What are your favorite fiction and non-fiction books?

[sheepstache]

Me too.  And I really thought that mostly only college students, with their unique mixture of cynicism, angst, and optimisim, were big Rand fans.  Apparently not the case, however!   /fellow Owen Meaney lover

Don't most people pick books they read when they were young? I think you're less likely to find a favorite book after 25 but even if you do it won't bump your first loves off the list.

Of my short list that I posted here, only one, Catch-22 was read before my late 20s.  Several were well into my 30s (and I'm not yet 40).

As an 8 year old, I loved Judy Bloom.  But I no longer relate to her books, and I recognize that they aren't exactly fine fiction, so they wouldn't be on a "favorite books" list.  Same with Bridge to Terebitha, Where the Red Few Grows, and many others.   If an 8yo girl came into my library and asked for a pick, I might recommend them (though I suspect Judy might be a bit dated), but as I've grown and evolved, so has my favorites list.

I read a ton (~100 books per year, thanks in large part to not currently working) so to reach back that far to a book that I connected with when I was a different person seems unlikely.  I've reread some old favorites and while some (Vonnegut, for example) stood the test of time, others no longer spoke to me.  And so they are no longer favorites.  I'd like to think that I can honestly assess a work and decide if it truly meets my standard for a great work, or if it just spoke to me at the time because I related in some way, not because it was amazing (by my standards).

Hm, it could definitely depend on how one defines favorite, which, everyone has the right to decide what that means to them.

For me, being formative to my thinking gets a lot of weight. Not only does it become harder for a book to change me as I get older, but my habits changed too. I read about 40 books a year but a lot more reading than in the past is blogs and articles (still probably a lot less than you). I try to recommend a book to a friend that really connects with how my thinking has changed over the past few years and I can't. There's not one source. My thinking habits have more to do with synthesis of ideas from a bunch of different sources now.

Also, I haven't lost touch with the old favorites. Not all my favorites from highschool would make the cut, of course, but ones that do it's because the connection is still sharp. I rarely re-read books, but the times that I have picked these up again, I see parts I didn't explicitly remember and think: yes. this. This deeply resonated with me and still does. This became a part of who I am.

But anyway, that's why I can see why Ayn Rand would be on so many lists. Her books are unique and powerful experiences for a lot of people. Even if you've dismissed her further down the line, you might still feel you have to acknowledge the influence.

[RetiredAt63]

SFF - anything by Lois McMaster Bujold - I'm surprised no one has mentioned her yet.
       Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Andre Norton, and RAH, over the years

Children's books I read as a child, and then read to my DD - The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe, Swallows and Amazons

For cynicism - The Screwtape Letters

Nonfiction - I read a lot, so these are recent and influential: Carol Deppe, Peter D. Ward's newest books (very depressing and scary, but must reads, paleontologists take the long view)

[randommadness]

(somebody mentioned Shogun -- man did I love that book too!)

BFFs??

[midweststache]

Given the alt-lifestyle and engineering tendencies of MMM, I'm both elated and not all that surprised to see so much SF on these lists. I'm teaching a SF class right now, and my students are new to the genre and fascinated by it--it's been a great class. The class as a whole loved Atwood's Oryx and Crake and Marge Piercy's "He, She and It."

Fiction:
"Lamb: The Story of Biff, Jesus's Childhood Friend" - Christopher Moore
"Tar Baby" - Toni Morrison
"Erasure" - Percival Everett
Anything Neil Gaiman, but particularly his short fiction and the Sandman series

Non-Fiction:
"A Dialogue on Love" - Eve Sedgwick
"Fun Home" and "Are You My Mother?" - Alison Bechdel
"This Bridge Called My Back" - ed. Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua

[dude]

eww, feel a little biind-sided by the Ayn Rand nods (god, i hate that woman)

I am not a big Ayn Rand fan but I dont see how so many people hate her. She is so popular to hate and I dont get why. People dont seem to hate other philosopher/authors as much.

I few reasons I don't like her: 1) Her pop-philosophy is just a warmed over popularized amalgam of Neitzsche and the Great Man Theory. 2) She writes like an angry, emotionally stunted child. 3) Even as stand in's for ideas, her characters and dialogue are thin. The heros all seem to suffer from Asperger's. 4) She rails against strawmen. 5) She was a hateful woman. Many who read her books seem to see themselves as John Galt, but I think she would have truly despised many of her fans. 6) Her work all reads like a screed. While I'm all for celebrating the do-ers and self-reliance, she rides the pendulum all the way over to the other side and into absurdity.

Couldn't have said it better myself, so I won't!  I'd just add that calling Ayn Rand a "philosopher" is like calling Taco Bell "Mexican."[/list]

[dude]

(somebody mentioned Shogun -- man did I love that book too!)

BFFs??

hahaha!  I picked up another Clavell novel years ago (forget now which one), but never got around to reading it.  I just remember not wanting Shogun to end; it transported me to a time and place in history that was just so damn fascinating.

[vern]

King Rat was my favorite Clavell novel.

[Schaefer Light]

The older I get, the more I like Ayn Rand.  Wish the president would read one of her books ;).

[RunHappy]

I don't have many favorites, but I am a voracious reader.  For fiction I've recently gotten into historical fiction but I love mystery books.  My non-fiction are usually some kind of business/self-help book. Some of my recent reads, that I really enjoyed are:

Fiction:
My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Non-Fiction:
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking‎ by Susan Cain
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink 

[deborah]

Fiction: Terry Pratchett's disc world series, his new Long Earth series with Stephen Baxter sucks me right in as well.
Also the No. 1 Ladies' detective agency series by Alexander Mc Call Smith.

Nonfiction: I read a lot of self-help styled books in the past few year, but my current favourites are Delusions of Gender, Cordelia Fine, and The Wife Drought, Annabel Crabb; and Playing Big, Tara Mohr.

OK - I am currently reading the Tara Mohr book (I got to the top of the queue at the library), and it is awesome. So I am going to try your other recommendations (I already own all the Terry Pratchett Discworld books - I have been a fan ever since the first one came out). Now the library has two books by Cordelia Fine - "Delusions of gender : how our minds, society, and neurosexism create difference"  and "Delusions of gender : the real science behind sex differences " - which one is it? The Annabel Crabb book is EXTREMELY popular - I am 130th in the queue for it. If everyone has it for a month, it will be 3 years before it gets down to me - and the queue only lasts for a year. I thought "Lean In" was really bad - there are now only 49 in the queue for that - and I am 19th, so I should get it in 5 months.

[deborah]

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin historic naval literature
Tamora Pierce fantasy books
Robin McKinley

Guns Germs and Steel was good
Judith Martin's Miss Manners books are excellent

[MoneyCat]

Fiction:  Anything by Neil Gaiman.  Anything by Jonathan Swift.  "Eaters of the Dead" by Michael Crichton

Nonfiction: Books from Instructibles about getting off the grid.  Anything on soccer history.  Cooking for Geeks.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Anatidae V]

Fiction: Terry Pratchett's disc world series, his new Long Earth series with Stephen Baxter sucks me right in as well.
Also the No. 1 Ladies' detective agency series by Alexander Mc Call Smith.

Nonfiction: I read a lot of self-help styled books in the past few year, but my current favourites are Delusions of Gender, Cordelia Fine, and The Wife Drought, Annabel Crabb; and Playing Big, Tara Mohr.

OK - I am currently reading the Tara Mohr book (I got to the top of the queue at the library), and it is awesome. So I am going to try your other recommendations (I already own all the Terry Pratchett Discworld books - I have been a fan ever since the first one came out). Now the library has two books by Cordelia Fine - "Delusions of gender : how our minds, society, and neurosexism create difference"  and "Delusions of gender : the real science behind sex differences " - which one is it? The Annabel Crabb book is EXTREMELY popular - I am 130th in the queue for it. If everyone has it for a month, it will be 3 years before it gets down to me - and the queue only lasts for a year. I thought "Lean In" was really bad - there are now only 49 in the queue for that - and I am 19th, so I should get it in 5 months.

The Cordelia Fine one is "The real science behind sex differences". I didn't realize she'd written two!

Unfortunately I bought the Annabel Crabb one on my kindle ($11) so I can't even post it to you!

[Mrs. Frugalwoods]

Well, there really are too many to mention.  But I can't pass up the opportunity:
FICTION:  Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
                Great Expectations, by Dickens
                Oryx & Crake,
                Year of the Flood,
                and MaddAdda, all by Margaret Atwood (this is a fabulous trilogy, and well worth the effort of learning Atwood's dystopian world)

and probably my favorite, most-read NON-FICTION book is Walden.  I think EB White once described Thoreau as "a regular hair-shirt of a man," (funny enough in itself) but I've always found Thoreau to be deeply, deeply amusing. Sick of me, perhaps.   

HUGE +1 on Atwood's Oryx & Crake trilogy! A superb specimen of dystopian fiction. Seriously, read it folks.

And, pretty much everything else she's ever written is also stellar.

[lizzie]

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin historic naval literature

+1,000,000

Don't be turned off by the "historic naval literature" description. They are that, yes--exciting battle scenes and world exploration and all.  But they are also truly great literature.

[LennStar]

I cant really put down a favorite.

Enders series
David Eddings, esp. the books with the little goddess, whatever the english name is.
Terry Pratchetts Discworld

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Oh, thats also a book?
I love a video from RSAnimate with the same title.

SFF - anything by Lois McMaster Bujold - I'm surprised no one has mentioned her yet.

Good, but not my favorite ;)
For years I thought it was a man, Lois is 100% mans name for me.

Can you (or someone else) say somthing about Honor Harrington (eidt: = character ^^)? I read only one book from the library and quite liked it, I thought it was quite similar in the "political" mode of the fiction. But HH has so many books I dont want to start ordering them just based on one. 

[RetiredAt63]

I like her books because she looks at future civilizations from an applied biology view, whereas most SF is more an engineering viewpoint.  I would have loved a uterine replicator back in the day.  Language is always interesting - in English Lois is a female name, Louis is male, Louise is female - but English is not known for its consistency.  Of course in French Jean Marie is male, Jeanne Marie would be female.

I have lots of favourites in SF - I started with Andre Norton (a woman despite the name), then Heinlein, then all sorts - the Ringworld and the rest of Known Space is a very interesting (and strange) place, but I wouldn't want to live there.  Cloak of Anarchy may be my favourite short story.

I've never read anything by Honor Harrington - guess it is time to check out the Library offerings. Anyone else have feedback?
Edit to add I just checked the library and she is a character, not an author.

On one hand, if you like a more political theme you might like the CoDominion stories.  On the other hand, Kzin are interesting.  And on the gripping hand, the Moties are very interesting from an evolutionary biology viewpoint.

SFF - anything by Lois McMaster Bujold - I'm surprised no one has mentioned her yet.

Good, but not my favorite ;)
For years I thought it was a man, Lois is 100% mans name for me.

Can you (or someone else) say somthing about Honor Harrington? I read only one book from the library and quite liked it, I thought it was quite similar in the "political" mode of the fiction. But HH has so many books I dont want to start ordering them just based on one.

[deborah]

I have lots of favourites in SF - I started with Andre Norton (a woman despite the name), then Heinlein, then all sorts - the Ringworld and the rest of Known Space is a very interesting (and strange) place, but I wouldn't want to live there.  Cloak of Anarchy may be my favourite short story.

+1  but Flowers for Algernon would be my all time favourite - I still think of that story occasionally.

[RetiredAt63]

Oh yes - but I read it so long ago that it was not on my list, just forgotten.

+1  but Flowers for Algernon would be my all time favourite - I still think of that story occasionally.
[/quote]

[Schaefer Light]

I don't have many favorites, but I am a voracious reader.  For fiction I've recently gotten into historical fiction but I love mystery books.  My non-fiction are usually some kind of business/self-help book. Some of my recent reads, that I really enjoyed are:

Fiction:
My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Non-Fiction:
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking‎ by Susan Cain
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Drive is a really good book.  I read that over the summer.  I think it explains why I'm not very motivated ;).

[iwasjustwondering]

Fiction: The Book of Evidence, by John Banville.  Barn Blind, by Jane Smiley.  Ulysses, by James Joyce.  The Waves, by Virginia Woolf.  The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. 

Nonfiction: Any biographies by Ellmann.  Jon Krakauer is a good read.  The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer.

I also like poetry by Rita Dove and Robert Pinsky.  And Yeats.

[iwasjustwondering]

eww, feel a little biind-sided by the Ayn Rand nods (god, i hate that woman)

I am not a big Ayn Rand fan but I dont see how so many people hate her. She is so popular to hate and I dont get why. People dont seem to hate other philosopher/authors as much.

I few reasons I don't like her: 1) Her pop-philosophy is just a warmed over popularized amalgam of Neitzsche and the Great Man Theory. 2) She writes like an angry, emotionally stunted child. 3) Even as stand in's for ideas, her characters and dialogue are thin. The heros all seem to suffer from Asperger's. 4) She rails against strawmen. 5) She was a hateful woman. Many who read her books seem to see themselves as John Galt, but I think she would have truly despised many of her fans. 6) Her work all reads like a screed. While I'm all for celebrating the do-ers and self-reliance, she rides the pendulum all the way over to the other side and into absurdity.

Couldn't have said it better myself, so I won't!  I'd just add that calling Ayn Rand a "philosopher" is like calling Taco Bell "Mexican."[/list]

+1000.

[iwasjustwondering]

Well, there really are too many to mention.  But I can't pass up the opportunity:
FICTION:  Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
                Great Expectations, by Dickens
                Oryx & Crake,
                Year of the Flood,
                and MaddAdda, all by Margaret Atwood (this is a fabulous trilogy, and well worth the effort of learning Atwood's dystopian world)

and probably my favorite, most-read NON-FICTION book is Walden.  I think EB White once described Thoreau as "a regular hair-shirt of a man," (funny enough in itself) but I've always found Thoreau to be deeply, deeply amusing. Sick of me, perhaps.   

HUGE +1 on Atwood's Oryx & Crake trilogy! A superb specimen of dystopian fiction. Seriously, read it folks.

And, pretty much everything else she's ever written is also stellar.

Agree.  She's not a great *writer* IMO, but she is great at depicting worlds that make me shiver 10+ years after I've read the books.

[alchem]

What a topic!

Diana Gabaldon Outlander
GRRM
Tolkien
Preston/child - Pendergast mysteries
Debora Geary books
Jacqueline Carey - Phedre novels
Patricia Biggs

Guilty pleasure : Elizabeth Chadwick historical romance

As a voracious reader, I'll pretty much read anything.  Grateful for excellent local library that feeds my addiction.


Non fiction
Dawkins - the god delusion
Hawkins - brief history of time

[senecando]

Fiction:
Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen

Non Fiction:
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon
Maxims by La Rochefoucauld
Almagest by Ptolemy
and maybe most of all Philosophy as a Way of Life by Pierre Hadot

[Annamal]

Fiction:
Terry Pratchett (even his worst books contain a spark of something truly amazing)
Neil Gaiman
Lois McMaster Bujold
Megan Whalen Turner (similar to LMB but more YA focused sort of LMB methadone)
John Scalzi (really workman-like books...his refusal to use anything other than "said" can come across quite oddly in audiobook form, nonetheless really enjoyable, logical heir to Heinlein)
Ann Leckie  (deserved the awards sweep this year)
Ilona Andrews
For romance novels Jennifer Crusie and Loretta Chase both write thoughtful and interesting characters (and provide a sense of humour).
Connie Willis deserves an honourable mention (best romance novel involving trends and the herd mentality)

I really don't read widely enough for non-fiction, I enjoyed Stephen Colbert's books and The Anscestor's tale by Richard Dawkins.

[FarmerPete]

I don't read much.  I'd like to read more.  The only books I really read religiously are Terry Pratchett's books.  It makes me so sad that his Alzheimer's is starting to catch up to him.  My guess is we wont be seeing much more from him.  I think that was kind of why he wrote Raising Steam the way he did.  It had a lot of the characters from his other books in it.  I felt like it was kind of a "goodbye" book.  We'll see.  I know he's working on another Tiffany Aching book now.

:-(

[SporeSpawn]

Fiction:
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis (By extension, the Space Trilogy by Lewis)
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

Nonfiction:
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
The Weight of Glory and other Essays by C.S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis

I honestly did try to think of other authors, but I'm afraid only Lewis sits at the top for me. He's the only author I've found who can impart the numinous. I know a lot of authors who are good, who are great, who have better ideas or writing, but only Lewis makes me feel as if I'm in an honest, worthwhile conversation with a fellow human.

[sky_northern]

Fiction: Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay

[LennStar]

I don't read much.  I'd like to read more.  The only books I really read religiously are Terry Pratchett's books.  It makes me so sad that his Alzheimer's is starting to catch up to him.  My guess is we wont be seeing much more from him.  I think that was kind of why he wrote Raising Steam the way he did.  It had a lot of the characters from his other books in it.  I felt like it was kind of a "goodbye" book.  We'll see.  I know he's working on another Tiffany Aching book now.

:-(

Oh wow, I didnt know Raising Steam was finished. Just ordered it.

I do hope he gets another Tiffany book together. I think Tiffany is the most solid, "real" characters of his, and that means a lot. If in my writings I ever get a character half as good as this, I know I will weep.

TP really deserves his Sir for literature. There are few authors who can make you laught and cry in the same sentence, and he does it one time after the other.

There is a documentary about his alzheimers and willful dead - choosing to die.
It seems its not on youtube for $ reasons

But there are interviews and speeches of the Sir including
"The Importance of Being Amazed about Absolutely Everything"
Where the title alone is more worth then most books ;)

[Sibley]

Oh, so many! I have many, many books and will probably always have too many. I'll read just about anything except horror and Westerns (I'm a wimp and have no interest in Westerns).

All time favorite: Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

Other favorite authors:
David Eddings
Tamora Pierce
JK Rowling
Mercedes Lackey
Anne McCaffrey
Patricia C Wrede
Patricia McKillip

[zinnie]

I just finished The Goldfinch and it was amazing. I've been making my way through all of the recent Pulitzer winners and haven't been disappointed yet (shocking, I know). 

[87tweetybirds]

"If an 8yo girl came into my library and asked for a pick..."
[/quote]
Oh that line fascinated me. I would recommend the little house books and Roald Dahl. They might be a little older but I think they are still very interesting.
Now for older people, If you like fantasy the wheel of time series is a complex web of characters and plots that might tickle your fancy. A friend of mine does a book blog, where she reviews books and series and recommends similar types of books. Pretty new but I've liked her taste in books so far.
If you're interested check her out. http://ilivelaughread.weebly.com/blog/my-top-ten-influential-books
I'm also going to have to try some of these ideas.

[kpd905]

Ender's Game
The Foundation Series
The Dark Tower Series
The Wool Series
The Giver