I will comment on this claim with my favorite book of all time.

El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha -- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Hmmm...favorite book. I just read Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume and am tempted to say that is my favorite. However, Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut might be the more appropriate answer since I read that one years ago and I still laugh out loud sometimes when I think about it. Cat's Cradle was another good one by Vonnegut. This is really hard!

Jitterbug Perfume.

'Something Happened' by Joseph Heller. I read it a couple of years ago (16) and despite being sometimes sickened by the eyes through which the central character saw the world, it was a book that taught me alot about the insecurites and predjudices men have and the mechanisms behind them. Also their consequences.

Anyway, it changed the way I think, which I believe is the hallmark of a good book and without it I'd probably still be a virgin - so on that basis it has to be my favorite. :)

I've enjoyed Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress every time I've read it; I adore Cat's Cradle though (like most Vonnegut) I find it terribly sad sometimes; I have trouble believing that there is a better satire on the world as we know it than R. F. Laird's The Boomer Bible though I disagree with Laird on many particulars, including women; The Camel (Programming Perl) was terribly useful in my particular world, and I owe it a debt of thousands, I'm sure; Douglas Adams, Lewis Carroll, and A. A. Milne will always have room in my heart. But I cannot say that one of these is my favorite.

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please tag "literature, favorite, fiction" and, if someone actually thinks there will be votes for some non-fiction (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hatrack?), add "non-fiction" and probably "biography"

Right now my favorite book is Brief interviews with hideous men by David Foster Wallace. Sorta. I'm leaning towards Cat's Cradle but I suspect that's at least in part due to Mr. Vonnegut dying so recently. Do compelations count? I've got a book with all the fiction ever written by Jorge Luis Borges, and it's beautiful. Brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable is the most useful of my books, I guess.
All these books are great, and I love them too pieces. I doubt that any of them are my favorite book ever, they're just the ones that sprang to mind. Ask me again next week, and my answer will probably be different.

Can't limit it to 1:

• Hobbit/Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien
  
• Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever (first series) - Donaldson
  
• The Mote in God's Eye - Niven/Pournelle
  
• The Stand - King
  
• Sirens of Titan - Vonnegut

I can't limit it to 1:

* Hobbit/Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien
* Dune series - Frank Herbert and continued by his son.
* Robots Series - Issac Asimov
* Foundation Series - Issac Asimov
* Lazarus Long Series - Heinlein
* Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein
* Ramayan
* Rama Series - Arthur C. Clark
To Name but a few

Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

Hands-down, The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.

Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville.

Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

Unless it's Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams.

Lord of the Rings

i was wondering whether a series counted as a book.

Biggest impact on me: Franny and Zooey,JD Salinger
Funniest: Catch-22, J Heller
Most Moving: To Kill a Mockingbird,Harper Lee or God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy (can't decide)
Favourite Epic / Series: Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkein (naturally)

Favorite: Till we have faces - C.S. Lewis.

Other good ones: The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien, Les Miserables - Victor Hugo, Coraline - Neil Gaima.

I totally agree with GEB:EGB. It remains one of the most thought-provoking books I have ever read.

Excellent choice, calvins!

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Right now (and it will change as time goes on, I'm sure), it's The Way The Crow Flies, by Ann-Marie MacDonald. It still haunts me to this day.

I can not name one, but...

Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind
Stone of Tears - Terry Goodkind
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkein
Eragon/Eldest - Christopher Paolini
Goosebumps - R.L. Stine, I must've read like 40 of those books in 6th grade.
5 Equations That Changed the World

Forgot
Where The Red Fern grows
Dragonwings
A Wrinkle In Time
So 7th grade but I loved those books.

Barjavel - La nuit des temps

Can't limit it to 1:
♥ The Holy Quran - Allah (God)
♥ Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
♥ The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
♥ Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) - Jerome K. Jerome

Samy:

That's quite a diverse selection you've got there. Impressive.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig

LGD: I tried reading that one about six times. It was so bloody boring. I never finished it.

The Cather in the Rye.

Sherlock Holmes series.

Italy Builds
G E Kidder Smith (1953)
An exceptional catalogue/gazeteer of Italian architecture from the rennaisance to the year of publication.

Well photographed, well written, unbiased and all encompassing.

(This is not a facetious comment)

Whoa! Someone actually liked The Cather in the Rye? I read it because I felt like I should have read it and wow. Worst Book Evar! I was still waiting for the plot to start when I reached the last page.

The Dark Elf Trilogy (only the chronologically first three books, Homeland, Exile, Sojourn). If I have to pick one I guess Homeland. But to me there all one story.

same with the Terry Goodkind books.

Good Omens-Neil Gaimen & Terry Pratchett...OR...Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-Douglas Adams.

The Way of the World by Ron Suskind. But mostly because I like anyone who stirs up that much shit.

I'll be interested to compare the outcome of the congress investigation to the accusations levelled at the Bush administration in the book.

The congressional investigation will go nowhere. Politics in America is a study in Dems having no balls.

That's what I suspect; just as I assumed they were lying about WMD, I think it's safe to assume that the "investigation" will be a rubber stamped turkey.

Gobble gobble gobble, puke.

Doubles all round!

I'm currently reading The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. It is the awesome.

I'm currently reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.