What is your favourite novel, and why?

Sara1954

When I was at college everyone was reading Tolkien, but I could never get into it, tried later, but could never see the appeal

I used to haul my Lord of The Rings up to London on my daily commute to work, I really enjoyed it back then aged 18 or so, not a book I'd revisit now, I was Tolkiened out long ago, particularly after the films, fantasy is no longer a genre that appeals.

Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell. Was reading it on a bus in London going to work in the 1980s and just became immersed in the story. I could almost heat the civil war and feel the fear. Looked up and I had missed my stop and gone miles out if my way. That is powerful writing.
Bless the author; I read she was accidentally knocked down and killed when young so only one novel.

The Grapes of Wrath
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
Birdsong
Lessons in Chemistry
American Dirt
Anatomy of A Scandal
War and Peace

To name a few

Ahhh well.... this is a very easy question to answer.

My own novels that I have written. 😉

All these novels sound a bit highbrow and literally for me!!
I like those in the Seven Sister series by Lucinda Riley.
Also any by Hilary Boyd because her characters are ‘older’ !

I could not possibly choose one book, or even one author.

I regularly re-read all of Jane Austen, all the Brother Cadfael books, all of Dornford Yates, any fiction or non-fiction about India I can get my hands on, and all of the Harry Potter books, and of course the first book I fell in love with when Daddy read it to me when I was three: Winnie-the-Pooh!

Jane Eyre and Rebecca

All the Light We Cannot See. Anthony Doerr. Beautifully written and set in Germany and France during WW2 - a period in social history which I find of particular interest - it deals with the way in which the lives of the two key characters - a young, blind French girl, and an increasingly reluctant Hitler youth - become inextricably connected and interwoven. Deeply moving and thought-provoking.

How could I have omitted these!
The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe (found in a Welsh holiday cottage in 1975 and stolen as it perfectly captured the hippie movement)
Suite Francaise by Irene Neverovsky, never finished because as a Jewish woman during WC2 she was arrested by theNazis and sent to the gas chambers. The novel was eventually published by her husband.

I agree with your choice Sevensider!

I read a lot of books and have many favourite authors. I usually enjoy a good thriller and Sarah Denzil, or Shari Lapena and C L Taylor would be top of my list. I also read some K L Slater books and James Patterson. But I enjoy dipping in to a Stephen King from time to time or Virginia Andrews for some more light hearted family moments. One Book I would recommend is The Maid by Nita Prose - Mystery tied up with amusement and very very well written.

I only really read horror books. James Herbert is my favourite author with Stephen King and Richard Laymon a close joint second. My all yime favourite book is The Magic Cottage. I have read it so many times and I'm never bored by it.

Just realised this thread is about novels and some if my choices are non fiction. Ah well, still love them.

Silas Marner by George Eliot, so poignant, you will not fail to be moved by this book.

The Woman in White by W. Wilkie Collins. Head and shoulders above everything else IMHO. Would definitely take this to my desert island. Read it 15 times, always a delight and will soon start reading it again - it's simply wonderful!

As a bookoholic I read many and varied . Love autobiographies, biographies , and range across the fiction. Black Beauty was a favourite as a child but I also love Girl from the Limberlost and have read it both as a child and an adult. Pride and Prejudice , is a constant love , Jane Eyre which I read at the age of about 9 for the first time and scared myself with the fire and mad woman scene trying to read it in the half dark when I was meant to be asleep but couldnt stop reading it. My Family and other Animals ., the Roddy Doyle books I agree. I never wanted to see a film of books I loved for a long time as they never portrayed the people as I had imagined them and messed about with the story often, but I do enjoy seeing P@P with the great Alison Streadman as a superb Mrs Bennet and just cant remember the actors name that played Lady Catherine de Burgh, whose remarks that "she gave no compliments to her mother" matches the great" a Handbag" in the importance of being Ernest. Oh this is torture to me - I could spend hours adding to todays list and a totally different one tomorrow. But of choice of course I want the actual book not a kindle or anything and a lovely edition where the paper is lovely to touch. Naturally, any book I have will not have corners turned down or writing in it! whatever the day brings and however late it is I must always end with some reading in bed. Happy reading all

"Where the crawdads sing" , "Tess of the d'Urbevilles", To kill a mocking bird - all tearjerkers !

David Copperfield. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read it. So I also enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver’s reworking of it - Damon Copperhead. Re an earlier post about The Remains of the Day: Ishiguro was born in Japan. There are parallels between the rigidity of the Japanese Salary Man and the persona of Mr Stevens, the butler, whose identity is swallowed by the British class system at the time at which the novel is set.

Middlemarch. Just a work of utter genius.

I also loved ‘The Fortnight in September’ after a recommendation by the journalist and critic Craig Brown. I have spells of reading a particular author. For a while I loved Ruth Rendell’s stand-alone books, although they are very dark, and also those written as Barbara Vine, such as A Fatal Inversion. I’ve recently discovered Celia Dale who was writing similar dark mystery novels in the 60s and 70s. I was unaware of her then, and most of her books are now sadly out of print and quite expensive second hand.
Like some others, I enjoyed reading most when I was a child when you can totally lose yourself in a book and you have no conflicting demands on your time as regards work or household matters. A favourite was ‘The Lost Staircase’ by Elinor Brent Dyer of Chalet School fame - a gripping stand-alone novel for children.

I read lots of books and my favourite has to be Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It’s about building cathedrals but is also a story about people.
Second choice would be Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Her descriptive writing makes you feel that you are actually there.

The Women's Room definitely changed my outlook but so did The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse and Feel the Fear by Susan Jeffers. Read dozens more that I really loved but these are the only ones I've read more than once.

The Map of Love by Adhaf Soueif
Gone with the wind
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Valley of the Dolls
And so many others😱

Terry Pratchett's 'disc world' series

The Wind in the Willows for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Love GWTW read it several times always hoping for a different ending - was about 16 when I first read it.
As a teenager read The Womens Room but found it depressing and wondered why women put up with such c**p. Always thought women are more than equal to men but then I had a very bolshie strong minded Mum …and aunties! The husbands didn’t seem to stand a chance 🤣
As a child really enjoyed Swallow and Amazons and Ransome’s subsequent books plus anything about ponies or boarding school probably because it was so far removed from my working class upbringing - always wanted midnight feasts out of a tuckbox and wins at gymkhanas haha