h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

damn, yea the dune seires is great, i left that off my original list, but yea its great, except i havent read the new one that was put out by his son, is it any good? um also while im at it the Don Juan series by carlos castanalios spelling rong, but any way it was good too. also did i mention the enders game series from enders game and speaker of the dead too the recently releced enders shadow, tose are all good too. what ever
-lord john-
the
-pixelking-

The new dune books aren't as good, but if you loved the original series (like I did), you can't stop reading them. It's an addicton.

The Chalice by Phil Rickman. Just finish it, and like all good books, feel like the best book I've ever read.

The original dune is now a very tatty looking book because I've read it so much

Not sure I'd like to get it down to one best book I've ever read.

If I had to I'd probably go for Isaac Asimov's Foundation. But if you ask me tomorrow I might change my mind again.

Z

My most-read book (6 or 7 times at least, once in Spanish although I didn't think much of the translation) is The Far Pavilions by M M Kaye. Usually I'm a fantasy girl, but this one evokes India so colourfully that I can't resist re-reading it every 18 months or so. Sooooo exotic

To keep up my reputation as the Sickest person on h2g2 I would have to add
"The Wasp Factory" and "Complicity" by Iain Banks and "Fight Club" by Chuck Palanhuik. Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris is also quite good (but not as sick)
On a lighter note I really like "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy" by Nick Hornby, "After the Hole" (now an inferior film) by Guy Burt, "Catcher in the Rye" by JD Salinger, "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath and just about anything by Pratchett or Adams (of course.)
I'm currently working my way through "Lord of the Rings," "American Psycho" and the complete works of Christopher Brookmyre (I've read "Quite ugly one morning" and am currently on "Not the end of the World")
I've not read clockwork orange yet (I've been planning to for years) but the film's great (likewise with the Godfather, the Shining, the list goes on.)

When you do decide to read A Clockwork Orange make sure you get the full (UK) version. It should have seven chapters in each section.

The US version was issued with the final chapter of the third section omitted. Although I believe that the correct version is now on available in the US.

Z

Now let's see...

"Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo (I don't think I have cried so much in my life)
"Silence of the Lambs" by Thomas Harris
"Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens (Now that's a classic!)

"Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

I don't know if I would say the best, but it popped into my head, and has to be a worthy contender.

I first read it when I was 9 while travelling round Scotland in a Caravan.

It's a very short read, but very inspiring

I am afraid my comment will not be of much interest as both are skandinavian books and I only know the german titles but I will try to roughly translate - maybe someone can guess which books I am talking about

Peter Hoeg: Der Plan von der Abschaffung des Dunkels (The plan of the elimination of darkness)

Harry Mulisch: Die Entdeckung des Himmels (The discovery of heaven)

But if they are really the best.... They impressed me and I enjoyed reading them at the time, and that is about the best thing you can say about a book, I guess. Although, thinking about it, I could name more and more other best books. Anyway, these two I can recommend, if any of you can find them in your respective languages

"Time and Again" by Jack Finney. This is about a secret US goverment experiment in time travel, the goal of which is to change certain historical events. The hero is picked by a secretive agency to travel back to 1880's New York City to thwart a suicide by a prominent individual. The time period is meticulously researched and beautifully detailed--it even has illustrations! It's hard to believe this is the same guy who wrote "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".

Other favorites:
"Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden
E. Annie Prolux's "The Shipping News"
anything by T.C. Boyle, especially "Water Music"
Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence"
Chris Bohjalian's "Midwives"

Why are you all forgetting the genius that was "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and all its brilliant sequels. Also "Last chance to see" (a personal favourite,) the great meaning of Liff books (including the comic releif christmas book) and of course the Dirk Gently series. All by the great (and now late) Douglas Adams. I am drunk and upset and can hardly express my shock. I hope you understand...

yes i just read speaker for the dead and it thoroughly rocks. i love the ai chick. dune is also incredible, the ecology and politics are so incredibly detailed and realistic, you can get totally lost in the story. my favorite book is the little prince, just because as a children's book, it has a whole lot of wisdom in it.

Hmmm....kinda tricky to pick a single one, so here's a big ol' list:

For sheer epicness and sense of a complete new world, I think Lord of the Rings has to be no.1. The film should be interesting....

For thought-provoking stuff, try Orwell's 1984, which I _finally_ got round to reading a couple of weeks ago, on holiday. Good stuff.

If you want something more fact-based and real life(TM), Climbing Mount Improbable is a fascinating book by Richard Dawkins on evolution. Any doubts that you may have about the likelyhood of evolution will disappear as you read this...

Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting is a refreshingly harsh piece of literature - brilliantly written, and every bit as good as the film. It takes a while to get over the fact that he's written the book in a Scottish accent, tho.

I don't know why, but Stephen King's (or rather, Richard Bachman's) The Long Walk always comes to mind in these conversations. It's at an undetermined point in the future, where teenage boys take part in this vast competition marathon. They have to walk solidly for a couple of days, keeping above 4mph. If they drop below this, they're shot. It turns out to be a really interesting psychological account of the walk....

Catfish

Incidentally - first post! Woohoo!

Oooops....I see that you're not supposed to insert your own subject title ...oh well.

And noone else appears to stick their name at the bottom of the post either - gotta get out of that habit...

Nevermind.

Hi,

I think the title says it all really.

Bob

The Thomas Ripley series by Patricia Highsmith. Maybe not the best I've ever read, but definitely my favorite!
Ripley's Game is probably the best of them all.
Anthony Minghella made a terrific movie based on The Talented Mr. Ripley. If you haven't seen it yet, go do it now. Just don't read the book afterwards.

The Thomas Ripley series??? Hmmm...I'll have to go take a look - I loved the film, but didn't realise there was even 1 book, let alone several...

.fishy

Catch 22 is the dog's bo*****s. I remember I, Houdini, that was cool. But my all time favourite is Moby Dick, and not even just coz it sounds rude. Or Lolita.