What's your favorite book(s) of all time?

On mobile, too tired to write but... So many... But I honestly think Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is as close to the perfect book as I can imagine (for me!). Also, Kafka for me is like the Final Boss, once you go through him, everything else pales in comparison

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

It's cliche I suppose, but 1984 by Orwell. It's actually a fucking great read beyond it's thematic meaning. People are correct in saying A Brave New World was more prescient, but it's not as good a book in my opinion.

Joe Abercrombie's The First Law series, all six mainline books and even the side books are all fantastic.

It's manga, but Berserk by Kentaro Miura. IYKYK

I read Frankenstein in my highschool literature class way back, loved it then and love it now. Shelly was a pioneer.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I had no idea writing, even fiction, could be so ridiculous and non-traditional. It really shaped my imagination from a young age.

• Philip K Dick - Galactic Pot-Healer
• Jose Donoso - The Obscene Bird of Night
• Alfred Kubin - The Other Side
• Ursula K Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven
• Stanislaw Lem - Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
• Boris & Arkady Strugatsky - Roadside Picnic
• H G Wells - When The Sleeper Wakes
• Stefan Wul - Oms en Serie
• Yevgeny Zamyatin - We
• Jerzy Zulawski - On The Silver Globe

I also really love all the Moomin & Oz books.

I loved the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Read it as a kid and every time I go back to reread my beat up copies it is a joy.

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett - which is interesting for me, because most of what I read is SciFi - but it's such a fascinating, thought provoking, and entertaining read

Lord of the Rings just about saved my life in high school. Possession by A.S. Byatt. Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, though I’ve yet to read the sequels. Atonement by Ian McEwan. Just about anything by Geoff Ryman, Ali Smith, José Saramago, or Sheri Holman.

• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
• The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsay Drager
• The Book of Nightmares by Galway Kinnell
• Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

I'm probably gonna be an odd one out here with a cleaning book, but I really, really like K.C Davis's "How to Keep House While Drowning" book about cleaning your house while mentally unwell and not considering yourself a moral failure for the state your house is in.

I think it's the one that had the most amount of positive benefits to my life. It turns out having a positive influence in the form of a book that tries to encourage you take things one step at a time, a book that even admits it doesn't know everything either---well, it's more beneficial than my real life acquaintances and family who opted for the shame method.

a few of importance to me:

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Guards! Guards!

Piranesi

The Scar

Far too many to list but some of my favourites are -

The Belgariad series by David Eddings
The Magician series by Raymond E Feist
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
Pretty much anything written by Dan Abnett, Terry Pratchett and R.A. Salvatore

I really didn't read much for a bunch of my life. Now that I'm out of school I'm finally trying to read a bunch of stuff. I recently did all the cosmere stuff so I guess for now I'd have to say stormlight, and war breaker. Just love those books a lot. I'm sure my opinions will change as I keep reading a bunch though

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance can be a difficult read at times, but is honestly incredible.

If you like having things to ponder and think on, it’s unforgettable

So, for me, the cliche answer is Lord of the Rings. But another book that I've always really loved, is East by Edith Pattou. It's a very simple fantasy story, but I read it when I was much younger and it's always just felt very comfy and cozy whenever I read it.

Definately project hail mary by Any Weir

In no particular order:

The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud
Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong
Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu
The Red Night Trilogy of William S. Burroughs (Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, The Western Lands)
On the Road: The Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac
Book of Haikus by Jack Kerouac
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

The Wooden Sea (Crane's View, #3) by Jonathan Carroll

• I suggest jumping into this novel blind and do not ask questions, just go with the flow

Dragonriders of Pern Series by Anne McCaffrey

• Self explanatory

I will throw down for Pride and Prejudice. It is 95% shade.

Recently:

• The Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu is devestatingly good. It's a vast, prescient science fiction series that'll make you feel existential dread toward physics. It's great.

• The Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky is another fantastic science fiction series. The most compelling first person view into truly alien minds I've read.

• Everything Terry Pratchett ever wrote is worth reading.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's the first in a trilogy of six books. I haven't read the last book but I would recommend reading 1 to 5.

The radio series and audiobooks are all worth a listen as well. There is a version narrated by Douglas Adams himself and another narrated by Stephen Fry and Martin Freeman. Both are great.

One of my favourite quotes from the Hitchhikers:

“You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young.” “Why, what did she tell you?” “I don’t know, I didn’t listen.”

I also love this quote from the fourth instalment of the series So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish:

The storm had now definitely abated, and what thunder there was now grumbled over more distant hills, like a man saying “And another thing…” twenty minutes after admitting he’s lost the argument.

The whole series is worth a read. You're bound to laugh over and over reading them.

My top 3, in order are:

1. The Lord of the Rings

2. Dune

3. The Count of Monte Cristo

I'm not a big reader these days but back in the 90's I was. The ones that really stuck with me and have been reread once or twice.

Ghost Story by Peter Straub

Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith

Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny. Brilliant, prescient, and genuinely a great work of literature all at once. The story of Rild, the telling of the metaphor about fire, so much else, it's been all these years and I'm still quoting it.

Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart. When my will to go on falters, this is one of the books I turn to for comfort. It's beautifully written, it's hilarious, and it just makes me feel better.

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, Spider Robinson. I genuinely have handed this book to a troubled young person and had them find a better understanding of the human condition between its covers. I didn't expect that, I thought I was sharing a cool book with them that was something I'd found influenced how I am, but it happened. It's kind of a big deal. It's also actually a lot of fun to read, it's just a collection of short science fiction stories set in a bar, right? ...right?

Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers, Lawrence Watt-Evans; Watt-Evans is largely a moderately obscure (as far as I can tell) fantasy author. I love the rest of his work because it's much more human than a lot of fantasy, with people who are bumbling and desperately trying to handle bizarre problems they're ill-equipped for and sometimes making their problems worse than they dreamed and also there are wizards. (I also like some of his worldbuilding choices, but let's get on with this). This one short story (that won a Hugo and stuff), though, lives rent-free in my head forever; it's got a simple point, which is that the world we're actually in has a lot of cool stuff, go enjoy it, but it makes it in a very fun way and, well, okay, enough, I love it.

Calvin and Hobbes. All of it. Bill Watterson is a visionary genius.

I can go on, I haven't mentioned Douglas Adams or Sandman or Transmetropolitan or fnord or ten thousand other things, but I have other things to do and should content myself with finite length.

Oh man. “All time” is hard because I’ve been through so many phases of my life. I count a favorite as any book I’ve bought, since I’m usually such a library person.

Tween/teen:

• The belgariad
• Harry Potter
• Anything by tamora Pierce (Alana, the circle)
• Enders game
• Name of the wind (still waiting for doors of stone, damn you Patrick)
• Wrinkle in time
• The giver

college:

• Hyperion
• Dune
• Mists of Avalon

Now:

• The housekeeper and the professor
• The house on the cerulean sea
• Stories of your life and others
• Shit Cassandra saw
• The last graduate series
• A Court of Thorns and Roses series (it’s a guilty pleasure and I’m ashamed to post it in the same thread as these classics but I’m addicted right now)

LOTR

The Hobbit

The Count of Monte Cristo

Harry Potter

The Expanse (Such good characters)

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Dawn of Wonder (Rough around the edges but I love it)

Anna Karenina (I need to read more Tolstoy)

His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass specifically)

The Dune series. Especially books 1 and 4 left such a deep impression on me. Hard to put into words. Haven't experienced something similar yet.

@Kamirose
1984, Lord of the Flies, The Wheel of Time, and the Death Gate Cycle.

Contact by Carl Sagan

In no particular order,

• Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
• Albert Camus, The Stranger
• J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
• David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
• Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
• Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

I can't pick a single title for Camus or Vonnegut, but those two respective titles are near the top.

The Void Trilogy from Peter F. Hamilton read the books and listened to the audio books several times already.

It's sci-fi and fantasy in one stunning epos.

it's three books, but i got Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias Triptych in a one-book volume (the volume is huge) for $20 and that's probably pound for pound the single best book purchase i've ever made. his writing may not be for you, but if it is he's kind of one of a kind as an author. i don't know anyone who writes quite like he does

A chain of voices - Andre Brink

Cosmos - Carl Sagan

The name of the rose - Umberto Eco (so much better than the movie)

A prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

I used to read a lot when I was younger. Now I'm down to max two books per year. I miss it.

Off the top of my head:

• Enigma Variations Andre Aciman
• Ulysses James Joyce
• The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Catch-22 Joseph Heller
• The Giver Lois Lowry
• Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami
• A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson

1. Catcher in the rye. The best representation of grief and depression I have read.
2. Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy. Most brilliant and unique book(s) I've read.
3. Pride and prejudice. It's just fun.

John Dies At the End series.

It is hilarious, dark, and gets a little nasty sometimes (not necessarily in a sexual way).

Jason Pargin used to be the cheif editor at Cracked, so that energy does pop in and out. What he is really great at is showing profound empathy despite the choas. He is not just a good writer, you can tell he is also a very good person.

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is also awesome.

Probably the one I re-read the most with fond memories is Hellspark by Janet Kagan.

A series I enjoy because I felt it captured the sheer horror of the xeno-menace the best was called The Vang series by Christopher Rowley, in particular book 2 always gives me the heebeejeebee's.

For more modern books, the Cradle series by Will Wight that just wrapped up has been a fun time for me and I re-read my favorite sections often.

I'll use a few categories for my favorites.

For my most nostalgic book series, I'd choose the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques. It was one of the first series I got seriously into, and at one point I had all of them collected (I think they're in a box in my parents' house right now). Sure, they get formulaic and samey after a while, but they're comfy reads for me.

For my favorite recent read, I'd probably choose Bunny by Mona Awad. I'm a huge fan of the "weird book" genre and this book came up over and over as a suggestion so I picked it up. And oh boy is this book a wild ride. I enjoyed it, but I'd add a caution that I would avoid reading it if you are prone to psychosis, because at the end it made me feel like reality itself was unwinding.

One of my favorite authors of all time is Akaweke Emezi, and my favorite of their work is The Death of Vivek Oji. Reading it fully tore my heart apart, and then taped a few pieces back together.

The Gospel Singer by Harry Crews. It's a masterpiece of grit lit. If you're not one to shy away from themes like religious obsession, violence and racism, I can highly recommend it.

Since I was a kid, I always loved the Star Wars expanded universe. My favorites of the whole thing are probably the Republic Commando series and the Thrawn Trilogy. Also love the Gotrek and Felix books, and ive been getting into the Dragonlance franchise

• The Count of Monte Cristo
• David Copperfield

The Lies of Locke Lamora was so good I had to take a break from reading afterwards cause nothing could compare.

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Neuromancer is still a solid favorite.

EDIT: Forgot to add, now that I wandered over to my little bookshelf, I have quite a bit of Raymond Benson's work. Along with the Metal Gear Solid novel adaptations.

motorcycle diaries by che guevara

i don't necessarily think it is a masterpiece, and i'm aware che is quite the controversial character, but the book struck all the right cords for me. adventure and history are some of my favorite themes, which was an immediate plus, but what had me hooked were the encounters with common folk. can't quite put into words why, frankly.

• the colour purple by Alice walker
• the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I'm a sucker for books that have the main character fight so hard for who they are and who they want to be. To see their transformation and growth into the people they stand proud as at the end of the day? 🥺

And yes the MCs are both queer!

(Feel free to drop a reply/pm to rec books like this!)

Science authors: Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, Amy Stewart, Mary Roach

Videogame types: Dead Space, Mass Effect

Trash but can't help it: Sarah J Mass

Actual books:

Pretty much anything by Michael McDowell

Pretty much anything by Charles Bukowski

Anything by Richard Bach

"The Great and Secret Show" by Clive Barker -- I refuse to read Everville until he finishes the story, I'm not trying to do a George R.R. Martin scenario

"Coldheart Canyon" by Clive Barker

Dark Tower series - Stephen King

"Timequake" by Kurt Vonnegut

"Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk

"John Dies at the End" by David Wong (pretty sure it is a series, but haven't gotten to it)

"Doors of Perception" by Aldous Huxley

"The Portable Henry Rollins" by Henry Rollins

"Last Call" by Tim Powers (pretty sure this also a series)

"Weight" Jeanette Winterson

Warren Ellis is pretty good too, but he's such a creep I can't bring myself to read anything he's released past Crooked Little Vein.

I have a few favorites, but if I were stranded on a desert island, the one book I’d take with me would be Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The book is so layered, and the world is so unusual. It’s one of the few books I kept trying to put off finishing because I didn’t want it to end.

• The Alchemist
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull

World War Z

The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsey Drager is my absolute favorite.

honorable mentions:

• Slumberland by Paul Beatty
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
• The Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer
• The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
• The Cider House Rules by John Irving

Well, not sure if Light Novels are accepted, but Mushoku Tensei by Rifujin na Magonote is unquestionably my favourite. Whilst it's understandably critiqued for it's choice of unsavoury topics, it's the only book I've ever read that tells the story of a person genuinely learning from, and reflecting upon the mistakes they've made in the past.

Also Holes by Louis Sacher is pretty neato.

Gone With the Wind

The Percy Jackson series is probably my favorite, still even as an adult. It's my comfort book series.

I’m a huge fan of a natural history of dragons by Marie Brennan and the rest of books in the series. Also been obsessed with Kim Harrison’s The Hollows series since my partner introduced it to me lol