YOUR favorite books + top 10 most popular classics 

Asking what is one's favorite book is like asking a parent who is their favorite child! All books are loved, but they are all different. When I really get into a book, I enjoy being that unseen character in the books, soaking up every conversation and physical detail and emotion put forth on the page. The love of any one book depends on your mood, the weather, external politics, and previously books read. But this is a great list to tune into those books not yet read, and to remember fondly the ones I have read.

My top favourite books would be Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, The Brother Karamazov, Ulysses, In Search of Lost Time, The Waves, Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, To The Lighthouse, Middlemarch, Gravity's Rainbow, Absalom, Absalom and Lolita.

Don’t fear The Count of Monte Cristo’s length! It’s one of my favorite books, and in my opinion, the most well-paced novel I’ve ever read! Some of my other favorites are The Brothers Karamazov, Wuthering Heights, Mrs. Dalloway.

My favorite book of all time is The Brothers Karamazov!!! An absolutely life-changing book I can't recommend it enough

It's so much fun seeing what everyone's favourites are!! Also hi I just finished Eugene Onegin today and I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT!!!

my personal soulmate is "demons" by dostoevsky. it has grown on me so much my dna is this book now. also the thing about this book is that its title is not entirely correct, because there's no 100% equivalent for "бесы (besy)" in english and the vibe the original title has... it's unique and it embraces the darkness and mysteriousness a lot more than "demons" do. this one was like a god-tier (ironically enough), the one and only but apart from the divine part of literature which is just this one book for me, the other excellent book was written by my favourite author - nikolai gogol. i literally cannot stop advertising him and his work and his persona and just every single thing about him. he's the bestest, i will not take criticism on that one. anyways, "dead souls" is a masterpiece and if only gogol would had written the last two of three parts of the cycle... i'm telling you - the world would've never been the same.

Carolyn is just so gentle and soft spoken, I am falling asleep. And so this is why I don’t watch Carolyn during the day but Emma who keeps me awake.

I loved The Grapes of Wrath…that last scene will remain with me forever!

My favorite books are The Three Musketeers, War and Peace, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina

Yay so pleased with the love for Jane Eyre, its so beautiful 😍

So excited for you to read The Bell Jar ❤️

Loved the video! My number one favorite is The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Some other favorites are Crime and Punishment, East of Eden (and Grapes of Wrath), Picture of Dorian Gray and Frankenstein. I'm also in the middle of Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig and I think it might make it to this list when I finish it

I love this video format :) Keep making them ❤️

I literally cannot pick just ONE book 😫 the most I could narrow it down to is three: the brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, one hundred years of solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, and slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut. Really anything by these authors I absolutely adore.

This was so much fun to watch! 🙂💜

It is very difficult to pick just one book since there are so many wonderful books out there. I am Colombian so I have to go with One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This book paints a great picture of our culture and is the best representation of magical realism

I would love that video concept with children books and book covers. Would be fun too learn about all the different tastes. ☺

Here's random dump of my favorites: House of Leaves (M.Z. Danielewski) Pale Fire (Nabakov) The Wasp Factory (I. Banks) Blood Meridian (McCarthy) The House on the Borderland (W.H. Hodgeson) Watchmen (Moore & Gibbons) Glamorama (B.E. Ellis) American Psycho (B.E. Ellis) The Virgin Suicides (J. Egenides) The Plot Against America (P. Roth) A Maggot (J. Fowles) Super-Cannes (J.G. Ballard) H.M. At the Mountains of Madness (H.P. Lovecraft) Speak, Memory (V. Nabokov) Empire of the Sun (Ballard) The Bell Jar (Plath) Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) Solaris (Lem) Inherent Vice (Pynchon) Bleeding Edge (Pynchon) Atlas Shrugged (Rand) (not a right-wing weirdo, I swear!) (Even then, it's a mixed bag) Operation Shylock (P. Roth) Wise Blood (F. O'Connor) Geek Love (K. Dunn) And maybe The Satanic Verses (Rushdie) I got carried away, didn't I?

Asking a book lover for their favourite work of all time is asking the most emotionally difficult question because there are billions of books and so many favourites. So I will give my top 15 off the top of my head, I'll probably want to change some of this list later as I remember other titles, but ohh welll! Here I go. No.1 The White Dragon/Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey (Couldn't choose bw these two-Anne McCaffrey I just can't say enough about this author)_ No.2 Persuasion by Jane Austen (this has always been my most favourite Austen novel. Love, Love, love it)_No.3 Chalet School in Exile by Elinor Brent-Dyer (Chalet School series, just wonderful) No.4_Bleak House by Charles Dickens (Dickens wins out over Tolstoy!)_No.5 Little Women_No.6 Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne Shirley all of this canon is wonderful)_No.7 Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens ( again Dickens for me)_No.8 The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (McCullough writes epic novels, her writing is wonderful and she's an Australian writer so she had to be in here)_No.9 Enid Blyton (I can't choose a book, 'Famous Five', 'Adventure series', 'Secret series', just so many adventures she wrote. Enid Blyton was the writer I grew up with from childhood)_No. 10 The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice (Ann wrote extraordinary novels about vampires, witches, angels, and dark, mysterious beings. She branched out with her writings and continued to reincarnate her writing style and themes over the decades)_No.11 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Huh, Tolstoy does get in here, what do you know?) No.12 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (Austen's wonderful gothic novel, loved it.)_No.13 My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin (This was the first of many novels that Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin wrote, she was one of Australias most famous novelists of her time. She wrote this while still a teenager and it is the most remarkable novel, not only that it was written by someone so young, but she submitted it to the legendary Australian writer 'Henry Lawson' who wrote the preface to the first published copies and took it to his own publishers in Edinburgh. Released on film in 1979, starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill)_No.14 Mother Carey's Chickens by Kate Douglas Wiggins (Kate Wiggins wrote 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm' a children's classic, I found this one on Audible and it's beautiful in it's telling and setting.)_No.15 Blood from a stone by Donna Leon (Donna Leon's 'Guido Brunetti' mysteries set in Venice are lots of fun. I love the setting and walking Venice with Brunetti). Well I think I have done justice to as many genres as I can. I figure to cover the many different variety of genres that I read here. Hope you like!

My all time favorite is Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo. I am obssessed with it, collect translations, read scholarly, adaptations, you name it. Almost to the same level is Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and despite I would say in plot and obssession they are equal to me, Hugo's prose has not equal to my heart.

No Charles Dickens or have I missed anything? ;)

The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite but War and Peace and The Great Gatsby are close behind.

Don’t be scared of The Count!!! It’s spectacular! It took me a long time but it was so worth it.

Absolutely dying at Willow’s snoring 🤣🤣

Such beautiful covers from Macmillan collector's library. Yes, I reserach based on this video. Thank you. I have been looking some classic and stumble in found Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions, but this is looks so delicate, the colours... Splendid! 😍

Yay! This winner of your survey is my favorite!!

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (favorite!); The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Harry Potter; Call of the Wild; The Inferno; Lord of the Flies; The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Toilers of the Sea; Jules Verne; Edgar Allan Poe; Arthur C. Clarke

Alice in Wonderland. Your smile reminds me of the Cheshire Cat. I've read (or am reading) all these except Little Women and Jane Eyre. Anne of Green Gables - Sweet! East of Eden - My favorite Steinbeck, very approachable yet deep in message. The Count of Monte Cristo - Swash buckler! Evil vs. good. Vengence! An easy read, don't be intimidated you'll rip through it. The Brothers Karamazov - A difficult read. Philosophical. Dostoevsky. Need I say more? Anna Karenina - I like to contrast this novel of a dissatisfied wife with Madam Bovary and Hedda Gabler. Little Women - never read, but have seen many dramatizations. Never had to read, I felt. Pride And Prejudice - Even I, a crusty old man, loved the book. The Picture of Dorian Gray - First saw a dramatization as a college student before I read. Was much affected at the time, still am. War and Peace - I'm reading this now! It's terrific! A learning experience. Jane Eyre - never read, but again I've seen many dramatizations, so I've never felt a strong need to read it.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Slaughterhouse-5, and it's rather unconventional hero, Billy Pilgrim. It easy to see past Billy while thinking about war and time travel but I believe it's his personal journey that makes the story work.

Carolyn, to help you out with 'The Thorn Birds'. Colleen McCullough was an Australian writer who lived on Norfolk Island, she was a wonderful writer and passed away a few years ago. The Thorn Birds is a 1977 best-selling novel by Australian author Colleen McCullough. Set primarily on Drogheda - a fictional sheep station in the Australian Outback named after Drogheda, Ireland - the story focuses on the Cleary family and spans the years 1915 to 1969. The novel involves the mc Meggie the Niece of the matriarch of Drogheda and Ralph de Bricassart an ambitious Priest, they have a huge relationship which goes on throughout the entire novel and becomes very complex as Ralph becomes a Catholic Cardinal and never marries Meggie. So this relationship becomes quite toxic for Meggie and Ralph, they love each other and loathe each other, too. But it goes on to cover the evolving story of the family and Meggie's children... the novel is quite an epic drama and has been made into a mini-series/movie but **important, Colleen McCullough loathed the film of her novel and was never happy with it, I know as she gave an interview in Australia and she stated that she had 'wiped her hands' of the filming completely. An an Australian, I love Colleen and her novels, her Rome series is one of the largest epic, retellings of the history of the Roman Empire that you'll find, it is brilliant but huge.

For me, it has never been difficult to name my favorite book, cause it‘s still the same since i can read and that is Peter Pan❤️ But not far behind, there is Anna Karenina, War and Peace, East of Eden, Tess and Wuthering Heights plus many other great ones. The list is endless🪴🌼

Gone With the Wind is a must read. Another favorite of mine is All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Happy reading Carolyn and Willow! 🐾🦃

(omg it's nice to see someone who didn't enjoy frankenstein too HAHA!!) anyway my faves are probably demian by hermann hesse, C&P by dostoevsky and the aeneid by vergil!! love this video it's so fun to squeal along whenever a book that i really enjoyed come up

Great job, Carolyn! A+

I’m always surprised that so many people love War and Peace. I finally read it thru this year and while I’m glad I finished it, I would never rank it as a favourite. Plenty of philosophical exploration of the horror and stupidity of war, but I’m not entirely sure it is really a novel. It’s certainly no Anna Karenina. One of my very favourites is a very new and very beautiful book-Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

Such a wonderful video. I do not do instagram but my favorite book is also Jane Eyre for similar reasons that you mentioned! I believe I was 12 years old and it totally changed my reading preferences😊……plus it is the one book I have re-read too many times to count! This is such a great list, thank you!!

Fantastic video love it and love your amazing channel xx

I love your videos!! The only problem is that, I sometimes binge watch your videos about classic books, when I should be reading!!

love all the books in that list! the editions you own are so beautiful. i'm jealous, i never find those cute editions hshshj my favorite would be wuthering heights or the picture of dorian gray.

Beowulf is one of my favorites, along with Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. Don't feel intimidated. A must as far as I'm concerned...read the translation by Seamus Heaney .Willow is so cute. I love the name!! Thanks for this wonderful video. Sorry I missed it by a few weeks!!!

Hey saw my name there….I feel quit alone that my favorite book is The Boy the mall the fox and the horse😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Also I saw your video of you recommending books that we may like by sculptors and I thought can you do the same kind of video but with compositions and symphony’s? It can be really fun because musicians and composers tells stories in their music so it can really relate to books

I love to see so many people saying Jane Eyre since it’s my favorite one too. Addie Larue was actually a close second for me

love this 💖

OMG! It's the same for me. Jane Eyre makes me wanna explore more of classic books!!!!

So happy u love the miraculous journey of Edward tulane too! 💖

I feel weird saying this but I don't have a favourite book. Not even a top 3 or 5 or 10. Some books are obviously better than others but they're also so different! I guess for most people it's the emotional connection but I just can't... Maybe The Brothers Karamazov will be my favourite when I read it. just a feeling I have

I highly recommend you "To the Lighthouse"; I made a ritual of rereading it every year in the first days of the summer vacation.

My brain wants to say war and peace but my heart knows that it is the Percy Jackson series

I loved Addie Larue. 5⭐️ for me but you are right in that people either seem to love it or not. No middle road it seems. The Thornbirds is amazing. Read it Carolyn!! Also try Addie Larue…I found it compelling..never read anything quite like it before.

I’d love to see you find out from your viewers what popular books they really didn’t like or think are overhyped. There’s one particular book that I see everywhere (and it was in the top most popular books in this video 😬) that I couldn’t stand and just don’t understand the hype about! Loved the video as always ❤️

Awesome video!!!

I am around 3.5 weeks from my date date and I have decided to try and tackle 'The Count of Monte Cristo' in that time. The amount of love for it is overwhelming... as is the number of pages! Hoping to at least make decent progress before little one arrives!

Oh my goodness I loved this video!!!!! I love seeing what other people’s favorite books are 😍 My submission was A Tree Grows In Brooklyn!! I hope you get to read it one day ☺️

It would be great something about the lesser known classics, or less named in bookstagram! And btw I love your videos always ❤

I love to read!! A library is around the corner from me. I read The Brothers Karamazov and thought it was very good. Another favorite of mine is All the Light we Cannot see by Anthony Doerr.

you should read The Thorn Birds, Carolyn. It's so good!

Just finished Anna Karenina. Currently reading Jane Eyre. Not sure if Pride and Prejudice (annotated version) or War and Peace will be next. And I absolutely adore Anne of Green Gables, I will have to get the series one day too.

I chose In Search of the Lost Time, by Proust. I love Proust so much! But i have other favorites: Alice in Wonderland, The Secret Garden Anna Karienina. Simply love this video! Aww, and Willow is so sweet! 💖

adoring these type of videos! future ideas: the fictional character people relate to the most, people's favourite author, people's most intimidating book also: the count of monte cristo is super fast paced and entertaining! it isn't as intimidating as it looks! if you've made it through the slow-paceness (is this even a word?) of les mis you can do the count!

Been inspired (SO MUCH) by you and Emma to actually going back to reading classics. I have Anna Karenina and War and Peace on my shelf right now. Just wanna know when the Tolstoy art in your Etsy shop will be back so I can finally set myself up to success in reading these two thick boys 🥸

Well we all know this, but this is so cute that I just have to tell u this: my mom just walked by me and said “wow! This girl is so beautiful, the sight of her cheers me up.” (She said this in mandarin, and I tried my best to translate her words into English hehe)

ahhh I’m so glad I’m not the only one who didn’t love frankstein!!! 🤍

picking my favourite anything is so difficult but for some reason books are the one thing i have a favourite. how green was my valley by richard llewellyn is by FAR my favourite book of all time (followed by a clockwork orange, dracula, and all quiet on the western front)

I saw in class that Russia, France and Spain all three have the BIG 19th century novel that tells a similar story: Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary and La Regenta. Since you love Anna Karenina so much, it'd be fun to read the other two and compare them, I don't know!

My favourite has to be “The Kite Runner” !! A close second is “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by the same author, Khaled Housseini

just finished A Hiker's Guide to Purgatory by Michael Norton- unlike any Purgatory I have ever studied

The thorn birds was way beyond your time. That book is from 1984 or 1986 and they made it into a mini series. I have the movie and I watch it at least once a year because I am addicted to the movie with Richard Chamberlain and the gorgeous Rachel Ward.

A great book that I never see mentioned on “book tube” is “Sophie’s Choice” by a William Styron. Brutal and explicit in parts, it’s so good and impactful. Highly recommended.

The best I'd be able to do is my favorite book in each genre. I couldn't pick an overall favorite. Favorite classic, is definitely The Count of Monte Cristo.

I can 100% agree with Jane Eyre! It was the longest classic I’ve read so I was kind of intimidated, but I loved every chapter of it. I can agree on the picture of Dorian Grey as well, although I might need to reread it as it was one of my first classics and I might not have understood that much. Another favourite which was mentioned but didn’t make it on the list is Mrs Dalloway. Took me over a month to read, but somehow the writing felt like my own thoughts. I know it’s stream of consciousness, but it just felt so much like my own thoughts. One that wasn’t mentioned (or I didn’t notice it) is Dracula. Although I’m still currently reading it, I was surprised how much I already love that book. In a bit over three days, I’ve read like 200 pages.

My recent favourite is Gormenghast trilogy

Great video 📚 I personally couldn't pick just one favorite book. But the first book that I loved as a child was Treasure Island by Rober Louis Stevenson. ☠️

Hey carolyn, i want to read anna karenina this year an thought about my summer holidays to start it. Do you think this book is good to read in summer or should I read it in Spring/Autum/Winter? What kind of vibe does this book have?

11:37 i'm there! that's my second appearance in one of these videos, thus confirming i'm a canon character in the CarolynMarieReads cinematic universe

My favorite books of all time are Huntress by Julie Hall, Dragon Slippers by Jessica day George, Mark of the Raven by Morgan l Busse,The Titans Curse by Rick Riordan,The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling,and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Yap, Pride and Prejudice, must read

Saw my answer, me happy

My favorite book is “The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly” by Jean-Dominique Bauby and “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong is a close second. This is a really difficult question, I’m thinking of about 15 more different books that could also be number one 😭

How did the Count of Monte Cristo only get 8 votes?🤔

My First favorite book is definitely Anne of Green Gables but after reading Moby Dick and Crime and Punishment, I don't know anymore 😗😲

Trainspotting is about a group guys who are addicted to drugs. There's probably so much more to it than that, but I wasn't a fan of the movie. I watched it because of Robert Carlyle, but Johnny Lee Miller and Ewen McGregor are in it. McGregor is the main character.

Hi Carolyn! Did you read The Chosen by Chaim Potok I sent you? That’s one of my fave books! Hope you’re well :)

Easy for me to name just one: Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. Head and shoulders above the rest.

I loved The Good Earth by Pearl Buck, and Kristen Lavrensdotter, by Sigid Undsett.....I'm so surprised these weren't mentioned....anybody else love these?

What's your MBTI type Carolyn?

I have ten favourite books that all do different things when I re read them

you’ve created a crisis, do i annoy you to read monte cristo or northanger abbey first? 😭

Top ten classics without mentioning Charles Dickens is not logical. " No novelist is stonger than Dickens whose wealth of invention almost rivals Shakespeare and Chaucer", Harold Bloom ( The Western Canon,1994).

Hello

I used to have a dog like that. We called her Lady.

Can't you have the Bible as your favorite books?

*Dear Carolyn.* I have discovered your channel cca several months ago. I just wanted to write that you remind me or you according to my opinion visually resemble the female version of William Shakespeare! I am serious. That face and literally everything is very visually similar to how they depict William Shakespeare. I can't help myself! Maybe this resemblance and similarity could be seen by so many people not just me, or who knows, maybe I am the very first person, who noticed it. Just by the way yesterday was 458th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth (if I calculated it right - we all know he was born in 1564). That was all for now. Thank you for reading.

Hello from British Columbia Canada 🇨🇦👋👍♥️😎🎤🐁

My favorite book is Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck.

I was just curious why you skipped over the people who chose The Bible? It’s an amazing book.