Your Favourite Book

Only ONE favorite? Wow, this is gonna be tough....

What's your favourite book? Who's the author?
Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

What's the Brief story?
A riverboat captain named Kurtz has gone insane and gone up the river with a valuable supply of iron ore. The company he works for sends out another man, Marlow, who during the journey to find Kurtz, sees things that question his morality.

Why do you love it so much?
I've questioned that myself a few times. I originally read the book after i watched the movie "Apocalypse Now" which, in turn, is based off of the book. So i read the book, and i don't know, it kinda stuck with me.
 
What's your favourite book? Who's the author?

A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway (it's a short story, only about 4 pages)

What's the (brief) story?

An old man walks into a clean, well-lighted cafe. It is the story of the old man and two waiters.

Why do you love it so much?

I love each and every word in this story. This is Hemingway at his absolute finest. Considering all the books I have read, it's really quite shocking that this short story still has such a special place in my heart. Its still my favorite piece of prose.

This is a story of loneliness and despair, two subjects that Hemingway knows all too well. There are lines in this story that simply touch my soul like no other. My favorite lines are:

What did he fear? It was not a fear or dread, It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too.

For those who want to read it, it can be found here:

http://www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html
 
K
kittenpoker
sounds really good. thanks goby!
[MENTION=9037]wickedtiger86[/MENTION] already mentioned The Book Thief, which is the closest thing to my favourite book. But I honestly can't choose, so I'll just rec some authors. How is it that no one has mentioned Terry Prachett?
 
Whirlwind said:
I've read Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind.
Click to expand...

I've read Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hedgemon, Speaker for the Dead and First Meetings (it's a collection of short stories in the 'verse, including how Ender's parents met and is totally awesome). Planning to read the rest as soon as I get my hands on them. But I heard some really weird stuff happens on Ender's side of the story, like him getting split into three or something, so I'm kinda wary.
 
Whirlwind
Whirlwind
It does get a little weird, but I still recommend it
What's your favourite book? Who's the author?

Its between "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy and "Daniel Deronda" by George Eliot. Gotta love those Victorian novelists!!!

What's the (brief) story?

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Tess is an innocent young girl until she visits her rich "relatives", the D'Urbervilles in order to help out her own family, beset by poverty. There she meets her manipulative cousin, Alec, which leads her onto a path of suffering. When she falls in love with another man, Angel Clare, Tess sees a potential escape from her past, but only if she can tell him her shameful secret.

Daniel Deronda - This novel follows the intertwining lives of the beautiful but spoiled and selfish Gwendolene Harleth and the selfless yet alienated Daniel Deronda, as they search for personal and vocational fulfilment and sympathetic relationship.

Why do you love it so much?

I love the writing of both Hardy and Eliot - the way they can delve right into the mindset of the characters, offering different perspectives. Their attention to minute detail - whether its depicting the glorious setting or describing the appearance of a character - as well as that writing which makes you stop and think about life itself are reasons why I love these two novels. I love the depiction of forces greater than ourselves in both novels, fate in Tess and religion in Daniel Deronda. Daniel Deronda is a journey of self discovery whilst Tess is about pain, act and consequence and there is so much passion in this novel.

-------------------------------------

Oh and honourary mention to Villette by Charlotte Bronte - its incredible!! It written in first person by the novel's heroine, Lucy Snowe and there are question marks the whole way through about her reliability as a narrator.

Lucy, a quiet, lonely girl must learn quickly when she finds herself teaching in a foreign school, with no friends or family to rely on. However it's not long until figures from Lucy's past appear and she becomes involved in dilemmas which inspire new and passionate feelings in her.

Once again, the writing is absolutely beautiful, it is a pleasure to read.
 
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What's your favourite book? Who's the author?
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

What's the (brief) story?
Holden is...perturbed.

Why do you love it so much?
I really don't know. I've read it at least 5 times. It's my security blanket.
 
Turns out I've allready answered this thread! 😀 And yeah, I have to say, the dwarf is still one of my favourite books. Well played past me, well played!
 
What's your favourite book? Who's the author?
In The Coils Of The Snake by Clare B. Dunkle

What's the (brief) story?
I should start by saying it's the last novel and the the third-to-last story in the Hollow Kingdom series, but all the stories in that series are stand alone. Reading them all just makes them better.

The story focuses on seventeen year old Miranda Richardson. Though her family is well off, she lives a miserable life because she was promised away before she was born, and is arranged to be married... to a goblin. The goblin King, to be specific. Raised by the old king, Sixfingers, her birth family hates her and most people are scared of her. She thinks life will get better when she becomes officially engaged to the new king, Catspaw, but it only improves slightly.

When Catspaw breaks up with her on the night of their wedding, Miranda decides to commit suicide. Luckily, a mysterious man named Nir stops her and takes her into his world- the world of the elves. Catspaw finds out about this and, still caring for Miranda, decides to get her back. This proves harder than it looks, for though even Miranda knows that Nir is dangerous and possibly insane, she has started to fall in love with him.

Why do you love it so much?
It is a lovely, incredibly well written story. The characters interact in realistic ways, despite this being a mixture of a modern fantasy and a high fantasy story. The romance develoups slowly enough to be good and quickly enough to keep a reader's interest. And it has an underlying moral (not too obvious) that's pretty much summed up in this quote: "Kindness and cruelty, honesty and treachery- these have the same meaning to a goblin or an elf." Pretty much, this book is a good example of how you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

If you're interested, one of the stories in the Hollow Kingdom series is available to read online: The Story of Lim and Blackwing
 
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