What is the best book?

I love the Kite Runner. The main character is very dynamic makes it such a great read.

 

IT by Stephen King, very long, so much so you really know and understand the characters, very well written.

 

I really love The Hunger Games and The Fellowship of The Ring from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy (it's the only one I've read so far ). I really like The Host by Stephanie Meyer too

 

I really love the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. It's absolutely hilarious. I also really love the Harry Potter series, and I'm working my way through the Game of Thrones series which is also fantastic. I'd recommend all three.

 

I really like the Farseer trilogy and other books by Robin Hobb. I love her characters and the relationship between Fitz and the Fool and how you never know the fool's gender

Only book that I've read more than once because I liked it so I guess that's the best I've read

 

Going to second The Kite Runner. I read it whilst I was in the hospital shortly before exam season started last year and it provided a bit of solace amidst the chaos that was in my life at the time, and it has left an amazing impact on my view of the world because it helped me understand the realities refugees face if they don't leave their own countries and come further west in search of a better life for them and their families. War isn't massively prevalent in the novel and isn't presented as such, but as it progresses, you realise it is a key factor in the whole plot.

I'll also mention The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, because of its unique narrative and perspective on life during WWII. We get a third person look at the life of civilians in Germany and the effects of the Nazi occupation of Europe.

Continuing with the theme of war, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, too, for its representation of life in during WWI, for soldiers and people who aren't on the front line, which is contrasted by scenes from the trenches. It also offers a look into the life of civilians and soldiers who aren't from the usual countries we think about when we hear about the war(s), as we usually think of Germany, Great Britain, and the USA. The reader gains an inside perspective of what life was like in France at the time of the war, instead of just seeing it as an ally to Britain. The novel also feels very fresh when reading it, instead of the drudgy, melancholy feeling to a lot of WWI/II related fiction.

If war isn't your thing, I would say the Harry Potter series are some of the best books I've read. Though it could be said that war is still a big thing in these books, hahaha.

My three favourite books, though, are: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, in no particular order.

 

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Nothing I've read since (including Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, JK Rowling or any classic) has been as fun and had the re-readability of it. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for warm British humour and because so much of Harry Potter's humour (which I also love) seemed to develop out of the same cheeky, hearty vein.

And because Howl never stops being Howl like he does in the film

 

I've never been so thrilled to read a book as I was with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

 

Two of my all-time favorites are Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Both books fall under the genre of magical realism, which is a fascinating albeit sometimes bewildering genre that combines the mundane with the magical in unpredictable ways. (Marquez and Murakami are two of my favorite authors in general, and I have read much by both).

 

There are too many to pick a favorite but I generally love post apocalyptic books. Two of my favorites are Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and The Road by Cormac Mccarthy.

 

I love anything by David Levithan!

 

In my opinion, it's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (GEB). I first read it when I was 16 and my fascination with the book has stayed with me throughout the years. Reading GEB, and enjoying it, made me realize I was an intellectual... In a poor Mexican American community, that's a big thing; it sets you apart from others.

I'm still in that community and it's interesting how many, an overwhelming majority, choose not to read--choose not to enjoy the written word--and ridicule it. They prefer TV (i.e., the boob tube) over the realm of ideas and imagination. I suppose that's true around the globe... It's part of globalization.

 

Obviously this:

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I will also second Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Read the whole book in third grade. I also reread it last year.

 

My personal favourite is Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar. I also love the works of Jorge Luis Borges. Those are difficult reads though.

 

Wow.... when I think about it.... I'm having a really hard time deciding. There is so many that I love. Right now I'm trying to read The Martian. I'm really loving it, but it's the digital ebook version from Amazon and it's got a number of.... transcription errors? Typos, whatever you want to assume they are. I'm not finished but I'm loving it so far. I also really loved the Harry Potter books, and the Hunger Games trilogy.

Hmm..... but best book? I can't choose a single book honestly, but I can cheat and say the best trilogy I've ever read is actually the Destiny trilogy of Star Trek. It's a lot of fun, ties together storylines from all the modern shows in an epic conflict with the Borg. I geek out over it so much and it was very well written. Even though it's a trilogy the whole thing is written as if it was one big book instead of clearly separate entries with finite climaxes and resolutions. But it's just my opinion. I'm sure there is probably something more worthy I simply haven't read. Still love it though.

 

The thing with books considered "the best", is that what scholars consider the best usually is way, waaaaaay too complicated for laypeople.

Take Borges. Borges was a genius, but it can get rather dense, especially if you haven't read a lot before tackling Borges. And you can get quickly lost in Hopscotch with its endless jumping around plotlines as well.

 

For me it's kind of a question of why I read it. The best literary book was Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I read it twice but it took forever both times. Just for fun... wow. So many! I mean, that one was fun, too, in its way. But just like light reading? Maybe Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck.

 

I've always wanted to get into Murakami, but have never known where to start. Any tips?

I agree that Cormac McCarthy is amazing. While not my favorite book I also appreciate The Road.

Despite all the LGBT themes he writes about, I've never been the biggest fan, honestly, but more power to you.

I would agree. When you start getting entire books just analyzing one book, you know you've gotten a bit too complex. And while in a way that's impressive, I don't think a book like that can really be "the best," since it fails at communicating everything it wants to in a meaningful way to the majority of people. There's a difference between engaging the reader by forcing them to think, and being completely over the heads of 99% of the population.

I'm on the younger side and not as widely read, but if we're going to talk about a book I've read that can be regarded as "the best," I would have to go with Shakespeare's Hamlet (technically a play, but that's the only thing I would really be comfortable with giving that title).