I am just curious as to which is your favorite book of all time. And has anyone read any good ones lately that they would recomend.

__________________

My favorite of all time is 'the outsider' by Albert Camu... Although 'the plauge' is meant to be better. I have it on my bookshelf but hav'nt gotten around to it yet.

__________________
It's hard enough to remember my opinions, without remembering my reasons for them!
Nietzsche

The best book I've ever read is called 'Warlock' by Wilbur Smith. Smith is a nice little author - from Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) I think initially - who write books set in Africa from all periods of history.

This book is a story set in ancient Egypt and tells of the betrayal and murder of the current Pharoah and the subsequent heavy-handed rule of the guys who plotted against him.

The story continues to describe the rise of the murdered Pharoah's son who builds up support to reclaim the crown of Egypt.

Might not be to anyones taste but over 4 sittings I averaged well over 150 pages a sitting, finishing it in just a few days.

I'm currently reading the new Harry Potter book after finishing a disappointing book by Raymond E. Fiest - called Magician - yesterday.

I started a similar thread on which you may find a few book posts Seamer, it is called 'Harry on down to buy it, now!", It's interesting you have started an off-cricket thread when England are playing well in an Ashes test match. Hehe, just kidding.

[Please stand and applause as Lemming has now reached 1,000 posts. He has purused and posted on the forum for 90 days and currently averages 11.09 posts per day!]

__________________
Whatever your difficulties in mathematics, I can assure you mine are far greater!
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

havent read any but just finished colouring one in if that counts ;P

__________________
Nothing says "Obey Me" like a bloody head on a fence post!

Favourite of all time is a bit tricky, but if you are looking for a couple of good ones that I have read recently:

Joseph Kanon: Los Alamos - the blurb on the paperback describes it as a love story inside a murder mystery inside perhaps the most significant story of the 20th century: the making of the atomic bomb. All set in Los Alamos and tied up at the time of the Manhattan Project.

Same author: The Good German - another murder mystery set in the rubble of immediate post-war Berlin.

I'm presently reading Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's biography of Mao Tse-Tung, very interesting and easy to read for what could appear to be something of a daunting academic tome. Jung Chang also gave us Wild Swans a few years ago - about three women in three generations of her family and their life in China. Excellent stuff as well.

__________________
Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

I've just finished '5 people you meet in heaven' and 'the life of pie', both crackers. Undermilk wood is probably a favorate, as are Orwell's 1984 and animal farm. I've even tried writing a book (which was very poor indeed!). i read a book per week, always looking for something new. One of the most disturbing books I read was the wasp factory, a really disturbing Ian banks novel. It's adult content though( so you have been warned kiddies) As a child I read Roald Dahl, which i thought at the time was good. I also read lewis carrol,Narnia, famous five (the shame!!) and I love limericks , word games and poetry.
I was forced to study Shakespeare at school (Macbeth, R and J) and I suppose I grudgingly enjoyed it. I preferd Kes and Billy Liar though.
I often visit people who have NO books in the house and having a background with books pouring off the shelf I find this rather disturbing. What do they read? probably newspapers I suppose!
A lot of the books on my bookshelf are Identification books or specialist publications (just a quick look, Animals of the british Isles and other collins guides into plants, insects,mushrooms,etc!, the a-z of garden plants,the child and the school, how children learn, how children fail,Flora brittanica,the celts, the French, the English, English language books,encyclopedias and dictionaries. etc)
I also collected comics at one point , and have a big pile of swamp things! I thing the Aikirea is in the loft, as is barefoot jen.(which i suppose is due a new look as it's fairly topical right now!)
My Grandfather was a Vicar and my father a doctor and my mum a phsycholigist, and their respective libraries are HUGE! I remember spending hours looking at books, or finding some long lost treasure in the bookshelves , blowing the dust off and reading/rereading it I remember reading memories ,dreams and reflections at about 11!, and looking at Froms 'the art of human destructiveness in my teens.. I often reread books, sometimes I leave Years between rereads, sometimes just weeks!. I tend to find that the second or even third read gives a different aspect or a new view. I've read most of (deliberate spoonerism)darles chickens ( Christmas carol, Oliver, pickwick papers (who as a child I thought was fantastic!) and I recently reread 'great expectations' which was a fantastic book. Recently when the BBC did the top 20 books I made an effort to read all the 20 books (some rereads, some new discoveries!)
I started to read the new Harry Potter and found it a bit glib, (pile 'em high and sell em cheap), the formula seemed jaded, something pratchett is never guilty of. Still if it gets children reading it can't be all bad. i preferred the amberspyglass and Northern lights and the subtle knife, all part of his dark materials triology.
I also like scifi, from hhgttg ,Asimov,Gibson,Silverberg,cCark to Wells and centenery celebration this year for Verne.

The toilet seems to be aquiring lots of books, I'll have to move some of the bigger volumes out or start introducing more fibre into my diet!

I remember the reading I had to do at university, Heidigger,Hawkins,Darwin, etc. Blimy. i've forgotten most of it!!


Books seem to be for me things that rest in my mind and things that change how I see the world , certainly in a more profound way than Films. Films always seem to end and they all lived happy ever after, but I read a lot of books where that wasn't the case! Sometimes the film and the book just seem two different stories(Lady Chatterly's Lover a case in point!)

The best book is a hard question. The worst book ? Well the worst thing I read recently was the european constitutuion and that was mind numbingly dull! I didn't finish it. A bit like Europe then!

The most difficult book? Anything by James Joyce. I've started 'ulysis' and 'portrait of the artist as a young man' Both very very difficult reads.

At school we had a reading period and I remember some of the books in the cardboard box being just dire! fit for the bonfire.

Tried to read La Peste (The Plague) but couldn't continue as my French isn't that good. Have recently finished a book on the French war in Algeria, "A Savage War of Peace" which mentions Camus here and there for his efforts in achieving peace. Surely worth a read though, for all who are interested in history.

__________________
Confucius

Did you manage to stay in the lines?

Bizarrely I have just finished the 1984 Benson & Hedges Cricket Yearbook that I picked up 2nd hand on holiday in Scarborough, it was a good read. I may try to build up a collection of them. Before that I have been reading a lot of football history books (Barcelona, Spanish League, German League etc).

__________________
Steven

Ohh Loved 'wild swans'. Well to be honest I only read about half the book... I get enough reading from school.

__________________
It's hard enough to remember my opinions, without remembering my reasons for them!
Nietzsche

Lemming, I'm reading a book called Zambezi; they actually said it'd put Wilbur Smith's work to shame. Don't know if it has done that, but a brilliant read.

Reading Lord of the Flies by Golding for school, which is a bit of a dry read. Just finished reading Steve Waugh's biography by Peter FitzSimons and it is a joke. Here's a small passage. "Now, one of the pillars of the Australian team had gone; dropped, with one phone call. The seeming Uluru of the Australian side was no longer there to dig his side out of sticky situations. There was no rock to hold them together". Sums up the whole book, just repeats himself in different terms.

Best books: Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Bag em as much as you want, but they are absolute gems.