Favourite Book?

L_Volunteer

Hey everyone!

It was World Book Day this week and @Globster has written a lovely poem. I am wondering if you would like to share your favourite books with us?

I hope you all had a great World Book Day. Please do feel free to share any highlights of this year's World Book Day too 

michael57

elephant song by wilbur smith have since read and have now every one of his collection 

L_Volunteer

Wilbur Smith sounds like a great author @michael57! Thank you for sharing this. 

I haven't read the Elephant Song. Would you like to tell us more about that? I am curious to hear more 

michael57

Dr Daniel Armstrong, ecologist and documentary maker, has dedicated his life to protecting Africa's animals and rainforests. But when a gang of poachers murders his childhood friend, Chief Warden of the National Park, and steals the government-protected ivory stores, Daniel's quest of passion becomes one of revenge. copied and pasted you have to read them for more information i am afraid the Egyptian novels are also very well written alas since his death a couple of years ago his widow has found more material that has been released in conjunction with other writers but does not quite capture the imagination 

Cher_Alumni

That sounds interesting @michael57

Gosh, it's hard to pick one book for me. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is one that always stays in my memory as being beautifully written but about a heartbreaking situation. Also, Marian Keyes books never fail.

I know @Hannah_Scope will have lots to say about this subject! Our resident book worm 

JBS2022

Stephen king's IT 

Read this once a year, really creeps me out, has that cosmic horror vibe

chiarieds

Too many to mention.

My favourite author of fiction is Robert Goddard, his first few books especially. 'Past Caring' goes back from the present day to Edwardian times & the suffragette movement. 'In Pale Battalions' similarly goes back to WW1. 'Painting the Darkness' is set in Victorian England; 'Take no Farewell' is about an architect. They're all so different, & difficult to place them in any genre, but there's always many twists in each tale.

Mikhail Bulgakov's 'The Master & Margarita,' Mikhail Sholokov's 'And Quiet Flows the Don,' & 'The Don Flows Home to the Sea,' not forgetting Tolstoy's 'War and Peace.'

Barbara Wood's 'Green City In the Sun,' which is what Nairobi literally means, about how Nairobi came to be & then going forward in time.

Carlos Ruiz Zaron's 'The Shadow of the Wind' a must for all book-lovers. C.J. Sansom's 'Winter in Madrid' about the Spanish Civil War.

Iain Pears' 'Stone's Fall,' tho I first liked his art world mysteries. Can't recommend his 'The Dream of Scipio.'

Peter Robinson's 'Inspector Banks' novels. He used to come into our secondhand bookshop to see what other crime novelists were writing, & kindly signed any of his books we had. 'Before the Poison' is a stand alone novel, of which I sadly only have a paperback copy as he mentions our bookshop on a few occasions (apparently we sold reasonably priced penguin crime paperbacks!)

Teigr

Impossible to choose but Mr Candid by Jules Hardy is up there,along with anything by Jefferson Parker.

ShirleyW

@chiariedsCarlos Ruiz Zaron's 'The Shadow of the Wind'  is a book I absolutely loved.

@Cher_Scope I have read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and it is beautifully written.  I enjoyed it but it is far too sad for me to ever read again.

@JB@JBS2022 I have read Stephen king's IT.  It's good but very scary and as usual with Stephen King he overwrites it and they never have a decent ending.  I much prefer his Dark Tower series but again he seems to find difficulty in ending a book.

I am finding it difficult to choose my favourite book, I have so many of them.  At different times in my life all of the following have been my favourites.

The Lord of Rings and The Silmarillion are at the top of the list think.

Elizabeth Goudge and her trilogy of The Bird in the Tree, The Herb of Grace and The Heart of the Family are my go to books when I need comfort.  They are gentle books about the generations of a family during the 1st of 2nd world wars.  Very spiritual and she paints beautiful pictures with her words although some people might find them sentimental.  Her character portraits are marvellous.  She also wrote The Little White Horse (filmed as Moonacre Manor) which was my favourite book as a child.

I love fantasy and science fiction and have many favourite authors including Iain M. Banks (The Culture books), Anne McCaffrey (The Dragons of Pern books), Frank Herbert (Dune), and many more.

At the moment I am reading (for the 3rd time!) Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of books.

Hannah_Alumni

Ooo how much time has everyone got?

If I had to put everything I've loved reading into a list it would be a long one so I've had a quick think and realised there are a few books I reread every year.

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks

But there are a few series I go back to or they still have new releases I'm eager to read.

• The Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs
• Harry Potter series
• The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit

I've not been able to read as much as I would like this past month, but I have some time off coming up soon and I'll be sure to make a dent in my TBR pile!

ShirleyW

@Hannah_Scope ahh yes, I had forgotten to put Pride and Prejudice on my list!  I've not read A Christmas Carol for a long time.  I like Dickens but find his books quite hard work.  Glad to see another LOTR fan.  Have you read The Silmarillion?  I can recommend it.

Hannah_Alumni

It's probably my favourite Austen novel, followed very closely by Persuasion

I read A Christmas Carol every Christmas as it was one of the first classics I read, but yes, he is hard work! I found A Tale of Two Cities particularly hard to get through. 

Oh if you would have seen my rant the other week when I found out Warner Bros announced a deal to make more "multiple" films. I think the new series on Amazon was a gamble but did well and hopefully will continue to do so. The films are fine, let people just read the book now.

I haven't yet and will add it to my list of purchases I'll be allowed to make once lent has ended!   

Autism_at_40

My favourite book is Bitten by Kelley Armstrong.
Many years ago, I was given the above book and Twilight by Stephanie Meyer for Christmas.  I read them both and preferred Bitten.
Twilight went on to be a hit movie series (although, I'm not really liking them).  Bitten became a TV series that I cannot watch as I feel it spoils the books.

Hannah_Alumni

I find movies and TV series can spoil the books sometimes too! But I do always like having both because I can convince my friends that don't read as much, that the book is so much better! 

Autism_at_40

Hannah_Scope said:

I find movies and TV series can spoil the books sometimes too! But I do always like having both because I can convince my friends that don't read as much, that the book is so much better! 

Yes, I agree.  If I notice something is made from a book, I don't watch it until I have read the book.  
The only film that I can honestly say is as good as the book, that I can think of, is Gone Girl.

Hannah_Alumni

I think they did some of the fantasy series really well like Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter, mainly because you think of the technology they had available to create what they did. I haven't read ort watched Gone Girl, will be adding to the list 

Autism_at_40

I haven't read Lord of the Rings, but the films are good.
I agree with Harry Potter being good films, I'm addicted, but I read the books later on and find them much better than the films.  Still enjoy them though :-)

anisty

Love Jane Eyre and also some of Hardy's novels - Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird recently and that has to be right up there too.


At the moment I'm struggling with Shuggie Bain. Despite it winning some awards, I just cannot get on with it. I'm about ¾ way through.


Next one to try is A thousand Splendid Stars. I loved The Kite Runner. This is the same author, but even better (so says my daughter!)

chiarieds

To my shame I've never read any Thomas Hardy, tho to my surprise he also wrote music. My son used to play the violin, & we came across a book of his music (Hardy was also a violinist). Can't say how much I liked listening to my son play from this; my son also enjoyed playing them, thankfully, altho they were quite intricate.

I've tried 3 times to read 'The Lord of the Rings,' but at my best attempt only got 2/3 of the way through. Really enjoyed watching the films with my son, tho I too usually prefer reading books prior to watching films/TV series. My one exception was watching John Thaw as Colin Dexter's Morse; reading the books later I always imagined Morse looking like John Thaw.

'To Kill a Mockingbird' is very good; don't know why but thought Harper Lee was a male for a very long time!

I also enjoyed 'The Kite Runner.' Oh, I'm trying to reduce the number of books I have, but am tempted, tho buying new books is somewhat alien to me.

Has anyone read Mervyn Peake's 'Gormenghast' trilogy? He was also an artist & book illustrator.

@Hannah_Scope - as you enjoy Kathy Reichs, may I suggest Simon Beckett's David Hunter series, starting with 'The Chemistry of Death.'

anisty

Ooooh - how did I forget Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier!!  I thought the film was good - but omg once I read the book, the film is nowhere near it.


Mrs Danvers will scare the pants off anyone!

Hannah_Alumni

Now on the list @chiarieds I love a crime series of books!