What’s your favorite book? That’s not an uncommon question. I never know how to respond. Yet if someone asks me “Do you like Game of Thrones?” I will answer “Oh it’s my favorite book!” But it isn’t actually my favorite book. It’s one of my favorite books.
Which makes me think, what is my favorite book? How does anyone narrow it down? By genre? By time frame? I definitely have books that I adored as a child that I still read. A combination, I think, of great writing and great memories.
For years I thought that Anna Karenina was my favorite book. I read it several times and was enthralled each time. Then, I got sober. And re-read it and thought what in the world made me so in love with this book? I couldn’t get through it. So Anna Karenina fell off my favorite book list.
Quite a while ago, a reader asked me to add a book that I enjoy to each of my posts. Being me, I’ve only remembered to do that twice. This article is, hopefully, catching that up a little bit.
Here is my revelation. I have no favorite book. I have many books that are my favorite book. Since I’m assuming that listing the hundreds of books that would be on the list would put anyone to sleep after a couple of minutes, and since they are all my favorite book, I’m narrowing it down to the following, in no specific order.
- Every book in the A Song of Fire and Ice series by George R. R. Martin
- Every book written by Louise Penny
- Every book in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright
- Obras Completas of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer
- Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Devil’s Girl by Tim Knowles
- The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix
- Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
- El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes
- The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J. R. R. Tolkien
There. That’s my list of favorite book. Without the 100+ more that I could add.
saneteachers 
I’m like you–it’s difficult to answer that question, especially when you factor in different genres. While thrillers are my preference to read, I also enjoy literary fiction. But when I do get pressed on the question of my favorite book, I usually answer “A Fine Balance” by Rohinton Mistry. The writing is gorgeous, and the story stayed with me for a very long time. In fact, it still does.
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That’s a good point. I don’t know that book but will check it out. The book that is staying with me now and I find myself thinking about often is Before I Fall (it’s on my list). Something hauntingly beautiful about that story.
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My favourite book is “My Fight, Your Fight” by Ronda Rousey. Just finished reading it last week and immediately declared it the best book I’ve ever read lol
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I almost spelled Favorite as Favourite in the title just to throw you and my other Canadian and UK friends off. But I just couldn’t do it. Do you recommend that book for me?
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I’d recommend it to anyone, but that’s just because I liked it so much!
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Oh and I’m hoping that you noticed that I’ve included Louise Penny. One of my favorite authors and a Canadian 😃
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Haha I’d like to say I did notice, but I’d be lying. I don’t really know authors.
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That’s okay. I don’t know the rules for curling.
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LOL
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I love the Jack Reacher series. He is the baddest bad man that ever was created.
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I agree! They should just be 500 pages each and last longer.
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Moby-Dick aka The Whale, by Herman Melville, would have to be somewhere near the top. Like you, I don’t have an absolute favorite, but this one comes to mind.
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I doubt I could pin myself down to a particular book, although if I did, it would probably be a Peanuts book I’ve been rereading since childhood. It’s hard to make a more logical decision.
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That’s great! I never even think of cartoons, although I do enjoy them. Last night I was thinking of more books that are important to me and way up high on my list but just didn’t think of them as I was writing. Oh well. As I said, I didn’t want to bore people to death. You do get good ideas from other people, though. Hopefully someone did from me.
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Well, there’s also always time for a second round of favorite books. I doubt people get bored hearing about stuff other people like. (Within reason. My Little Pony fans have bored me but that’s because I’ve had about 750,000 more words said about the show than I care to hear. A paragraph about it would have been welcomed instead.)
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I teach English as a New Language in a high school in NY state. For the past 16 years I must have read over 1,000 paragraphs, essays and stories about soccer. I was sick of those 14 years ago.
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Charlie Brown was one of our cult characters with my Anglo friends, but in (French) schools you just had to have read the latest “Tintin”.
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We didn’t get Tintin in the United States, at least not where I was when I was growing up. We did get some Asterix in French-language class, but only just enough of it that the whole thing seemed like some weird, alien attempt at confusing us.
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Asterix I’m not familiar with. I worked at a Barnes & Noble bookstore about 20 years ago. That’s where I met Tintin. 😆
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actually I agree with you Joseph ! in its own way, Tintin had sophisticated plots and characters AND lovely language in the original, whereas I always felt Asterix was somehow concocted and as you say, weird and confusing 🙂
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This is funny because you two are having a conversation on my post that I can’t participate in because I don’t know Asterix. Now I have to read that.
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oops sorry, maybe we’re being rude! don’t bother to read, just google & maybe find a youtube too 🙂
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No I was thrilled that this post fostered a discussion! And I will go to YouTube.
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Charlie Brown of course. And I discovered Tintin a number of years before. Calvin and Hobbes…
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I’ve come back to this post because it’s making me think hard – specially as I’ve moved recently & taken only about one tenth of my books with me. Books mark periods of my life, then I’ve moved on to different moods & authors. Doris Lessing was probably my all-time author who inspired me towards personal freedom. “Tristes Tropiques” by Claude Lévi Strauss opened up philosophical and spiritual horizons…
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I love your comment about books marking moments in time. I’ve never thought of it that way before. And since the post I’ve thought of so many that I “should” have included. It’s been fun thinking of all the books that I’ve enjoyed. A while ago I wrote a post about books I didn’t like. That was interesting and so we’re the comments.
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if you don’t mind, I’ll post something on books soon – mentioning your post as inspiration… ?
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That would be awesome! I’m thinking of giving another go at books I don’t like, but maybe including a short reason. Tastes and perspective are so different and can make on look at a book, a painting, a piece of music etc. differently. I’m glad I inspired you, even a little bit.
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I used to read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Red Fern. Classics and they loved them. I introduced them to my own kids. Love books! Fun post!
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Thank you! You know, oddly enough I have never read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and I’m an English teacher. Another book to put on my list! Thank you so much for reading this post and commenting. 🙂
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