What is the best book you have ever read?

[The_nun]

Girl with a one track mind,   I had to kep putting it down if anyone sat behind me.

[ACE2M]

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Pappilon - French bloke
Trainspotting - Irvine Walsh
Harrington 2
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

[RED-DOG]

How do I begin to answer this question?



I look at titles like "First do no harm" A stunning account of the highs and lows that make up the the everyday life of a paediatric neurosurgeon. Here is a man who saves lives every day and yet must endure the torture of moral and ethical dilemma that come with the territory when your job is to literally put your hands inside someones mind and remove a piece. "Ah well" he sighs as he suctions up a a few centimetres of gray matter surrounding a child's tumour, "There goes the piano lessons" 

Then there is "The dog Caruso" An incredible story about the adventures of a Canadian frontiersman and the Newfoundland puppy that he won in a shooting contest. I read this book when I was a small boy and was so enthralled that when the Tilley lamp (our only source of light) was doused at bedtime, I crept outside and sat in the cab of my dad's lorry. Once there, I wrapped myself in an old overcoat, and by the glow of the tiny cab-light, the frontiersman, Caruso and I shared amazing experiences and incredible adventures until, on the final page, our hearts bursting with pride, love and sorrow, The frontiersman and I lay Caruso to rest.

How do I compare books like these, and hundreds of others just like them? books that have had a profound effect on me, at different times, for different reasons.

I can't.

[KingPoker]

I read anything regarding special forces, preferrably with SAS and SBS coz they're the hardest, but doesnt matter if fiction or non-fiction gimme! The Duncan Falconer book is superb, charts his life through the SBS!

[AndrewT]

Kama Sutra

Did you read it thoroughly or just give it a quick flick?

[gambleingaz]

all of Janet and Johns

[kinboshi]

The best book I've read recently is The End of Faith by Sam Harris - a breathtakingly lucid account of how religion is not only a massive waste of time, but how tolerance of organised religion is actually dangerous to humanity.

Will have to have a read of that.  Have you read any of Richard Dawkins' books?

[AndrewT]

The best book I've read recently is The End of Faith by Sam Harris - a breathtakingly lucid account of how religion is not only a massive waste of time, but how tolerance of organised religion is actually dangerous to humanity.

Will have to have a read of that.  Have you read any of Richard Dawkins' books?

Surprisingly enough, yes. Haven't read The God Delusion yet - waiting till it comes out in paperback at the end of May (hardback no good for lugging about on the train).

Richard Dawkins = greatest living Englishman (even though he was born in Kenya).

[Trace]

Girl with a one track mind,   I had to kep putting it down if anyone sat behind me.

Take it to bed with you - problem solved!!!   lol  (I skipped the 3-some and orgy stuff - been there done that!)

Kama Sutra

Did you read it thoroughly or just give it a quick flick?

Can't admit to exactly reading it - more kinda look at pics then try and copy.....

Lots of favourites bookmarked tho!!!

Yes I know  -   



Ohhhhhhhhh how to switch a thread around to smut Trace style!!

[kinboshi]

The best book I've read recently is The End of Faith by Sam Harris - a breathtakingly lucid account of how religion is not only a massive waste of time, but how tolerance of organised religion is actually dangerous to humanity.

Will have to have a read of that.  Have you read any of Richard Dawkins' books?

Surprisingly enough, yes. Haven't read The God Delusion yet - waiting till it comes out in paperback at the end of May (hardback no good for lugging about on the train).

Richard Dawkins = greatest living Englishman (even though he was born in Kenya).

Just started The God Delusion (in hardback, good for....pressing flowers....).

Bertrand Russell could be considered one of the greatest Englishmen alive too - except that he was born in Wales and also that he's dead.

[KingPoker]

So he's Welsh then!

[tantrum]

Dostojevski- \Crime and Punishment
Bulgakov- Master and Margarita
Gabriel José García Márquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Franz Kafka- The Metamorphosis
Marcel Proust -In Search of Lost Time
Haruki Murakami - any of his books
Stanislaw Lem - Solaris

Cloud atlas- David Mitchell
Edward Said - Orientalism

[Jon MW]

...Formets Theorem, Simon Singh. A must for those with a fascination for the wonders of numbers...

Even by the normal standards of forum typing it takes some considerable skill to change Fermat to Formet, but I agree Fermat's Last Theorem is a very good book.

But in terms of the best this reminds me of when the BBC did their poll on the same theme a bit ago. At the time I remember thinking, 'that's impossible, how can you compare different genres', but then Wuthering Heights popped into my mind - shortly followed by Ulysses.

This is as far as I've been able to narrow it down - these 2 in joint first place, and then several hundred others in joint second, another several hundred in joint 3rd (and several million which I haven't got around to reading are 'unranked' - so far)

[kinboshi]

So he's Welsh then!

Any sharper and you'd cut yourself!

There are decent people from Wales - as well as Bertrand Russell, there's Scott Quinnell, Billy Boston, Jim Sullivan, Ian Rush, and Blonde's own Dewi!

Some Welshmen though...

[marcro]

No Harold Robbins fans?