A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. I laughed, and cried while reading this book. I love a book that can evoke real emotions. One of my favorites!

I've read so damn many good books, it's hard to choose just one. God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson.

My personal favourite is Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, very much a comfort book. American God's and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman are excellent. The altered carbon trilogy by Richard Morgan, the agent cormac series by Neal Asher and the nights dawn trilogy by Peter Hamilton are all recommendations if sci-fi is your thing.

Why must you ask such a difficult question? Jk. My favorite book so far was Jubal Sackett. It’s one if those books where I felt as one with the main character, never questioning his decisions or motives. It’s the tale of a young man in the 17th century America leaving his family to travel west. Along the way he befiends a native american, and together they explore the yet untamed land. Jubal was always looking towards the horizon, seeking new trails to follow.

Iain Banks, The Crow Road, and The Quarry. He published his regular novels as Iain Banks, and his sci-fi as Iain M. Banks. I read two of those, too, but I like the regular fiction better. it's just ordinary people like us (but in Great Britain), with their ordinary life-struggles, and some of them are religious, but most are not. And they have occasional discussions about it.

A kid is brought up atheist, but becomes estranged from his father. Does he his uncle's nut-case religion? Does he believe in a supernatural after-life? Is there heaven after we die? Or was Dad right? You'll like these. And, the best thing is, there are a bunch more that I haven't read yet.

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.

Gads, so many.

If you are into historical fiction:

Bernard Cornwells Sharpes Series is amazing. He does a fantastic job of painting a picture of what it would've been like to live in the day. Also see the Archer series (I've yet to read a bad book by him).

Harry Turtledoves So Few Remain is also very good (and is, I believe, the prequel to a series that carries through WWII). He also has an alternate to the attack on Pearl Harbor in which he explores the question of why Japan didn't invade and what would've happened if they had. His books can tend to being VERY complex, which I love. The series that goes through WWII (and his series of the WWII era in which an alien species shows up and messes up history) has an amazing number of tracks being followed at the same time, something like 15 characters at a given point in the book, he jumps from character to character as he 'swims' forward in time telling the tale of how the world is progressing through the era he is writing about and yes, he kills of characters with ease, but tends to replace them with someone that naturally carries on the story... so, you get to know four or five in a given theater, one dies and you are left wondering who is going to carry on the tale for that theater and are given a sort of cliff-hanger feeling waiting for him to pick that particular thread back up. Oh, and he manages to make references to other great works such as Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

If you are into Science Fiction/Fantasy:

David Weber for a great Heroine Universe: the Honor Harrington books starting with On Basilisk station. His safehold series is also amazing, starting with Off Armageddon Reef, which explores theism and atheism and develops some interesting talking points on same.

For urban/contemporary fiction you can't go wrong with Jim Butcher and the Dresden Files. HIs works have a wonderful snark and humor. Harry Dresden is just an amazing character backed up by a supporting cast that really carries the day (I devour these books when they come out).

For Fantasy the Codex Alera series by same. I LOVE the relationship betwen 'Tavi and Kitai. The magic system in this series is well thought out and fascinating.

Kevin Hearne for a very good series the Iron Druid Chronicles which are slated to have nine books, no more but... may have a spin off. Again, great humor in this, with wonderful reference to liturature and Kevin does his research to build a great world. HIs magic system is clean but deep, and again, fascinating... and did I mention humorour?

Brandon Sanderson for his Stormlight Archive series starting with Way of Kings. AMAZING fantasy. Another fascinating magic/god system that is just too cool to delve into and, in essence, research while reading. Plucks at the emotions in a wonderful way but is a weighty read. These books are tomes, not novels or novelettes!

His Alloy series is also great starting with Mistborn: The Final Empire... GREAT character development (granted, true of all the authors I am offering as that carries the day for me)! Anot her fascinating magic system of, basically, three parts.

Oh, and his break out book Elantris. Started out so icky that my wife had us stop reading it. I returned to the book after she passed and finished it and... I really wish she'd stuck it out as she would've been very happy at how beautiful it ends. It's well worth slogging through the initial, and powerful, "ICK" of the beginning.

Eric Flint: 1632. I am not very familiar with the rest of Flints books (though I likely have read a few) but I LOVE the 1632 books. The premise is a small city in Virginia, modern era (about 2000) is shifted back 350 years by an accident of alien art (no, I am not giving much away saying that). That is the "what if" that starts his premise and he then 'writes' about the consequences of this happening and it is an amazing read! Again, great character development and very tight thinking about the consequences of having a group of modern citizens appear back in the time of the 30 years war! Lots of fun.

Honorable mentions: Edgar Rice Burroughs and the John Carter of Mars series, as well as the Muckraker (for pure pulp) and other titles... and no, I have not read more than one Tarzan book. I can't tell you why, I don't know, but I really never was into Tarzan. John Carter was my man.

Should I go into Politics, science, etc? If so, just ask. These are the books I am devouring for fun... I DO a lot of other reading for personal edification and self satisfaction. I DO go for books that are 'must reads' but they aren't a primal go to.

Oh, one historical honorable mention: Hitler: Ascent. I picked this up as it was written by a German Doctoral student (as I understand it) and I thought having a perspective from the German point of view, looking back, would be interesting... and it IS!

How about books? A song of ice and fire series is AMAZING!

A recent and true great book is "A Stranger in the Woods". Learn about how the religious fear hermits.

Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne Mccaffrey. I love how its all about science and how the further it goes the more the science is turned into like a religion. I love that it shows the beginning of religion is a misinterpretation of science.

I quite enjoyed The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe. It's a series of three science fiction novellas, each with a different style. The storytelling is unique, the concepts are compelling and philosophical, and it's intricate how everything fits together. If you like a challenge, the second novella is fairly difficult, but in a fun, puzzle-like way (but I don't want to say much about it because I think it's best to go into it blind).

I heard the bible is an excellent book... but I never got around to it.

"The Stone and the Flute" by Hans Bemman.
There are a few copies around, originally written in German, but the translation is good, takes 2 chapters to get into the rhythm. One of the best fantasy books I have ever read, and I read many. The story has so many sub stories that never really run off on tangents and if your mind is that way inclined, you will learn a lot about yourself at the very end.

I still like Absalom, Absalom. I can read it over and over and it doesn't get old.
Also APrayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
Prodigal Summer by Kingsolver is partially set nearby.

Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind

If by great, you mean "enjoyable" then this is a partial list of my favorites

1.Misha Burnett "Catskinner" novel series

2.Adolfo Kaminsky: A Forger's Life, by Sarah Kaminsky.

3.Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis,

4.Harpo Speaks! by Harpo Marx

5.The Persian Boy, by Mary Renault

6.The Glass Castle and Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls

7.Old Man's War series, by John Scazi..or ANY John Scalzi book

8.Stranger in a Strange Land, Doorway into Summer, or most Robert A. Heinlein books

9.The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling (she's VERY C.S. Lewis!)

10.Seabiscuit: An American Legend, by Laura Hillenbrand

11.(and the funniest one of all!) Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod, by Gary Paulson

Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
by Barbara Ehrenreich. Pretty much self-explanatory. Here's a short video from the author:

So many. "On Wings of Song" by Thomas Disch. Published in 1979 "the novel presents a detailed portrait of a future United States torn by economic hardship and culture war. The Midwestern Farm Belt states are ruled by a coalition of the Christian right, known as "undergoders" (a reference to the successful conservative campaign to add the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance); the nominally secular government is socially repressive and business-friendly to an extreme. The coastal states more closely resemble present-day urban America, with generally permissive social attitudes and artistic ferment, but great economic inequality." [Amazon] Quite prescient, I think.

Most recent book I loved: "The Nix" by Nathan Hill. Dive in!

Almost any of Bernard Cornwell's 'Saxon Chronicles.' I love historical fiction and England in the time of the Danelaw.

The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx. It thought it was going to be sort of stupid actually and it was facinating. The insight into his world is very interesting. Highly recommend.

everyone quotes Darwin , Origin of species, anyone actualy read it, likewise Optiks by Issac Newton, or another favorite of mine, Fermat's Last Theorem , Simon Singh, .... why, ? because I love the truth

The Respectful Leader by Walter Meyer. Author is a friend

I've read a lot of good books, and a few great ones.

"It" was a great book for me when I read it. I was really absorbed into the settings, the vivid description of the scenes and action took me in, and I accepted the utterly outlandish premise of the novel as reality.