Greatest book/series ever!

[Piflik]

The Dark Tower - Stephen King

 

[1(FN)Vendetta]

Dune Series By Frank Herbert.... kind of surprised no one mentioned it yet...

 

[Kermi]

Dune Series By Frank Herbert.... kind of surprised no one mentioned it yet...

I'd give credit to Dune and maybe Children of Dune and God Emperor, but everything that came after just tainted it. Then Herbert's son partnered up with Kevin J. Anderson who is, and I say this without a speck of hyperbole, the single worst science fiction author in history.

 

[ironduke88]

Well maybe Wheel of Time series by the great, late Robert Jordan. Although I would say it is a pretty equal tie between the disk-world novels, LotR, The Belgariad/Mallorean, The Horus Heresy series, and the Rigante series (the also great, late David Gemmel). My favourite stand alone novel is probably 'Lord of Light by Zelazny, not just because to has the greatest pun ever written in literature.

Greatest book ever that is isn't a novel, well the singular most important two books that have shaped my career and my beliefs, Origin of the species... by Darwin (just don't try and read it, just own a copy) and 'The diversity of life' by the father of modern ecology E. O. Wilson (Do read it, it changed the way I looked at the world). Not sure which is more important though.

 

[psycoturkey]

Greatest book: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Greatest series: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

 

[ironduke88]

Well I really liked the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks, but....
of ALL time? Yeah that would be Hitchhiker's Guide series.

I personally thought he should have worte that book about the time when the Kakari were first given out, surely that would have been a truely great series.

 

[leviticusd]

Although I am fond of a fair number of classic novels (Stranger in a Strange Land, Catch-22 and A Clock Work Orange spring to mind as three of my oldest favourites) as well as more modern popular fiction (I'll read just about anything by Timothy Zahn or Terry Pratchett), the one book I simply cannot get enough of is Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.

It's a picaresque adventure epic set across two time periods (WW2 and present day) that makes me wish I'd tried harder at math when I was in school. Any book that makes me feel nostalgic about math is truly some sort of miracle.

Hmm, I'll have to give Cryptonomicon a try (never heard of it). But Catch-22 is far and away my all-time favorite book and Zahn and Pratchett rank really high as well. Sounds like our taste's are similar enough to give that one a shot.

 

[ThePantomimeThief]

Well maybe Wheel of Time series by the great, late Robert Jordan.

I've just started reading the series, and it's shaping up rather nicely.

I love the Upright Man novels by Michael Marshall (The Straw Men/Lonely Dead/Blood of Angels). They're a series of genuinely interesting, genuinely creepy thrillers. Particularly the first one, it's one of my favourite novels. Also the Takeshi Kovacs novels by Richard Morgan (if you ignore all the sex) and I really liked the original trilogy of the Horus Heresy, as well as the Gaunt's Ghosts novels, in the 40k universe.

In terms of the best book ever, my favourites are Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart, and The Magus by John Fowles. I'd put all of them forward as the bestest book evar in the history of everything. I would say The Beach as well, but I love it because it really appealed to be at the time. I can see it's not necessarily as good as some other novels, but I love it anyway.

Oh, and Great Expectation by Dickens. Awesome novel.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

I would like to come up with something original, but I can't.

So The Lord of The Rings it is.

 

[skywalkerlion]

I'm a huge fan of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. If you like fantasy, these books are pretty much a must-read.

I'm only half way through the first book and I can tell it's freaking awesome.

So that and The Hobbit is really good too.

 

[OneCatch]

Catch-22

 

[iwinatlife]

It makes me sad that wheel of time didn't show up till the second page because that is my favorite series ever.

Also have to mention Gaunt's Ghosts and the Inquisitor books by Dan Abnett

 

[MBergman]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: "The First Law" trilogy by Joe Abercrombie knocks both Tolkien and Eddings out of the ring in the second round. Best fantasy books I've read.

Other than that I enjoy Paulo Cohello's books a lot. The Devil and Miss Prym is my favourite so far.

 

[PayneTrayne]

I was a big fan of Ringworld, World of Ptaavs and Neutron Star by Niven.
As for series, I'd have to say Night Angel Trilogy. (My opinion is discounting the thousands of countless classics that precede them, but the Trilogy is my favourite series from the last few years of so.)

Also, as a whole, reallllly big fan of The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, best class of my life was discussing that.

 

[Guffe]

The Count of Monte Cristo or Lord of the Rings. Can't decide.

 

[Cogwheel]

Lessee... Don't know about greatest, but my favourites? Series-wise, Discworld. As an individual book, though, Jonathan Strange & Mr.Norrell. Which, I assume, no one has ever heard of.

 

[Terminate421]

One flew over the cuckoo's nest

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, the first and greatest

Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams, the funniest thing I have ever read

Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin, epic in every sense of the word, still waiting for Dance with Dragons

 

[Queen Michael]

Discworld.

nothing more, nothing less.

Greatest series ever.
If we're talking single books, though, I'd go with Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar. I'ts a wonderful, beautiful novel, and anybody who likes jazzy books that lack a plot and which you read for the lovely characters is going to love this Argentinian masterpiece.