Best book you ever read?

What would you say is the best book you ever read? Honestly, I’ve been thinking about it, and I don’t yet have the final answer. It might be The Lord of the Rings. I’ve read sooooo many books over so many years, so it’s hard to decide, but I have read the Lord of the Rings 3 times. Maybe Silence of the Lamb.

Eventide. Kent Haruf.

id rather read the bible before reading some satanic story.

Recently, Not Between Brothers. I'll have to think about best ever....

My personal favorite is Hemingway’s The Green Hills of Africa. Don’t know why, but I just really love that book. Hemingway can describe a landscape in two sentences using third grade words, in perfect clarity.

“satanic story”?

Hehe, might read some satanic story about serpents....

The Yearling

Old Man and the Sea is an all time favorite

To Kill a Mockingbird.

Where the red fern grows.

Can't pick just one but here are a few:

American Brutus
John Adams
Empire of the Summer Moon
The Final Voyage
Death of an Empire
Three Roads to the Alamo
1776

Old Dan and Little Ann. A good one.

" The Stand "

Bingo. Wilson Rawls. 5th grade. It set me on a path of an absolute passion for the outdoors.

Lonesome Dove.
American Soldier

John Graves. Goodbye To A River. Thank me later...

Loved Lonesome Dove read it twice.

"He died fine." "How about a little poke."

Bible

Pillars of the earth

Greats but not the best:
Tom Sawyer
Huck Finn
Old man and the sea
Animal farm
Fall of giants
World without end
Matterhorn
The rainmaker
Eye of the needle
To kill a mockingbird
Where the red fern grows
Pretty girls
And game of thrones 1, 2, and 3

Rich Dad, poor Dad, oddly enough.

Ruark was better regarding hunting in Africa. Hemingway could distill a sentence better than anyone, no doubt.

Bubonic plague



World without end

"To die alone in the rain."

Old Yeller
Savage Sam
All The Right Stuff
Playing for Pizza
One Drop (Couldn't believe how intrigued I was by this story)
The Heart of Everything That Is
Dutch
Lone Survivor

Just a few that come to mind. I haven't read a book in a year. I have 3-4 I should start.

I havnt been reading long enough to get a vote. Im about to lie down and do a few pages of Pike now. I usually only watch TV when I eat at home, which isnt often. My TV just messed up so I read while I ate today. That was a first I think so maybe Ill catch up to some of yall if I dont fix the TV.

Patton.

Dr Roemer’s journey through a wild infant Texas is fascinating and beautifully remarkable. He describes in detail the land, the people’s, their dress and customs, the plants and animals, and the politics. It is truly an amazing book. My family immigrated to Texas from Germany during this time and through his writings I can “see” what they encountered as the settled here.

Great book!

I enjoy Ruark, but I find his works to be very self aggrandizing.

Papa wasn't exactly humble.

Bible

Crime and Punishment or the Count of Monte Cristo

Yup

Dang lots of great books in this thread.

Point of Impact Stephen Hunter
Without Remorse Tom Clancy

What do you think of Narnia?

Lonestar Preacher.

x2

It's been a long time since I've calmed down and read a book.... but this book, The Land Before Time, and a few others always stuck with me as a kid. I remember laying in bed, reading and actually getting into the book. Feeling the words that were printed on paper and putting myself there in my imagination..

At some point, I guess other things in my life took precedent over reading books.

I'm older now, maybe I should give book reading another try. I'm 43 and still have 20/20 vision, why not.

Bury my heart at wounded knee

My side of the mountain......the original book.

Rascal.

Goodbye to a river

Yertle the Turtle
Narrow Escapes and Wilderness Adventures
Daniel Boone - The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer
Trail Dust and Saddle Leather
Of Mice and Men
Time Life Old West Series
Time Life Year in Pictures Series

Gone With The Wind

Call of the Wild... Jack London

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Undaunted Courage
The Art of Racing in the Rain

A newer great one is, "Where the Crawdads Sing." It was on the best sellers list for over two years. I read it twice.

Being an avid reader, it's hard to have a favorite. There are books that should be read by our younger people about what devotion, sacrifice, and loyalty really are. Not only to country, family, and friends but to themselves.
Non-fiction
Blackhawk Down, Spearhead, an American tank gunners story. (Really good book). Red Platoon, Empire of the Summer Moon, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, American Sniper, Marine Sniper. I know there's lots I have left off.
Fiction
Anything by Loius L'Amour, Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn (RIP), Jeff Shahara, Frederick Forsythe, Brad Taylor, Brad Thor, Stephen Hunter, etc.

Fiction or Non Fiction?

non-fiction....best book was "think big and kick [censored]" by Donald J. Trump. I can honestly say it was life changing. Read it in 2006.

Some other great non-fiction books were "Empire of the Summer Moon, The International Hunter and No Angel.


Robert Ruark, to me, at least when he wrote "use enough gun" was largely a fraud. It was his first trip to Africa. Its regarded as one of the "must reads" of the African Hunting Topic but the real hero of the book was Henry Selby. Its a well written book and humerous for sure, but I don't think its "required reading" on the subject of African Hunting. Death in the Long Grass imo is a much better book on the topic.


Fiction, I always liked Call of the Wild, Hatchet and Mr. Tuckett. I don't read non fiction anymore but those were great books. Hatchet in particular.

I could never get behind "Where the Red Fern Grows " because the idea that a kid is running behind a coon hound chopping down trees that hold a coon is preposterous. And his mom won't let him have a gun until he is 21? Kids in that era were going to war at 16 and 17 and he can't get off his mama's teet until well after he is legally an adult? Gimme a break.

I felt the same way about the book "Shiloh"

The Art of Racing in the Rain
The Lords of Discipline

They both tie for me.

Cant say that I have really never read a book because I wanted to. The fist one that came to mind was where the red fern grows. I also like white fang and hatchet. I havent read a book from cover to cover since I graduated high school.

So many many favorites.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich....a great book if you are a WWII history buff.
The Nine Billion Names of God.....only 9 pages, so I guess more a story than a book.
Generals Die in Bed
And all of the classics that others have listed.

Lots of good books mentioned, and I’ve read many of them. Some I read when I was younger didn’t seem to have the same impact when I read them years later. And like someone said, it’s easier to pick a list of best books than to pick the absolute best book you’ve read. So, I’m adding Lonesome Dove to my short list. And I’ll add The Forgotten Soldier, by Guy Sajer. That one was hard to forget.

I concur!

Ferrol Sams. The Whisper of the River.

Never Split the Difference. Chris Voss. It is a wonderful book if you are in business for yourself.

I'm considering downloading this to my Kindle. Thoughts?



"Big Girl Panties
By Stephanie Evanovich
A New York Times bestseller “with wit, heart, and intelligence” (Publishers Weekly): When her husband dies, Holly is at her lowest point — and her highest weight. Trainer Logan helps her get back into shape, but what happens when the rest of the world starts noticing her, too?"

These may not be the best of the best in literature, but they struck a chord with me and are my all time favorites; I have read them each several times:

Lonesome Dove
The Old Man and The Sea
Lions of Kandahar - had a friend that was in this battle (and in the book); he ended up with a pretty stout bounty put on him by the Taliban

The Time It Never Rained

Hell, I Was There!

Even though it is one big long story, there are lots of stand-alone great stories, none are too long to keep up with, lots of action, compassion, friendship, love, etc, plus lots of history and logic.

I've read a lot of the ones mentioned here.

One of my favorites is still Catch-22

the Bible ...

but of other types of books ... The Ultimate Gift, Jim Stovall

Killer Angles by Michael Shaara. Civil War book that really explained some of the main characters in the war.

I thought it was Green Eggs and Ham?

Yep. Anything John Graves wrote. "Tales from a limestone ledge" tugs at my heartstrings. John lived about 4 miles from me. I miss his storytelling.

Sounds terrible

AMERICAN SNIPER....

I’m with cbump regarding that Big Girl’s Panties book. If, however, there was a more titillating title (no pun there, so move along) I might be more open to seeing what it was all about.

And when ya say “big”, do ya mean big as in grown up, or big as in plus size? Don’t get me started again on hefty women dancing in their underwear on TV.

Any of the books by Eve Ball or CL Sonnichen. Eve Ball's books are mainly about the Mescalero Apaches, CL Sonnichen's books are history books about the southwest, from West Texas through Arizona.

Big noticer. You were the only one.

The best book about hunting I ever remember reading was Peter Capstick's "Death in the Long Grass." It's about big game hunting in Africa.

I read a LOT. MY two favorites, both of which Ive read at least 5 times are;

Unintended Consequences by John Ross
The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks

+1 only it was 6th grade for me. It’s amazing how “into” that book I got. Great story of a boy, his dogs, and hunting the woods with his Grandfather. I was lucky growing up in that I got to squirrel hunt a lot with mine. Wish I could do that again.

Non Fiction---The Bible

Fiction--Flight of the intruder-Stephen Coonts

Sci Fi--The lost fleet series--Jack Campbell

Dont really have a favorite but ive read these few several times and they never get old.

"A River Runs Through It". By Norman Maclean
"Good by to A River: By John Graves
"Unintended Consequence's" By John Ross

Okay Cbump. Thoughts?



"Once a Girl, Always a Boy
By Jo Ivester
In this memoir, a transgender man examines his journey, from his childhood and transition to his family and advocacy work. A “multifaceted, rich, and moving exploration of the trans experience” (Kirkus Reviews) with a “heartwarming demonstration of a family’s unconditional love” (Library Journal).
Biographies and Memoirs"

As in most cases the book was much better than the movie.

Perfect book for you.



















Jk Bill

The only book I’ve ever read that was worse than the movie was Jurassic park. Book was terrible.

The Whisper of the River by Ferol Sams. My Mother told me it was delightful......she was right.

Tropic of Cancer

A little off topic, but related. I just ordered the last of the Cole Pike series and went ahead and ordered the stand alone Crais books. Question, wasnt it Suspect(about the dog) that 603 bragged about so much. It appears that the characters FIRST appear in a Cole/Pike book and THEN they get their own book and THEN they are all in another Cole/Pike/Dog book. I dont want me or anyone else to read them out of order so just trying to confirm. Also, evidently Starkey the bomb tech gal in another book is the main character in another stand alone book of his. I hate reading stuff out of order.....

Atlas Shrugged, we apparently are going to be living it very soon.

Always liked alot of the classics but Count of Monte Cristo was hard to put down.
Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth and World Without End were good too.

Not the best but a really good one. Its a true story called In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. A family of four brutally on their house on a farm in Kansas. They made a movie based on the book. I'm reminded of it because the ,Obie was on TCM last night.

I really have a hard time finding books better to read and hold my interest then Micheners.

Lonesome Dove
Empire of the Summer Moon
The Old Man and the Sea
All The Pretty Horses

Many, many others.

Lately I’ve been enjoying Paulette Giles’ books immensely.

Never read much fiction but liked " One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich".

Would prefer reading history......anything by Stephen Ambrose or Samual E.Morison.

Hooker likes Michener? I guess I did too, but I think Michener’s approach to writing was ‘if you can say it in 5 words, why not use 20 words’?

Freerange, I think the book Suspect was the first with Maggie the K9. I think...

Another great series of books starts with "The Last Kingdom," which is also a series now on Netflicks. Books were written by Bernard Cromwell. Highly recommend them.

The Help is another decent book that a movie was made based of the book. It was heartwarming. Little children were going hungry in Africa. I watched the movie but I didn`t eat the pie. Get it?

[/quote]

The only book I’ve ever read that was worse than the movie was Jurassic park. Book was terrible. [/quote]



Any word on the Red Raider vs Horney Toad basketball game tonight? Thank it will be cancelled because of the weather?

It was supposed to be last night but got postponed. I haven’t heard anything about when they will play though.

Just finished Jules Verne “The mysterious island” last night. That book was not good.

Daylight (Atlee Pine Series #3) by David Baldacci,

^^THIS^^

One of my all time favorite was “A Land Remembered” it details the hardships of 3 generations of a familiy in Florida in the mid 1800s. Pretty cool book about how rough people had it back then.

One of Hugh's novels, "February 1995". "December 1995" is another one.

Anyone read "The Idiot"?

I thought you were joking me around. Pass.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12505.The_Idiot

It's a classic and on my "100 books every man should read" list. Bout to start it.

I will have to go with Empire of the Summer Moon

My wife wants me to read " Pillars of the Earth " I don't think I can spare the time to read a book that thick.

Especially about a subject in which I have little interest .


MO

Another good one is “Internet forums for dummies”

It took me way longer to read Empire than Pillars. That's how good pillars is.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Robinson Crusoe.

Dostoyevsky is one of if not the greatest novelist of all time and
I have read The Idiot more than any of his other works so that
tells what I think. There is no accounting for anyone’s taste in books
so who knows if it’s for you but IMO it is a great insight into how people
interact with others according to their imagined sense of worth.

The best book I’ve ever read is ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The praise of an uneducated and boring person
like myself are hardly needed to shout the greatness of a book that won the
Nobel prize for literature and brought the beautiful and entertaining genre of
magical realism to the forefront but here it is anyways. I’ve read it several times
and just started it again. It is the best.

Runners(s) up:
EAST OF EDEN. Steinbeck.
BLOOD MERIDIAN. McCarthy.
THE IDIOT. Dostoyevsky.
THE SOURCE. Michener

I’m only 5% in (kindle, I don’t know how many pages that is). I was worried It was going to be hard to read being that It’s translated from Russian but it’s easy so far. I’m enjoying It.
I can tell pretty quick on some of the classics if I’m going to like It or not and I think I’m going to like this one.

The part where the prince is talking about not agreeing with the death penalty is interesting. I don’t agree though lol.

East of Eden and Blood Meridian...also on my list to read.

The number of pages depends on the size of your script. Your 5% will be 2% for me.

Help me on the " pillars of the earth "

I understand it is about building a cathedral in the middle ages , I am not sure I care , convince me I am wrong,

thanks

I was reading "Lamentations" again this morning. What a great book.

I don’t know how to convince you. I like historical fiction, drama, suspense, etc. You may not.
But I can say they didn’t make a tv show based off this book because It sucks. He hasn’t written three other books in the series because the first one (pillars) sucked.
It’s an amazing book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5043.The_Pillars_of_the_Earth

Ken Follet is a heavy read for some folks. Pillars was by far his greatest work. MO, this is probably not an author you would enjoy. I would suggest you skip PILLARS may also want to avoid Melville and Michener works.

I loathed "The Brothers Karamazov" and "Ulysses", but suffered through them. "The Source" was mesmerizing, and "The Stand" was very well written, if you like that kind of thing. "Atlas Shrugged", though poorly written has probably had the most impact on my life. The Bible and the core Shakespeare works are essential for any understanding of pre 1950 literature; without them under your belt, you'll miss far too many references and allusions. I've enjoyed any number of bad books and disliked any number of supposedly good books. All of this is a very round about way of saying that I've no real "favorite" volume. If you've never read any Patrick O'Brian, you've really missed something.

Number 1 on the best sellers list. His next book was. Called Life With End. Check out the Bubonic Plague. Our virus is a cake walk in comparison.

World without end. Sequel to pillars.

I can’t stand reading plays like Shakespeare works. Ulysses and Atlas Shrugged are must read but huuuge.

I ride with Cbump except for The Idiot.

you may be right , I have tried to read Moby Dick more than once. Still have never finished. I have read and enjoyed some Michener , but it was many years ago.

I believe I still have a hardback copy of " Hawaii" on the book shelf.

I am sure the fault lies in me , not the author.

good luck

MO

Was this a test Bill? If so I’m about to pass.

My 5% will be your 5%, because 5% is 5%. You’ll just have flipped more kindle pages to get to 5% than me.

Bible - especially Psalms and Proverbs.

Bible...my favorite version is the New Revised Standard...

rick

The Stand was great. Would have to be the Talisman for me

This book gets my blood pressure up.

The book that I am now reading is really slow. I don't even remember the title.

Picked up crime and punishment today.

Citizen Soldiers- Stephen Ambrose

They made a TV series from that.

Cliffs Notes was my favorite in high school...

The hunt for red October was a much better book than was the movie.

Book Bud now has it on sale.



The Hunt for Red October
By Tom Clancy
A #1 New York Times bestselling sensation with nearly 145,000 five-star ratings on Goodreads! American and Russian forces race to find an ultrasecret missile submarine that could change the course of the Cold War. “Remarkable” (Clive Cussler).
Thrillers
$1.99 $9.99

I love tom Clancy. I've read them all.