Just wondering what everyone's fabourite boos is and why it means so much to them.

My favourite Book is "The Butcher Boy" by Patrick Mccabe, it tells the touching, sad and sometimes funny story of a young boy Francie, an optimistic, cheeky dreamer who is a happy go lucky child until whenevery one close to him in his life ultimately leaves him and he descends into complete madness.....

Francie is exhausting, humorous and so very sad. I felt a terrible sorrow for Francie, so much so I wanted to command events. I wanted to say "Not. One. More. Bad. Thing!" The child has had enough horrible things happen to him!

The book is amazing in that Francies descent into madness is told in a poignent, very realistic and at times funny way, you empathise with him throughout the story even when his descent into madness leads him to commiting a horrifying, violent act at the end of the book.

The book is full of delightful black humour and its a sad but very compelling read.

what are your favourite books and why are they so dear to you???

I need some recommendations!

Hi...
My all time favourite book is 'Travels with my Aunt' by Graham Greene.
Its the tale of a middle aged man who meets up with his elderly Aunt Augusta at a funeral.She bursts into his life and literally shakes up his world.
His life up to then had been boring and routine...this great lady somehow makes him accompany her on her exotic and bewildering trips abroad.
It is HILARIOUS...(tho' it does'nt sound it.)
I thouroughly enjoyed it.
I also love 'Song for a Raggy Boy' by Patrick Galvin.(For many of the same reasons you mentioned for Pat McCabe)
And Room with a View, by EM Forster.It is so well written and descriptive that it makes me want to drop everything and head to Florence immediately.
And I have just finished reading 'The Time Travellers Wife' by Audrey Nieffenger'.It was beautiful, even better the second time round.
And i think i actually got my head around the time travelly bits this time.
What are you reading at the mo?

Hi...
My all time favourite book is 'Travels with my Aunt' by Graham Greene.
Its the tale of a middle aged man who meets up with his elderly Aunt Augusta at a funeral.She bursts into his life and literally shakes up his world.
His life up to then had been boring and routine...this great lady somehow makes him accompany her on her exotic and bewildering trips abroad.
It is HILARIOUS...(tho' it does'nt sound it.)
I thouroughly enjoyed it.
I also love 'Song for a Raggy Boy' by Patrick Galvin.(For many of the same reasons you mentioned for Pat McCabe)
And Room with a View, by EM Forster.It is so well written and descriptive that it makes me want to drop everything and head to Florence immediately.
And I have just finished reading 'The Time Travellers Wife' by Audrey Nieffenger'.It was beautiful, even better the second time round.
And i think i actually got my head around the time travelly bits this time.
What are you reading at the mo?

Hi Aondeag,

those books sound cool, I have seen the film of A room with a View and thought it was absolutely wonderful so I will definitely try the book too. I have actually seen the film of Song for a Raggy Boy also so i must try and read the book there too!

At the moment I'M reading another Pat McCabe book "The Dead School", again its very dark, full of repressed and melancholy characters but woth loads of fab writing and fantastic humour.

Any more favourite books to recommend peeps??!!

Hey..that's mad!
after I finished the last post ('and chorus') I suddenly remembered I meant to say The Dead School' as well.
It was the first Pat Mc Cabe I ever read...and I was hooked.It broke my heart......

I've had two favourite books really, one in my young adulthood and one in my dotage.

The first is Shibumi, by Trevanian. It's the fictional biography of Nicholai Hel, a reclusive retired assassin who becomes the target of governments eager to keep their secrets secret. It's certainly not pulp fiction, though. Hel is a wonderful creation: saintly ascetic, ruthless killer, vintage 'man-against-the establishment' with a mind like a steel trap and the tastes and lifestyle of an 18th century aristocrat. He is a man without a country, a natural mystic, philosopher, linguist, master of Go (a complex Japanese board game of high strategy). In his retirement he is a seeker of spiritual perfection, his ultimate goal being that hard to define state or condition known as Shibumi. A wonderful read.

My other favourite is The Discovery Of Heaven, by Harry Mulisch. This is a big book (65 chapters) of big themes, driven by big characters living through big events. It explores theology, philosophy, sex, the holocaust, angels, politics, eschatology, and love. It's a brilliantly written book of brilliant ideas, and I can't begin to reduce it to a synopsis.

The Discovery Of Heaven, by Harry Mulisch sounds like something to get your teeth into Dab??

My favourites have to be books that I can read again and again - so that rules out the vast majority, as I know the story and get bored.

But I can read 'Notes From a Small Island' - Bill Bryson again and again - and still laugh and still be amused and visionary and loved up - when I have finished reading it.

The other one I can read again and again is The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B - by J P Donleavy. This book just enthralled me beyond words - it was stupendous and written in such an odd way. With. Ridculously small. Sentances.

But I can read 'Notes From a Small Island' - Bill Bryson again and again - and still laugh and still be amused and visionary and loved up - when I have finished reading it.

I really must buy one of Bill Bryson's books soon. I've been meaning to get one for ages but haven't got round to it yet.

I really must buy one of Bill Bryson's books soon. I've been meaning to get one for ages but haven't got round to it yet.

Oh Andrea you will love this one. I think your home county is Norfolk? Well that is were Bill has finally put down roots - and he loves, loves loves it.

I am no afficianado on Bill Bryson, in fact I have only ever read 2 of his this one and the follow up - and I can't even remember the name of it. But this one, Notes on a Small Island will have you in hysterics - he really is a funny man.

He was the final speaker at the WI conference in the Albert Hall a couple of weeks ago - he addressed 7,000 women - and had each and every one of us in stitches. He is quite the most unassuming sweet man - but ever so funny and passionate about the UK.

Oh Andrea you will love this one. I think your home county is Norfolk? Well that is were Bill has finally put down roots - and he loves, loves loves it.

Your right Flip, he was in the local paper a few weeks back saying how he loves it here and has decided to stay.

So far my favourite book of all time is 'Rebecca' by Daphne Du Maurier.

If you've ever had to live in the shadow of someone's ex...then you will understand this book completely.

Worth a read.

I've just ploughed through all of Louis de Bernieres books, I love his writing.

Pelagias (sp?) Lament, a 3 page chapter in Captain Corellis Mandolin contains some of the most powerful emotion I have ever read. His one paragraph description of love in the book also brought me to tears in its simplicity and power.

His earlier books have got a bit of Tom Sharpe about them, and his description of Latin American election processes had me laughing enough to have to put the book down at times. He interchanges hilarity with brutality, trajedy and sadness effortlessly, a powerful read, all of them.

Red Dog was a departure, more a classic childrens book.

So versatile.

Just read Bernieres last book on the Greek/Turkish tragedy of the first world war (I must learn to read the titles of the books I read as I don't know what it was called).

He develops individual characters in great depth, before taking those characters into the story that was the first world war, so you get to view the drama from a more personal perspective rather than a factual one (he did this in Captain Corellis Mandolin too).

And wow, I never understood the break-down of the Ottoman empire before now. But now I do. Great read.

But my most favourite book of all time is Plague Dogs (can't remember author, but at least remember the name of the book).

It is a weird story about two talking dogs that escape from an animal testing station and go through some adventures trying to get home (I think they did a cartoon of it some time ago too).

I read it in some isolation in Hawaii of all places, and was able to concentrate and get absorbed into the book like never before. It was a hard read at times, and two times I put the book down and vowed to never pick it up again as it was too depressing - but next day I ploughed on. Believe me, it reeally, really drags you through the mire.

But at the end, I cannot describe the elation, I have tears in my eyes even now after 7 years just remembering the ending. A sprint up a mountain and sing "the hills are alive" moment. Anyway, to go through such extreme emotions while reading any one book will stick with me forever.

If you try to read it, knuckle down for a hard ride. But boy is it worth it at the end (but I've ruined it now. I thought at the time everyone would just die a painful and excruciatingly tortured death at the end, and read towards the conclusion with impending dread .... but now you know differently!)

Just read Bernieres last book on the Greek/Turkish tragedy of the first world war (I must learn to read the titles of the books I read as I don't know what it was called).


I think it was called 'Birds Without Wings'.
It's a bit of an epic all right.I like him a lot.

Yup thats the one Aon. Thanks.

Hi...
My all time favourite book is 'Travels with my Aunt' by Graham Greene.


Hey Aon, just realised it was you who recommended this one before - I just got back from the library with it!

Will start it tonight.

My favourite book of all time is 'The Collector' by John Fowles. I love it so much that I have foisted it on many people over the years and my son has just read it too.

I have also just finished reading "We need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver and it has to go on my list as one of the best I've ever read as well.

Favourite book from childhood was Peter Pan. Read it over and over. Then Pride & Prejudice. Did it for O Level and have loved it ever since. Then, probably, Gorky Park.

My favourite book of all time is 'The Collector' by John Fowles. I love it so much that I have foisted it on many people over the years and my son has just read it too.

Voicey, what's this one about?

Voicey, what's this one about?

I just copied this from Amazon Andrea

Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. A chance pools win enables his to capture the art student Miranda and keep her in the cellar of the Sussex house he has bought with the windfall. The situation is seen first from the collector's point of view: he thinks the chloroform pad no more vicious than his butterfly net, and patiently waits for the barriers of class and taste that inhibit their love to break down in the limbo of their isolation. She, the creator, desperate for her freedom, tries to be understanding but cannot banish her contempt for everything anti-life that the collector stands for.

It's a really good read, not long and is very powerful. It still shocks me and I have read it half a dozen times. It's donkey's years old too and was made into a film in the early 60's.

My favourite books as a child were/are the Faraway tree and Danny, Champion of the world.

My son's reading the Faraway tree at the moment and obviously the names of the children are classically Blyton, which provide an endless amount of humour for him and his friends, no so for the teacher when he has to read extracts.

My favourite books as a child were/are the Faraway tree.


:huh: I was just about to write that my fav book was the Faraway Tree. I adored it, and read it so many times its permanently printed on my brain.

I also loved Winnie the Pooh, as it was the only storybook that my mum would read to me as a child. If you wanted anything other than Winnie the Pooh you had to read it yourself !!

It's a really good read, not long and is very powerful. It still shocks me and I have read it half a dozen times. It's donkey's years old too and was made into a film in the early 60's.

I saw the movie once (The Collector), quite a well known actor, and still think of him in that role every time I see him in any other movie as he was just so creepy in the movie....

I just copied this from Amazon Andrea

Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. A chance pools win enables his to capture the art student Miranda and keep her in the cellar of the Sussex house he has bought with the windfall. The situation is seen first from the collector's point of view: he thinks the chloroform pad no more vicious than his butterfly net, and patiently waits for the barriers of class and taste that inhibit their love to break down in the limbo of their isolation. She, the creator, desperate for her freedom, tries to be understanding but cannot banish her contempt for everything anti-life that the collector stands for.

It's a really good read, not long and is very powerful. It still shocks me and I have read it half a dozen times. It's donkey's years old too and was made into a film in the early 60's.

Ooh thanks for that Voicey.
I may have to look that one up, sounds interesting.

I just copied this from Amazon Andrea

Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. A chance pools win enables his to capture the art student Miranda and keep her in the cellar of the Sussex house he has bought with the windfall. The situation is seen first from the collector's point of view: he thinks the chloroform pad no more vicious than his butterfly net, and patiently waits for the barriers of class and taste that inhibit their love to break down in the limbo of their isolation. She, the creator, desperate for her freedom, tries to be understanding but cannot banish her contempt for everything anti-life that the collector stands for.

It's a really good read, not long and is very powerful. It still shocks me and I have read it half a dozen times. It's donkey's years old too and was made into a film in the early 60's.

Oh Voice - that book is DEFINITELY one of my all time faves too! ( i think we may have discovered our mutual appreciation of the book on the old baord if memory serves correct!)
Isn;t it just written brilliantly - the first half Fred rationilising his kidknapping of the beatufil Miranda, and then when she tells her story in the secnd part - fantastic!

I would really really recommend this book for a read too!

Oh Voice - that book is DEFINITELY one of my all time faves too! ( i think we may have discovered our mutual appreciation of the book on the old baord if memory serves correct!)
Isn;t it just written brilliantly - the first half Fred rationilising his kidknapping of the beatufil Miranda, and then when she tells her story in the secnd part - fantastic!

I would really really recommend this book for a read too!

I think you might also enjoy "We need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver CL. If you do give it a go let me know what you think :)

My favorite books of all time has to be lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkin a tremendous epic which ive read a dozen times or more and also the Di Vinci code by Dan Brown a really good read I could'nt put down :laugh:

Ooh, it would have to be The Hobbit. As a child I loved Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and Charlotte's Web! I am reading Charlotte's Web to Katie at the moment and I am dreading the ending as I just know I am going to cry!!

The Da Vinci Code was good and I recently read a wonderful book called The Time-Traveller's Wife. I would recommend this one to anyone, it is honestly just a brilliant book!

It would have to be............Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - I love this book, I have read it sooooooooooooooooo many times!


The Pillars of the Earth

In a time of civil war, famine, religious strife and war, there rises a magnificent Cathedral in Kingsbridge. Against this backdrop, lives entwine: Tom, the master builder, Aliena, the noblewoman, Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge, Jack, the artist in stone and Ellen, the woman from the forest who casts a curse. At once, this is a sensuous and enduring love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age.

Childhood book has to be the Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton!

My favorite books are:

1. "The Great Gatsby" I've read this a few times, the first time for English class in high school...I love every bit of it. The characters are so deep in the story and the relationships between them so fascinating to discover throughout the book.

2. "Dancing Skeletons - Life and Death in West Africa" -Katherine A. Dettwyler...It's an account of a biocultural anthropologist who did her research in West Africa...and discusses the issues of malnutrition in the region...and the way major health issues have become seen as "normal" by the people living there...and the way the author, having studied medecine, tended to see people by their diseases rather than as people..and the effects it had on her during her research...

Ah lovely, lovely books:

To Kill a mockingbird. Great piece of writing here.
Catcher in the Rye. Still Love it.
John Irving is a really cool writer. Prayer to Owen Meany.
Songlines, Bruce Chatwin. Great travel story and narrative.
Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson. Laugh out loud stuff
Regeneration Pat Barker.
The Little Prince Antoine de saint exupery
Joseph campbell/carl jung lots and lots of stuff
Nearly forgot..Bram Stoker's Dracula. Fab.
The Brothers Karamazov - the old favs are coming back to me now..

Nearly forgot..Bram Stoker's Dracula. Fab.


I read Dracula and Frankenstein back-to-back. I was dissapointed with Frankenstein for some reason, but I thought Stoker's Dracula was a fantastic book. A very powerful and tragic love story rather than the slice and dice of the movies - wonderful.

My favourite book, i have so many...................

I love any books by India Knight and Paula Yates.
Mermaids- Patti Dunn
Runaway-Lucy Irvine
The Islander- Gerald Kingland
Hideous Kinky- Esther Freud
Flowers in the Attic-Virginia Andrews
You are here (the London 60's)- Michael Cooper

think i had better stop there unless you've got all night :w00t:

I read Dracula and Frankenstein back-to-back. I was dissapointed with Frankenstein for some reason, but I thought Stoker's Dracula was a fantastic book. A very powerful and tragic love story rather than the slice and dice of the movies - wonderful.

I love this book too. My copy contains some excellent line drawings, dark sketches that really add to the atmosphere.

Anyone tried Ghostwritten by David Mitchell yet?

It is a series of short stories that are very loosely connected together. The stories are uneven in how good they are, but one of the later ones about someone who calls into a late night radio talk show calling himself the architect (I think it was that name, maybe something else) still haunts me. You can read each story in any order, but if you want to try his writing, just read that one story and see what you think. I kept going back to the book and re-reading that one chapter (before lending it to someone, who agreed, then lent it to someone else etc etc so lost it now).

I tried his second book but couldn't get into it for some reason. His style is unusual.

I read Dracula and Frankenstein back-to-back. I was dissapointed with Frankenstein for some reason, but I thought Stoker's Dracula was a fantastic book. A very powerful and tragic love story rather than the slice and dice of the movies - wonderful.

Haven't read Dracula....but I had to read Frankenstein when in school and loved it. Very depressing book....but still very good.

Haven't read Dracula....but I had to read Frankenstein when in school and loved it. Very depressing book....but still very good.

I recommend that you read Dracula. It is a very interesting book. And if you think about the time it was written in, very creative.

I've been trying for ages to decide what my favourites are, but I've decided they must be the ones that make having flu worthwhile.

Bed, hot Ribena, hot water bottle, and

101 Dalmatians
I Capture the Castle (both by Dodie Smith)

Pastoral (Neville Shute) - soppy wartime romance

Wellies From the Queen - (can't remember who) hilarious tale of mistaken identity at sea (dab if you haven't read this, you must!!)

I just googled Wellies From The Queen, Fee. It's by Colin Douglas. Thanks for that - I'll get a copy. :thumbsup:

"Clay's Quilt", "A Parchment of Leaves", and "Coal Tattoo" all by Silas House, a truly gifted writer.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper LeeIf you like mysteries, ALL of Ian Rankin's 'Inspector Rebus' books, I'm almost through with the last one.

Michael Malone has some excellant books about the Carolinas and the people around a certain area that show up in each book.

Tabitha King (Stephen Kings) wife is an awesome writer, with the exception of "Small People".

I Capture the Castle (both by Dodie Smith)



I have recently finished this - and it was a sincere and flightful delight into hormonal anxst and unrequited love. And apart from all that soppy stuff the descriptive architecture was sublime.

My childhood faves are Swallows and Amazons [has to be numero 1, I am anmed after one of the lead characters, sadly it was not Titty!!]. And the Magic Faraway Tree - but childhoood books should somehow be left to childhood. I recently re-read the Magic Faraway Tree and was a bit sad, the wool was not pulled over my eyes!!

I have recently finished this - and it was a sincere and flightful delight into hormonal anxst and unrequited love. And apart from all that soppy stuff the descriptive architecture was sublime.

My childhood faves are Swallows and Amazons [has to be numero 1, I am anmed after one of the lead characters, sadly it was not Titty!!]. And the Magic Faraway Tree - but childhoood books should somehow be left to childhood. I recently re-read the Magic Faraway Tree and was a bit sad, the wool was not pulled over my eyes!!

Flip, I agree with The Magic Faraway Tree I have been reading this to Katie and have to admit the magic just isn't there for me. Although Charlotte's Web I re-read and still loved and cried buckets at the end!

I have just re-read a book I have had for decades and it had lost non of its magic.

I don't suppose it matters whether you know her or not really, she was a bit before my time even then, but its a fascinating account of her 'country' life anf durther adventures at home and abroad before during and after the war (WW2).

Its called Jump for Joy, by Pat Smythe.
Lovely

M