What is your favourite novel, and why?

I hated it too, but that's the nature of books.

DonnaB5859

The Midnight Library.
Give it a read. You won’t be disappointed

Want a bet? 😁 After reading glowing reviews I expected to read something special. I didn’t hate it but it went in the “going to the charity shop” pile. It’s definitely not a re-reader for me.

DonnaB5859

The Midnight Library.
Give it a read. You won’t be disappointed

The Midnight Library was thought provoking for me. Bit whimsical but that's fine!

Rebecca is my all time favorite closely followed by Great Expectations, which I did for 'O' level and had to read several times.
The Shellseekers and Thorn Birds I will read every few years.
Freya North's The Turning Point was so relatable that I felt I knew the family, so I will never part with that. The same for Kathryn Hughes The Memory Box. I have given this to friends as presents as I want them to enjoy it as much as I did.

I have collected the whole 16 of the Whiteoaks books as I fell in love with one of them years ago. One week I'll sit and read them all in order, maybe when I have my next knee replacement op!

I must add that after reading all your favorite titles I have made a list of some of the frequently mentioned ones that I will search for next time I'm at the hospice book store. So thank you for joining in.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini one of the best books I've ever read, absolutely amazing. Also The Island by Victoria Hislop was a wonderful read.

Agreed on both counts, Millieangel. I remembered that I have ATSS on Audible, so have started listening again as I potter about doing weekend things.

It’s a toss up between Rebecca and Persuasion but there are so many others I love although the only Austen I don’t like is Emma. I hate Wuthering Heights but love the books by Charlotte and Ann Brontë. I nearly always have at least three books on the go which is a habit I’ve had since a small child when I first learnt to read at four years old. I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread to learn what others love.

I really couldn't cut it down to just one book - there are so many I have enjoyed.

My absolute favourites are:

Secret History - Donna Tartt
Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler
Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

I generally only read fiction but I really enjoyed

The Road to Little Dribbling, Notes on a Small Island and Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson

and

And When Did You Last See Your Father - Blake Morrison

It is Black Beauty I remember from when I was young.

My most recent fab book has to be ''The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.'. Truly talented writing

I haven't trawled through all the pages so these may have been mentioned already.

Katherine
The Green Darkness

both by Anya Seton

How can I have forgotten the West Country trilogy by Tim Pears.
Such a moving, beautiful saga, lovely characters, and his descriptive writing of the West Country is perfect.
Unbearably sad in parts, very harsh at times, but ultimately beautiful.

Lovely thread.
I've always been a bookworm and have read so many brilliant books, so I find it very hard to choose a favourite. At the moment I'm reading I Capture the Castle, which is absolutely brilliant and highly recommended.
I used to be a massive Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine fan but I have read all her books now, some of them twice. I also loved Cider with Rosie and Lark Rise to Candleford. Jenny Eclair has written some funny books which I enjoyed, ditto Nina Stibbe. The Goldfinch was another book I liked although reading this thread many others did not. Other favourites of mine are Diary of a Nobody (hilarious), Cold Comfort Farm and all the Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend.
And there are so many others...........thank goodness for reading.

Oh yes - Cold Comfort Farm! That is laugh out loud funny, specially the Quivering Brethren and all the mollicking

Doodledog

Oh yes - Cold Comfort Farm! That is laugh out loud funny, specially the Quivering Brethren and all the mollicking

I love Cold Comfort Farm, my aunty introduced me to it. We used to use the phrase "There's something nasty in the woodshed" whenever we could and burst out laughing.

Glorianny

Doodledog

Oh yes - Cold Comfort Farm! That is laugh out loud funny, specially the Quivering Brethren and all the mollicking

I love Cold Comfort Farm, my aunty introduced me to it. We used to use the phrase "There's something nasty in the woodshed" whenever we could and burst out laughing.

It's even funnier if you've read the sort of popular books it was sending up. My mum had a couple by Mary Webb, Precious Bane and The Golden Arrow; models for Cold Comfort Farm

Dear fellow booklovers, thank you for a wonderful thread. Many of the books I know but some are new to me which means more wonderful worlds and writers to explore. Books often resonate with us at a particular time in our life and when re-read years later we wonder why we liked them so much. Often, it's a special combination of time and place. I once read that having someone peruse your bookshelves was like someone reading your diary. A very personal history. Humankind will always need storytellers.

I forgot ‘Precious Bane’.

'Precious Bane' is best forgotten it is an absolutely dreadful book which is hysterically funny because it takes itself so seriously and is the original of the genre that Cold Comfort Farm sends up..

It is one of my great accomplishments that I managed to read that book from start to finish, thinking with each chapter thta it couldn't get any worse - and it always did.

M0nica

'Precious Bane' is best forgotten it is an absolutely dreadful book which is hysterically funny because it takes itself so seriously and is the original of the genre that Cold Comfort Farm sends up..

It is one of my great accomplishments that I managed to read that book from start to finish, thinking with each chapter thta it couldn't get any worse - and it always did.

That is absolutely my recollection of it, MOnica

I don't think the other one was quite as bad...

I wish I had them both to reread, just to see if my younger me was right... but I think my sister has them, (or has thrown them out...)

MaizieD How about 'The Constant Nymph' Like Precious Bane, both published in 1924. I put there popularity down to the country, as a whole still being mentally deranged after WW1.

I've never read that, MOnica. Do you think I should, just for the sheer awfulness of the experience?

*MaizieD: At your own risk!!

I was delighted to find 'Mothering Sunday' at the library today, as so many of you had it on your favourite list. So that will be my next read later in the week.

The Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwell. It puts flesh on the bones of a century in the history of england i knew very little about. Loved it, all those battles not so much but even those are told from a very personal and human perspective .