What is your favourite novel, and why?

What a lovely but impossibly difficult question Doodledog I love it. I could change my top five every couple of weeks. I loved The Kite Runner, possibly in my top 5, but could be in my top 10 another day. Where the Crawdads Sing would make my top 10 currently (depending on my last read). I read The French Lieutenant's Woman for A level English, when on holiday in Lyme Regis which was a bit surreal as I was on the Cobb reading it. Great book but so long ago, it’s been pushed from my tops ‘list’. Going WAY back though, I would definitely include Wind In The Willows in my top three of all time (from when I was 8 🤭). Great question Doodledog.

I'm attempting to read Proust's In Search of Lost Time (Scott Moncrieff translation).

... flippin' 'eck - I'm only on the first volume. I might have bitten off more than I can chew. BUT, I am definitely warming to the work.

Evelyn Waugh didn't like him / the work - called him a 'mental defective' which is rude. And Kazuo Ishiguro thought him "crushingly dull"... which was exactly my reaction to his (Ishiguro's) novel, Remains of the Day. The film was OK, but the book reduced me to great yawning sobs...

Yes Tinky17! E Nesbit was the first time I really got lost in a book- I’ll never forget that feeling. I recently bought a copy of The Phoenix and the Carpet for my DGD and settled down to read it again myself …. what a shock! I couldn’t believe how dated it was! Turns out it was written in 1904. 119 years ago 🤣😳

Perfume
Peter Suskind
I loved that book.

Sleepygran My favourite is likely to be whatever I’m reading at the time!
On consideration me too!
I've been thinking about this and decided many of the books I've enjoyed most recently have been 'low-brow' rather than 'high-brow'. I usually find books far superior to the film or TV versions.
I loved 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and the book was far superior to the film, which I enjoyed but lacked the impact of the book. I suppose because they couldn't or wouldn't show the time lapse until the final realisation.
I've always loved reading, and would read the back of the cereal box if nothing else was available. My biggest problem is I hate to admit defeat and not finish a book. I need to post on the other thread

My favourite is likely to be whatever I’m reading at the time!
My best ones over the last couple of years are the four novels by Elena Ferrante,stating with My Brilliant Friend.
It was written in Italian and loses a bit in not very good,translation.
If you can get past the first half of the first book, then you’ll need a couple of days clear to binge read all the others in the series!

Does anyone remember the Whiteoaks series by Mazo de la Roche?

Yes, I do, Blinko
I borrowed them from the library one after another very many years ago. Thoroughly enjoyable.

The ones I'd need on a desert island: all twelve volumes of Anthony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time', Paul Scott's 'Raj Quartet' and all of Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld'.

My most favourite is Where the crawdads sing. A brilliant story.
I also liked Eleanor Oliphant.
Also all of Peter James' Roy Grace series.

The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa. Very moving. Would so recommend it. As a child it just must be Anne of Green Gables - read it about 10 times - as a child.

I would read again:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime by Mark Haddon;
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, well any of his books;
Georgette Heyer’s regency romances;
Rebecca and almost all of Daphne du Maurier’s books.

Does anyone remember the Whiteoaks series by Mazo de la Roche?

Also Bill Bryson - love his books.

Loads of interesting choices suggested here! Looking forward to trying a few,

Somewhere near the top of my list would be Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. Also loved A Gentleman in Moscow; Ken Follett's World Without End; Bad Blood by Lorna Sage and Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian. As a child it was Tom's Midnight Garden and The Secret Garden. I was a terribly lonely and unhappy little girl and I really believe reading saved me. I would disappear into a novel for hours and escape real life.

Withering heights was my favourite as a child and the Enid Blyton adventures. Nowadays I read east going books, such as by LJRoss and Anne Cleaves. I need escapism

There are so many, loved Me Before You Jojo Moyes then read the follow up.
If I find a book I love will read others by the same author, Roddy Doyle, Jojo Moyes, Lisa Jewell, Adele Parks,T.M.Logan,Mark Haddon. Several more but can't remember them all.

Sara1954

This is so interesting.
I just have to add Doris Lessing, Margaret Forster, Margaret Drabble and Anita Brookner, all favourites of mine.

YY to Lessing, Forster and Drabble. Also A S Byatt.

grandmac

MadeInYorkshire Have you tried a Kindle? They are very light weight and easy to hold in one hand.

Favourite books I could read again
The Long Walk, Slavomir Rawicz (read when I was about 12 and never forgotten)
The Thorn Birds, Collen McCullough
The Far Pavillions, M M Kaye ( and her autobiographies)
Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Margaret Forster
The Light between Oceans, M L Stedman
All the Nella Last series of diaries
The Source, James Michener
The Pillars of the Earth series, Ken Follett
The Kite Runner and 1000 Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
All the books about different cities by Edward Rutherford
Most of Leon Uris books
And Lots more!

yes *grandmac, actually thinking back, that was the first thing I tried!

It would have to be Pride and Prejudice. Sparkling, witty, playful, great observation of her society and a happy ending.

As a child I loved Noel Streatfeild, C S Lewis, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Geoffrey Trease and so many others.

Cossy

“Modern Books”
Miss Bensons Beatle - real feel good book and The Hunger Games Trilogy
And so many from my childhood:-
Heidi, Black Beauty, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe and Alice in Wonderland. I love reading and read lots of thrillers/murder mysteries/biographies and other but never westerns, wars books or Mill & Boon !!

Yes!
Miss Benson’s Beetle. Loved it.

D.H.Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover. I read this for the first time when I was about 17. In later life I enjoyed it again and saw that it was about innocence, passion, personal freedom and that love has no class and can win in the end. In DH I discovered someone who saw the world in ways that I related to.
I love the Ken Russell 4 part production of it with Joelly Richardson and Sean Bean but don't like any of the other attempts at it.
Good to hear what others like and some I haven't heard of so I will explore.

Very difficult to choose. I, too, loved A Fortnight in September and I discovered Mr. Finchley Discovers His England. Charming story. I really enjoy feel-good books and The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce is lovely. As a child I loved Heidi by Johanna Spyri, What Katy Did and She Shall Have Music by Kitty Barne. As I grew older, Noel Streatfeild was my favourite author but I think my favourite ever children’s book is Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce. I discovered The Outcasts of Time by Ian Mortimer a few years ago and it has stayed with me ever since.

This is lovely, I’m being reminded of so many great books I’ve enjoyed, and like others, I’m making a list.

PerkyPiggy

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist by Robert Tressel. It taught me so much about the plight of the working class.
A Moment In Time by H E Bates. Beautifully crafted characters. I cared about every single one of them.

Thanks PerkyPiggy I'd forgotten TRTP. A brilliant book. My GD always said it was the book that won Labour the post-war election.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist by Robert Tressel. It taught me so much about the plight of the working class.
A Moment In Time by H E Bates. Beautifully crafted characters. I cared about every single one of them.

Brilliant thread and I’ll be pinching some of the books and it also reminded me of all the wonderful childhood books I’d read