Recommendations?

Veeky Forums, If you could only recommend ONE book for someone to read in their entire life, what would it be?
It can be because of its good story, or message, anything. Any kind of book will do, but try to avoid books that require knowledge of another text to make an impact or resonate with someone.

>reading one book in your entire life

heh

once you can't stop, baby

>once you pop*

fucking embarrassing myself in front of Veeky Forums again

>accidentally omitting a word

what are you, some kind of RETARD?

My desert island book is The Tunnel by William H. Gass

Indoeuropean Poetry and Myth by M.L. West

I should have mentioned this in the original post, but why do you feel this way? Can you elaborate on your decision?

D-dont be silly, I'll never get addicted to this sort of stuff.

>my diary desu
>The Bible
>Complete Shakespeare
Here are our arguments and memes lads remember to stick to em

Wrong pic.

In brief, it's a scholarly prehistory of European and Indian myth, seeking to reconstruct what was poetry and religion like before literature was.

It's like a Start with the Greeks for ancient Greeks.

Link?

Demons by Fyodor Dostoevksy

The Holy Bible

You can study and worship it your whole life. It is not as narrow as most fiction necessarily is, nor as dry as non-fiction. It has a compelling narrative structure and many different stories, and wonderful prose.

It is an intensive study in the most profound subject of all - personal belief, identity, faith. It can potentially be interpreted many, many different ways. It is a most marvelous bridge between literature and life.

And why do you figure this?

It's a good book.

I've been pushing this one quite a bit but it totally deserves it. It's a fictional memoir written by a farmer/fisherman on the island of Guernsey named Ebenezer Le Page. The period is rougly 1890s-1970s. It documents the history of the island in that period (WW1, Spanish Flu, occupation during WW2, the rise of the tourist industry after the war, etc, etc.), as well as Ebenezer's personal life, family drama, etc. As time goes on the island changes but he stays the same, suffering the fate of all old people I suppose (not to say that its a bleak novel).

It's written in such a convincing voice that it's hard to believe its fictional. William Golding said that reading this book feels not like reading but like living, and he's totally right. Ebenezer is a grouchy old curmugeon but he's also a sweet and honest witness to what life is like. Trust me, read it.

Is it comfy? It sounds pretty comfy

...

Very much. If I could read only one book for the rest of my life, I'd choose this one.

"The Gray House" by Mariam Petrosyan (has not been translated in English yet).

It takes you in and you can live in/with this book for months and each time reading it you will read something new.

the gregs - diary

The fault in our stars by John Green

It is one of the best love stories of the past couple of decades

I don't entertain idiotic propositions.

Just So Stories by Kipling