one day during recess when i was in eigth grade, i was sitting over in the far corner of the school parking lot so as not to be disturbed while perusing my 'baltimore catechism', i was startled by a very sinister-looking man wearing a long trenchcoat. 'hey kid, i got something for you,' he said...and opened his coat to display an array of stainless steel syringes hanging from the lining on the left side and a selection of extremely lewd black n white glossies pinned to the lining on the right.

'which will you have?' he asked, 'first time's free'.

i told him i'd take one of each and grabbed for em. before he could react, i snagged a couple syringes, some feelthy peeks and, for good measure, a tattered paperback he was holding. i ran back towards the school yelling 'he's trying to get me' and it wasn't til i was safely back in the building that i noticed the title: 'tequila mockingbird'

the rest is history.

Nothing remotely witty or creative from me, just a sincere recommendation - 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' by Robert Tressell. My dad gave it to me when I was about 23 years old, and it has informed my outlook ever since. On politics? Certainly - as this is a politically powerful piece of writing, angry and sad and indignant and desperate and hugely moving - but the word 'politics' is nowhere near expansive enough to describe the sheer humanity of this novel. Even thinking about it now makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

One bit of small print - it's hard enough to find any version of the book these days, but even if you do, beware - many editions contain less than half of Tressell's original writing, thanks (if I remember rightly) to an early lily-livered publisher 'editing' it with a blunt pickaxe and completely disposing of the second half of the novel. The full text covers 'a year in the life', rather than a meagre 5 months. Accept no substitutes!

My wife gave me a first edition, signed copy of Robert Silverberg's 'Lord Valentine's Castle'. While I'm not a big fantasy fan, this has been one of my favourite pieces of fiction for a very long time. What a gift but, more importantly, what a woman.

I've heard a lot about 'A Confederacy Of Dunces' including the fact that it wasn't published until after the author had died. I'm going to take your recommendation and try to find a copy for myself.

Cheers,

Maso

When a longtime neighbor moved, he gave me some books piled up in his garage. One was "Psycho-Cybernetics" by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. Of course I instantly mocked the concept of the title, but I did eventually read the book. It changed my life. I'd be a totally different person if I'd never read that book. So to Chris Cross, wherever you are right now, thanks for leaving me the book.

it wasn't published until after the author had died

The story's sadder than that, but I'll let you discover it for yourself. (The story of its publication, not the story in the book.)

In 1959, or therebouts, when I was 12 my Uncle Bill Flint sent me a Bible from Billings, Montanna.
It was one of two presents from him and it was the the best book ever given to me.

There were pages in the center for recording the births of my family of origin, and
places for marriage and children born to me.

Flash forward to 2003...I met this nice lady online, turns out she's the only daughter of my
Uncle Bill, he had 3 sons, and I'd never met any of his kids. We've gotten to know each
other a little and I gave her the bible he'd sent me. She had nothing from him
as her parents divorced when she was very young and, well....you know how it goes sometimes.

I felt like somehow I'd "fixed" something.

I am WAY too indecisive to actually pin down one book as the Best Book Ever. However, I can say what the two best books ever given to me are.

The first, Cities in Flight, by James Blish, was given to my by my physics teacher in high school. The book blew my mind. Science fiction at its absolute best.

The second was given to me before the first, but I never got around to reading it until I got to college. A man I've known as a friend of our family for a long time sent me The Ascent of Wonder, which is a collection of short science fiction stories from all the masters of the genre. That was only one of the books he's given to me or recommended over the years, but that was by far the best.

I don't know what rock i was living under, but an ex of mine introduced me to the Dragonlance chronicles in Feburary of this year - so i would say all combined, easily the best book i have been given...

followed closely by Brett Easton Elis - Glamorama... that was a good one.

Wow, what a tough question.

I think that I'd have to say that it was my brother. He got me 'The Hobbit' when I was 9, and it opened up a while new way of thinking and reading for me.

Definitely Carl Sagan's "Dragons of Eden" which opened up another dimension for me and led me to the author's other work "Broca's Brain". I found "Dragons.." in a relatives' library and couldn't put it down until parting time when I had to sheepishly ask if I could take the book home with me.

Yeah, my dad bought me "The Hobbit" at 7 or 8 or so and that one is pretty high on this list...he also got me a book called "The Sunshine Soldiers" by Peter Tauber when I was 15 or so that I can't find anywhere now, but I loved.