Book?

This is another toughie.

I read a lot, when I have the time, but my reading is sometimes a little restricted. I want to be the sort of person who has read everything from Kafka to Tolkein, from Rushdie to Austen to the next big thing...
But I don't in all honesty.
I generally manage to stick to fantasy, sci-fi, some poetry, and a few interesting modern novels.
I've really enjoyed some of David Mitchell's books. Cloud Atlas threw me a curve and wasn't at all what I was expecting. Black Swan Green threw me another because it wasn't anything like Cloud Atlas. (I did have some issues with BSG as I was the same age as the main character at the time it was set, and much of it didn't ring true. I enjoyed it nonetheless.)
The Time Traveller's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry were both entertaining, but lacked a little something.

But I waffle on pointlessly...

Favourite book? Books... that's easier.

Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
A Little Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransom
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
American Gods, Stardust and Anansi Boys - all by Neil Gaiman.

There - that will do.