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Olly wrote: What are the best book (or books) that you have ever read. I really can't decide (although I'm reading 'The Corrections' at the moment and it is very good).
I am embarassed to list some of the books Ive loved because I feel they may not be of a high enough literate calibur. I will tell you this. That there are books that I read 30 years ago, whose contents remain with me to this day. Colored my perception of the world..... made me some of the things I am. Formed some of my outlooks, colored my sence of humor.

Catcher in the Rye.... Holden Caufield. Many of us from the 70's have seen a little bit of Holden in ourselves. There are new authors to this day whose style of writing is obviously similar to the tones of Salinger.

I gave a copy of Rye to my son when he was about 10. An unlikely choice for a child. I gave it to him because I knew it would get him hooked on reading. Some of the bad language was not a big deal.......He heard worse on the streets. It

worked. Hes always been an avid reader.....Master of the style of black humor.

He writes, and I know he thinks of Holden to this day, when he finds himself in out of the ordinary circumstances.

Once, when an English teacher in the tenth grade was analysing Lord of The Flies

John said " Are you nuts? thats not at all what the author meant. Another one of my favorites from very long ago.

George Orwells 1984

Shirley Jackson We have always alived in the Castle

The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler

Memoirs of A Geisha

Ladder of Years..Anne Tyler

Olly wrote: Personally, I hated Catcher in the Rye, it was badly written and has the worst ending to a book that I have ever read, essentially, Salinger said,. "I can't be bothered to write any more, so I'll just have my character say it for me".

If you liked Lord of the Flies, you should read more Graham Green, he really was a great writer, 1984 is the original dystopian novel, which inspired most of the subsequent dystopian novels such as Farenheit 451 (from which title the absoltely terrible Michael Moore film, Farenheit 9/11, was taken) and Brave New World. There are so many good books out there just waiting to be read, so you really can't say what the best are.
You may have not liked it, ( Catcher in the Rye) But it certainly wasnt poorly written. You have to remember that written in the 50s nothing wit its tone, had ever been presented before. The book happens to be an american institution. Its style often copied,and the main character drawn upon over and over again. You asked the question. What are the best books you have read? And then you say One cant say what the best books are. There are so many great books to read that one person couldnt get through them in a lifetime. Thanks a lot. I thought.

Oh great finally achance to discuss something meaningful, instead of a continual war of words, or wills. Im dissapointed.