Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

I was wondering what your favourite book is so far and why? Is it a book you loved before starting this challenge or an unexpected book you found whilst completing the list? It will be interesting to see if anyone changes their mind whilst finishing the list.

I'll start- my favourite book so far is Life Of Pi. I read and fell in love with before starting this challenge. I've only read a few books so looking forward to seeing if I may find an even better book!

My favorite thus far has also been Life of Pi, but I read it just a few weeks ago. In general, I like books that are enjoyable even after you know the ending, especially if the book tells you itself at the beginning.

I also loved Catch-22 because of how quickly it shifted from cartoonish to bleak in the second to last chapter and then went back to absurd in the very last sentence.

That's a very difficult question you're asking! I don't have one single favorite book, there are too many great books on this list.

Here are the ones that came to mind immediately:
The Cider House Rules
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Jane Eyre
Brideshead Revisited (all read before coming across the list)
Chess Story (read later, but had been on my shelves long before)

My favourite book since I was 15 has been the Three Musketeers, and I’ve read the whole series. There are some really brilliant reads on the list, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve recommended Dracula to people.

Tough to choose, but these four stand out to me.

Catch-22 by Heller
Slaughterhouse 5 by Vonnegut
Animal Farm by Orwell
The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway

My favorite is an odd one. The Riddle of the Sands by Childers. Very close are any of the Dickens, particularly Great Expectations.

My favorite is Gulliver's Travels. Second is Robinson Crusoe.

My 5-star reads from the list:

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

If I had to pick one it would probably by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, or maybe Blood Meridian.

But I've only read 80 from the list. I've got a long ways to go....

I've only read 37 so far, with a couple more in progress, so this is very much a "favourite SO FAR" answer! But I'd have to go with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I reread it almost every Christmas now.

Others I love include Interview with the Vampire, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Lord of the Rings, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, most of Jane Austen's books... Hard to narrow it down!! There've only been a few I've really disliked so far.

I've read 1152 so far, so I have way too may to list, lol. Here are a few of my favorites (in no particular order):


Les Misérables
The Count of Monte Cristo
Lolita
A Tale of Two Cities
The Book of Disquiet
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Poisonwood Bible
Middlesex
The Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
Life of Pi
The Grapes of Wrath
The Age of Innocence
One Hundred Years of Solitude
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Handmaid's Tale
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Robber Bride
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Walden
Anna Karenina
War and Peace
The Brothers Karamazov
A Ballad for Georg Henig
A Fine Balance
A Room with a View
A Suitable Boy
The Secret History
Rebecca
The Passion
The Bluest Eye
Gone with the Wind
The Blind Assassin
The Color Purple
Crime and Punishment
The End of the Affair
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Nervous Conditions
The Idiot
Daniel Deronda
Germinal
Phineas Finn
A Hero of Our Time
Growth of the Soil
Bel-Ami
Spring Torrents
Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession
Like Water for Chocolate
Jane Eyre
Zorba the Greek
The Leopard
Fifth Business
The Hour of the Star
The Godfather
A Town Like Alice
The Summer Book
Les Liaisons dangereuses
Chess Story
Labyrinths
The Stranger
Invisible Cities
We
Dom Casmurro
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Kristin Lavransdatter
In Search of Lost Time
Americanah
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
Hangover Square
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
The Once and Future King
Testament of Youth
The Roots of Heaven
A Tale of Love and Darkness
A Day in Spring
Memory of Fire
The House of the Spirits

So far
The Secret History
A Town Like Alice
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

Pride and Prejudice and Emma so far.

The books that are my favorites from the list were my favorites from before I started the Challenge:

The Once and Future King
Rebecca
Gone with the Wind
Jane Eyre
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

I've read 125 books from the list so have many more to read. It will be interesting to see if any more books from the list are 5-star reads for me.

The Secret History, Tarzan of the Apes, and Great Expectations,

Wow. This is a very difficult question! I’ve just started tracking this challenge, and I think a book being on the list will be just one of many factors that get me to read it. It will be fun to see if it steers me to some gems though, which I’m sure it will.

I still have a long way to go, but as of now, here are some standouts:

Long-time favorites:
Little Women
The Once and Future King
Wuthering Heights

More recent favorites:
Zorba the Greek
Song of Solomon
Their Eyes Were Watching God

But the latest list book I read was so good, it may become a favorite too:
The Razor's Edge

Kathleen wrote: "...But the latest list book I read was so good, it may become a favorite too:
The Razor's Edge"

I just finished that one also and I agree 100%.

Gulliver's Travels
Journey to the Center of the Earth
A Farwell to Arms
The Old Man and the Sea
All Quiet on the Western Front

These are the ones I liked best of the Boxall list so far. The ones with ** are on my all-time favorite list:

*The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Half of a Yellow Sun
**The Goldfinch
Americanah
Crime and Punishment
Little Women
Moll Flanders
Dracula
The Awakening
Ethan Frome
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Babbitt
Brave New World
Gone with the Wind
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Of Mice and Men
**Rebecca
The Little Prince
**The Catcher in the Rye
**Lord of the Flies
A Town Like Alice
To Kill a Mockingbird
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Bell Jar
In Watermelon Sugar
Slaughterhouse-Five
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Pride and Prejudice
**The Color Purple
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
**The Handmaid's Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)
**A Prayer for Owen Meany
**Like Water for Chocolate
The Remains of the Day
**A Fine Balance
Memoirs of a Geisha
The God of Small Things
**Life of Pi
**The Count of Monte Cristo
**The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time