Puzzler

Definately Peter and the Shadow Thieves, no doubt. I loved Peter and the Starcatchers, but Shadow Thieves was amazing.

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PAGEMASTER

My favourite book as of yet has to be the one I've recently finished: Dean Koontz - The Husband.

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Working Projects:

Preludes to Denouement
Domain
Depiction of Peril
Descendent of Darkness
Masquerades of Sanity
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~Si~

I would have to say Life, The Universe, And Everything by Douglas Adams.

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"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read."
"Women are to be obscene, not heard."
~ Groucho Marx

irsmart

I can't say a certain book, but rather a series.

Then, it is a tie between Harry Potter (Rowling), Shannara (Terry Brooks), and Magic Kingdom (Terry Brooks).

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Follow the Path of NaNoWriMo

Holocoz

Mine would be The Long Walk by Stephen King. It's not that great... but it's effective.

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Fear cannot touch me...
It can only taunt me,
It cannot take me,
Just tell me where to go...
I can either follow,
Or stay in my bed...
I can hold on
To the things that I know...
The dead stay dead,
They cannot walk.
The shadows are darkness.
And darkness cannot talk.

-Christopher Rice's A Density of Souls

Taciturn Presence

Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

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Cromulent

It's a tie between The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (I'm including the entire series in that, I would find it impossible to pick one over the others except maybe the last one which was a bit subpar) and The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Now that is an incredible book, read it many times when I was 14 / 15 and still read it when I'm feeling bored and want some easy entertainment.

GeekGoddessAjax

I read The Long Walk all in one sitting and literally burst into tears at the end. To this day I could not tell you exactly why, but for some reason that book hit me hard.

My all time favorite, though (another King novel) is The Dark Half. I fell madly in love with Thad Beaumont and his situation, and I connected with the characters so deeply. It is the only form of media (book, movie, etc.) that has ever caused me nightmares, and I read it the first time at about 16.

It may not be the finest peice of literary work, but it got to me.

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http://www.reckaban.blogspot.com (fiction)

Varine

I would have to say the Silmarillion by Tolkien, simply because it gives so much of a backstory to the world and it has so much information about Middle-earth in the First and Second Ages and then the pre-existince.
Following that would be a tie between CK Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the Harry Potter series.

Raphael Kiltron

There are a lot of great books out there.
My favorite would probably have to be Misery by Stephen King.

I know many people think the horror genre can be very dry and lacking any literary skill, but I enjoyed how well King was able to take such a gory book and make have so much depth. I will always admire how he was able to write such a great book, when there are only two true characters, and the main character never leaves the house.

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Stealing from many authors is good research.
Stealing from a few authors is cross-referencing.
Stealing from one author is plagiarism.

Uriah

Pilgrim At Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard

It's not fiction but it is the most beautifully written book I've ever encountered.

Billy

Welsh author of three novels - The Cormorant, The Woodwitch, The Blood of Angels.

Gregory's prose is as near to perfection as you're going to get.

titocurt

I must recommend a very amateur writer which I discovered by accident one day. The JackL writes very real poetry that grabs me and gives me a really good feeling after I've read the book. A thousand Winks of the Sun By The JackL

Poe Clock

Uh oh. Warning, long-winded and possibly rambling reply ahead ^^;;

Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov (brilliant writing; the storyline is disturbing, yet darkly funny and thought provoking as well)
American Gods- Neil Gaiman (what can I say? I love Neil Gaiman. His stories are fantastic, he has such an odd way of looking at things.)
Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman (This one's got everything, engaging plot, amusing and relatable protagonist, villians which are genuinly creepy... just a plain ol' awesomeness sandwich. Mmmyes.)
An Invitation to a Beheading- Vladimir Nabokov
Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card (so far the only science-fiction book I can stand-- no offense intended, sci-fi fans)
IT- Stephen King (I just deleted a paragraph long rant about Stephen King when I saw Raphael Kiltron's post, which pretty much sums it up. A lot of people don't take the horror genre seriously, and while I'm not a fan of excessive blood and gore, be it in books, movies or what have you, Stephen King's books, with very few exceptions, are able to pull off some rather violent scenes without coming across as tasteless; scenes that are honestly creepy and make you sleep with the light on for about a week rather than make you sick. The plot and characters of IT are phenomenal, and overall it is a wonderful book. Oh crap, I just replaced the long ranting paragraph I deleted with another one. How on earth did that happen.)

Ristaag

I'm reading that right now. It's a masterpiece; the type of book that keeps you up 'til 1:00 in the morning reading. Tai-Pan was decent too, but Shogun still takes the cake.

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Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself. - Harvey S. Firestone