Hey Pandas, What Is Your All-Time Favorite Book? (Closed)

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Is about everything in the universe and makes everything sound so interesting. Highly recommend if you’re into physics and astronomy

MOST favorite? I have to choose just ONE? You're killing me, Nathaniel XD But probably Dune by Frank Herbert. I have two dogs named for characters from the book, after all XD (insert obligatory "I LIKED IT BEFORE IT WAS COOL/THE NEW MOVIES" statement here, ha) Runners-up are Starship Troopers and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, Anathem by Neal Stephenson, and any book by Stephen King (esp. The Dark Tower part 3, as that is the first King book my dad bought for me, when I was 10 lol, and it has massive sentimental value!)

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's such a well-written book, so many interesting descriptions and imagery. The end of chapter eighteen had me in tears, and the way Shadow and Laura's relationship changed after she came back from the dead is just so strangely heartbreaking.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack has literally changed me as a person. That book offers sooo much in terms of history, politics and science, I highly recommend it.

Watership Down Richard Adams

The Picture of Dorian Gray!!!!!
I think the plot is commonly known.
I first read it when I was 13 and since then several times (There are certain pages and dialogues I know by heart in two languages)
The style, the characters, the plot, it was the book that made me fall in love with Oscar Wilde's writing. It really had a huge influence on me and I'm currently trying to adapt it as a script.
So you could say I got poisened by the book... :)

The "Sweetness and Lighting" manga makes me happy. Its so wholesome

The song of Achilles, even if I cried for a week after finishing it.

Everything Emile Zola has ever written

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
It came out the year I was placed in an impossible school situation, where for reasons of lack of space the school district move one 5th grade class into a middle school with no other elementary school classes. Not only was I the youngest, shortest kid in my class, I was the youngest, shortest kid in my school, AND the only one with red hair.
I was also, although we didn't have the designation then, neurodiverse. My best friend was the class mean girl. When she got mad at me, the entire class shunned me.
Harriet M. Welsh, got herself into trouble with her classmates in the story and found herself friendless, too. I identified with her strongly. What Harriet did was wrong and she didn't know how to fix it. I didn't do anything. I just was the wrong kid in the wrong place.

I have read that book every year since the mid 1960s.

There are so many, but I always find myself coming back to island of the blue dolphins by Scott O'Dell. I think it's because it reminds me of a time that I can barely remember, I read it in second or third grade and now I have that memory attached to it and it makes me feel so at peace :)

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta, it's one of my comfort books. Also the Shades of Magic trilogy by V.E. Schwab is a new favorite.

Red Beard by Yamamoto Shūgorō. One quote sums up the novel splendidly: “'There’s nothing as noble, as beautiful, as pure, and as reliable as human beings,' said Kyojo. 'But then, there’s nothing as despicable, as impure, as stupid, as evil, as greedy, and as mean as human beings.'”

The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.

I was blown away when I first read it. I thought to myself, "this is the future of planet Earth and mankind, that we will not live to see". I read it several times since then. Looking forward to the TV series (although I also fear I might be disappointed).

One of my favourites is Wonder by RJ Palacio. It's such a cool book, really nice and heartwarming.

Of Mice and Men currently

Measuring Eternity: The Search for the Beginning of Time, by Martin Gorst. It’s very accessible, but does a beautiful job of showing how the scientific method has evolved, as it takes you from 17th Irish Archbishop James Ussher’s assertion that the Earth was created in 4004BCE, all the way up through astronomer’s discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.

Blue Moon Rising by Simon R Green.