What is your favorite book and why?

I can never pick one – I really love Anathem by Stephenson though…because it is a guilty pleasure of mine to think about being part of a math.

Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut.

It has great characters. It wrestles with the big questions. Its writing style is wonderfully succinct and weirdly funny. It probably took me a day to read, but I got so much out of it.

Le Petit Prince is one of my all time favorites.

@Twinkletoes22 This question has been asked a few times, and it’s a lovely question, so perhaps you would like to be referred to a few similar questions.

Here,
here,
here,
& here.

@Qingu I just finished Welcome to the Monkey House. So amazing. I can’t wait to read Cat’s Cradle.

Emile Zola’s Germinal. I had to put the book down sometimes just to catch my breath. There’s such a sad aching throughout the novel and the descriptions are so visceral. I read it before Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and so its themes of class struggle (at least presented in that way) was a first for me.

Also: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. It’s the craziest/weirdest, most poignant book I’ve ever read.

I loved A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess. I have never read a book that put such vivd visuals in my head and the lingo is amazing. I felt like I knew a new lanaguge after reading it. One of my favorite movies too. I watched it after I had read the book and it was creepy how similar what I imagined lined up with how the movies looked; right down to how I pictured the characters.

It changes once in a while. It’s usually Gravity’s Rainbow but lately I’ve been reading Walt Whitman again and Leaves of Grass is by far my favorite collection of poetry and probably my favorite book right now.

To answer your second question (the why): it always, always helps me be a little happier. And when I first read it, Leaves of Grass lifted me out of a month-long malaise that I suspect, looking back, was depression.

Steven Chbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower. It’s an epistolary young adult novel that is ludicrously popular. It doesn’t address the meaning of life or reference the Eightfold Path of Buddhism or anything like that, but it holds a special place in my heart because I have read it twice a year annually since sophomore year of high school and I’ve always been able to relate to the protagonist Charlie. In fact, tons of my friends have referred to me as “their Charlie” without even knowing about my affinity for the book because of their perceived similarities between the protagonist and I.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez.

It appeals to the hot Latin lover in me.

Das Kapital is a favorite, although it is a bit of a trudge, worth the effort, because it is the most influential secular book ever written and it was written by someone who found economics as tedious as the rest of us. That’s also why it interests me.

@FutureMemory

During a pause in the caresses, José Arcadio stretched out naked on the bed without knowing what to do, while the girl tried to inspire him. A gypsy woman with splendid flesh came in a short time after accompanied by a man who was not of the caravan but who was not from the village either, and they both began to undress in front of the bed. Without meaning to, the woman looked at José Arcadio and examined his magnificent animal in repose with a kind of pathetic fervor.

“My boy,” she exclaimed, “may God preserve you just as you are.”

The life of pi

The foundation chronicles and a few more from Isaac Asimov.

@Qingu I’m reading Cat’s Cradle now! Definitely not like anything I’ve ever read, that’s for sure.

So many, so many, so many, I could answer this question monthly and come up with different answers. (I read a lot of books). I will say, though, that I am most proud of finishing that long, long, long, long epic, Gone With the Wind, and it’s two sequeals. Gone With the Wind is definately a favorite of mine, and just finishing that sucker, and remembering what I read, was a highlight of my middle ages. I do wonder, though, if that book were written today if certain words for slaves would have been edited out (though it was considered acceptable for the time, 1860s) that was used thousands of times throughout the book.

The Bible it’s fantastic, probley the best book ever. Not too keen on all the evil that was done in it’s name, but still, a very good book.

@XOIIO : I remember when it was the Foundation trilogy!

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. Beautifully written, intelligent, poignant, a glimpse into a life few of us ever see.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. It’s the story I enjoy most in the world. Don’t know why, has always been for as long as I can remember.

I could never pick one book. I have hundreds of favourites!