Sheril KirshenbaumWhat is your favorite book?
Cheeseness@Sheril Legs, by Judith Crabtree
Carl Johnson@Sheril This week? I mean, there are quite a few that I've come back to again and again for decades. I'd give Vonnegut's "Player Piano" as a top favorite.
earthlingThe one I'm reading at the moment π
If by 'favourite' you mean one you return to time after time, for me it would be an obscure 1960 bilingual book by R.H. Blyth
"Japanese Life and Character in Senryu", most of you probably never heard of.
Here's a random example from the book:
ι¦¬ζΉ γ γγ£γ¦ γ 馬 γ ι£γγ¦ γγ
(Umakata ga yotte mo uma ga tsurete kuru)
Though the pack-horse man is drunk,
The horse
Brings him home.
(Incidentally, Google translates it as:
If the horseman follows, the horse will come.) (sic!)
Here's another example, perhaps more people can relate to:
γ«γγγγγ γ‘γγγ‘γγ γγ γ γ€γγγγ
(nisanjaku chouchou neko wo tsuriageru)
The butterfly
Lifts the cat up
Two or three feet.
The Google 'translation' is a real beauty:
Two-eyed Butterfly Cat Fishing (sic!)
So much for AI & poetry...
Frank McCulley@Sheril Les miserables
pkprotoplasm (MOVED)@Sheril seems to always change but right now my fave is Ask Iwata, which is a book about & posthumously by Nintendo Co Ltdβs late President, who was a software engineer before becoming a leader, and discusses his successes and challenges working with and ultimately leading the company https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54736620-ask-iwata
Anne Ominoussome recent faves:
memoirs:
Chasing me to My Grave: An Artists' Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert
Solito by Javier Zamora - A 9-year-old Salvadoran boy's harrowing trek to rejoin his parents in the U.S.
fiction:
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton - members of a guerilla gardening collective & a tech billionaire embark on a new project on abandoned farmland in NZ
The Fisherman by John Langan -American horror
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Bitslingers-R-Us@Sheril When I was little, it was Morris's Disappearing Bag. Now that I'm bigger, Morris's Disappearing Bag is still up there, but rereading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler recently really hit hard. It was far off and fantastical in the '90s, but it's eerily prescient and is becoming true now.
Troy@Sheril Rosemary's Baby, Johnny Got His Gun (miserable, but gripping!), World War Z.
I'm pretty badly dyslexic, so reading takes a lot of focus for me to do. It tires me out unless the writing gels with how my brain works.
Solanin is my favorite graphic novel. Really captures that early-mid 20's ennui.
THMcGuire@Sheril The Count of Monte Cristo. Thank you for this question in my social media feed on this day at this time. β€οΈ
Sim@Sheril Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky - I don't remember much of it though.
Joe Turpin@Sheril, a few that often come immediately to mind:
Fiction: Pride and Prejudice
Autobiography: Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Non-fiction: Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Curious to see others'
Sechtor.io LLC@Sheril the Stainless Steel Rat goes to hell (or any other stainless steel rat book)
Author : Harry Harrison
James A Nielsen@Sheril Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas seems like the right choice for today's times.
Gemma Seymour@Sheril Can't pick just one, so here's my list of "must read" for 2025:
1. "The Orthocratic State" (1915), by John Sherwin Crosby
2. "Progress and Poverty" (1879), by Henry George
3. "This Ugly Civilization" (1929), by Ralph Borsodi
4. "A Pattern Language" (1977), by Christopher Alexander, et al
5. "The Elements of Typographic Style" (1992), by Robert Bringhurst
6. "The Conundrum" (2012), by David Owen
7. "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity" (1976), by Carlo Cipolla
β¦
8. "The Humanure Handbook" (1996), by Joseph Jenkins
9. "Second Nature" (1991), by Michael Pollan
10. "The Rise, Progress, and Phases of Human Slavery" (1885), by James "Bronterre" O'Brien
and because this list goes to 11β
11. "Whipping Girl" (2007), by Julia Serano
Cat ππ₯ (D.Burch) 
β @Sheril Tough question... There are so many, but I frequently enjoy rereading Sea of Strangers by Lang Leav.
leemarkum@Sheril I do have to say, it always bothers me that when people talk about their "favorite book" or "must read" books, they are almost invariably works of fiction.
There's a whole real world out there going to hell in a handbasket, and I think it would do people a bit of good to read about how it works, and what we can do to fix it. That's why my lists are always 100% non-fiction.
kwayk42@Sheril gonna have to say probably one of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels. Numa Tales and his other works are meh, but a story with Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino π°π₯π€
Tinkers Playground@Sheril Ready Player One (the book) was a work of stimulating imagery. It's either that book or Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials series, just as vivid but more of it
hsolerkalinovski@Sheril Caminhos Cruzados / Crossed Paths, by Erico VerΓssimo
Marc Epard@Sheril Tough call, but I have to say Annals Of The Former World by John McPhee.
signal_vs_noise@Sheril three-way tie:
Lives of a Cell; Desert Solitaire; Wind, Sand, and Stars
Lives of a Cell; Desert Solitaire; Wind, Sand, and Stars
Griff@Sheril No fair having to pick just one, but if I HAVE to : Snowcrash - Neal Stephenson.
Eric KarnowskiGeek Love, Katherine Dunn
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susannah Clarke
Childhoodβs End, Arthur C Clarke
Artemis@Sheril the Lord of the Rings is my favorite story.
The book I've re-read most is probably Will of the Empress, by Tamora Pierce
The book I was most surprised by how good it is: World War Z, by Max Brooks
Hanno π
zewm@Sheril Enders Game
Murdoc Addams π§π»
π¨π¦@Sheril
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
And yes I'm serious. 
clacke: exhausted pixie dream boy πΈπͺππ°ππ@murdoc It started off with just the one guy doing all characters, then people started sending in their own voice work, and I think they went back and redid some of the early episodes with more voice actors.
Medea Vanamondeπ³οΈββ§οΈ β
Perrin42Armor, by John Steakley
and
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
@Sheril "The Silent Miaow" by Paul Gallico folliwed by "Inca Girls Aren't Easy" by W P Hearst.
@Sheril
Fiction: the tombs of atuan (wizard of earthsea series) - Ursula K Le Guin
Nonfiction: the dawn of everything - David Graeber & David Wengrow
Fiction: the tombs of atuan (wizard of earthsea series) - Ursula K Le Guin
Nonfiction: the dawn of everything - David Graeber & David Wengrow
rouxdoo β
Blaine Cross@Sheril Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
David Brent π@Sheril There's no easy answer... it depends on what I'm feeling at a given time.
The most recent book I've truly loved is The Day The World Came to Town by Jim DeFede.
Pious Pete@Sheril βThe Evolution of Culture and Other Essaysβ by Augustus Pitt-Rivers
@Sheril Something by Ursula K LeGuin. Probably "The Dispossessed", but could be "The Left Hand of Darkness". I should read them again, it was half a life ago.
Sam Izby@Sheril
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Reece@Sheril Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
bilal azad ββοΈ@Sheril 1984 by George Orwell
akikanaWould need to be my most recent 5* read so that'll be #BenjaminMyers' 'Turning Blue'. Whilst a cracking good crime novel, of note, there's not a single comma to be found in its text!
Paul@Sheril Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. It's brimming with his humanity.
Anita LewisThe Silent Cry by Dorothee Soelle jumps to mind - a recent read.
jon r@Sheril
The Name of The Rose.
The Name of The Rose.
@Sheril today it's the count of Monte Cristo (it will likely be the same tomorrow)
@Sheril one of my favorite books is, "To Kill a Mockingbird".
Hud@Sheril The Hobbit
samiamsamSatan, His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S.
- Jeremy Leven
and
A Confederacy of Dunces
- John Kennedy Toole
Janice in GA@Sheril @earthchild The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. My fave for 56 years so far
The Turtle@Sheril "The Shockwave Rider," John Brunner, 1975