Do you have an all time favourite book

[askyourgran]

one that you go back to after a while and re-read it.

I have read The Riddle of the Sands, by Erskine Childers several times, the book was published in 1903 and I find it interesting for its historical fact that was eventally leading to the first world war and quite atmospheric. As well as the classics The Anaeid, the Odyssey and the The illiad, which I like to read now and again. I also liked to read the Stephen Donaldson fantasy books The Chronicles of Thomas Covanent trilogies.

[factor-fiction]

Guiness Book of Hit Singles!
I can pick it up at any time and find something to look at

[boxtops]

I can picture them JJ - I really can! Mine travel in a food bag, all neatly tucked in.... obsessive I'm not, but I do like a tidy book!

[supersuezy24]

Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer.
Best book I've ever read :)

[joggerjayne]

They must look nice, Boxy.

We could swap a few !

=0)

[sophie_1003]

Little Women, absolutely love it! Find it comforting, like watching an old film on a Sunday afternoon!

[joggerjayne]

supersuezy has obviously only read 2 books ...

... the other one being The Shack ... (a truly pants book, even compared to Kane and Abel)

[jno]

I suppose LotR or Catch-22. But I know them both well enough to never have to read them again. Apparently it's quite common for the older personage like myself to read much less fiction than when young, and I've certainly noticed it. You get to a certain age and you don't care if you never read another word of Martin Amis.

[askyourgran]

jj I know, I know, Phillip Pullman books are Ok, I would read them if I came across them, I enjoyed the one I read. I can't remember the tile offhand.
Jno yes Erskine Childers served in the House of Commons from 1895 to 1910 and served in the Boer War as naval intelligence officer 1914-18 He joined the IRA and captured during the civil war, court marshalled and shot as a traitor in 1922.
Islowry haven't read Paul Theroux, but enjoyed Bill Brysons travel books.

[paddywak]

I first read the Mockingbird in the early sixties not long after it was first published I think it was the first book that ever I read that really made an impression on me and I can't remember how many times I've read it since, I've worn out several paper backs and I've now got nice hard back copy the boss picked up for me in a charity shop. I,d tried Dickens before but it wasn't till I did A Tale Of Two Cities for my English Lit "A" levels that I began to realise how good Dickens is and I've since read just about everything he wrote, but I've always returned to the Two Cities

[dundurn]

The Crawford of Lymond and House of Niccolo series by Dorothy Dunnett - I love the interweaving of historical fact and well-written fiction. For light relief the Falco series by Lindsey Davis. Most re-read over the years - Dune by Frank Herbert, The Game of Kings and Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett. Current can't put down = the Fortune de France series by Robert Merle. These haven't been translated as far as I know so I'm on the 4th book of a 13 volume series in the original French! Veuillez prier pour moi!!

[boxtops]

I'll come out on suezy's side here, I love Jeffrey Archer even if some it is rubbished, I like it. Similarly Dan Brown - I love the way both of them interweave a story. At the moment, I'm reading a book about life in a Moroccan harem before the second world war - fascinating stuff.

[China Doll]

I don't think I could ever just narrow down to one book but for the last couple of years I have been very fond and impressed with We Need to Talk about Kevin. I think it's superb.

[joggerjayne]

I just couldn't get into that, China.

I did try.

[supersuezy24]

jj, the shack???
And no, I've read many books

[supersuezy24]

Thanks boxtops ;)

[joeluke]

^ "supersuezy has obviously only read 2 books "

JJ, that was an unnecessarily patronising comment

[joggerjayne]

The Shack was one of those "must read" books last year, suezy.

It's about a guy who meets God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in a shack in a forest.

It's meant to be profound, and moving.

Actually, it's just pants.

[joggerjayne]

joe ...

I was being patronising to Jeffrey Archer ... not to suezy.

By the way ... "patronising" is when you talk down to people.

[China Doll]

I really struggled with it the first time JJ, I think because it's written in the first person so that's the identifier but you really don't want to identify with her, she's hideous, but then you don't want to identify with the main chracter as they're equally hideous and actually it's the sub characters you feel sorry for... i remember the first time I read, so many times I actually nearly threw it out the window because it made me so angry! But then that's why I think it's such a good book because to make me have a reaction like that it just has to be. I re-read it every six months or so and I can't say I 'enjoy' it exactly, but I do like it.

I also really like Will Self's Being Dead (I think it's called) and Irvine Welsh's Filth (very gross and need a strong stomach to read). Other good ones include Memoires of an Agnostic Dwarf, most of Jane Austen (but not Emma!), Frankenstein, Dracula and I'm sure there's more that I can't think of at the moment!

Did you ever get round to any Christopher Brookmyre (sp)? He writes an enjoyable yarn, good fun.

[jno]

doubtless matronising in your case, JJ