MetaChat - What is the best book you've ever read?

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25 November 2007

What is the best book you've ever read? This question was shut down on the green for being chatfilter, but it seems like just the sort of question to ask here at MeCha.→[More:]

Please list only a single book.

Anything goes... All shapes, sizes, lengths, genres, topics, etc.

Provide reasons if you want.

(Note: Similar questions have been asked before, but, I would argue, they have all been limited in some way. For example, "only non-fiction", "no horror or sci-fi", "nothing too long", etc.).

post by: reenum at: 10:24 | 38 comments

Ladies Man - Richard Price.

(I don't know that it's the 'best' but it's definitely my favorite, since it's the one I reread the most. It's a no-holds-barred exploration of the male libido. The prose in conversational and laugh-out-loud hilarious but still insightful and deep. It's probably the only book, I've reccomended that I almost never get negative reactions to, which is impressive considering the potentially incendiary subject matter)

posted by jonmc 25 November | 10:31

Just off the top of my head: A Soldier of the Great War, by Mark Helprin.

posted by mmahaffie 25 November | 10:57

Gatsby

posted by matthewr 25 November | 11:05

Heh. Mmahaffie, I was going to mention "Winter's Tale" by Helprin.

I find it impossible to choose a best, but that's one that I've read many times, and keep having to re-buy, because I keep loaning it out. I need to buy it again now, in fact. If they all came back to me, I'd probably have 8-10 copies.

posted by taz 25 November | 11:08

I could name neither a "best" nor a "favourite" but one of my favourites, one of the books I re-read often, is To The Lighthouse.

posted by gaspode 25 November | 11:13

Man this is a hard question to answer because I have favorite books in different genres. I am going to have to go with Dune, though I have slacked in my reading for, oh, the last 5 years so I am sure their might be better.

posted by Brandon1600 25 November | 11:16

I know what you mean, Taz. Winter's Tale and Soldier are more or less tied for me. Soldier is a bit more understandable, though, and provides a wider sort of escapism. A Winter's Tale is so specifically magical that I find myself reading it less. I'm also nervous about recommending it to other folks; people either get it or hate it.

posted by mmahaffie 25 November | 11:19

Jitterbug Perfume. The Great God Pan, immortality, and beets.

posted by disclaimer 25 November | 11:30

Jane Eyre. I read it when I was about 10, one of the few books I will read and reread over and over without fail.

posted by kellydamnit 25 November | 11:32

The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer. A tour de force. Although it's a fictionalised account of the Gilmore case, it's utterly believable and it gripped me from the first of its thousand-odd pages to the last.

posted by essexjan 25 November | 11:46

Can't believe we have other Helprin fans here. My favorite two books are A Soldier of the Great War, by Helprin, and Huckleberry Finn. Close second, Catch-22.

posted by Miko 25 November | 12:59

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It makes me feel suicidal when I read it, and I love that it affects me so deeply.

posted by HotPatatta 25 November | 13:04

I can't pick one. I really liked The Coffee Trader, A Dirty Job, and Great Expectations among many.

And if it weren't for you guys and definr, my vocabulary would still be teeny. I just used it to see what 'incendiary' meant.

posted by chewatadistance 25 November | 13:12

OKay, is it me, or is MeCha incredibly recursive today?

posted by Miko 25 November | 13:44

Redemption -- Leon Uris

posted by netbros 25 November | 14:01

I have two favorite books, and they have been the same two books for years, despite having read scads of other books in the interim. I have read and reread these two books countless times, and continue to love them equally. In no particular order: "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie, and "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgagov. As I have said before, both here and on other forums, these books are best enjoyed when one has more than a passing knowledge of the history of India both before and following partition, and Communist Russia in the 1930s. Even if you don't, they are both supremely enjoyable reads.

posted by msali 25 November | 14:30

Swan Song, by Robert McCammon. It makes me sick that I've misplaced my copy, and it's apparently out of print.

posted by BoringPostcards 25 November | 15:30

I get to pick just one favorite of all book of all books? No effin' way!
OK, Vonnegut's Cats Cradle

posted by DarkForest 25 November | 16:10

echhh, can someone do my proofreading for me?

posted by DarkForest 25 November | 16:31

Winters Tale is right up there for me, too, but otherwise I'm kind of tied between Little, Big by John Crowley and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

posted by mygothlaundry 25 November | 18:00

The Gold Bug Variations, but I've liked many other books already mentioned as close seconds.

posted by jessamyn 25 November | 19:16

BoringPostcards, you can go to AbeBooks.com. Just type in the title and author, and you'll get lists of sellers, from lowest to highest price.

As for a favorite book? I have so many, but I can honestly say..."The Years of the Forest" and "The Gift of the Deer" by Helen Hoover. I came across them in old Readers Digest books as a kid, and hunted them down as an adult (again, thanks to AbeBooks.) Mrs. Hoover's writings of her and her husbands' life in the far north of Minnesota are descriptive, engaging, and enjoyable.

posted by redvixen 25 November | 19:23

Thanks for the tip, redvixen!

posted by BoringPostcards 25 November | 19:39

BP, I have a copy of that book!...in a friend's storage unit. In Florida. The key to which is in New Jersey. But if I ever get my stuff out of that locker, I will totally mail you my copy! It was a crazy book, I really enjoyed it a lot. Although not as much as The Stand, which it reminded me of a lot. Which, incidentally, I would have to list as my favorite book, if we're going to go for number of times read. Some people are all oh King, schlocky anti-intellectual drivel, blah blah. But I really like that book. So whatevs.

Also, Handmaid's Tale, although I found out recently that apparently all young Canadians are too hip to actually read Margaret Atwood by choice. Sorry guys, didn't get the memo.

posted by SassHat 25 November | 22:02

What a completely impossible question.

I think I'd go with Tender Is the Night, since it's one of three books I took with me to Italy when I moved there, which seems like a strong attachment. I think Gatsby is a better book objectively, but there's something more personal about Tender Is the Night.

On preview: SassHat, I love Atwood (though my favorites would be Cat's Eye and Robber Bride), but I avoided her for years because entirely too many people recommended her. Never underestimate contrariness!

posted by occhiblu 25 November | 22:10

Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. So, so good.

(I know you said only one, but Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God is a close second. Truly unforgettable.)

posted by Pips 25 November | 23:05

Heh, I hesitated to come here and admit that The Stand is my favourite book, although I'm quite prepared to admit that it's not the best book I've ever read. Then I saw that Sasshat was ahead of me, so now it doesn't seem so bad. Anyway, I'm a big fan of Stephen King's books and not so much a fan of anti-anti-intellectual drivel, so why should I care?

Second on the list would probably be Catch-22.

posted by dg 25 November | 23:14

I was just going to mention The Gold Bug Variations! Instead, I'll suggest Three Farmers On Their Way To A Dance, by the same author, Richard Powers.

But the novel that I can re-read over and over again, and I know people will roll their eyes when I mention it cuz it's everyone's "favorite book" is One Hundred Years of Solitude.

posted by BitterOldPunk 25 November | 23:18

Candide by Voltaire.

posted by paulsc 26 November | 06:36

I have come to this thread late, so most likely no one will read this, and it's completely impossible to pick just one, but here goes: Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje, Apollo by Charles Murray (yes, that Charles Murray) and Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. There are many others I could list, but these are probably the ones I have re-read the most.

posted by deadcowdan 26 November | 08:54

1984. I credit it with a significant chunk of my politics and why I chose to study literature and also it's just a damn engrossing read. I still remember how I felt reading it for the first first time (thanks, parents, for letting me read whatever I wanted to in middle school even when the librarian disapproved) and all the subsequent first times, as it was effectively a new book for me each year.

posted by desuetude 26 November | 11:18

I'm gonna pick Nine Stories, by J.D. Salinger, mainly because it was a book which opened up my head to a whack of other great books, like Franny and Zooey, and Raise High the Room Beam Carpenter and Seymour: An Introduction, but also helped me appreciate many other books, including Vonnegut's short stories, and Somerset Maugham's Razor's Edge. I still re-read Nine Stories often, along with the other Salinger two. I'm not so much a fan, relatively speaking, of Catcher in the Rye, although I did re-read it recently, and found it to be a different book when you're 37, than when you're 18.

posted by richat 26 November | 11:41

Since I started the thread I might as well throw my 2 cents in.

My vote goes to Catch-22. I read it in 2005 for the first time, and it encapsulates my entire world view. It's absurd and hilarious. Heller is aware of the futility of trying to fight a system that has run amok, yet he shows that people can still make the insane choice and sort of win in the end.

posted by reenum 26 November | 14:10

The Stand is my dad's favorite book. He gave me a copy in the 6th grade and I treasure it, even though I haven't finished it. There's so much going on in it that I can't put it down without forgetting stuff and needing to start it over.

I love The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Master and Margarita by Mikhael Bulgakov.

posted by youngergirl44 26 November | 23:45

The Illuminatus Trilogy...

Because the truth is just really depressing, and i'd like to believe it gets better...

posted by Schyler523 28 November | 19:19

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.

disclaimer: I am not supposed to like this book as much as I do, given that I teach english. Screw 'em.

posted by craniac 29 November | 22:07

Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. People think by listing such a brick, I'm being pompous, but it's a book I reread generally once a year, and it never fails to horrify, disgust, amaze, delight, seduce and expand my hopes for the year to follow.

And, too close to call: A Lover's Discourse by Barthes; Connell's Points for a Compass Rose; Silverlock by Myers.

posted by Haruspex 01 December | 19:36

Oops, one book. Hey, they're all stored on my PDA, so it's like digital duct tape has one-booked-em', yes?

posted by Haruspex 01 December | 19:42

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