best book you've read

[Fleetwood Mac]

No favourite as such, but a few I've read more than once:

Stalingrad; Of Mice and Men; I know Why The Caged Bird Sings; Six Weeks; A Berlin Family; Bird Song; The English.

For any World War One enthusiasts, six weeks was the life expectancy of an English junior officer during the war, and so the book is titled Six Weeks; and is a look at the ideals of the public schools and their pupils' role and experience during the war.

For anyone interested in the development of England, The English (Jeremy Paxman) is a look at a peculiar people who are for the most part unlike any other people on this planet in character and outlook. The sort of people born to compromise: the Scots and Germans had a reformation; we had a falling out with the Pope on practical grounds rather than ideas. A people who guard privacy like our lives depend upon it and are fiercely independent. For example, I'm in the US at the moment and their idea of customer service is coming to your table every 5 minutes to ask if everything is fine. As an Englishman, this is not customer service; it's being a nuisance and it's wanton disregard for my space. Surely the idea is to make sure you're on hand and I'll let you know when I need something? Only the English could have developed a sport such as cricket and only the English could have developed a religion where the ministers recommend that you go to church now and again and providing you keep your nose clean everything will pan out fine - light on dogma; heavy on choice. It's an interesting book and a thinly veiled celebration of our traditions and outlook on life, and Paxman undoubtedly is from the school of: "to be born an Englishman is to win the lottery of life". English people may be surprised by the influence of the Church of England on our character - a case well argued by Paxman.

[Sally]

His Dark Materials is fairly close to the top.

[The Good Michael]

Hello Jason. "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevski. Easy choice.

Cheers.
LC

I loved his Notes from Underground.

Mike

[lynn cates]

Dostoevski

Hello Jason. "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevski. Easy choice.

Cheers.
LC

[Phil Carter]

If I had to pick one.. it would be...

Harold Gimblett..Tormented genius of cricket

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Harold-Gimblett-Tormented-Genius-Cricket/dp/095311967X

I read and bought the first edition many many years ago and have read it from cover to cover well over 100 times. Being a cricket lover, it attracted me. Seing the psychological aspect of the torment inside a man's mind, fascinated me.


Simply the best thing I have ever read.



Phil

[pinkmoon]

Spot on Errata. My spouse has, down the years, grown to hate my books, and as a result of successive weedings, I'm down to my last two or three thousand (cow)...nonetheless I continue to smuggle in the odd volume or six...She's older than I am and it's the least I can do in terms of keeping her mentally alert and active...

All the best

Dave

I had to give all my books away a few hundred in fact due to wife .

[Ginger]

If I had to pick only one, I suppose I'd take 'Watership Down'.

[Cogidubnus]

You do realize that for a lot of us, favorite books run in the hundreds right? Like I'm not even sure I could squeak by with a top 10.

Spot on Errata. My spouse has, down the years, grown to hate my books, and as a result of successive weedings, I'm down to my last two or three thousand (cow)...nonetheless I continue to smuggle in the odd volume or six...She's older than I am and it's the least I can do in terms of keeping her mentally alert and active...

All the best

Dave

[Cogidubnus]

Difficult choice, and definitely not Ripper-related...

There really are so many...but fiction-wise probably Lord of the Rings which, (after the Hobbit at age 7), I came late to, and first read at the age of 17 - I've read it at least twice a year ever since, and still find something new in it every now and again

Non-Fiction would be an ecuminical matter...

All the best

Dave

[Errata]

What's the best book you've ever read(ripper related or not)let's see if my favourite pops up on here.

You do realize that for a lot of us, favorite books run in the hundreds right? Like I'm not even sure I could squeak by with a top 10.

[pinkmoon]

What's the best book you've ever read(ripper related or not)let's see if my favourite pops up on here.