What is the best book out there?

I don't know how you could pick one as supreme. Could we narrow this down a bit, say, to what's the best novel? Even that's a difficult question, but at least we're not comparing a collection of the complete works of Shakespeare, the Bible, Manufacturing Consent, and Huckleberry Finn.

If we agree on "novel", my vote goes to The Grapes of Wrath.

My favorite book, bar none, is "Nine Princes in Amber" about alternate universes. When I read it in the mid 70s, it instantly leapt ahead of every other one of the thousand books I' read, and has never been surpassed since. I know many other people who have had exactly the same reaction. Other ones by the same author, Roger Zelazny, are close competitors.

Zelazny's Jack of Shadows was excellent.

It certainly was, but so dark!

W. Somerset Maughm's "Of Human Bondage" is still the best book I've ever read.

Sounds kinky. :wink:

My answer changes by the day, but I usually cite Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 as one of my constant top choices as it nearly perfectly describes today's world even though it was written over 50 years ago! What foresight! Whether literacy, politics, religion, drugs, etc., Bradbury saw the future.

I am also (in a strangely bothersome way) in awe of the concepts put forth in Johnny Got His Gun, which has brought a worst-case scenario about war to my being. That book is one reason I dislike Bush and "his war" policies so much. I guess there are "good wars," but this is not one, and I feel so deeply for the troops involved. (No details beyond that will be offered.)

I recently sold my old tattered copy of "Johnny Got His Gun" at my garage sale and it led to one of the most interesting conversations I've had in a long, long time.

I really wish I'd gone back and reread it before I sold it!

I may have to go buy another copy now.

As to favorites I can't even begin to imagine picking one. As I've said before, "Harriet The Spy" was the most personally influential book I've ever read so maybe that's my "best" book.

If I were to chose the most personaly influential book, in respect of shaping life goals and lifestyle, of the thousands I have read over the last almost six decades, it would be Thoreau's "'Walden"".

(Please don't forget the original intent of this question as I may meander here and don't want others to do so as well).

Having slept on the question, I realized how unanswerable it is without more specific criteria (as was suggested earlier). My reading ranges from Dickens and Shakespeare (for school) to Lee Child, Dean Koontz, and John Sandford (and newly discovered Andrew Klavan) for pleasure as well as much in between.

In reading the latter, there may be a momentary impact, but it quickly leaves me when I begin the next book. The former often ask me to "work" to understand and recall, and leave me with an incredible appreciation of what this person has created, described, etc.

Then, there are books that stay with me long after I have read them, and when I re-read them, give me even more! Another book I would like to add is The Things They Carried. This novel about Vietnam had me saying, "This has to be real; he had to have lived this" and "My heart goes out to these people who served."

On a more positive note, Richard Bach's Illusions was one I used to give out regularly as a gift. The sayings sprinkled within all seemed to have great meaning at that time in my life. I should try it again. (However, nowhere near any list of Best.

As I feel I am rambling, I will share one insight that just slapped me more awake: "There are far, far more books that I haven't read than I have, so how the heck can I or anyone really answer this."

Is there a novel The Things They Carried? I read a short story with that title. It's by Tim O'Brien and it's also about Vietnam.

O'Brien's book is a novel made up of shorter pieces, often connected - you may have seen one section.

Good to know; I'll have to see if the library has it. The short story was excellent.

The rest of the book as a whole is even better.

has anyone ever read White Fang by Jack London?...

i think it is one of the most touching novels i have ever read and it s about a dog/wolf!

I've heard about White Fang, never read it though. I did read Call of the Wild.

Call of the Wild is excellent. I haven't read White Fang, either. Is it anything like the movie?

Not a book, but I always loved London's short story "To Build a Fire."