What is the best book you have read?

Answer 1

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller captures the male experience perfectly in an innovative and compelling story that broke all kinds of boundries and conventions without ever losing narrative drive. It's reverent, profane, beautiful, and violent. it's everything that life is and can be.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut have also deeply touched me. They're examinations of what humans truly are without any illusions or lies. Brilliant satires, both of them. I also recommend two more existential titles by the same authors, Twain's The Mysterious Stranger and Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions.

Ayn Rand's work, particularly Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead, reflects an idealistic concept of what humans could be. Her prose is somewhat repetitive and stilted, but her stories are engrossing and her vision optimistic.

The works of Samuel Beckett (Malone Dies, Molloy, The Unnameable) and Franz Kafka (The Castle, The Trial) are at the opposite end of the spectrum. They describe with frightening terms the miserable human condition. Their respective stark, matter-of-fact prose is riveting and the picture they paint of civilization and life is one that I can't forget. If you find these appealing, The Idiot and Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky will also interest you. Also, The Stranger by Albert Camus and possibly the more contemporary Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee.

I also enjoy the humorous short essays of James Thurber and Jack Handey. For short stories, you would be hard-pressed to find more personally impacting work than that of Ernest Hemingway, though James Joyce's The Dubliners and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio are also wonderfully provocative collections.

Answer 2

Some of these are from female perspectives, some may be a little "girly girl" for your liking but others should be okay. I've left both genre on and you can decide. Meryll of the Stone (Brian Caswell) Picnic at Hanging Rock (Joan Lindsay) Stranger with my face (Lois Duncan) Playing Beattie Bow (Ruth Parks) My Sister Sif (Ruth Parks) Hitch hikers guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) Holes (Louis Sachar) Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit Eragorn trilogy Narnia The Golden Compass Interview with a Vampire (Anne Rice) Requiem for a Princess (Ruth M Arthur) Looking for Alibrandi (Melina Marchetta) Angels Gate (Gary Crew) Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants Pelican's Creek (Maureen Pople) The Diary of Anne Frank To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) The Shiralee (Dárcy Niland) Into the Wild (John Krakauer) Chocolat (Joanne Harris) Harp in the South; Poor Man's Orange; Missus (Trilogy by Ruth Parks) Where the Heart is (Billie Letts) My Place (Sally Morgan) Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) Rebecca (Daphne De Maurier) The 3 Muskateers (Alexandre Dumas) Anything by the Bronte sisters or Jane Austen Whatever you do don’t run The December Boys (Robert Noonan)

Answer 3

The best book I have read is Aitl

Answer 4

The Outsiders. The best book I've read so far, and probably the best one I'll ever read.

Answer 5

I think I am in love with you, Nicht N.

Oh, best book I have read? That's tough. But near the top of my list has to be Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera.

Answer 6

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

Answer 7

My favorites are:
Blind Side by Catherine Coulter
Summer Harbor by Susan Wilson
Blushing Pink by Jill Winters
The Nine Month Plan by Wendy Markham
Once Upon a Blind Date by Wendy Markham
Slightly Settled by Wendy Markham

Answer 8

1) Catcher in the Rye
2) 9 Stories
3) Of Mice and Men
4) Cien Anos de Soledad
5) To Kill a Mocking Bird

Answer 9

Loved

The Kiterunner
The Namesake
A fine balance

Loved all 3 equally!

Answer 10

Yeah, I have to agree with Lisa. The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I love it. It's my favourite book series.