Friday, February 26, 2010

Your Turn

Talking about books and movies this week made me realize it has been almost two years since I asked the following question. Since it has been so long, your answer may have changed and it is a great way for me and for you to discover new books.

#1 - Your all-time favorite book
#2 - Your favorite guilty pleasure book

132 comments:

Adventurous Kate said...

1) All-time favorite: The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

2) Guilty Pleasure: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, Tucker Max

All CDANers -- you'd love both of these!

Anonymous said...

1. The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
2. The In Death series by J.D. Robb

bramblewitch said...

All time favorite: Far From the Madding Crowd
Guilty Pleasure (sort of): Wuthering Heights

Sue Ellen Mishkey said...

Just one book? Hrmph. I'll have to think on that one.

Susan said...

Listing one book for each category is mucho tough.

1. All time fav - Tender is the Night. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Amazing book.

2. Guilty pleasure books include trashy bios - such as the Andrew Morton book on Tom Cruise and Madonna's bio by her bro.

Chrissy Buns said...

all time favorite: Bag of Bones by Stephen King (i don't know why i loved it so, i just did, so there)

guilty pleasure: anything V.C. Andrews...god it feels good to confess that!

Jingle Belle said...

I don't know if I can narrow it down! But I'll say The Hobbit. I must have read it 20 times and I've read it to each of my kids.

My guilty pleasure - CDaN!!!! lol.

In all seriousness, there are so many! I basically read everything with writing in it or on it. For Fantasy/Sci Fi lovers I recommend anything by Terry Pratchett, Robert Asprin, Mercedes Lackey, Anne and Todd McCaffrey.

Ellen said...

I always have a tough time with picking an "all time favorite" anything, but recent favorites are Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (much better than the movie), Molokai by Alan Brennert (no other book has made me cry and smile so much), And Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris & The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson, Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink.

As far as guilty pleasures go...I will never forget how much I loved reading the Sweet Valley High books when I was young. I think I read my first one in 6th grade and I remember sneak reading them when my parents thought I was doing my homework. Those were the best!

heatherhug said...

Favorite: Midnight's Children (Rushdie)
Guilty Pleasure: Gone With the Wind

Jingle Belle said...

@heatherhug...I love, love, love Gone With the Wind!!! I was very upset when they wrote a sequel.

Beensie said...

All-time favorite: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Guilty pleasure: The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

RocketQueen said...

Favourite - a tie between The Count of Monte Cristo and A Prayer for Owen Meany
Guilty Pleasure - anything Stephen King

Lissette said...

All-time favorite book: Wuthering Heights
Guilty pleasure: The Outsiders (such a great, quick read) and/or "The Notebook"

Anonymous said...

Oh, I have read waaaay too much to pick a favorite book...I can just throw out these:
Loved VC Andrews, Sweet Valley High & Baby-Sitters Club as a kid...
Went on a true crime kick in college: would read anything Ann Rule put out...work in law enforcement now & I can't read that stuff anymore...
As of late I love James Rollins, Daniel Silva, Ken Follet, Douglas Clegg & Jim Butcher....me & the hubby are hooked on the Dresden Files.

Guilty Pleasure: re-reading Gone With the Wind every few years and I want to speak with a southern accent & drink mint juleps afterwards! I also want to kick Ashley in the rear end.

Hilary said...

All Time Favorite Book- Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

Guilty Pleasure- any what I call "Gym Books"- easy to read, recycled plots, pretty clothes and lots of drinking See Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes, etc.

Reading has always been my favorite passtime- I read about 4 books a week and I love the Public Library!

Liz said...

Favorite Book - The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova or Redbreast by Jo Nesbo.
Guilty pleasure - Jemima J by Jane Green

mooshki said...

#1 'Persuasion,' or anything else by Jane Austen.
#2 Just about anything by Linda Howard. Yes, they're romance novels, but they're good, damn it!

GladysKravitz said...

I could not possibly list my all time favorite book--too many. Latest: Water For Elephants. But let's not forget March, Truth and Beauty, Beloved, Catcher in The Rye, Bird by Bird and The Known World.

All time guilty pleasure book: Any of the Sue Grafton series. I hate that Z is approaching.

mooshki said...

Also an honorable mention to Jasper Fforde's books. So smart and funny!

mooshki said...

Gladys, there's always AA!

empyrios said...

1. "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret" really stuck with me through my adolescence. "Life of Pi" and "The Road" are fav recent reads.

2. "The Iron King" by Julie Kagawa. It's a teen book, lol, but i love fantasy books and the world she created in it is so lush it's too hard to resist.

Ms Cool said...

1) Pride and Prejudice
2) I love mysteries. My favorite authors are John Sandford and that hottie, Robert Crais. Have met them both and love them and their books.

Retailprophet said...

1. The old man and the sea
2. What would Wally do? (Dilbert cartoons of Wally...)

Icecat said...

1. To Kill A Mockingbird

2. The Sookie Stackhouse Series. I've never read "Romance" novels before, and I just felt kind of trashy (in a good way) reading these books...

0 said...

All-time favorite: Lord of The Flies. 'nuff said.

Guilty pleasure: Marilyn Manson's autobiography (if you are into trashy gossip and just trash in general, it is a must read)

Harold Bolton said...

1. Where the wild things are
2. Valley of the Dolls

Icecat said...

@GladysKravitz - I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Water for Elephants. What a great book. Highly recommended!!

lauramart said...

My favourite book right now is Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake". I loved it and am still thinking about it 2 weeks later. There is a sequel out now that is almost as good. I am hoping for a third book to finish off the series.

Guilty pleasure - Shopaholic series, James Patterson books (they are turning out to be all the same anyways)

Nichole Fisher said...

1. All time favorite book - Pride and Prejudice. I've read it so many times I've lost count. It never gets old for me.

2. Guilty pleasure reading - anything by Nora Roberts

New Life and Attitude said...

1. I'm going to have to say that I agree with empryrios and say "Are you there God, It's me Margaret" as it has always stuck with me (I always loved "Are you there Vodka, it's me Chelsea" too so what does that say about me?). I also love biographies - especially if they are about crimes or mafia.

2. Anything by Jackie Collins is a fabulous read or any other trashy celebrity type of book. But some of you reminded me about the Sweet Valley Hi books and I LOVED them! I think the best one was PS - I love you. Very sad one.

Anonymous said...

Wow, reading some of the comments made me forget my love of Judy Blume!! She was so awesome for a shy bookworm.

And I have to give props to Beverly Cleary. Ramona Quimby Age 8, Henry and Ribsy & The Mouse and the Motorcycle.......so many to love...

sassyyankee said...

1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Love, love, LOVE that book.

2. Anything by Nora Roberts. She is my vice. Though Jane Green comes a close second because of Jemima J.

Maja With a J said...

I think all books I read could be out in the "Guilty Pleasure" category...*LOL* I love biographies, especially of people who led wild lives with lots of drugs and debauchery. Right now I am reading "I'm With The Band" by Pamela DesBarres. Yup. That's about how deep as it gets for me.

heatherhug said...

@sassyyankee: I was torn between my choice and Catch-22. Just read that again recently, still amazing.

jagerlilly said...

Both Anne Rice:

Favorite Ever: Interview with a Vampire

Guilty Pleasure: The Erotic Adventures of Sleeping Beauty

PeepStone said...

going to have to go with fours here:

all time favorite :
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Matilda - Roald Dahl
Tender at the Bone - Ruth Reichl

don't really have any guilty pleasures. i'm fine reading just about anything and anyone seeing me read it. comes with being a librarian i guess. :)

heatherhug said...

@JingleBell, you really should never ever read "The Wind Done Gone" then. Mitchell's rolling in her grave.

amazonblue said...

1. All time favorite: East of Eden - Steinbeck
Two generations of Cane & Abel and a evil, murderous wife and mother.

2. Guilty pleasure: the Anne Rice Sleeping Beauty books.

Merlin D. Bear said...

All time favorite?
Gone With The Wind.

Guilty pleasure?
I am so ashamed to confess this, but I'm addicted - Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series.
Yes I know it's nothing but badly written vamporn, however they're my brain cells and I'll waste them however I want.

heatherhug said...

@Jingle Belle I meant. Sorry y'all, I still don't understand how to reply to these things.

MISCH said...

1. COLD MOUNTAIN - CHARLES FRAIZER
2. ANYTHING JAMES ROLLINS

BlackCat14 said...

1. "Eight Cousins" by Louisa May Alcott

2. Anything by Clive Cussler or Dick Francis

Krab said...

Favorite book: 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying" by George Orwell

Guilty pleasure: "Waiting to Exhale"

Anonymous said...

1. Impossible to say, there are so many!

2 Jennifer Crusie. Funny, sexy, with a little mystery thrown in.

Dementia said...

Best - The Shipping News & A Prayer for Owen Meany & Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans & Loving Frank


Guilty pleasure - Woman in White (Wilkie Collins) (free for Kindle)

PotPourri said...

The Son Also Rises = Hemingway

The Godfather = Mario Puzo (Guilty in more ways than one

PotPourri said...

I also loved Le Morte D'Arthur as a Serious Read

and Le Petit Prince, which I read in French Class in 1979 and it was AWESOME!

PotPourri said...

Ok, somebody got me on Tender is the Night By Fitzgerald.

PotPourri said...

Ok, somebody got me on Tender is the Night By Fitzgerald.

PotPourri said...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is another guilty read.

Dementia said...

Sorry - anything written by John McPhee and Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen is the latest book that stayed in my mind.

skeeball said...

@Jingle Bell~Gone With the Wind is my absolute favorite book I reread it every couple of years. I will not read the sequel or see the mini series based on it! I can't believe Mitchell's estate allowed them to to happen.

Guilty pleasures~True Crime! Ann Rule's Dead by Sunset, Jerry Bledsoe's Bitter Blood and Joe McGininnis' Fatal Vision are my faves, but they do give me nightmares~LOL

Oh and a book I read as a young teenager~Seventeenth Summer. Just a really really sweet story about first love.

awesome balla. said...

1.i always say, i really don't think that english majors can't have a favorite book, but some of my top are: the perks of being a wallflower, she's come undone, when you are engulfed in flames,

2. like so many others, 'are you there, god? it's me margaret.' and really guilty pleasure, the face on the milk carton series.

annie said...

1. to kill a mockingbird

2. flowers in the attic

sassenach said...

My favorite book- The Kite Runner. I can't even think about it without tearing up.

Guilty Pleasure- Diana Galbadon Outlander series. Intelligent and heartfelt but it has a cheese factor that can't be ignored.

sassenach said...

I am also happy to hear that so many love V.C. Andrews! I loved the Dawn series, Ruby series, Flowers in the attic series. She was awesome.

BigMama said...

Favorite: Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters

Guilty Pleasure : two
The Princess Bride - Goldman
Jitterbug Perfume - Tim Robbins

Unknown said...

Recent faves: "Neverwhere," Neil Gaiman; "Lolita," Nabokov

Guilty pleasures: anything V.C. Andrews, I read 'em in middle and high school and still re-read them on occasion. Oh, and Sidney Sheldon.

BlackCat14 said...

@Terrance - You are soooo right about the Outlander books! I was such a book snob and refused to read "romance" (written with disdain), until I started reading Diana Gabaldon. The sequels don't come out often enough and she's getting too good about leaving cliffhangers. Pure guilty pleasure!

childeroland said...

1. Alice in Wonderland (to pick just one)

2. Twilight (one of the worse books I've ever read, but fun *ducks head in shame*)

erin z. said...

#1 - helter skelter by vincent bugliosi and travels with charley by john steinbeck

#2 - celebrity biographies written by andrew morton

Yellow Rose said...

Favorite book: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Guilty pleasure: True crime books, esp anything by Ann Rule (technically not a guilty pleasure b/c I'm not ashamed to be seen carrying them around/reading them, but I do get some strange looks sometimes)

Yellow Rose said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Derek X said...

1. My absolute favorite book of all time is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

2. My guilty pleasure isn't just one book, it's those steamy romance novels. They're made for women, I know, but I read one once, and I was hooked.

sunnyside1213 said...

Gone With the Wind

Twilight (I know cheesy, but I loved it.)

Leah said...

Gladys- I also LOVED Water for Elephants.
My favorite book right now is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Guilty Pleasure- I'm big into teen novels right now, and I loved The Hunger Games.
I'll also have to agree with those who wrote The Outlander series and the Southern Vampire series (Sookie Stackhouse)

Cindy said...

The one book I could read a million times and never get bored is Shelley Winters autobiography. If you haven't read it, go find it -- it is well worth the time.

Terrance -- I love the Diana Gabaldan Outlander series. I love the semi-historical sense and the pure fun of them. I also love the Harry Potter series

My guilty pleasure is the Twilight series -- my daughter started me on them. Won't see the movies though -- gotta draw the line somewhere, lol.

sarahcis said...

Favorite book - anything by Kylie Chan - Dark Heavens series - great chinese mythology with demons thrown in.... if you ever see it and you like fantasy then its worth a read !

Guilty pleasure - any trashy magazine I can afford to buy ..... terrible really . Bookwise - I love Maggie Alderson books, devil wears prada, and the like....

Michelle said...

#1 - The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein
# 2 - The Story of O - Anonymous

HannahPalindrome said...

1. A Confederacy of Dunces & In Search of Lost Time

2. John Grisham

Glitter said...

Favorite book ever: Watership Down

Guilty Pleasure: anything by Jacquiline Susann....she is what got me hooked on reading way back when. I was a teenager and I didn't know reading could be so much fun.

figgy said...

Favorite: "Mating" by Norman Rush.

Guilty Pleasure: Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series.

...and Faye Kellerman for that matter.

...Okay, any and all trashy mystery novels. :-)

erin said...

My all-time favorite and my guilty pleasure may be one and the same: all seven of the Anne of Green Gables series. Seriously juvenile, but I just love 'em!
And anything by David Sedaris :-)

Ellen said...

I think he should post this as a "your turn" more often because now I have just expanded my "too read" list with both serious reads and guilty pleasures! @ Cindy - I think I will put the Shelley Winters autobiography on top!

RocketQueen said...

@amazonblue - I really debated naming East of Eden as a favourite ;) I wrote a paper on it for a University comp. class and got so deep into it I couldn't believe the nuances Steinbeck put into it. One of his greatest if not his greatest.

And a shout out to VC Andrews - I was telling some friends the other day I cracked right the hell up when Michael K. referred to some celebrity as "Flowers in the Attic-ing" someone else in the last week. When she died and they hired that ghost writer (in the middle of the Heaven series, I think?) it all went to hell.

K said...

@Merlin D. Bear--- ME TOO! Plus the Meredith Gentry series...I've read the entire series twice at this point, except for Flirt. Too many people saying "too much $ for not enough book", so I'll hang on til the Kindle version hits $4.

All time favorite? Tolkien's Lord of the Ring trilogy and The Hobbit, and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I've read all but the last released book 4 times each. Hubby's started just keeping his comments to himself when he sees "Eye of the World" come off the bookshelf, LOL!

Happydog said...

Am so glad to see others love A Prayer for Owen Meany. My hands down fave of all time. Along with The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kinsolver.

Guilty pleasures are the Miss Julia series by Ann Ross and Alexander McCall Smith's series about Precious Rotswame, a private detective in Botswana.

K said...

Have to do a shout-out for Through the Looking Glass and The Rats of NIMH. LOVED both of those as a kid, and read them til the books literally fell apart in my hands....

RocketQueen said...

@Happydog! Since you're a fellow lover of Owen Meany and Poisonwood Bible (loved!) you may also enjoy the Fountainhead, which I recently finished. Amazing.

Sweetiebird said...

Favorite book: Tie: Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) & Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky). Russians are the best novelists

Guilty pleasure: Narnia collection

Happydog said...

Thanks, RQueen. Will take you up on that!

Ells said...

I agree with Sue Ellen Mishkey. I read a lot. It's hard to pick just one.
For guilty pleasure: Sookie Stackhouse series, Valley of the Dolls, Misery, Bridget Jones Diary

All time favorite: I have a hard time choosing, but for now I'll say the Harry Potter books.

Ells said...

Another guilty pleasure is Maeve Binchy novels. They are like soap operas.

WBotW said...

No way, no how can I pick just one. Not a chance.

Favourites: Sunne in Splendour, Here Be Dragons, Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman, Pitt mysteries by Anne Perry, Arthurian trilogy by Gillian Bradshaw, Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George, all Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs, anything by Melissa Marr

Guilty Pleasure: The Sookie Stackhouse books (True Blood) by Charlaine Harris, anything by Nora Roberts, The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

WBotW said...

Just a quick recommendation for those who are enjoying YA novels: LJ Smith's The Secret Circle trilogy is an oldie but goodie; was recently reprinted as a two book set I believe. She wrote The Vampire Diaries and really outdid herself with TSC.
Also check out Melissa Marr, specifically Wicked Lovely. Probably the finest depiction of the fae I've read.
Sorry to veer off-topic but wanted to share :)

B626 said...

#1 The Andy Warhol Diaries(1988)
juicy slice of poplife

#2 Pam Anderson's 'Star'
Found it in a free library at work and was glued to it!

Leah said...

Thanks WBotW,
I'll have to check out The Secret Circle.
I have read Wicked Lovely (and the others) and I really enjoyed them!

telesma said...

All time favorites: I could say Pride and Prejudice or The Brothers Karamazov, but it's very, very hard to choose. I love so many.

Guilty Pleasure: trashy paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels by people like Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur, Jeaniene Frost, Kresley Cole, Lynsay Sands, Karen Chance, Laurell K. Hamilton, Karen Marie Moning, etc.

telesma said...

@B626: I *loved* The Andy Warhol Diaries.

telesma said...

Lovers of both Jane Austen and the Harry Potter books (I know you're out there) - I recommend a book called Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by British author Susanna Clarke. It's been described as "the literary Harry Potter". IMO, it was more of a "magical Jane Austen", but trust, it's awesome.

farmgirl said...

All Time Favorite: A Prayer for Owen Meany - I keep extra copies on hand to give to people who have not read it!! (also a big lover of John Updike)

Guilty Pleasures: Janet Evanovich, Lisa Lutz and Jonathan Kellerman books - quick beach reads!

I am so pleased to see all the Owen love. John Irving is god.

Kelli said...

there are so many!!!
"Stolen Lives"- the story about Malika Oufkir being in a jail in Morocco for 20 years. What an amazing, amazing story.

"She's Come Undone"~ Wally Lamb

guilty pleasure- the Jackie Collins books..so bad yet so raunchy & good....

Kinsey Holley said...

All time favorite: Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. Followed closely by whatever Terry Pratchett book I may have just finished at any given time.

Guilty Pleasure: I'm an English major, a librarian and a romance author. I never feel guilty about anything I read, and I read everything from weighty historical tomes to graphic novels. Right now I'm reading Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter, and it's awesome. ("She loved her country. She hated zombies.")

Christine Marie said...

Favorite AND guilty pleasure:
The Necroscope Vampire series by Brian Lumley. READ THEM! It's far better than any of the vampire books out today - hands down.

ClaireFrasier said...

All-Time Favorites: "Joy in the Morning" (I must have read that at least once a month as a teenager), Diana Gabaldon, and Jennifer Cruise's "Faking It" is my go-to book now when I'm having a bad day. (I must read that at least once a month).

Guilty Pleasure: Emma Holly.

TONIc said...

So many good ones mentioned!

(Absolute) Favorite(s): The Stand - Stephen King; The Good Earth; Buck

Guilty Pleasure: Erotica

MadLyb said...

My all time favorite is 'Too Kill A Mockingbird'. My guilty pleasure books are the 'Twilight' series. I blame my daughter for turning me on to these. Damn her! The most intense book I've ever read was oddly enough, 'Intensity' by Dean Koontz.

Shen said...

Three way tie: All Time Favorite:
(really, there's too much literature in the world to even limit to three all time faves yet...)

Budd Schulberg's, "What Makes Sammy Run?"
All works created by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
"The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism," and most material from Upton Sinclair

Three way tie: guilty pleasure

All material ever created by H.P. Lovecraft
"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," John Perkins
Star Trek: Destiny series: Bk 1, "Gods of Night" Bk 2 "Mere Mortals" Bk 3, "Lost Souls."

mooshki said...

Those of you who like the "Sleeping Beauty" series should check out the "Black Lace" collection on Amazon. It's pretty decent porn for women. :)

Little Miss Smoke and Mirrors said...

I have two all-time faves:
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins and Middlesex by Geoffrey Eugenides. Both are fantastic.

My favorite guilty pleasure is still a decent read, especially since it was a first novel for the author. It is Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne.

chihuahuense said...

all time fav: "for one more day" Mitch Albom

guilty: "five in a tent" by victoria furman---total teen book but so good

BattaNoKami said...

Moby Dick is my favorite,
guilty pleasures... there are many, but probably Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series or Glen Cook's Black Company series... I liked the Wheel of Time series so much, I bought some of the swords from his estate after he died! Creepy huh?

Robert said...

Faves include (but not limited to) "The Razor's Edge," Somerset Maugham, "Raintree County," Ross Lockridge,Jr., and most by Aldous Huxley, John Updike, William Faulkner. Guilty Faves: "Hollywood Babylon (I and II) by Kenneth Anger--what a bitch!

TV said...

favorite is to kill a mockingbird.

Seahorse said...

1. To Kill a Mockingbird is my all time favorite.

2. Stephen King's The Stand is my among my guilty pleasures in addition to the mystery novels of Anne Perry

Meg said...

So hard to just pick one! :)

#1 To Kill a Mockingbird

#2 The Shopaholic books and Twilight tie, although I only really FELT guilty reading Twilight.

Thanks for this post! I'm always looking for new books to read!

Virginia Lee said...

All time faves: tied between The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty, Light in August by Wm. Faulkner, Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote.

Guilty pleasure: The entire Harry Potter series which I try to read straight through once a year.

K said...

@Christine Marie---YES! I adore the Necroscope series! I've read the originals, plus the triliogy with the sons, and I own the comic books made from the original books! Good stuff. I think I'll have to start them over now....

Actually, as I think about this... I adore so many books that it's really easier to list the books I DON'T like....!!!

Genesis said...

Night by Elie Weisel, he survived the holocaust


Anything to do w/ghosts

K said...

......trilogy. See, I can spell it correctly, LOL

@BattaNoKami re: WoT----nope, not creepy at all. If I'd had the cash at the time, I would have a couple of them myself. :)

Selock said...

All time fave: Little Women & A Wrinkle in Time are tied...

Guilty Pleasure (ish...I am not really guilty about my pleasures) is the Golden Compass Series (it's sort of teenager geared I suppose)

ani27 said...

My all-time favorite is the solitaire mystery by jostein gaardner.

guilty pleasures include anything jonathan kellerman and david sedaris.

Meg said...

Whew, I just added a ton to my Amazon Wish list from this thread.

@GladysKravitz - I LOVED Water for Elephants

@Ellen, I forgot about Sweet Valley
and Babysitters club books. Those were definite guilty pleasure books! Also when I wasn't re-reading Judy Blume books I was also obsessed w/ those ghost written books like the ones by R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike, etc.

Dayna said...

All-time Favorite: I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb

Guilty Pleasure: Chick Lit... Jennifer Weiner, Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot, etc.

redronnie said...

1. The Unbearable lightness of Being

2. The Jilly Cooper books featuring Rupert Campbell-Black, they are so delightfully trashy there are about 8 books and I have read them at least three times each.

redronnie said...

For everyone who loves "To Kill a Mockingbird" my grand-daughter's name is Scout. Years ago I gave a copy to my daughter and she loved it. So much that, I have a bright, compassionate, and adorable left of center granddaughter.

Sue Ellen Mishkey said...

I can't pick just one favourite book, it's impossible and it's not going to happen.

However!

The craziest book I've ever read is called The Way of the Pilgrim. In Salinger's Franny and Zooey it gets mentioned, so I decided to pick it up, and it's just as crazy as I imagined it would be.

As far as guilty pleasure goes, I agree with whoever said The Devil Wears Prada. Loved it. I also love true crime and Patterson et al, but I'm not ashamed of it.

Jeff said...

fav would be harry potter series and guilty pleasure? janet evanovich's stephanie plum series. lots of laughs in a few hours read.

irishstayc2 said...

all time favorite? - Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl It's a tough read but it is the most inspiring book i have ever read.

Guilty Pleasure? ehhh i'm not a book snob so they are all good none too guilty. BUT since we have to pick i will say - Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie

shakey said...

All time fave is tough. Aside from LOTR, I'll say Queen of the Damned. Guilty pleasure - The Thorn Birds.

braverwoman said...

Faves as a kid - A Wrinkle in Time and Harriet the Spy.

As an adult, The Stand by Stephen King. The "Ender" series by Orson Scott Card.

Guilty pleasures, like most everyone else - trashy hollywood bios.

Great topic.

mazemerizing said...

All-time favorite book(s) - Harry Potter series. The way Jo Rowling writes makes me think I'm a student at Hogwarts. Guilty pleasure - trashy paperback novels and the first Twilight. Reading the other three made me want to wring Stephanie Meyer's neck. But I still read 'em!

ChasingHeaven said...

My all time favorite book is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

Kelli said...

Thanks to you all I now have a ton of recommendations for GOOD books!!!

Rachel Joiner said...

Fav book- Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Guilty Pleasure- the Harry Potter series

SnowCherries said...

Enty, what a great subject! Have been up north all weekend but am catching up on my CDAN now that we're home. After seeing the question, my first thought was that my favorite book of all time is:

1) A Prayer for Owen Meany

I was then so excited to look down the comments to see this book is as beloved by others. Also love many of the classics and most other books by John Irving.

2) Harry Potter series - although they are kind of great, so I'm not sure they I will classify them as "guilty" pleasures. Definite guilty pleasures are all books in the Twilight series. I made fun of everyone I know for years for reading these and then read them myself and loved them. Eeep! Love that people mentioned Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club - these were guilty pleasure staples of mine when younger.

SnowCherries said...

Also think I will print out this list for a trip to the library. Great suggestions from everyone!

The Gardener said...

So many great books on this list, on my shelves, in the library...

My all-time fave is "The Grapes of Wrath" (love all Steinbeck's works) with "To Kill A Mockingbird" a very close second.

Guilty pleasure (this one is tougher) I think would be "Gone With the Wind" as it is basically a romance novel with a historical backdrop.

AM said...

1. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

2. Disco Bloodbath by James St. James

Yellow Rose said...

farmgirl: I do the same thing! I got tired of lending out my few copies of A Prayer for Owen Meany, and finally started buying extra copies at 1/2 Price Books to give away! (Love to hear about how those copies are then lent out to others :))

Beth said...

#1 Too many to name--I can't choose.

#2 Anything by Jackie Collins, seriously.

NYer said...

1. American Tabloid, James Ellroy/Lamb: The Gospel According to Bif Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore. (Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins is up there, Big Mama and LMSM)
2. Bankok 8, John Burdett (Anything by James Ellroy, Christopher Moore, John Burdette, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burk)

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