For modern books I love Neverwhere, Sten, The Dragonbone Chair and Alanna.

Manga/Graphic Novels I love Fruits Basket, Bleach, Mr. Punch and Fray

dreamlikecheese:
The same thing happened to me when I tried to read a horribly-edited Barnes & Noble edition of Les Miserables. If you try Kidnapped again, I recommend one of the nice N.C. Wyeth-illustrated editions, or (even better), the original text edition: Kidnapped; or, The Lad with the Silver Button.

*edited to fix touchstone*

I have also always cherished my copies of the NC Wyeth illustrated Robin Hood and The Mysterious Island

I might have to have a look out for those editions. The story was wonderful and I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't got so caught up on typographical errors. That's what I get for borrowing books from my housemate....I would never have bought such an inferior copy myself! :)

My favourite book in my library is a copy of Charles de Lint Tombs. A collection of short stories. Normally I'm not into short stories, but these ones I read again and again

my library is 500 of my favorite books... i cant really narrow it down... i love reading =)

Of course you love all your books, but a few must stick out as special. Its like how your not suppose to have a favorite child.

Its really hard but off the top of my head if I had to pick:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was the first love story I ever read and it has stayed with me since.

Persuasion by Jane Austen. I love second chances. I identify with Anne(though I never lost my true love) and Capt. Wentworth can have me if he ever leaves Anne.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by Tolkien. Ahh...what can I say action, adventure, love, this book has it all. And Aragorn is the MAN!!!

I also love my TinTin Collection by Herge.

Animal Farm by Orwell. Read it as a 12 year old and it taught me so much about life, inequities and how the more things change the more they remain the same.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agathe Christie. Brilliant book. Christie at her finest!

Sorry I know the original post was supposed to be for one book, it was just too hard to choose.

There are countless books I love, a few I hate, but one I quote from and turn to time after time: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. Every time I have the "mean reds" or something is not quite right in my life, that is the book I pick up. I've given it as a gift, made various boyfriends read it, and deeply identify with Holly Golightly, Capote's protagonist. The movie is sheerly amazing as well, but there is something incomparably wistful and satisfying about the novella.

I'd have to go with The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice, but since I have yet to read all of the books I own, I might change that in time...

Hm. I'd have to say Pride and Prejudice. In addition to it being my favorite, it's the one I turn to for comfort or a good re-read. The Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre, and To Kill a Mockingbird are the others that tend to really draw me in every time I read them.

Mmm, favorites.

Song of the Lark by Willa Cather.
The Risk Pool, Richard Russo.
The View From Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg.
A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett.

These are kind of the ones that haven't changed over time. I have others that might be dubbed as "current favorites" (If on a Winter's Night a Traveler)... and some "past favorites" (Salinger), but... I dunno. It's a constant shift, you know?

Absolute favorites (books i read every year or so) are East of Eden and The Little Prince (which I read first in English then in French as a pretense of keeping up my high school French).

wow that is the hardest question ever...

I think In a Sunburned Country and A walk in the woods by Bill Bryson because it always makes me laugh, anything by Irving Stone (The Agony and the ecstasy, Lust for Life etc) because everything i've read has been great (but i'm an art student so maybe I love those stories more than others because of who they are about), Jonathan Carroll's books because as disturbing as they can be they always surprise me, The Alchemist for being short, sweet and touching, Roald Dahl for my childhood and his twisted originality, Ray Bradbury for his imagination and humor.. Enders Game, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit hmmm...old school The Giving Tree ! Hard Boiled wonderland and the end of the world ... The Things they carried, The princess bride, Narnia, Little Women, The Shinning (only because I STILL visually remember things from that book.. talk about a lasting impression!

ok ok i'm done, obviously i have no idea what my favorite books are, only that i Love so many :)

Plato's Symposium
The Brothers Karamazov

I love all my books to pieces, but one that has a special place in my heart is Sophie's World. Not for the book itself (which I found mediocre), but because after I moved from Winnipeg during high school, my Winnipeg friends got together, bought a copy, read it together, and made notes in the margins full of personal comments, little jokes, and philosophical reactions. Then they mailed the book to me.

Reading that book is like having them around.

I'd have to say that my favorite book that I own is my First Edition English Translation of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I'm picking this one not because it is my favorite story that I own, but it is by far the best physical specimen of bookage that I have. It is beautiful and exciting. I got it for almost nothing ($18) and it now has a resell value of almost $200 (which I will never see because I will never sell it). And I do love the story.

Some other favorites that I own:

Serious books:
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Anthem by Ayn Rand
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Serious kid's books:
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Giver by Lois Lowry

Seriously funny books:
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett

Non-Fiction:
Anthropological Theory edited by R Jon McGee
Rig Veda

Concerning physical books, I've a particular affection for a puzzle book (I don't have it on hand, so I can't link to it) which my sophmore crush in high school bought me for Christmas that year - he bought himself a copy as well, which I found immensely charming, and we started dating a little while after (We're still friends after 8 years - he was a groomsman at my wedding this past summer).

Otherwise, I have to put in a good word for my old worn copy of Gods and Generals - although I've actually now a trade paperback, I still hold on to my mass-market paperback that I brought to France on a foreign exchange as one of only two books for a two week trip - I read it some half a dozen times while there. The other was Children of the Mind, which I didn't quite like as much.

I have such strong feelings about so many books I've read that it's hard for me to pick one favorite. I think if a gun was held to my head, I'd have to say Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale. To this day I can't quite articulate what makes this book so important to me. I can only say that no other author I've ever read writes like Helprin, and Helprin's never written anything quite like Winter's Tale.

The first time I read the book, and often afterward, I tried to imagine how I would go about reviewing it. How could I communicate how unique it was? When I read Benjamin de Mott's review of the book in the New York Times, I was relieved to see that I wasn't alone:

"There's far more I wish to say about the book--so much more that I find myself nervous, to a degree I don't recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance."

To this day, that's about the best I can do. I still can't quite nail it down, but I know it's important.

The entire Sandman series by Neil Gaiman is probably my favourite :) Many others come in close second though.

Fiction
The Tomorrow Series and Letters from the Inside by John Marsden
The Search Party and Spanish Gold by George A. Birmingham
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon

Nonfiction
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Manga/Comics
Nana by Ai Yazawa
Fray Joss Whedon
Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan

I gotta go with The Power of One, its one of the books that, though it might not be known as one of the best works of literature ever, I still find myself going back to it again and again.

Though the classic Count of Monte Cristo deserves an honorable mention as well :)

I can't pick, thats too hard!

It's a tie between a much sought after 1920's hardcover set of the Emily of New Moon series and a hardcover collection of the complete works of Byron published in 1856.

The latter was a gift from an aunt that I opened in the company of six small cousins. Being curious children excited by presents, they all crowded in to see what it was. My aunt's reaction was a very emphatic "Get away from that! Don't any of you dare touch that book!" As a result, I've never stopped to think too hard about the cost. The guilt would be too much.

Gosh, I have so many favorites...
I think, though, for sheer pleasure and giddiness The Complete Calvin and Hobbes wins, hands down. Bill Watterson is an awesome genius.

ohh valkylee, I have to say I may agree with you. Lots of books go in and out of my most loved list, but calvin and hobbes will always be there!

#5- Yes, LOVE Writing Down the Bones. I also love A Writer's Companion. Both two of my favorite reference books.

#20 - Have you read Foucault's Panopticons? I read it my freshman year of college and while it can be very confusing, once you realize his argument technique, its BRILLIANT!

Ok, as for my favorites...

Of those in my collection...

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Summer of my German Soldier by Bette Greene
Beloved by Toni Morrison

and one that would be on the list had I not recently lost it to water damage
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

#97I don't think I've read A Writer's Companion, I'll have to check that out.

I read Beloved last year, and I didn't fall in love with it... not like I expected that I would. I reckon, perhaps I should pick the book up... and try it again.

And, I must admit: The Outsiders was one of my favorite books growing up. I wonder if I still have it around...

Hmmm.....this is a tough one

The Power of One might be my favorite book of all time, though The Count of Montecristo is also up there.

I'm a fan of the library for most of my books, but after I read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger I had to go out and buy it- I knew I would want to read it over and over again. And I have.

How do you choose just one? ::scans her library:: errr, it's a toss up between Phantom by Susan Kay, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers. All books I've read at least twice.

Mine would have to be Gone with the Wind and Pride and Prejudice. Those would have to be my all time favorites.

I know I could probably get stoned for this by many book lovers, but I just never understand how Pride and Prejudice could be anyones favorite book! Its just so boring and restrained and the conversations go on forever. I don't know, it always surprises me that people love that book that much!

I think some books are beautifully written, and some touch your soul, and some are just fun or funny or action packed.. but pride and prejudice? none of those. I just don't get it!

#103 - I'm with you on that one. I was completely unimpressed by Austen.

I have a copy of The Hunting of the Snark, illustrated by Ralph Steadman, which my dad bought years ago and recently gave to me. It has everything - love the poem, love the illustration, love the sentimental value.

Oh, and also - even though some of the people I love and respect most in the world would list Austen as a favourite, I've never seen the appeal either. I'd rather eat a copy of Pride and Prejudice than read it.

yay I am not alone! haha

You guys don't know what you're missing. I adore Austen! Her characters are wonderful and the humor is so subtle and so clever you could almost miss it if you don't know it's there. But when you do... I read her books with a big grin spreading on my face for much of the time.

And yet it's not all just a laugh. She deals with real issues facing women (and men!) during that period, and it's so interesting to see how people really haven't changed. They were still rude and selfish back then, but it was covered with a finer veneer than it is today. They use the politest language possible, but somehow they always manage to say what they want and get their points across. Brilliant stuff.

Editing to say, one of my favorite books in my library is my one-volume edition of Austen's novels. When I discovered her, I read it straight through in less than two weeks. It's a lovely hardcover with gilt edges, and cost me about 33 cents at a library sale! :-)

107 - Yeah, I know there's supposed to be a lot of humor - or perhaps the better word is sarcasm - in Austen's writing. But I just don't feel it because it's so covered up by the romantic mush. I'd much prefer to read Dickens, get the Victorian social commentary and laugh my ass off every other paragraph. I guess Austen does that for some people. Not me. But I did persevere and read three!

Same here, I've READ Austen's books... I just don't think they're all that great. Can't account for taste I guess :)

Romantic mush? *wails*

It would be a boring world if we all liked the same things. Though I will say Dickens is one of my favorites too :)

I love many books The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens both quite high up but my two favorite books are Harry Potter and the Prisioner of Askaban by J.K. Rowling and Runaways-The Good Die Young by Brian K. Vaughan.

My favorites are Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz : London is the Best City in America by Laura Dave : The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff : Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling and last but not least...The Complete Tales and Poens of Edgar Allan Poe.

Out of the ones that I own... hmmm...

I would have to say...

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams because of the humor, and Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines because it was the first book where I met the author.

I just recently found a copy of my favorite book since I was a child, The Giver so I'm going to have top throw that in here as well.

Right now I'd probably have to say Enders Game. Its one of the few books I can go back too every few years and really enjoy.

Mine would probably be the boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia that my parents gave me for Christmas... In 1990...

That was my first real introduction to the idea of a 'series' of books, and I can remember nights staying up way past my bedtime as my mom would read them to me and my brother. They are by no means in pristine condition, but they are in rather nice condition still, and the stories inside them are still some of my favorites.

After that, probably the Harry Potter series - another wonderful 7-part series that captured me, and one I am very very much looking forward to reading to my children one day.

Hmm.... I have too many..

I have all the Marian Keyes books which I really enjoy but my absolute favorite would have to be The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

I have many favorite books, but the two that stand out the most are Lord Demon by Roger Zelazny and Servant of the Shard by R.A. Salvatore.

Atlas Shrugged. Beyond a shred of a doubt. Especially mine. It's marked to high heaven.

The Fountainhead, Catch-22, anything by Milan Kundera, The Moon and Sixpence by William Somerset Maugham, Wuthering Heights, Going after Cacciato, All Quiet on the Western Front, Cat's Cradle, anything by Isaac Asimov.

And the list goes on and on and on.

My favorite book in my library would probably have to be "Hannibal" by Thomas Harris (I don't know why, but there it is). After that would be "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman, the Harry Potter series, and Tennyson's "In Memoriam".

To be fair, in relation to my comment earlier on Austen, I bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies today on audio. And I have to say, this is an Austen I can get on board with. Its all she needed, some kickass zombie blood humor ... now the book is awesome.

History of My Life by Giacomo Casanova

There are so many books in my library, that it's hard to narrow it down, but the Casanova Memoirs really are the best adventure story ever told. I mean, who else can escape from prison using a metal pike, 40 pictures of saints, a Bible, and a dish of macaroni and cheese? :)

Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges!!!

I used to say that it was absolutely impossible to choose just one favorite book, but that was before I found Borges. There's really no one else like him.

That's a hell of a book. I bet it could make an excellent desert island choice, given the wide range of stuff in there.

Catch-22 would be the one for me.

There is absolutely no way I could pick just one...so I'll try just a few:

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - I am a GA girl after all!
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - loved since high school
Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy - this is the series I read a couple times per year :)
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson - this one I've just added in the last couple months
Bulfinch's Mythology - I can't get enough of the mythologies

It's been a good three years since my last post in this thread, but the lsit hasn't changed much:

Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
Demian by Hermann Hesse
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire

That's the top of the hill as of now.

Brave New World by Huxley
and Amusing Ourselves To Death

I'm surprised I didn't see this as someone's favorite, but for me it's the His Dark Materials triliogy books by Philip Pullman, without a doubt. I try and re-read them every year around Christmas.

The Little Prince is second and Pride and Prejudice comes in third.

>128 RosyLibrarian:: I do love those books, but I felt like the ending was sorta weak. I should reread those sometime soon... I'm finishing up Harry Potter soon.

so the wind wont blow it all away is probably my favorite and all of richard brautigans move me

jim tully is unknown goodness

jack blacks you cant win is another good down and out writing

favorite based on the book alone...a bit tough... maybe the foresters by tennyson first edition or all my brautigan first editions
thinking about getting brautigans please plant this book

i also adore for reference reasons native american ethnobotany amazing someone compiled all that

Truman Capote - In Cold Blood

Middlemarch and Song Of Solomon will be read soon.