What are everyone's favourite books? Which is your ultimate fave? What genre types do you most like reading? Who are your favourite authors?

Should make an interesting discussion ;)

my ultimate book is TLOTR trilogy - the best book i've ever read!!! but then i think you would have guessed that seeing as this is a tlotr forum !! hehe but still i had to put it as my favourite of all time!!


hmmm i love the whole fantasy genre - the ones in which i get transported to other dimensions, and lose myself for hours on end, away from the monotony of everyday life...
hmm don't know how to describe it.. but its the kind of books which can relate to life - or are a 'true' story... usually telling a tale of a horrendous childhood... which are so amazingly written and truthful...

favourite author other than Tolkien: Cate Tiernan, Darren Shan (well thats its not got a true author..), Robert Jorden.... and too many more to remember!!!

Speaking Non-fantasy (since is it practically a given we all like the Tolkien books here, or even C.S. Lewis) There's a book I read a while back, found out they made a movie on it...It's called Speak. It interested me because it was about a really quiet girl, who used to be popular and crashed a party (of one of her popular friends) by calling the police. The next year no one talks to her, and literally speaking (no pun intended) she just doesn't talk at all. It's like she went completely mute, and no one knows why (until the end) but you get the inside scoop of what's going inside her head the entire time. The only person she really talks to is her art teacher, though she pretty much skips every other class to sit in this abandoned janitor's closet and draw. I forget the author, but if you guys are looking for a break from all that fantasy stuff, take a look at it.

sounds interesting ...

just thinking of a book non-fantasy is

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, its the first in a trilogy the others being: Knifes Edge and Checkmate.

Its basically about a girl called Sephy whose a Cross, and Callum a nought. In which they've been friends all their life but now everything has changed. Crosses hate Noughts, and vice versa. It deals with their relationship and growing up in a world of racism and hatred.

i don't really want to say loads about the story line, but its a brilliantly written book.

Both those sound like nice books... I might try hunting for them when next I run out of things to read, which is not going to happen anytime soon considering the sheer number of books I want to read, including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Oliver by Charles Dickens (ever since I discovered it wasn't a musical :S), Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (I think. It's a book, it's a book!), more Shakespeare, Pride and Prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird... yup, gunna dig up all the classics :) I like classics XD And there's at least a page more of book titles to add to that... :S

None of those are fantasy, but fantasy is probably by far one of my fave genres too. Although, I like those fantasy books that are original and interesting... like, we all know there've been large numbers of people who've written books who've been inspired by Tolkien and various other good fantasy authors. I always like the unique ones :yesnod: Is it me, or do you now find references and resemblances to Tolkien's mythos in random fantasy novels? I'm sure most authors don't mean to, but it is odd.

I also like historically based books (as opposed to futuristic), I find them more interesting. Those based on real-life situations are really inspiring too. And I like some books that are written in poetic form, when the whole book's composed of poem after poem. One of my old favourites written like that is The Simple Gift.

I agree with you, I find references in random books too, but when you think of it Tolkien practically gave birth to the whole elf fantasy thing. I mean, if it weren't for him we'd still think they were Santa's helpers no doubt, or just hobbit-like fiends up to no good in some forest. So in essence, there's pretty much always going to be some sort of Tolkien reference wherever you go. The game I played we had Orcs and Hobbits, (though they were called Halflings, same thing) There were Dark elves (which was where Erelith and Varsis were concieved) Wood-elfs, hmm....what else? The halflings even lived in little hobbit holes, that was fun to try and get inside as an elf haha. (I remember having to duck down to walk through or to see through a window) Wood-elves lived in a Lothlorien-type village up in the trees (which I always died and fell off to my death because I could never find my way out haha) You can be a troll, ogre or a dwarf, which are really ugly...my point is, it's pretty ripped off Tolkien's world. They even had other references I can't remember exactly. (I really can't wait for Middle-Earth Online to come out. It's a roleplay Middle-Earth game. YAY, so happy. *bounces*)