What are your favorite NON-selfsufficentish books?

[quibble]

What NON-selfsufficentish books have you read and reread so often that they have become part of you? These are rarely the books you should read, but the books you can't help but read. Everybody has a few of these. What are yours?

I would include Walden and Robinson Crusoe in my list, but both smack of selfsufficentish themes.

So, here are a few others I can never resist pulling off the shelf.

1) The Club Dumas - Arturo Perez-Reverte - I have no idea why this book is so appealing. I've read it too many times and still can't resist re-reading.
2) Starlight Nights - Leslie Peltier - A wonderful and joyful autobiography of a dedicated amateur astroner and naturalist.
3) Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke - Arthur C. Clarke (of course) - Yep, I'm still a science fiction fan even in my gray hair stage of life. I've read all the stories many times, yet some of them still thrill me like they did the first time I read them many years ago.
4) Letters - Seneca - OK, I know it's odd, but I've read Seneca's letters in my treasured Loeb edition so often that I've read the books to pieces. My family gave me a new set last Christmas but I keep the battered copies always at hand.
5) The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - What's not to like!

[Anne A]

anything byTerry Pratchett, laugh out loud ? Bill Bryson

[Millymollymandy]

Delia Smith's 'Summer'.

[Milims]

Just So Stories

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

500 mile walkies, can't remember who it's by, and cant leave the kids long enough to run upstairs, but it is the one book that is sure to bring a smile to my face if it's been a lone day

Sarahx

[sunflower]

the silver sword cant remember the author
behind closed doors
my fathers watch, by patrick maguire

[mrsflibble]

my books change so often that I shall give a list of my "desert island books"; ones I read and re read over and again.

1. devil on my back by Monica Hughes; ok it's technically a kid's book.
2. lois lowry's the giver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver) also technically a kid's book, but when I read it as a child I didn't get all of the nuances I now understand. everytime I read it, I get more information which I hadn't seen before.
3. plain truth by jodi picoult
4. tikitikitembo by Arlene Mosel
5. forbidden flowers, nancy friday.

[Eigon]

sunflower - it was Ian Serraillier who wrote the Silver Sword. (It was the book I asked for if I passed the eleven plus!)

I live in a Book Town - the Book Town, so I'm rather spoilt for choice on the favourite book front.
Favourite authors, depending on what mood I'm in, include:
Charles de Lint for urban (and not-so-urban) fantasy,
Mary Gentle (Ash: A Secret History is a blend of incredibly realistic historical fiction, alternative reality fantasy and some SF),
Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series, about the diocesan exorcist for Herefordshire (with lots of local detail),
Kim Stanley Robinson for harder SF (especially the Mars series and the near future climate change series starting with 40 Degrees Below),
Neil Gaiman (American Gods was wonderful),
Lindsay Davis' Ancient Roman detective series (and Anton Lesser gets the voice and the character of Falco just right in the radio plays),
and Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey stories (possibly because I'd like to be Harriet Vane).

This is just a short list....

[citizentwiglet]

John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany
John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Robert Tressell - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner
Iain Banks - The Crow Road

Thems mine.

[bantamlady]

I have just read Lawrence Anthony's book The Elephant Whisperer.

It is about a herd of elephants he rescues from being shot and killed after the matriarch and her baby had been shot. A truly wonderful and moving book, a definite must read

[sleepyowl]

American Gods, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman
Harry Potter Books- J.K.Rowling
Terry Pratchett

[Penny Lane]

Most favourite book is Anthem by Ayn Rand and then comes pretty much anything Discworld and Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar.

[sleepyowl]

I forgot about the The Good Fairies of New York, I liked that one too

[citizentwiglet]

Penny Lane!! Thanks to you I will sleep tonight!

I watched a Newnight Review about Ayn Rand, found it fascinating. Bottle of wine later, I had completely forgotten her name and going to the library asking for 'that book by that very odd woman from the 50s' didn't prove particularly fruitful. Thank you so much - I have an Amazon voucher to spend, and now I know what on.

[Brij]

Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Gabriel Garcia Marquez never fail to please, but also...

The God of Small Things - Arundati Roy
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro