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
1) All-time favorite: The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
ReplyDelete2) Guilty Pleasure: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, Tucker Max
All CDANers -- you'd love both of these!
1. The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
ReplyDelete2. The In Death series by J.D. Robb
All time favorite: Far From the Madding Crowd
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure (sort of): Wuthering Heights
Just one book? Hrmph. I'll have to think on that one.
ReplyDeleteListing one book for each category is mucho tough.
ReplyDelete1. 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.
all time favorite: Bag of Bones by Stephen King (i don't know why i loved it so, i just did, so there)
ReplyDeleteguilty pleasure: anything V.C. Andrews...god it feels good to confess that!
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.
ReplyDeleteMy 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteAs 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!
Favorite: Midnight's Children (Rushdie)
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure: Gone With the Wind
@heatherhug...I love, love, love Gone With the Wind!!! I was very upset when they wrote a sequel.
ReplyDeleteAll-time favorite: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure: The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Favourite - a tie between The Count of Monte Cristo and A Prayer for Owen Meany
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure - anything Stephen King
All-time favorite book: Wuthering Heights
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure: The Outsiders (such a great, quick read) and/or "The Notebook"
Oh, I have read waaaay too much to pick a favorite book...I can just throw out these:
ReplyDeleteLoved 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.
All Time Favorite Book- Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
ReplyDeleteGuilty 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!
Favorite Book - The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova or Redbreast by Jo Nesbo.
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure - Jemima J by Jane Green
#1 'Persuasion,' or anything else by Jane Austen.
ReplyDelete#2 Just about anything by Linda Howard. Yes, they're romance novels, but they're good, damn it!
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.
ReplyDeleteAll time guilty pleasure book: Any of the Sue Grafton series. I hate that Z is approaching.
Also an honorable mention to Jasper Fforde's books. So smart and funny!
ReplyDeleteGladys, there's always AA!
ReplyDelete1. "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.
ReplyDelete2. "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.
1) Pride and Prejudice
ReplyDelete2) I love mysteries. My favorite authors are John Sandford and that hottie, Robert Crais. Have met them both and love them and their books.
1. The old man and the sea
ReplyDelete2. What would Wally do? (Dilbert cartoons of Wally...)
1. To Kill A Mockingbird
ReplyDelete2. 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...
All-time favorite: Lord of The Flies. 'nuff said.
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure: Marilyn Manson's autobiography (if you are into trashy gossip and just trash in general, it is a must read)
1. Where the wild things are
ReplyDelete2. Valley of the Dolls
@GladysKravitz - I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Water for Elephants. What a great book. Highly recommended!!
ReplyDeleteMy 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.
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure - Shopaholic series, James Patterson books (they are turning out to be all the same anyways)
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.
ReplyDelete2. Guilty pleasure reading - anything by Nora Roberts
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.
ReplyDelete2. 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.
Wow, reading some of the comments made me forget my love of Judy Blume!! She was so awesome for a shy bookworm.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to give props to Beverly Cleary. Ramona Quimby Age 8, Henry and Ribsy & The Mouse and the Motorcycle.......so many to love...
1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Love, love, LOVE that book.
ReplyDelete2. Anything by Nora Roberts. She is my vice. Though Jane Green comes a close second because of Jemima J.
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.
ReplyDelete@sassyyankee: I was torn between my choice and Catch-22. Just read that again recently, still amazing.
ReplyDeleteBoth Anne Rice:
ReplyDeleteFavorite Ever: Interview with a Vampire
Guilty Pleasure: The Erotic Adventures of Sleeping Beauty
going to have to go with fours here:
ReplyDeleteall 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. :)
@JingleBell, you really should never ever read "The Wind Done Gone" then. Mitchell's rolling in her grave.
ReplyDelete1. All time favorite: East of Eden - Steinbeck
ReplyDeleteTwo generations of Cane & Abel and a evil, murderous wife and mother.
2. Guilty pleasure: the Anne Rice Sleeping Beauty books.
All time favorite?
ReplyDeleteGone 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.
@Jingle Belle I meant. Sorry y'all, I still don't understand how to reply to these things.
ReplyDelete1. COLD MOUNTAIN - CHARLES FRAIZER
ReplyDelete2. ANYTHING JAMES ROLLINS
1. "Eight Cousins" by Louisa May Alcott
ReplyDelete2. Anything by Clive Cussler or Dick Francis
Favorite book: 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying" by George Orwell
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure: "Waiting to Exhale"
1. Impossible to say, there are so many!
ReplyDelete2 Jennifer Crusie. Funny, sexy, with a little mystery thrown in.
Best - The Shipping News & A Prayer for Owen Meany & Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans & Loving Frank
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure - Woman in White (Wilkie Collins) (free for Kindle)
The Son Also Rises = Hemingway
ReplyDeleteThe Godfather = Mario Puzo (Guilty in more ways than one
I also loved Le Morte D'Arthur as a Serious Read
ReplyDeleteand Le Petit Prince, which I read in French Class in 1979 and it was AWESOME!
Ok, somebody got me on Tender is the Night By Fitzgerald.
ReplyDeleteOk, somebody got me on Tender is the Night By Fitzgerald.
ReplyDeleteFear and Loathing in Las Vegas is another guilty read.
ReplyDeleteSorry - anything written by John McPhee and Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen is the latest book that stayed in my mind.
ReplyDelete@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.
ReplyDeleteGuilty 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.
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,
ReplyDelete2. like so many others, 'are you there, god? it's me margaret.' and really guilty pleasure, the face on the milk carton series.
1. to kill a mockingbird
ReplyDelete2. flowers in the attic
My favorite book- The Kite Runner. I can't even think about it without tearing up.
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure- Diana Galbadon Outlander series. Intelligent and heartfelt but it has a cheese factor that can't be ignored.
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.
ReplyDeleteFavorite: Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure : two
The Princess Bride - Goldman
Jitterbug Perfume - Tim Robbins
Recent faves: "Neverwhere," Neil Gaiman; "Lolita," Nabokov
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasures: anything V.C. Andrews, I read 'em in middle and high school and still re-read them on occasion. Oh, and Sidney Sheldon.
@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!
ReplyDelete1. Alice in Wonderland (to pick just one)
ReplyDelete2. Twilight (one of the worse books I've ever read, but fun *ducks head in shame*)
#1 - helter skelter by vincent bugliosi and travels with charley by john steinbeck
ReplyDelete#2 - celebrity biographies written by andrew morton
Favorite book: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
ReplyDeleteGuilty 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)
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ReplyDelete1. My absolute favorite book of all time is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
ReplyDelete2. 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.
Gone With the Wind
ReplyDeleteTwilight (I know cheesy, but I loved it.)
Gladys- I also LOVED Water for Elephants.
ReplyDeleteMy 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)
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.
ReplyDeleteTerrance -- 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.
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 !
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure - any trashy magazine I can afford to buy ..... terrible really . Bookwise - I love Maggie Alderson books, devil wears prada, and the like....
#1 - The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein
ReplyDelete# 2 - The Story of O - Anonymous
1. A Confederacy of Dunces & In Search of Lost Time
ReplyDelete2. John Grisham
Favorite book ever: Watership Down
ReplyDeleteGuilty 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.
Favorite: "Mating" by Norman Rush.
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure: Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series.
...and Faye Kellerman for that matter.
...Okay, any and all trashy mystery novels. :-)
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!
ReplyDeleteAnd anything by David Sedaris :-)
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!
ReplyDelete@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.
ReplyDeleteAnd 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.
@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.
ReplyDeleteAll 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!
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.
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasures are the Miss Julia series by Ann Ross and Alexander McCall Smith's series about Precious Rotswame, a private detective in Botswana.
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....
ReplyDelete@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.
ReplyDeleteFavorite book: Tie: Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) & Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky). Russians are the best novelists
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure: Narnia collection
Thanks, RQueen. Will take you up on that!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sue Ellen Mishkey. I read a lot. It's hard to pick just one.
ReplyDeleteFor 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.
Another guilty pleasure is Maeve Binchy novels. They are like soap operas.
ReplyDeleteNo way, no how can I pick just one. Not a chance.
ReplyDeleteFavourites: 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
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.
ReplyDeleteAlso 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 :)
#1 The Andy Warhol Diaries(1988)
ReplyDeletejuicy slice of poplife
#2 Pam Anderson's 'Star'
Found it in a free library at work and was glued to it!
Thanks WBotW,
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check out The Secret Circle.
I have read Wicked Lovely (and the others) and I really enjoyed them!
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.
ReplyDeleteGuilty 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.
@B626: I *loved* The Andy Warhol Diaries.
ReplyDeleteLovers 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.
ReplyDeleteAll 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)
ReplyDeleteGuilty 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.
there are so many!!!
ReplyDelete"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....
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.
ReplyDeleteGuilty 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.")
Favorite AND guilty pleasure:
ReplyDeleteThe Necroscope Vampire series by Brian Lumley. READ THEM! It's far better than any of the vampire books out today - hands down.
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).
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure: Emma Holly.
So many good ones mentioned!
ReplyDelete(Absolute) Favorite(s): The Stand - Stephen King; The Good Earth; Buck
Guilty Pleasure: Erotica
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.
ReplyDeleteThree way tie: All Time Favorite:
ReplyDelete(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."
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. :)
ReplyDeleteI have two all-time faves:
ReplyDeleteJitterbug 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.
all time fav: "for one more day" Mitch Albom
ReplyDeleteguilty: "five in a tent" by victoria furman---total teen book but so good
Moby Dick is my favorite,
ReplyDeleteguilty 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?
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!
ReplyDeletefavorite is to kill a mockingbird.
ReplyDelete1. To Kill a Mockingbird is my all time favorite.
ReplyDelete2. Stephen King's The Stand is my among my guilty pleasures in addition to the mystery novels of Anne Perry
So hard to just pick one! :)
ReplyDelete#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!
All time faves: tied between The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty, Light in August by Wm. Faulkner, Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote.
ReplyDeleteGuilty pleasure: The entire Harry Potter series which I try to read straight through once a year.
@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....
ReplyDeleteActually, as I think about this... I adore so many books that it's really easier to list the books I DON'T like....!!!
Night by Elie Weisel, he survived the holocaust
ReplyDeleteAnything to do w/ghosts
......trilogy. See, I can spell it correctly, LOL
ReplyDelete@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. :)
All time fave: Little Women & A Wrinkle in Time are tied...
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure (ish...I am not really guilty about my pleasures) is the Golden Compass Series (it's sort of teenager geared I suppose)
My all-time favorite is the solitaire mystery by jostein gaardner.
ReplyDeleteguilty pleasures include anything jonathan kellerman and david sedaris.
Whew, I just added a ton to my Amazon Wish list from this thread.
ReplyDelete@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.
All-time Favorite: I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure: Chick Lit... Jennifer Weiner, Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot, etc.
1. The Unbearable lightness of Being
ReplyDelete2. 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteI can't pick just one favourite book, it's impossible and it's not going to happen.
ReplyDeleteHowever!
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.
fav would be harry potter series and guilty pleasure? janet evanovich's stephanie plum series. lots of laughs in a few hours read.
ReplyDeleteall 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.
ReplyDeleteGuilty 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
All time fave is tough. Aside from LOTR, I'll say Queen of the Damned. Guilty pleasure - The Thorn Birds.
ReplyDeleteFaves as a kid - A Wrinkle in Time and Harriet the Spy.
ReplyDeleteAs 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.
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!
ReplyDeleteMy all time favorite book is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you all I now have a ton of recommendations for GOOD books!!!
ReplyDeleteFav book- Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
ReplyDeleteGuilty Pleasure- the Harry Potter series
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:
ReplyDelete1) 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.
Also think I will print out this list for a trip to the library. Great suggestions from everyone!
ReplyDeleteSo many great books on this list, on my shelves, in the library...
ReplyDeleteMy 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.
1. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
ReplyDelete2. Disco Bloodbath by James St. James
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 :))
ReplyDelete#1 Too many to name--I can't choose.
ReplyDelete#2 Anything by Jackie Collins, seriously.
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)
ReplyDelete2. Bankok 8, John Burdett (Anything by James Ellroy, Christopher Moore, John Burdette, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burk)