I'm struggling to think past Louis de Bernierre's 'Birds Without Wings', and I read it about 5 years ago.

Perhaps Demian by Herman Hesse, but only by dint of my tender years at the time of reading and my malleable, callow character.

Failing that it would be Brendon Chase by BB, for roughly the same reasons.

Removing sentimentality from the equation, Graham Greene's A Burnt out Case led me to the rest of his writing and brought me as close to the brink as I ever want to be, so it must have been good.

OK. Why is it the best book you've read? I maybe should have added that to the thread title.

Birds Without Wings drew me in like nothing I've ever read before. I was there throughout the history of that Turkish village, and felt every single joy and heartache that the inhabitants did. It's truly remarkable. Maybe even moreso, given my Armenian roots.

Just been off looking at Audible (audiobook website) to try and find Birds Without Wings but they haven't got it. Might just have to buy the book 🙂

Why. All three books shaped me – I know there's been discussion on here before regarding the theory that books don't change you, they just fit into your life nicely at a particular moment in time, but I firmly believe that the books mentioned had a part in making me who I am, for better or for worse. That's why.

It's not just Birds Without Wings, but everything that Louis de Bernierre has ever written seems to be absolutely, 100% in tune with me. His trio of books, The War Of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Senor Vivo And The Coca Lords, and The Troublesome Offspring Of Cardinal Guzman are peerless in the field of English language South American Fiction. The man just somehow writes in a way that my brain thinks.

Fiction, I have no idea.

Non fiction, only one option, To Reach The Clouds by Phillippe Petit. A book so good, I found Man On Wire strangely disappointing. Just astonishing.

Super Cannes – Ballard

If there is such a thing.. Cormac McCarthy's Suttree. Intensely sad and strangely uplifting, all at once.

Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

Recently I read Daughters of Shame by Jasvinder Sangheera which was a fantastic eye opening book.

The Outsider – Albert Camus.

…..would just love to be that detached.

Replay

"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy.

Why? Well, not sure I can adequately describe what it is about it. It's a relentlessly violent book about the Indian Wars of the 1840s but it's also deeply allegorical and could be a parable about the warring nature of man at any time in history. The prose is stunning (though difficult at first due to a lack of punctuation) and his descriptions of Comanche attacks and harsh, unforgiving landscapes are incredibly vivid.

Many of the characters were real people in the Old West like John Joel Glanton, the leader of the scalp-hunting gang. Then there is The Judge…

Utterly compelling. One of very few books I've read more than twice.

Fun with Dick and Jane by William Gray. Why? It got me into reading. 😉

I'm obviously not as well read as you lot, but the book I return to the most is Alistair MacLean's HMS Ulysses. I've read it countless times and don't think I've ever put it down without a lump in my throat. It's not big, and you won't look clever reading it, but it's still a superbly told tale.

B. 🙂

Cannery Row by Steinbeck is probably my favourite.. I'm another Louis de Bernieres fan.. the South American novels are just so so good.. anything by Irvine Welsh gets devoured very quickly too..

The Tent the Bucket and Me – Emma Alexander. If you are between 30 & 50 it'll bring back all sorts of memories but generally hillarious for anyone! A nice light read.

American Tabloid James Ellroy

Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe, because of the effect it had on me when I was little. I still re-read every couple of years and it's still fresh.

+1 for James Ellroy, but I would plum for LA Confidential.

Crow Road by Iain Banks. It's the only book I've ever wanted to re-read.

Difficult, very difficult.

Stalingrad, by Anthony Beevor, possibly.

Why – it's both chilling and compelling at the same time. Breathtaking in so many ways – from the scope of Hitler's territorial ambition, matched only by his incompetence and intransigence when meddling with field commanders freedom of operation; the brutality, indifference and connivance of Stalin's regime, through to the human capacity for outright animal brutality, suffering, survival and humanity.

A true, epic, Russian tragedy set in a relatively modern European context. Makes you realise either how far we've come, or how close we could be if we slipped back…

To Kill a Mockingbird has got to be up there.

Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe, because of the effect it had on me when I was little

Snap. Probably responsible for me becoming an archaeologist (for a while).

Roger Red Hat.

Oh, and the various biographies of Reagan, Thatcher, Bob Diamond, Marie Antoinette etc. 😆

Gulag Archipelego, Solzhenitsyn. Monumental book. At the time I read it the Soviet Union was still around and trying to tell us they were wonderful and would ultimately triumph. And at the time I read it, lots of people in this country even believed this.

EDIT: +1 on Eagle of the Ninth. For exactly the same reason. Fantastic book.

And at the time I read it, lots of people in this country even believed this.

Some still do 😉

Roger Red Hat was a dull impotenet follow up to Billy Blue Hat IMO.

Non-fiction: The Koran
Fiction: The Bible

ooops, thats done it

You're clearly mistaken. Roger Red Hat came before Billy Blue Hat. Billy's nothing but a two bit copycat.

"How late it was, how late" by James Kelman.

Dunno – I enjoyed 'Life of Pi' recently

the magician by raymond e feist. i just love it 😉

A few good suggestions. Love Camus, Kelman and McCarthy.

Off the top of my head I'll chuck-in John Updike's Rabbit trilogy and Saul Bellow's Herzog.

Generally I would say Brideshead Revisited by Waugh, which I read (literally) half a lifetime ago. The command of language, the laconic yet biting style, the fact its subject matter is so sweeping and yet so pointed and rooted in an era. Beautiful from a very unbeautiful man.

More recently I have enjoyed The Legend of the Holy Drinker by Joseph Roth. Disarmingly simple, with a quality of writing that is almost haiku-like in its ability to capture enormous human depth and emotion in so few words.

Difficult as the book I enjoyed reading most at the time I probably wouldn't enjoy at all now – Swiss Family Robinson, when I was about 12.

But then again I remember struggling through LOTR when I was a kid and taking weeks to read it, then reading it again and enjoying it much more when the film came out.

But in terms of sheer pleasure (not great literature) I would have to go for the Spenser novels (Boston private detective) of Robert B Parker. There's about 40 of them, they take about a day or two to read and they are brilliant. Just re-reading one of them at the moment.

The Brothers Karamazov – I enjoyed The Devils, Crime and Punishment and am reading The Idiot at the moment but TBK is my fave from Dostoevsky who's my favourite writer. House of the Dead I found a bit rambling though.

Liver by Will Self is also brilliant.

Hard to say…Imagica by Clive Barker is certainly up there for me and I guess I'd have to include The Lord Of The Rings.

Like the way everyone is trying to put the most intellectual book they can thing of!

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, The Irresistable Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday and many others.

Depends on the age – at 11, I read Return of Jedi in one night and utterly loved it. I suspect I'd find it a bit dull now!

Surf-Mat – Member
Like the way everyone is trying to put the most intellectual book they can thing of!

Very presumptuous of you Matt. I feel you're wrong as nobody has said Ulysses.

I laboured away at Joyce's 'Ulysses', hard work but very rewarding.
My favourite Ellroy is 'My dark places'. a stunning book.