# List your three favorite books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285 "2012-02-28T21:34:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Made_French_Toast_For_You)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/21 "2012-02-28T23:21:33Z")
_Absalom, Absalom!_ by Faulkner _Molloy_ by Beckett _Jealousy_ by Robbe-Grillet ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/22 "2012-02-28T23:53:40Z")
**The Sot-Weed Factor** by John Barth **Replay** by Ken Grimwood **The Carpet Makers** by Andreas Eschbach ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/23 "2012-02-29T00:19:38Z")
Incredibly difficult question. If pushed, right now, I’d have to say: _A Suitable Boy_ - Vikram Seth _Midnight’s Children_ - Salman Rushdie _The Great Gatsby_ - F. Scott Fitzgerald The last one may be unnaturally favored because I just finished reading it again last night. It’s a toss-up between that, _Freedom_ by Jonathan Frantzen and _A Prayer for Owen Meany_. But it is a truly incredible book. One I read recently that will be a contender in future. And I hope will gain its rightful place as a modern classic. It has the sparse beauty of Hemingway, the psychological insight of Patricia Highsmith, yet in the context of a page-turning, driving plot: _The Outcast_ - Sadie Jones If you like literary fiction, get this devastating book, with my wholehearted recommendation. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/24 "2012-02-29T00:21:48Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Incredibly difficult question. If pushed, right now, I’d have to say: > > _A Suitable Boy_ - Vikram Seth > _Midnight’s Children_ - Salman Rushdie > _The Great Gatsby_ - F. Scott Fitzgerald > > The last one may be unnaturally favored because I just finished reading it again last night. It’s a toss-up between that, _Freedom_ by Jonathan Frantzen and _A Prayer for Owen Meany_. But it is a truly incredible book. > > One I read recently that will be a contender in future. And I hope will gain its rightful place as a modern classic. It has the sparse beauty of Hemingway, the psychological insight of Patricia Highsmith, yet in the context of a page-turning, driving plot: > > _The Outcast_ - Sadie Jones > > If you like literary fiction, get this devastating book, with my wholehearted recommendation. Cheater!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/25 "2012-02-29T00:39:20Z")
**The Crimson Petal and the White** by Michel Faber **The Robber Bride** by Margaret Atwood **At Swim-Two-Birds** by Flann O’Brien ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/26 "2012-02-29T00:42:43Z")
Persuasion, Jane Austen A Soldier of the Great War, Mark Helprin Bleak House, Charles Dickens ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/27 "2012-02-29T00:51:20Z")
“Busman’s Honeymoon” - Dorothy Sayers “When Genius Failed” - Roger Lowenstein “Into the Wild” - Jon Krakauer We aren’t doing fiction only, are we? I’m surprised at the lack of non-fiction here. Usually in these types of threads it’s a mix of mostly fantasy and non-fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/28 "2012-02-29T00:51:27Z")
_Needful Things_, by Stephen King _From the Corner of His Ey_e, by Dean Koontz and the third would have to be a tie between _One Door Away From Heaven_, by Dean Koontz or _I Never Promised You A Rose Garden_, by Hannah Green/Joanne Greenberg. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/29 "2012-02-29T00:52:45Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > Cheater!! 😃 What!? I chose my three. I just happened to explain my thinking. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/30 "2012-02-29T01:02:44Z")
_The Dollmaker_ by Harriette Simpson Arnow _The English Passengers_ by Matthew Kneale _Cloud Atlas_ by David Mitchell If the OP had asked for just one, it’d be _The Dollmaker_, hands down. It’s been almost 40 years since I first read it, and nothing else has even come close to the effect this book has on me. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/31 "2012-02-29T01:22:07Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > 1. _Double Star_, by Robert Heinlein I think you’re the first person I’ve ever heard say that’s one of Heinlein’s best, let alone one of the best books of any kind. I think I might have read it when I was a teenager, but I remember next to nothing about it. Have to look at it again. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/32 "2012-02-29T01:29:11Z")
_Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century_ - Greil Marcus _Pop. 1280_ - Jim Thompson _We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda_ - Philip Gourevitch ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/33 "2012-02-29T01:35:53Z")
_Little Women_ by Louisa May Alcott _A Beautiful Mind_ by Sylvia Nasar _Love, Loss and What I Wore_ by Ilene Beckerman My favorite books about childhood, science and crafting a life as a grown woman. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/34 "2012-02-29T02:16:47Z")
\*Lord of the Rings \*- The Good Professor himself. _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ - Robert A. Heinlein _The Hobbit_ - by J. R. R. Tolkien ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/35 "2012-02-29T02:36:10Z")
Cripes. That’s hard. Just fiction, or anything? Fiction: _Gilead_- Marilynne Robinson _The Dispossessed_- Ursula K. Le Guin You know, for the third, I can’t decide between about twenty books. I’ll throw in a non-fiction book: _Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_. There. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/36 "2012-02-29T02:51:24Z")
Catch-22 (Heller) One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Kesey) Desert Solitaire (Abbey) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/37 "2012-02-29T03:00:37Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > I think you’re the first person I’ve ever heard say that’s one of Heinlein’s best, let alone one of the best books of any kind. I think I might have read it when I was a teenager, but I remember next to nothing about it. Have to look at it again. Double Star may not be RAH’s best, but the OP asked for favorites! I love so many of his books, but something about his making a politician a HERO makes it different. As best I can tell, Heinlein is the only author listed in this thread with more than one book. I’ve been compiling a list of titles, and Lolita, The Stand, The Lord of the Rings, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, are the only books to be mentioned more than once. That really surprises me, I thought maybe there would be more doubling up. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/38 "2012-02-29T03:03:37Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Double Star may not be RAH’s best, but the OP asked for favorites! I love so many of his books, but something about his making a politician a HERO makes it different. > > As best I can tell, Heinlein is the only author listed in this thread with more than one book. I’ve been compiling a list of titles, and Lolita, The Stand, The Lord of the Rings, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, are the only books to be mentioned more than once. That really surprises me, I thought maybe there would be more doubling up. Actually I picked LotR & the Hobbit. So Tolkien got 2 also. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/39 "2012-02-29T03:08:16Z")
There’s no way I could come up with only three. I am so glad to see I am not the only lover of _The Stand_ and _A Prayer for Owen Meany._ Both those stand up to repeated re-reading, I’ve found. Um… _The Stand_, Stephen King _I Know This Much Is True_, Wally Lamb _Heartbreak Hotel_, Anne Rivers Siddons And thanks, folks–I will be bookmarking this thread in dreams of coming summer, and endless hours between “after work” and “too dark to read” for my blissful time, sitting in the back yard, reading. Reading. And reading. - …hey, when the thread dies down, someone compile a list, eh? And post it? **Baker?** ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285/40 "2012-02-29T03:21:14Z")
> [@Lissla\_Lissar](#): > > Cripes. That’s hard. Just fiction, or anything? > > Fiction: > > _Gilead_- Marilynne Robinson > _The Dispossessed_- Ursula K. Le Guin > > You know, for the third, I can’t decide between about twenty books. I’ll throw in a non-fiction book: _Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_. There. Ah. Le Guin’s best work. Fourth on my list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-your-three-favorite-books/614285.md?page=3)