Favourite book

[Rosetta]

What is your favourite book of all time?

Mine has to be Lord of the Rings. I have read it loads of times, first tme probably over thirty years ago.
I love hearing other peoples favourite, ancient and modern !!!
What is your all time favourite?

[shaneystar2]

Has to be Alan Rickman as Rich !
I was wondering about Brannagh .I can't quite see him as Shardlake either .My choice would be someone like Derek Jacobi .They don't appear to have cast anyone else yet .

[Bathsheba]

Can't believe nobody's mention We need to talk about Kevin, by Lionel Shriver- it's a great read.
Also The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, by John Boyne, anything by Anne Tyler, , Anna Quindlen, Anita Shreve, Elizabeth Berg,
Ooh! Just realised- they're all female authors! xx

[jake-the-peg]

I love Umberto Eco's Foucault's pendulum.

Yes it's difficult but it's subtlty is a joy you'll always find more layers in it.

For something historica that's a bit less cerebral I've just finished Ken Follets Pillars of the Earth and World without End.

Love the medieval period and he really brings it to life

[andrea81]

I absolutely love Biographies and will pick them up before anything!

But I have a soft spot for period fiction and my favourite is Little Women, with Jane Eyre coming a close 2nd!

[glasman]

Forgot some I really loved in prev. reply :-

Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe ( although the film made from it bombed ).
John Updike's Rabbit series.
P.G. Wodehouse ( especially the Jeeves and Wooster books).

[Rosetta]

Spot on Shaneystar , he'd be brilliant
Sorry, gotta go, cats just puked up. back in a bit Deep joy!!!!

[tiggerblue10]

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder is also a good book. And Wuthering Heights - dark, but brilliant.

[Rosetta]

Jake, i have The Name of the Rose, (Was that the title?) by Eco. How do they compare?

Bathsheba, I finished The Pilot's Wife not long ago and enjoyed it. I hadn't read any by Anita Shreve before, with new authors it can be a bit of a gamble. I took the Rose of Sebastopol (one of Richard and Judy's suggestions) on holiday with me in May but chucked it out half way through cause I thought it a bit dull, and its very rare that I give up on a book.

[shaneystar2]

Mustn't forget those great women crime writers either .Agatha Christie ,Margery Allingham and Dorothy L Sayers to name a few .All favourites of mine .I do love what I call cosy country village murder stuff where they drop like flies ,which is probably why you will find me oogling John Nettles on the tele on a Sunday evening :)

[Rosetta]

Have you read any Donna Leon. My aunt introduced me to them. Not great literature but a good read, and not to violent. They are set in Venice where we visited a couple of years ago. The city was lovely but the weather was vile.

[shaneystar2]

Ooh yes Brilliant ..read them all.I got one from the library and then had to read the whole series as I enjoyed them so much She brings Venice to life .
I agree about The Rose Sebastopol ..really dreary but I did enjoy another one that they recommended which was The House at Riverton by Kate Morton and it was riveting (pardon the pun ) so good that I read it in one hit .

[jake-the-peg]

Name of the Rose is a good introduction to read before the pendulum.

FP has a deserved reputation for being tough to read - especially the early parts, and has layers of complexity and reference that you'll simply never get at a first reading.

The setting is more modern but delving back into the time of the templars and others. Is it a coincidence that the protaganist Cassaubon shares his name with a character in Middlemarch? certainly not! Why does the publisher Manutus share it's name with a hunting spider?

There are no coincidences in this book

I'd also recommend Baudalino which is again not as intense as FP but with some wonderful images.

I have trouble with Island of the day before - as yet I really don't get it. Maybe I need to read it again

[Bathsheba]

I have to say that if Richard+Judy recommend it, then i make a mental note to avoid it!
If i enjoy a book, then i tend to read my way through everything else the author has written.
Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks was a bit different + enjoyable-it's a novel about the Great Plague, set in Eyam, Derbyshire. Also, Final Confession of Mabel Stark, by Robert Hough- that's another novel based on fact x

[mumof3angels]

1984 was a book I read when I was 18 and I couldn't put it down(literally). I was a student back then and I started reading it one afternoon and finished it in the early hours of the morning. I'd borrowed it from a mate and have never owned a copy but I remember thinking that I'd never read anything so thought provoking. I've always meant to buy another copy so I could reread it, but I can remember it like I read it yesterday. I've also read Pillars of the Earth as Jake mentioned, and didn't think it would be my sort of book, but again it was brilliant. A lot of the time now I read a fair bit of 'chicklit' as having 3 kids it's easy to read a few pages and be able to put it down again.

[Rosetta]

Bathsheba, I shall add the Geraldine Brooks to my list which is getting frighteningly long. There was a play on the tv years ago about Eyam though the title wont come back to me at the moment. Its a fascinating story. If i remember correctly didn't most of the villagers die, but they managed to contain the disease. Coo, that took a bit of dragging out from the old grey cells

Mumof3angels, know what thats like. Mine are both adults now so I get a bit of peace and quiet. not so easy to get me time when you have little ones romping around

[Bathsheba]

Yes Rosetta- i vaguely remember that play too- was Brian Blessed in it? Was it called Ring of Roses or similar? Not got time to look into it now- domestic goddess time at the moment! xx

[Rosetta]

Done a bit of digging and it looks like the play was The Roses of Eyam televised in 1973. Doesn't that show my age?

[Bathsheba]

Well done Rosetta! That's the year I was 1st married!! I was a child bride, obviously, xxxx

[Rosetta]

Likewise Bathsheba !!!!

[tara20]

So where do I start?
Lady of Hay and Kingdom of Shadows - Barbara Erskine
The Riftwar Saga (Magician etc.) - Raymond E. Feist
Chronicles of Orthe / Ash- a Secret History - Mary Gentle
Pillars of the Earth / World without End - Ken Follett
Sarum - Edward Rutherfurd
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainien

I'm obviously into time travel/ Medieval/ fantasy and best when all rolled into one!

tara