All-time flat best book you ever read bar none. discussion

The best book I ever read was one I had to read in High school lol. My a ll time best book that I ever read was To Kill a Mocking Bird. I have not read it since and I really don't want to. The book amazed me when I read it a long time ago . This is the book which all others are measured against for me. It has the Midas touch.

The best book I ever read was Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
It was the first book i read that i wasn't required to by a teacher. It turned me on to reading.
I have an older cousin who gave me the book back in the 90s

The best book I ever read is Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. I first read it when I was 17 and have read it again several more times in the 58 years since then. 3 years ago I visited Wolfe’s boyhood home in Asheville,NC which is now a museum to experience where much of the novel takes place. I own a first edition. As you can tell, I am obsessed by what I consider to be the great American novel.

My all time favourite book has to be The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. I read it when I was 18 the first time. A friend bought me a first edition for my 21st as I read it so many times. I read it every couple of years through my 20’s. Definitely due a re read now! One and only book to make me laugh and cry in equal measure. Masterpiece!

Prince of Tides is a great book. Very high on my best list,

The Likeness. . Tana French I had to suspend belief, but once I did I was utterly captivated. An exquisite psychological masterpiece!

Hi. Just invited and just joined. This might by the looks of it to be a new group. Not sure how to comment. The best book ever is almost impossible, I think, because taste is so dependent on the time of life and what is happening to you. The best book when younger might be so-so now and vice versa.

I think of late in my reading I would have to point to maybe The Homesman by Glendon Swarthout. It's a story of the west, its settling and struggle not looked at seriously, at least normally. I am currently living in Nebraska where the story takes place. It is a place that I had often wondered, what would make this a place someone would say is worth stopping in for a new life? The Homesman reinforces that image in an honest way.

So ... do we add new 'best books ever' or ...?

best book ever

Hi everybody and thanks for the invite. I have two favourite books of all time. A classic and a contemporary. The classic is "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Atticus Finch is my favourite literary character of all time. My favourite contemporary novel is "Cloud Atlas". I believe that David Mitchell has written a masterpiece which few authors would be able to even accomplish, let alone finish with David's aplomb. Yes I admit it I am a Mitchell Fanboy!!! ;-)

Henry wrote: "The best book I ever read is Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. I first read it when I was 17 and have read it again several more times in the 58 years since then. 3 years ago I visited Wolfe’s ..."

I was just talking about Thomas Wolfe earlier today. My mother and my aunt, both English majors, were Wolfe fans so I ended up reading Look Homeward, Angel when I was 16. Then, almost 40 years ago, after I well into adulthood, we went to Asheville to see his homestead. I felt sorry for the docent as my mother and my aunt were die-hard fans, and probably knew more than the docent did. It was like a pilgrimage for them (and me). At any rate, that is one of my favorite books, too. But my all time favorite is Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner.

Kathy, I recently read Angle of Repose and have to agree that it is one of the greats of all time.

The Aeneid by Virgil in Latin. Iambic pentameter. Brilliant. Easily the best book or poem ever written.

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit
litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram;
multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem,
inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum,
Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.
Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso,
quidve dolens, regina deum tot volvere casus
insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores
impulerit. Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?

All time favourite book for me is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

My all time favourite book is ‘The Glass Bead Game’ by Herman Hesse. First read more than 40 years ago and twice more in the last 15 years or so.

Henry wrote: "The best book I ever read is Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. I first read it when I was 17 and have read it again several more times in the 58 years since then. 3 years ago I visited Wolfe’s ..."

this is a great book, just not my best

Edgarr Alien wrote: "All time favourite book for me is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood."

Another very good book

cool

The greatest book I have ever read is Anna Karenina followed closely by War and Peace, true masterpieces each!