Whats your favourite book and why?

[Alex K]

I just (60 seconds ago) finished the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov, and that's got a solid solid claim to second or third on my list.

The Foundation Trilogy has its firm second place behind Solaris on my SF list. Gotta love the nuclear power optimism of the 50s, too

[pocaracas]

I gotta ask: what's the deal with"the catcher in the rye"?
I "read" the audiobook and it seemed to be a silly story of an idiot teenager... Or is my European bias showing?

[Rev. Rye]

I just (60 seconds ago) finished the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov, and that's got a solid solid claim to second or third on my list.

The Foundation Trilogy has its firm second place behind Solaris on my SF list. Gotta love the nuclear power optimism of the 50s, too

To be fair, nuclear power has quite a bit of potential, and has, surprisingly gone a long way from the days of Chernobyl (which was itself pretty outdated in its time). Hell, Fukushima was hit with not only the second-most powerful hurricane to happen since I was born (second only to the Boxing Day Tsunami), but also a 15 metre tsunami, and not only was the radiation well contained, but of the three people who died as a result, two died of injuries caused by the impact, and the third died of a heart attack, and it seems exactly two were immediately hospitalised due to radiation-related reasons (37 due to the weather). A Stanford study estimates that it may cause a bit less than 200 extra cancer cases across those who lived around that time, but, compared to the 800 who worked there at the time, the effects were actually pretty small indeed.

On the subject of Sci-Fi books, my favourites are The Martian Chronicles and Stranger in a Strange Land.

[Rev. Rye]

I gotta ask: what's the deal with"the catcher in the rye"?
I "read" the audiobook and it seemed to be a silly story of an idiot teenager... Or is my European bias showing?

The thing with Catcher in the Rye is that people tend to identify with Holden Caulfield. As a fan, I strongly did (and to some extent, still do) identify with Holden's bitterness and his exasperation with a phony society (and it just gets more and more phony), but, of course, when you're older, you start to see things with some sort of distance and you can appreciate his flaws, that he's really not a paragon, but really as much of a product of the phony society as everyone else.

For just one example, see this appreciation in the New Republic, written in the wake of Salinger's death, which expounds on it and is as good as any explanation as I've ever heard.

[Mermaid]

Moby Dick. The characters, the introspection, the language, the whole thing.

[Edwardo Piet]

My favorite book ever by far is without a shred of a doubt is The Story of Philosophy by Bryan Magee. Hands down. Hands down.