What are your three favourite books?

[Liz]

What are your three favourite books?

I'm looking for some books to love.

My most favourite is The Moth Diaries and I really love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass but I can't really think of anything else I truly loved...

[Donna]

OK Here are mine:

1.
2.
3.

I had a little trouble deciding on my last one but I narrowed it down.

[Jim]

Oh, ugh! Unfair question. I doubt I could narrow it down to 30! Maybe 3 authors... Nope, that wouldn't work either. 3 authors per genre? Possibly, although some cross genres, so I'd only count them in one.

Roger Zelazny for Lord of Light & This Immortal. He's just in a class of his own.

Janny Wurts for intricate fantasy, although she's going head to head with J.R.R. Tolkien & Steven Brust.

For relaxing fantasy, L.E. Modesitt Jr. & David Eddings, although I could add a half dozen more as easily like LeGuin.

Sword & Sorcery has Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard & Fritz Leiber.

Science Fiction - oops! Truck load of gravel just got here. Later.

[Ivan]

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote and The Hours by Michael Cunningham.

Although, these are subject to change without notice.

[Diane]

Oh Donna - I LOVED The Rice Mother! I haven't known too many people that have read that.

My top 3:

The Art of Racing in the Rain
The Birth of Venus
Atonement

Very hard decisions, except for Art!

[DJ]

84 Charing Cross Road
Emma
The Woman in White

[Shelli]

I thought about it and can't do it! I might be able to pick my top 3 for 2010!...but not of all time. Many of the books mentioned above I have enjoyed as well.

[Dean]

Honourable mention...

[Leslie]

My favourite novel of all time is The House of Mirth.... Wharton makes such beauty of Lily Bart's suffering..... This morning, I'm reading Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and with every passing sentence, my eyes are misting over. As my third choice, I'll go with Sula. In my former life as an English professor, I taught this novel several times and it never failed to move me!

[Diane]

Leslie -- Nice choices. When it first was published I read The Year of Magical Thinking and Sula is one I've wanted to read for a long time.

[Leslie]

Diane, it sounds like we have similar tastes - have you considered trying my other choice The House of Mirth? A couple days ago, I was writing about this novel in my blog "The Reading List" at http://shimosreadinglist.blogspot.com/

[Diane]

Hi Leslie - I just added The House of Mirth to my TBR. Thank you! I will also read your blog - thanks for the link to it!

[Leslie]

Hi Diane - That's great! Inspired by our chat this morning, I wrote a little piece on my blog about The Year of Magical Thinking.

[Shelli]

Diane D. wrote: "Hi Leslie - I just added The House of Mirth to my TBR. Thank you! I will also read your blog - thanks for the link to it!"

Diane...this is on my TBR!

[Leslie]

Wharton would be thrilled that we're resurrecting The House of Mirth! This week, I'm also reading V.S. Naipaul's memoir The Enigma of Arrival, an intriguing work. More about it on my blog, www.the-reading-list.com

[J.]

Leslie wrote: "My favourite novel of all time is The House of Mirth.... Wharton makes such beauty of Lily Bart's suffering..... This morning, I'm reading Joan Didion's [book:The Year of Magical Thi..."

I think "The House of Mirth" is too often the poor sister to "The Age of Innocence", but it is a remarkable novel. I thought the Terence Davies film was very good - exceptionally well cast with actors I never would have thought of in the roles, but it all came together.

janetility.com

[J.]

I can't get it down to three. My favorite novel is "Pride and Prejudice", but after that, there are a lot of them that I love - the rest of Austen's novels, several of Dickens' works, Wilkie Collins, Edith Wharton, Ayn Rand's "We The Living", ME Braddon's "Lady Audley's Secret", Conan Doyle's Sherlockian canon, Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go". In non-fiction, I thought "Over The Edge of the World", by Laurence Bergreen, and "The Forsaken" by Tim Tzouliadis were page-turners and I loved the bios of Garbo and Louise Brooks by Barry Paris.
That's two. Now for the third.......

janetility.com

[Liz]

I think I shall add 1984 to my list.

[Kimberley]

Ok, now I have had time to think I can post my all time favourite 3 (although they may change this is how they are at the minute)

1 - Honor Among Thieves

2 - Mort

3 - Women in Love

Although they haven't been given 5 stars from me these are the 3 that somehow I seem to pick up a few times a year (I could probably sit and type out the complete Honor Among Thieves, I've read it that many times I am now on my forth copy and that is stating to fall apart, best order copy 5 now)

[Diane]

J. wrote: "I can't get it down to three. My favorite novel is "Pride and Prejudice", but after that, there are a lot of them that I love - the rest of Austen's novels, several of Dickens' works, Wilkie Collin..."

J. - I will be reading Pride and Prejudice this month for my live book club. I am embarrassed to admit it is my first Jane Austen book.

[Heather]

I think my best three novels of all time would be SLIDE by Saira Viola for challenging literary narrative and proving that women writers are not all about chick lit and children's novels the book is fierce and stylised with humour and pathos but never is the reader constantly reminded of the genre of the writer which is refreshing and progressive . The Picture of Dorian Gray - this great work of fiction explores universal themes that are still relevant today on shows like X Factor and Pop Idol , aestheticism , the need for a double life one that is private and one that is public the divergent split of personalities a brilliantly witty masterpiece which still holds the reader enthralled . My other favourite would have to go to Dickens and I choose Bleak House probably one of Dicken's finest novels and superbly realistic overview of the English Litigation system. Dicken's attack on the English judicial system stemmed from his own experiences as a law clerk and the inaccessibilty to justice was never so beautifully and artfully created .Indeed so powerful was its imapact that much needed reform was made to the English legal system because of the impact the book had in exposing the truth of system to the public. Just another example of his brilliance and his ability to use his literary crafstmanship to make a difference.

[Liz]

That's so interesting!

[Heather]

Thanks Liz glad you appreciate my little contribution .

[Shane]

Hmmm.... a tough choice...Right now I think My favourite 3 are: 20,000 Streets Under the Sky by Partick Hamilton (possibly my favourite book)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (probably for nostalgic reasons)
and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (read this fairly recently and was completely blown away by it)posiible tie with Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton

[ms.petra]

my top three changes with where I am in my life. I absolutely love In Cold Blood. To Kill A mockingbird. and Crime and Punishment. I also loved the Last Lecture and My Sister's Keeper

[Diane]

Quite a few books mentioned that I'm interested in reading!

[Afsana]

it so hard to say this is my 3 best books but I am leaning towards

Pride and Prejudice
The Book Thief
Harry Potter Boxed Set

[Chris]

Just three?!
The Shadow of the Wind
Pride and Prejudice
The Woman in White

[Claire]

Hmmmm...........toughy!

Eva Luna - Isabel Allende
Sophies World - Jostein Gaarder
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden.

[Ben]

impossible to talk of favourites, but three of my go-to answers:

Slaughterhouse Five, or The Children's Crusade
Watership Down
Wittgenstein's Mistress

[Jim]

"...and so it goes..." It's one of my favorites too, Ben. I don't think "Slaughterhouse Five makes it to the top 3, but it's well up there.

[Melissa]

i don't think i could minimize it to 3 books but maybe if 1 book is a complete series maybe.At the moment my favorite 3 books are;
book One study seriesPoison Study
Magic Study
Fire Study
Books two Brightly Woven

Book Three fight between
Darkness Becomes Her
Flecks of Gold
Falling Under