We'll go ahead and do a fiction and a non-fiction.

As for me...

Fiction: 1984. I know, I know, everyone has read it, but I don't care...it's fantastic. It's a classic for a reason. I like books that can make me think "this can really happen," and that book is one of them.

Non-fiction: Walden/Civil Disobedience by Thoreau. He's one of my personal heroes, along with Emerson, Gandhi and MLK Jr. I think his writing style is beautiful, dry though it may be, and his ideas inspire my entire life.

I wish I could appreciate crap like that. I tried reading Walden a while back and thought it was terrible. I pretty much never manage the old classics and all that thought-provoking jive, just because I hate the style they were written in.

I'm not sure my favorite book. My favorite series is A Song of Ice and Fire. And my favorite one of it is the third, A Storm of Swords. But people think you're an idiot if you say a fantasy book is your favorite (not that I'm not an idiot). I have liked a fair few books that weren't fantasy, or at least were generally accepted kinds of it. But none really stand out to me as much as A Storm of Swords.

Fiction: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Nonfiction: fuck the real world

this is hard, and I'll probably change it if I come back to the topic, but I'd have to say Demian left the largest impact on me, after having read it.

Uh I guess a nonfiction favorite would have to be some sort of memoir, like My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler.

My favorite fictional books are Fahrenheit 481 by Ray Bradbury and The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. They are so different, it's easy for them to be tied for number one.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Halo:Fall of Reach is my secret reading pleasure though

hah, I loved that book.


hmm... I'm not really into non-fiction books, but I enjoyed those DK informational books on every fucking topic in the fucking world complete with pictures and captions when I was younger.

I really like The Soulforge and Brothers in Arms by Weis and Perrin, but there are alot of other books and series I enjoy a lot too.

Catch-22, Tortilla Flat, Casino Royale, Blindness, etc. Catch-22 might be at the top because I laughed out loud many times while reading it. Overall it's just an entertaining classic. Casino Royale because it's the first 007 book I read and that's my all-time favorite set of books.

Out of all of Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat, really? Actually I thought it was pretty good myself, just kinda bland. Good on friendship.

As for me, probably Cat's Cradle.

Fiction: Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus

Non-fiction: HST's Fear and Loathing In America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist

FICTION: American Psycho, The Divine Comedy, Vita Nuova.

It's not that high up on my favorites but it's there. It's short and pretty funny and a nice book about friends like you said, I guess. Definitely my favorite of things he's done at least.

I couldn't possibly pick. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Pratchett's Night Watch and Fifth Elephant come to mind. I know Pratchett is my favorite author, but I couldn't pick a favorite book.

Catch-22.

The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.
Cliché? Maybe. But its the most relateable book I've read in a long time.

For fiction, I fucking love American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's my favorite book as of right now. I also really dig Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.

Favorite non-fiction book? Jurassic Park. Say something. I fucking dare you.

1984 or maybe Brave New World. I dig the negative utopia theories.

Brave New World's my number 2.

all time fave = Cat's Cradle

Ender's Game

So many...

Where the Red Fern Grows. Only book to ever make me cry.
Night- If you havent read this, GO NOW. Its rather short, but the true story of a survivor of Auschwitcz, wherever the Nazi concentration camp was. Amazing story.
Of Mice and Men- Sad story, but still awesome.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- If you've only seen the movie, you're robbing yourself of the story. The book is actually told entirely from the viewpoint of another patient, much different from the movie.
Casino- This is where the movie came from. Great book, lots the movie left out.
Gangsters and Goodfellas- This was actually written by Henry Hill (Ray Liotta in Goodfellas) about his time in the mob and his time as an informant in hiding.
American Psycho- The single most fucked up book i have ever read. It almost made me sick a couple of times, but what an amazing book. As usual, the movie doesnt do the book justice.

Fear and Loathing, Of Mice and Men

I remember reading Hatchet and it being pretty damn good. But I was young.

Oh wow oh wow oh wow. I am a bibliophile, own over 1,000 books.(I've worked at an online book seller with more than 100,000 in inventory for more than a year, I get five free books a day. And I have often taken more than the alloted five.) I absolutely love to read, and I do a lot of it. This is going to require a lot of hard thinking and careful consideration.


EDIT: Used to work there.

I was just wondering why I didn't post in this topic sooner, but now I remember. When it was first made I was reading A Song of Ice and Fire, and I thought it might have been my new favorite series. Now that I'm reading Lord of the Rings again, I realize that The Silmarillion still has had the biggest impact on me. Reading through LoTR, I feel like I've got the knowledge of the history of an entire world backing up the story. It's deep and touching to me at least.

It's a toss-up between 1984, A Handmaid's Tale, and Ham On Rye.

Haven't really read too many non-fiction books so my two selections are fiction:

Catcher In The Rye: The first time I read this book (in 7th grade or so) I absolutely fucking hated it, I remember talking about my hatred for the book on the old site, truth be told. But earlier this year I re-read the book...and I still hated it, but then we had this college fair at school and then I fucking realized why Holden was such an asshole. I completely understood his objection to people growing up and becoming 'phonies.'

The Adventures Of The Blue Avenger: Can't really say why, but I really love this book.

Ugh it's impossible for me to limit it to just one so I'll give three.

The Bone People by Keri Hulme
An amazing book about the lives of three faulted believable characters who live in New Zealand. I have never felt so emotionally attached to fictional characters before reading this. It changed my life.

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
A fascinating, beautifully written examination on conceptions of time.

Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
I felt a strong bond between the unnamed protagonist and my self. The disconnect from civilization, the proclivity to judge, and the mysterious yearning for completion seemed very familiar to me. A fantastic book.

The Exorcist is a great read, as well.

Catch-22, followed by Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

yeah, I don't think I could ever pick all time favorites. I'll just name a couple of my favorites out of the dozen or so I've read over the past 6-7 weeks.



Death: The Final Stage of Growth by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross


Hannibal by Ross Leckie


Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf

The King David Report by Stefan Heym