The Camp of the Saints
I’ve only read the Wikipedia article, but supposedly it’s one of Steve Bannon’s favorites.
Time for one of my favorite quotes:
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
-John Rogers
Right there with you.
It is actually quite an amusing children’s book, originally Japanese. Can’t say I’ve read it since my daughter was a toddler though.
The Art of the Deal by Trump
I mean, favorite book? That would be astounding.
You’d be cutting out a fairly high percentage of the female population if you’re weeding them out by romance novels. Admittedly, Harlequin is hardly high art. How would you feel about Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre? I’d probably list Jane Eyre as a favorite. As a romance writer myself, I have a whole spiel about the feminist value of romance novels, but I’ll save it for another thread.
I really don’t know that I would walk away from anyone for a favorite book choice, but I’d definitely tread lightly if someone idolized anything written by Ayn Rand.
People in this thread have of course listed some of my favorite books.
What’s your opinion on 50 Shades of Grey?
My GF gets how it may be titillating but thinks it is complete shit as a book. In her opinion it is akin to Penthouse Letters at best (she thinks worse).
But, loads of women liked it a lot.
Personally, I would be cautious if someone told me that was their favorite book. Same with a Harlequin romance novel. Romance novels can be great. Just not those I do not think.
I think the kind of person who’s favorite book is Mein Kampf would throw up so many red flags I’d walk away from them long before I found out their reading habits.
How would they react if I told them my father was Jewish?
My opinion of 50 Shades has evolved a lot. I used to hate it with the fury of a thousand burning suns, now I have to at least appreciate that for whatever reason it hit a nerve with a huge number of women. I haven’t read it, and don’t want to, because I can’t stand terrible prose and it’s obviously just so badly written. But I am curious about it in terms of what women get out of reading it. I would gladly read an academic paper on it.
It is hard, I confess, not to be bitter when I work so hard to make my prose beautiful. I’m not saying I’m the Best Writer Evar but I put so much effort into my writing that it’s disheartening to see someone who barely can string a few words together be so incredibly successful. But I don’t really get anything out of being bitter, so I’ve moved on from that, I think. Besides, EL James did one thing well that I never have done yet: hit the publish button.
Yeah, I know a few people (including myself) who have a sneaking fondness for one or the other of Ayn Rand’s books (in my case it’s The Fountainhead) because I read it at an impressionable age and there are some things, writing-wise, that Rand does well if you skip the monologues. Some of her characters, especially when she’s not trying to make them heroes or devils, are actually pretty interesting.
However, I wouldn’t call it my favorite book at all, and would probably walk away from someone who did (though I guess I’d ask them to clarify as in @Ulfreida 's post).
If someone told me their favorite book was something by Piers Anthony then I would walk away, probably faster than for Rand. Again, I could imagine someone having fond memories of having read him as a kid, but… ugh. Obsession with sexual jokes involving underage girls is not a good look for anyone who isn’t naive enough not to understand them, as I was when I read Piers Anthony as a kid. I reread one of his books in my twenties and… never again.
I’ve heard bad things about those books.
I would judge someone for ideological reasons, but not just because they have (what I think is) bad taste. I hated The Road, but I wouldn’t judge someone for liking it. In fact I can think of quite a few reasons why someone would like it. Likewise for a Harlequin book or whatever.
The problem with judging someone based on one response with regard to taste is you’re not really getting the whole picture of what they read and enjoy. I have so many favorites (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Catch-22, Mirror Dance, Dandelion Wine, Catcher in the Rye, Alan Moore’s From Hell etc) and what does that tell you about my personality? That I read broadly. That’s about it.
Now if I were to pluck one of these books and pick it as my Absolute Favorite, probably Alice wins, both because it’s a childhood favorite that features an impertinent female and because of the depth of the satire and references. But from my favorite book being Alice you can’t derive that my favorite genre is science fiction, that I read a lot of literature, or romance, or really anything meaningful. In fact you can’t even really determine whether I read much at all.
It’s just not a good heuristic for knowing about how a person is.
Mein Kampf being an exception, of course. I’d steer clear of anyone with that favorite.
What? I mean…I am lost on this.
I read Piers Anthony maybe 40+ years ago but loved those books. A Spell for Chameleon was one of my early favorites. Split Infinity was another. I had no idea he was a jerk! To be fair, I never paid much attention to that when I was 12 but I am sad to hear that.
Thanks for wrecking a part of my childhood. 
Gotta expel the demons.
That’s good. That show could be good sometimes.
It’s that time for my son and I’m thinking about getting him Everybody Poops. It’s a classic.
I would have said The Book of Lists, but it’s not allowed by the OP’s rules.
I too read and enjoyed Piers Anthony many years ago, without picking up on all of the questionable sexual content. I think it was here on the SDMB that my attention was drawn to this reappraisal of A Spell for Chameleon:
I see a huge difference between someone who tells me their favorite book is "Pride and Prejudice* (a fairly common and perfectly reasonable choice for “favorite book”) and someone who tells me their favorite book is “really, any Harlequin romance.” It would be a bit like someone saying that their favorite movie is “really, anything on the Hallmark channel.” (ETA: And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with liking either of these.)
This thread reminds me of when I suggested that my book club, which was open to a very broad range of books, read Atlas Shrugged, because none of them had ever read any Ayn Rand and had only the haziest notion of what she stood for and what people who worship her books are revealing about themselves. (Several of the club members were nationalities other than American.)
Of course, Rand was a mediocre writer with loathsome ideas - but her books continue to have influence, so as an intellectual exercise, I thought knowing more about her stuff was a good idea.
It did not go well - I’m not sure anyone read past the first few chapters, and I think they were a bit pissed at me for suggesting it. But it was nothing personal. A few years later someone suggested 50 Shades of Grey and I tried to tell everyone it was a bad idea. They didn’t listen, but after they started reading they were all repulsed, and then it was the turn of the person who suggested it to feel bad for recommending crap.
Any of the works of Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Because, although she was a gift writer, I know what she did.