The Greatest book Ever.

[lord arthur]

The best ,I think,THE WHEEL OF TIME and THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

The second,A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

[ser marauder]

In my opinion it is Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's world building is unparalled and he created whole histories and multiple languages. I also really enjoy the good versus evil aspect and the sacrafices that sometimes have to be made for a better world and man's unfailing committment to ovecrome.

[The Iceman of the North]

How come nobody has mentioned Chainfire by Terry Goodkind yet?

[Brandon Stark]

I have no idea what the "best" book even means...seems like if we're going to have an intelligent conversation about this and not threaten to degrade into a flame war every so often we ought to define this better next time. Factors like enjoyability of the story, well-crafted words, use of literary techniques used, etc., all combine in varying levels to create the "best" book in an individuals opinion. So please no more fart wars about someone else's opinioins.

I guess I just find the attempt to determine a heavywieght champion of the textual world an odd thing for me to undertake. It's the same discussion that comes up whenever anyone tries to name best movie ever. Luckily, in my circle of friends, we can accept the fact that a good and/or enjoyable movie is not inherently going to contain any depth, and is thus dusqualified from any discussions based on critical merit. Reference just about anything starring former members of Saturday Night Live.

Just to weigh in on some things discussed (Keep in mind I'm an English/

Literature teacher):

-I hate Huck Finn. This doesn't mean it's a bad book, but I lobby profusely to have it replaced with, or made an alternative to, Of Mice and Men or some other book more appealing to students of the age I teach.

-Shakespeare provides excellent examples of many literary techniques we are required to teach in schools, and its removal from the cirriculum would make this very difficult. Also, students need to encounter elevated language at some point, and I can't think of many better examples.

-I realize that people are nominating books promarily from their own culture and/or language, but I see this as an extremely logical thing. You can't nominate something you haven't read...well I guess maybe you could but that would make you a tool box of the highest order.

-I don't find it to be elitism to disagree with a book being "great" due to lack of depth. Having a good story in your head and putting it on paper doesn't make a good writer/book. However, disqualifying a book because it's too accessible to persons of everyday intelligence and/or education is elitism in its highest form. To anyone who disagrees kindly board your time machine back to the age when bibles were not written in the venacular so the better educated clergy could tell the peasants that the bible contained whatever rules best served the clergy.

Just my two cents. Oh, and I think The Giving Tree is the best. book. ever. It was the main text for my Lit. Crit. class in college

[Sir Tiago]

The best ,I think,THE WHEEL OF TIME and THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

The second,A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

What?? No, you got it all wrong, we are talking about the BEST, not the worst. See, for that list to be acurate by any standard, WOT can never come before LOTR and ASOIAF.

I don't get the hype with the Great Gatsby, I mean it's a good book, but I felt like it was missing something, you know the felling, like I can't really put my finger on it, but something is missing.

My personal vote goes for LOTR. Till today it is the only book that has ever made me shed a tear. And think about it, LOTR has a cult following for the last 50 years... we still discuss today wtf is Tom Bambadill, thats gotta mean something LOTR set the standard, praticly created a genre (I don't fantasy was a big thing in the 1940's 50's, sci fi was the big thing then )

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Grapes of Wrath. You can't argue with perfection.

[Colder Hands]

there is way to much chalk in this thread. all of you who just said books that you thought would make you sound smart because you heard of them in english class, shame on you!

i saw one guy mentioned waiting for part 2 of william shatner's life works. that was a goodie. original.

i liked johnathan levingston seagul alot forgive my spelling errors, it is late and eyes are blury

[Centrist Simon Steele]

there is way to much chalk in this thread. all of you who just said books that you thought would make you sound smart because you heard of them in english class, shame on you!

i saw one guy mentioned waiting for part 2 of william shatner's life works. that was a goodie. original.

i liked johnathan levingston seagul alot forgive my spelling errors, it is late and eyes are blury

Some people read classics outside of class and enjoy them. My high school was so deprived we never read Grapes of Wrath and I thought it would suck anyway. Until I read it and learned a lot about a group of people who were part of the suffering of the Great Depression--I learned something about all those sad stories on a human level that history books could never convey. I learned what it was like for my grandfather when he was a little boy because he was raised on an Oklahoma farm during that time. It means a lot more when I go to our family plot in Oklahoma every Memorial Day and I see two of his siblings who have been buried there since a few days after they were born. I could never have understood this based on what I was taught in history class. Steinbeck brought it to life and because of him we will never forget the stories of those people.

If you condemn those classics because you read them in English class then you really did your English education a great disservice. There is nothing better than those classics, no better writing anywhere or anyhow.

[Colder Hands]

Some people read classics outside of class and enjoy them. My high school was so deprived we never read Grapes of Wrath and I thought it would suck anyway. Until I read it and learned a lot about a group of people who were part of the suffering of the Great Depression--I learned something about all those sad stories on a human level that history books could never convey. I learned what it was like for my grandfather when he was a little boy because he was raised on an Oklahoma farm during that time. It means a lot more when I go to our family plot in Oklahoma every Memorial Day and I see two of his siblings who have been buried there since a few days after they were born. I could never have understood this based on what I was taught in history class. Steinbeck brought it to life and because of him we will never forget the stories of those people.

If you condemn those classics because you read them in English class then you really did your English education a great disservice. There is nothing better than those classics, no better writing anywhere or anyhow.

i guess that is fair. while i enjoy most of them for what they are i don't get to excited about them. and sadly i did not waste time reading in high school. i spent my time on sports and girls. i saved my reading for later years when i was to old to hit the party scenes. i am sure most on this bored are sincere when they post a classic, just got boring reading through all the unoriginal stuff. people needed to articulate why they liked them better like you did.

[Winterfella]

Colder Hands:

I felt the same way about the Classics as you did in high school. I refused to read them, and I'd try to cheat or read Cliff's Notes. But I always enjoyed reading, so I read Stephen King and that kind of stuff in school. It wasn't until I was 23 or 24 that I tried to pick up Charles Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities". It took a little time to get used to the style, but it turned out to be the most incredible, emotional reading experience I'd ever had.

Not all classic authors are for everybody. There are still some that bore the shit out of me, or that I won't go near. But, there is a reason that most of these books hung around long enough to be branded with the name "Classic". If you explore a little, you may find something that you like, and that, in turn will lead you to other books, not just other classics, but more current ones. Your reading life can be a journey. Follow it where it takes you.

ASOIAF has led me, through this board, to so many other great authors, classical and contemporary, that you wouldn't even associate with Martin, or epic fantasy at all.

[Ahimsa]

If the best book ever is the most accessible (not everyone's criteria, I realize) then I feel the best book of all time must be Go, Dog, Go. Think about it, there's a lot of hidden meaning in the subtext of that story.

[Matunas]

Wow, I could never give just one "Greatest Book" or even "Favorite Book" but I have a few that stood out for me as on that list:

Lord of the Flies (the first book I ever read that made me realize that stories could be metaphors)

Watership Down (really, really insightful book)

Animal Farm (now I'm just being associative)

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (Incredibly engrossing story)

The Bell Jar (A very eery trip through a woman's deteriorating mind)

The Stranger (This may very well be as close as I can get to a "Favorite" book. Somewhat depressing, somewhat annoying, somewhat funny, but still brilliant...and a quick read)

To Kill a Mockingbird (I can't tell you the number of debates I've had about Boo Radley)

Lord of the Rings trilogy

A Song of Fire and Ice

Farseer Trilogy

And now for a few that I doubt anyone else would include on this list, but which I feel are worthy of being "upgraded" to literature status:

Watchmen (one of the best comic book stories ever)

Sandman series (one of the best comic book series ever)

Harry Potter series (one of the best "children's book" series ever, and not just for kids)

There, I said it.

[Eperitos]

How come nobody has mentioned Chainfire by Terry Goodkind yet?

Agreed. TG and Robert Newcomb are the two most prolific writers today.

[Slyfinger]

Here are my best book contenders:

- Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

- 1984 By George Orwell

- Animal Farm by George Orwell

- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlen

Those 5 books have had the most profound impact on the person I am today.

[Mr Smash]

- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

- Don Quixote by Cervantes

- The Arabian Nights (preferably the Husain Haddawy translation, because it's closest to the spirit of the original Arabic text.)

[Wade1066]

Way, way back when I was young and in High School, we never, ever read classics. Well, they may have been assigned readings, but I never read them. If I had read them at 16 or so, I wouldn't have understood them anyway. Eventually I did read a few, while in the army, and they were pretty good. Some of what I've read:

Lord of the Flies

Sons and Lovers

A Farewell to Arms

A Separate Peace (origin of Calvinball, from the Calvin and Hobbes comc strip?)

Catcher in the Rye

Decent stuff.

[Bran's Muffin]

The World Almanac and Book of Facts.

[Multaniette]

wade,

read all the books you mention before turning 16 and enjoyed them a great deal. I reckon you'd have loved at least some of them (hemingway, salinger) even at 16. they're all classics in a true sense.

[Colder Hands]

Colder Hands:

I felt the same way about the Classics as you did in high school. I refused to read them, and I'd try to cheat or read Cliff's Notes. But I always enjoyed reading, so I read Stephen King and that kind of stuff in school. It wasn't until I was 23 or 24 that I tried to pick up Charles Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities". It took a little time to get used to the style, but it turned out to be the most incredible, emotional reading experience I'd ever had.

Not all classic authors are for everybody. There are still some that bore the shit out of me, or that I won't go near. But, there is a reason that most of these books hung around long enough to be branded with the name "Classic". If you explore a little, you may find something that you like, and that, in turn will lead you to other books, not just other classics, but more current ones. Your reading life can be a journey. Follow it where it takes you.

ASOIAF has led me, through this board, to so many other great authors, classical and contemporary, that you wouldn't even associate with Martin, or epic fantasy at all.

thx for the back up. i might also mention i had to read a lot of tolstoy for college and greatly enjoyed him. my favorite being the resurrection. people always praise me for being able to read war and peace. they say "wow thats so long" and i think, its got nothing on song of ice and fire.

[Jaltus]

Homer's Iiliad in the original. The translation is a pain, but the Greek is beautiful and the versification is wonderful.

Now, if you consider that a "religious text," (the OP outlawed religious texts from being considered) then LOTR has to be up there, along with Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I would like to say To Kill a Mockingbird, but it is much too period specific. I think a great book should transcend time and culture barriers.