In this world of TV, movies, Games and music, there are many ways to convey a story but none quite like the paper of books. So what's your favorite book you've read and why? but no spoilers!

So for me I'd say for sure The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. Now this isn't the Dinsey version we all know, this is darker and allot longer. Not only does it delve into the conflict between sin and religion but it even delves into the mind and how it can be destroyed by internal struggles. The best part of hte book? probably the last 6 chapters...

EDIT: My honorable mention.
The Road: Cormac mccarthy

How about you? Favorite book and why? I'm excited to read your responses.

Mine is "Do Androids dream of electric sheep?"

"Prufrock and Other Observations", I guess.

Edit:

Why? "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock " is the most perfect piece of poetry I'm aware of. (Not necessarily my very favourite one, that may be the flawed but achingly beautiful "Ash Wednesday"). Sagely, painfully relevant to me and really impossible to improve in any way whatsoever. 1000 words of utter perfection.

And of course, there's also, among others, "Preludes", "Rhapsody on a Windy Night " and "Hysteria ".

The one that keeps the broken, draughty door shut.

:(

1984 by George Orwell

Stephen King's It

I don't really read much, but my current favorite book I've read would be either Kafka on the Shore, House of Leaves or American Gods. I am currently obsessed with "urban fantasy" or whatever you call it.

Sagas of the Icelanders.

Edit: Since everyone else is posting multiple choices, in addition to the above:

Poetic/Prose Edda
Song of Roland
Artemis Fowl
Iliad
The Last Wish
Le Morte d'Artur
Holy Bible

I'd like to acquire more Norse literature like Heimskringla and Gesta Danorum, along with other medieval works, but I almost never get around to starting these projects. Also, considering how much books cost compared to games, especially with GOG and stores like Gamestop.

As for prose, Richard Ellmann's "Oscar Wilde" might be it, but really, it's so hard to tell.

At any rate, that book's wonderfully written and so much more than a biography. One of the most lucid bits of art criticism I've read, for example.

Can't really say I have a favorite Book. Edgar Allan Poe works of fiction seem to be my favorite...Tell Tale Heart is my favorite of his stories. Though it has been awhile since I have read even a short story of his.

Honestly? I thought that was one of the best, kept me at the edge of my seat (literally) because I had no idea what was about to happen... though some parts in the book dragged on way to long, that was one of my favorite parts :P

It put me to sleep multiple times, mainly because it interrupted the story so that the author would ensure that we MUST know how Paris was atop that view. And it was long; on my copy with small letters, it took about 30 pages, which was about 8-9% of the whole book. It felt like a geography lesson without showing the freaking map. In the end, I felt that my enjoyment of the book would be much better without this specific part.

Either "Slaughterhouse V" or "The Book of Bunny Suicides". And no I'm not joking....it's a close call.

You should get Perez-Reverte's "El Club Dumas", it's a very cool thriller about Alexandre Dumas' novels, and a legendary missing chapter of the Three Musqueteer. Half of this book (basically, one of the two intertwined plots) has been adapted by Polanski as "The Ninth Gate". Perez-Reverte rules.

The theme and ideas are somewhat close to Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum". I'd say that "Foucault's Pendulum" and, even more, "The Name of the Rose" are two of the best novels I've ever read. Hugely clever and informative, they are also completely thrilling plot-wise. Eco, and to some lesser extend Perez-Reverte, are excellent at historical, erudite novels. They're basically the opposite of Dan Brown.

But I can't (who can, seriously) define a one-preferred-book. "The Hobbit" and "Treasure Island" are two books that I keep re-reading and that keep impressing me. "Thank you Jeeves" may be my favorite Wodehouse (who's one of my favorite writers). "Dune" is not overrated, and this says a lot. Ende's "The Neverending Story" still haunts me. And... I would just be unable to elect one specific Borges short stories collection. Or one volume of Ellroy's Los Angeles quartet (maybe "The Big Nowhere" ?).

I push many of my favorite writers aside, and that's just for novels. I enjoy re-diving into some conversation books (Noel Simsolo's interviews of Sergio Leone, Numa Sadoul's interviews with Hergé and Franquin), and of course the Bible. And by The Bible, I mean Roger Moore's "My Word is My Bond". Most important source of wisdom and salvation of the last two centuries.

Posting before the argh-and-I-forgot-about-this-one.

Edit : Is it useful to mention here some french books that aren't or can't be translated, such as Simonin's "Le cave se rebiffe" (okay, his whole Max-le-Menteur trilogy, because the ending is awesome), or the collections of Desproges chronicles (or even his novel) ?