The best book you ever read was...

[tree guy]

A few kind words and a loaded gun- Razor Smith.

The biography of the career criminal Noel 'razor' Smith. Cannot recommend it enough! Lost count of times I've re read this book. Bloody good read.

[kenny Chim 4]

Many years ago I had lunch with a dear uncle and, when we parted, he handed me a paperback copy of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and recommended that I read it.

I did and found it facsinating. Especially chapter 2 as it represents Pontius Pilate judging a prisoner brought before him. Here's that chapter: http://rt.com/all-about-russia/literature/mikhail-...

It has stayed with me since albeit as a work of fiction.

More recently, I had just split from my fiancee and booked a holiday for myself to Florida. A Russian girl that I was close to at that time gave me a copy of 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Jose Marquez a Columbian writer and it's a metaphoric history of that country as seen through the eyes of one family.

Very moving and a great read.

[kitz]

Human Smoke . Nicholson Baker ... A build up to the Second World War in letters diaries and news paper reports .
It shows the lunatics were not just on one side .
The Princess Bride William Goldman a truly romantic adventure story for romantics .

[niccis dad]

The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. This is a totally rivetting read , an elegantly fiendish plot which takes you down into the depths of the subjects despair, then the spiralling feel good as the plot unfolds for a beautifully delivered dose of revenge. So beautifully written in the style of the day, elegant use of language and so descriptive. READ.

[Dai Capp]

Mrs DC loves To Kill A Mockingbird and Tuesdays with Morrie. Me on the otherhand loved Winters Bone and The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats. We both had a lot of time for The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. We read a mix of stuff I guess - beats talking to each other

[Schmeeky]

Dai Capp said:

The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats.

Sounds intriguing - what's that all about?

[Dai Capp]

Schmeeky said:

Sounds intriguing - what's that all about?

Here's the reviews

When Stephen King says you can’t put a book down, then it might be worth picking it up - and with The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats – a story of 1960’s gangsters that is so different and so beautifully crafted – such advice would be well taken.

Not unlike George Pelecanos, Hesh Kestin has nailed a sense of time and place that is eponymous with American history so well it is easy for readers to smell the smog, the fear and the ambivalence of the age whilst all the while wanting to delve deeper beneath the folds of New York and so embroil themselves in the counter-culture of the day.

In Russell Newhouse, Kestin has created his own cultural melting pot and delivered a narrator who not only becomes the eyes and ears of the story but also its living heart as his world and his life is irrevocably changed by the bequest that is left to him by Jewish mobster, Shoeshine Cats, after Newhouse does the gangster a small favour.

As to the titular protagonist, here stands a mixture of Robin Hood and Scarface personified and such is the subtle drawing of this intellectual paradox makes readers want to know more and more on every page, whereas what we do know is rainbow bright and lustres like fresh snow in sunshine.

Funny, dark, captivating and exhilarating, The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats might well be one of the books of the year.

'In this smart and surprisingly poignant gangster story, Hesh Kestin peppers the stew with an unusual blend that's part American Graffiti, part Sopranos and part The Chosen.' (Julie Salamon, author of The Devil's Candy and Hospital )

All in all it's a bloody good yarn - well worth a dabble if you like stuff like The Godfather or American Graffiti...

Edited by Dai Capp on Tuesday 11th December 20:20

[Schmeeky]

Cheers Dai! It's not the sort of thing I'd normally chose, which is all the more reason for going out and finding a copy!

[selwonk]

One for the petrol heads, Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jupiters-Travels-Ted-Simon...

Fairly unlikely that anybody will ever be able to do the same trip by motorbike again due to borders and war zones.

http://jupitalia.com/

[Steffan]

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Without question the best book I have ever read, bar none, even after more than 55 years of reading an awful lot of books. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson comes a close second.

[Dai Capp]

Schmeeky said:

Cheers Dai! It's not the sort of thing I'd normally chose, which is all the more reason for going out and finding a copy!

Amazon have a look inside thing going on for it - first 3 chapters as a taster...

Just saying

[Hugo a Gogo]

coppice said:

Postcards by Annie Proulx is extraordinary.

read it last year and it went straight into my top 5 (if I had a top five!)

reading the rest of her stuff slowly, that's the best one so far

[Sogra]

Police your planet by Lester Del Ray is a good read, written in the 1950`s and you can see where some later books and films have got their inspiration from.

The Magician by Raymond E Feist great read

Schindlers list, hard to read but worth reading

Dont know if to get an e reader, love the feel and emotion of a book anybody any thoughts?

[Hodgie]

One of the best books i have read is In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Somme Mud by Edward Lynch is high up there aswell

[Spiffing]

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I really enjoyed this book. It is a short book, aimed at teenagers and revolves around a teenager who has autism and how he sets out to solve the mystery of a neighbours dead dog.

[ovlov60]

The Kon-Tiki expedition by Thor Heyerdahl. He (and his team) built a raft to sail the pacific to attempt to prove a theory about migration of people.

That and the Hitch Hikers Guide series.

[Huff]

ovlov60 said:

The Kon-Tiki expedition by Thor Heyerdahl. He (and his team) built a raft to sail the pacific to attempt to prove a theory about migration of people.

Utterly fabulous book. Idea born c.1948 IIRC, read it multiple times as child. Truly big thinking and no little daring involved. IIRC one of the crew, Torsten Raaby just cabled 'coming' to the invite (based solely on the recommendation of a friend of a friend...) knowing nothing about sailing but up for a go. He'd served in SOE or its equivalent...

This and Heyerdahls' later 'Ra Expedition' are amongst my favourite books.

[Pothole]

northwest monkey said:

Currently reading "The Stand" by Stephen King for about the 10th time so very possibly the best book I've read.

The unabridged version, I hope.

An all time classic...feels like coming home very time I read the part about the old boy leaping up to shut off the petrol pumps as the car lurches across the carriageway into the gas station...such fantastic characters!

[Waynester]

As a child growing up, my favourite book(s) were the Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis.

As a 'grown up' my preference leans towards factual, history books, particularly on WW2 aviation. One of the best I have read is 'Sigh for a Merlin' by Alex Henshaw. Alex was chief pilot at Castle Bromwich during the war & test flew approximately 10% of all Spitfires built! An extraordinary man, & a very good book.

[joggy]

I find a thread like this in forums that I have registered and I even have followed books that others have read..and find those books ...interesting.
Basically I like thriller and suspense genre rather than others.I have read and become die-hard fans of Agatha christie,Sidney and Dan brown and others..
One of the book that I can't forget is http://www.preterhuman.net/texts/religion.occult.n...
It was so nice and I was thrilled till the end.