What's the best book you've ever read?

[Wildling]

Cool. I hadn't heard of him before but I'll check him out.

[Menolly]

You'll get lots of guidance on the Watch's sister site dedicated to Zindell, Ahira's Hangar.

[peter]

The problem I have with this is the discontinuous nature of being 'me' over the number of years I have been reading. The 'me' of my first reading would choose 'The Circus of Adventure' by Enid Blyton. An adolescant 'me' would choose what...'Rex' by Joyce Stranger followed soon thereafter by another 'me' who would plump fo William Peter Blateys 'The Exorcist'. 'The Chrons' would occupy another me yet later and would be the most persistent best and for the longest time. But then we loose the non-fiction works 'The Search for Solutions' (Horace Freeland Judson), Nial Fergussons 'The War of the World'

......no - this is ridiculous; it makes my head hurt. I need a sedative for my mind and so I turn to the most beautiful peice of prose ever written:-

The Chapter "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in the book "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Graham.

[hue of fuzzpaws]

......no - this is ridiculous; it makes my head hurt. I need a sedative for my mind and so I turn to the most beautiful peice of prose ever written:-

The Chapter "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in the book "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Graham.

[Harbinger]

Answers subject to change depending on mood:

Novel The Sun Also Rises

Short Story Sideshow Champion

[Cornaquious]

-Illusions by Richard Bach

This book changed my life. Part of a college course I took in collge: Philosophies in Education PJ Porter, Professor.

I am forever finding blue feathers.

[Cornaquious]

Best book you've never read? Stone and Flute by Hans Bemmann.

[Avatar]

-Illusions by Richard Bach

"If you turned to this page, you're forgetting how you got yourself into this mess in the first place..."

"Everything in this book may be wrong."

There are a few fans of the book here.

--A

[hue of fuzzpaws]

Best book you've . . . read? Stone and Flute by Hans Bemmann.

[deer of the dawn]

......no - this is ridiculous; it makes my head hurt. I need a sedative for my mind and so I turn to the most beautiful peice of prose ever written:-

The Chapter "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in the book "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Graham.

I might have to agree to that. I remember reading that for the first time, I was a kid and I was floored that a book could do that to me.

I was just thinking too that books are "best" for different reasons. Best characterization, best keeping you guessing, best at entertaining you, best at changing your life.

I'm reading A Song of Ice and Fire for the first time and I can't remember reading a better-paced, more interesting story. Usually by book 3 of a series (that's more than 3 books) I'm getting sick of the thought process, or dislike a character so much I no longer wish to spend time with them, or something is taking away from my ability to enjoy. (It could end up being the use of the word "whore" in ASoIaF.)

Since Peter mentioned a children's book, I'll say again that the "Little House" books (the original series, not their pallid spin-offs written in the 90's) were some of the best I ever read. I may have re-read the series in every decade of my life, and that's too many for me to want to say.

[Menolly]

I've never read The Wind in the Willows, but may have to after these comments.

Two stories from my childhood that affected me were A Dog of Flanders and Old Yeller. Yep, animal softie here...

[Vader]

Flann O'Brien - At Swim Two Birds

[peter]

I have a 7 y.o. grand-daughter and I'm just thinking it might be time to get her started on reading some books that could engage her enough to keep her going with 'the habbit'. I know Enid Blyton was the one who really got me hooked on reading, and though she is perhaps out of favour now I can't help but think that that might be a good place to start. Kid's after all have a habit of being able to cut through all of the 'fashionable trends' in what they should or should not like - and a good story remains a good story, pc or otherwise.

[Iolanthe]

I bought Patrick (eight) a Horrid Henry book for his birthday - three books in one, over 200 pages, and he's actually read it!!! I can't believe it!!!

[Menolly]

Beorn started Harry Potter in kindergarten. I still credit that series with developing his love of reading.

[peter]

The trouble with HP is that Freya is so familiar with the films which she has seen multiple times sice a very early age, that it might be difficult to get her to adopt the more demanding job of actually reading them. Something new to her might capture her imagination more than something she is already highly familiar with. (It could work exactly the opposit way round as well, of course ).'Horrid Henry' might be a possibility as well. At the end it will be her choice (with perhaps a bit of bribery from me) - I don't want to do anything to put her off reading so I will proceed with care.

[Menolly]

Does Freya like the HP universe, ofonly from the movies? Like most books adapted to film, the books are so much more rich than the movies. The additional story and explanations may grab her...

[Iolanthe]

I would go with Enid Blyton to start with. The Magic Faraway Tree, Mr Pinkwhistle - although they are not that easy to read at 7. My daughter devoured EB when she was that age. Then there is Beatrix Potter, Winnie the Pooh, including the poems, and the Mr Men books - she loved those. And we had Richard Scarry books and The Cat in the Hat. I could go on all night!

[peter]

I clearly remember by the age of eight having achieved a reading level that enabled me to tackle some of EB's '2nd level' books, if I can put it that way. By these I mean the 'Mystery' series, Secret Seven and Famous Five etc. (The 'Adventure Series' are perhaps the least remembered of her works but were in my oppinion by far the best - but these are more geared toward say, the 10 yo I think). For me I think it was the mystery and adventure aspects of these books that caught my young imagination and every thing I have ever read since owes a debt to these early reading experiences (and I am a voracious reader to this day).

[Orlion]

......no - this is ridiculous; it makes my head hurt. I need a sedative for my mind and so I turn to the most beautiful peice of prose ever written:-

The Chapter "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in the book "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Graham.

A book that we all greatly loved and admired and read aloud or alone, over and over and over: The Wind in the Willows. This book is, in a way, two separate books put into one. There are, on the one hand, those chapters concerned with the adventures of Toad; and on the other hand there are those chapters that explore human emotions – the emotions of fear, nostalgia, awe, wanderlust. My mother was drawn to the second group, of which “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” was her favourite, read to me again and again with always, towards the end, the catch in the voice and the long pause to find her handkerchief and blow her nose. My father, on his side, was so captivated by the first group that he turned these chapters into the children's play, Toad of Toad Hall. In this play one emotion only is allowed to creep in: nostalgia.

One can argue over the merits of most books... one does not argue about The Wind in the Willows. The young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and if she does not like it, he asks her to return his letters. The old man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. ... When you sit down to [read] it, don't be so ridiculous as to suppose you are sitting in judgment on my taste, or on the art of Kenneth Grahame. You are merely sitting in judgment on yourself. You may be worthy; I don't know. But it is you who are on trial.