So what IS your favourite book?

[lstsl]

I too love reading and look forward to reading some of the books listed above

TANGENT: anybody here have an e Reader? It's like an iPod for books, the screen is specially designed for reading text so it doesn't strain your eyes like lcd or led screens... all sorts of cool stuff, the battery lasts for 75,000 page turns (War and Peace five times over). I love mine!

But anyways; favorite books:

The Hobbit, but not LotR (it was just too slow for me, loved the movie though)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Pandora's Star trilogy and Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
THE WHEEL OF TIME SERIES!!!!!!!! by Robert Jordan (whom I will never, ever forgive for dying while writing the last book. EVER!)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently series by Douglas Adams (who I will never, ever forgive for dying while writing The Salmon of Doubt)
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (great word play, and a satire of everything that ever happened on earth at any time, often simultaniously!)

And the MacDonald Hall series, No Coins Please, I Want To Go Home etc by Gordan Korman (I know they're little kid books but they are great, kids conspiring against adults. Kind of like 'Escape tunnel from East Germany' type thing but less depressing.

All university textbooks, and highschool science texts!!

This is in no way a complete list

[Thorne]

THE WHEEL OF TIME SERIES!!!!!!!! by Robert Jordan (whom I will never, ever forgive for dying while writing the last book. EVER!)

Fortunately he left copious notes and ideas. His wife (?) has already hired another writer to complete the series based on these notes. Don't know when it will be done, but at least we know it's coming!

[Shwenn]

TANGENT: anybody here have an e Reader? It's like an iPod for books, the screen is specially designed for reading text so it doesn't strain your eyes like lcd or led screens... all sorts of cool stuff, the battery lasts for 75,000 page turns (War and Peace five times over). I love mine!

That is so unappealing to me.

I'm a total print junkie. Like all junkies, I'm reverential about the whole ritual that surrounds getting my fix. The heroin addict loves the act of cooking the powder in a spoon. The smoker relishes opening a new pack of cigarettes. I'm that way with actual books.

The smell of a new book. The feel of an old one. Turning a page. Feeling the weight balance slowly shift from right to left. Watching the book begin to bulge as the binding is continuously distressed.

I don't want to give any of it up.

[Thorne]

That is so unappealing to me.

I'm a total print junkie. Like all junkies, I'm reverential about the whole ritual that surrounds getting my fix. The heroin addict loves the act of cooking the powder in a spoon. The smoker relishes opening a new pack of cigarettes. I'm that way with actual books.

The smell of a new book. The feel of an old one. Turning a page. Feeling the weight balance slowly shift from right to left. Watching the book begin to bulge as the binding is continuously distressed.

I don't want to give any of it up.

I agree with you, Shwenn. I'm pretty much the same way.

On the other hand, I wouldn't mind having some kind of cheap, durable reader that I could upload text files into without having all kinds of expensive, unnecessary bells and whistles. I just want to READ the friggin things!

[Dr_BuzzCzar]

That is so unappealing to me.

I'm a total print junkie. Like all junkies, I'm reverential about the whole ritual that surrounds getting my fix. The heroin addict loves the act of cooking the powder in a spoon. The smoker relishes opening a new pack of cigarettes. I'm that way with actual books.

The smell of a new book. The feel of an old one. Turning a page. Feeling the weight balance slowly shift from right to left. Watching the book begin to bulge as the binding is continuously distressed.

I don't want to give any of it up.

Add me to that group. When traveling I'll read a minimum of 5 books a week. I don't do the bar scene anymore so hotel time tends to be reading time as well as airplane time is reading time too. Flying is hell on a control freak.

On OP question:

I read extensively from literature to trash. It would be absolutely impossible to narrow to just one book.

Authors I've read everything I can find:
Hemingway
Criton
Michner
Clavell
Roark
Hunter
Edgerton
Herbert
Verne