Quotations and Literature Forum

I'll make this my first post on this forum.

It's rather difficult to name one book as my favorite, and I am assuming a favorite means a book I have read at least twice, or else it made a significant impact upon me to remember it greatly:

Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men fits this bill for me. It's much more than just a novel about political ambition; it involves individual choice and the results.

Henry David Thoreau's Walden also is a book I've return to; various passages are particularly meaningful to me about the individual and the influences of the world.

And of course, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye which still makes me laugh at the various episodes of Holden Caulfield's adolescent blunders.

Island of the Blue Dolphin - Scott O'Dell

The Dark Half - Stephen King

Watership Down - I dunno, but I remember the fact that it's about rabbits and the author has also written 'Plague Dogs'

I love books, so I really can't say what my ABSOLUTE favourite is.

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I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ~Voltaire

My favorite book is from my favorite author--Anna Karenina of Leo Tolstoy.

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jen07

Boy by James Hanley

Reading it moved me deeply some years ago. I lent it out and never got it back, as is the way of so many good books. It's recently been re-published and I now have a new copy. Just need some spare time to get stuck into it. I am now VERY possessive of my books. I'd rather buy somebody a copy than lend them mine!!! Anyone else feel the same?

Im a first timer as well, but this thread is a great start. My name is Rob and the books I love are:

Dune- Frank Herbert
The Art of War- Sun Tzu
Lord of the Flies- William Golding
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams (just doesn't EVER get old)
Im currently reading 'For whom the bell tolls' by Hemmingway

Thanks for the recomendations everyone!!!

I am new here too, I am Karin and live in Dresden, germany
My favorite Books ar all the historical Novels by Bernard Cornwell, especially the ones about Sharpe. Thea are not only fascinating reads but historically interesting.

The book that I love above all books is Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. But my favorites list is:

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Night by Elie Wiesel

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

The Nun by Denis Diderot

That's a good list, I think. But the book that I read when I'm sick in bed? Beaches by Iris Rainer Dart. Then I watch the movie.

h$

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"Oportet te transire per ignem et aquan, antequam veneris in refrgerium."
- Thomas á Kempis

nothing in particular. i read all types of books.

Just one favourite book? Hm, that's a difficult one since there are so many.

But if I were to choose only one I would cheat

I would say: The Kushiel Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey.

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Greetz, Phèdre

"All knowledge is worth having" - Jacqueline Carey

i must disagree with you. Tolkein is quite superior to Paolini, and the plot of Eragon and Eldest is very similar to the original Star Wars trilogy. I would hazard to say he copied George Lucas.

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Time for the weather report. It's cold out folks. Bonecrushing cold. The kind of cold which will wrench the spirit out of a young man, or forge it into steel.
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

in my teens...

Sidartha (but not now), any french or russian short story writer, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, O'Henry Short Stories

in my twenties

The Magus - John Fowles( but not now), Smiley's People -John LeCarre (among others), The Glass Bead Game - Hesse (Anything Hesse)

in my thirties

The World According to Garp - John Irving (among others), The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan (just that one, unfortunaely), All Camus

in my forties

The curious incident of the dog in the nightime, Remains of the Day, Death in Venice (Only this story), Balzac - his stories.

in my fifties

Never Let Me Go, The World is Flat, The Known World, Secret Life of Bees not her second book, The Kite Runner unfortunately not his second book either, Augusten Burroughs all his books, The Graphes of Wrath, The Namesake

Books I Tried to Get Through but Gave Up On

The God of Small Things (in my forties)
Snow (in my forties)
Fountainhead (in my twenties)

Based on this list, can you suggest a new author?

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Of course some of the Classics come to mind. Homer's Odyssey, the Iliad, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (which some people have offered should be read thrice: first in childhood, later as an adult, and finally in old age). I feel, on the other hand, that the question of what constitutes a favourite book depends very much on the reason why we read. In this context, I would like to quote I no longer recall whom, who very famously and perhaps, a tad arrogantly, said: "these days I only read to confirm my own thought."
Could anyone enlighten me on the provenance of this quote?

I love books and will read just about anything, but you asked for favorites... I love escapism therefore....

Any book by:

Robert Heinlein.
Anne McCaffery
Frank Herbert
David Eddings
Robert Jordan
Stephen Donaldson