# Name your all-time three favorite novels, in order. No more than three, please **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2025, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316 "2025-12-02T03:38:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [December 2, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/21 "2025-12-02T16:01:48Z")
1. **The Sot-Weed Factor** by John Barth 2. **The Woman in White** by Wilkie Collins 3. **Small Gods** by Terry Pratchett ---
**Author:** ![f.coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@f.coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/f.coli)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/22 "2025-12-02T16:18:25Z")
-Moby Dick -The Lord of the Rings -Dracula ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/23 "2025-12-02T16:44:16Z")
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway Dune - Frank Herbert The City & the City - China Mieville ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/24 "2025-12-02T17:00:59Z")
1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll) 2. _Le grand Meaulnes_ (Alain-Fournier) 3. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/25 "2025-12-02T17:02:44Z")
I’ll go with: 1. Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell 2. David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens 3. The Newcomes, by William Thackeray (Hard to say if those are my all-time favourites, but I certainly like them better than all of the other books mentioned in this thread so far.) ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/26 "2025-12-02T17:03:16Z")
Lord of the Rings Dune Player of Games (if not this the then another Iain M Banks Culture novel) ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/27 "2025-12-02T17:03:25Z")
In no particular order: To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen Rose Daughter - Robin McKinley ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/28 "2025-12-02T17:07:50Z")
Some many good novels already listed. Here’s my three 1. _Sometimes a Great Notion_, Ken Kesey. 2. _The Road Home_, Jim Harrison 3. Some John Irving novel, I’ll pick _The Hotel New Hampshire._ ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/29 "2025-12-02T17:15:07Z")
Red Storm Rising The Devil’s Alternative Redwall ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/30 "2025-12-02T17:25:14Z")
A Gentleman In Moscow The Graveyard Book Young Mungo I didn’t want these stories to end and I often think about the characters and what happened to them many years later. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/31 "2025-12-02T17:30:16Z")
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/32 "2025-12-02T17:45:18Z")
Difficult because it depends–favorites on reading? On re-reading? In a particular mood? That I’d take to the desert island? 1. Ursula K. Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness 2. Hans Zinnser: Rats, Lice, and History 3. Adrienne Rich: The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977 ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/33 "2025-12-02T17:51:36Z")
1. _Jane Eyre_ (Charlotte Bronte) 2. _Out of the Silent Planet_ (C.S. Lewis) 3. _The Custom of the Country_ (Edith Wharton) ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/34 "2025-12-02T18:02:57Z")
_Pride And Prejudice_ _True Grit_ _Watership Down_ ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/35 "2025-12-02T18:10:30Z")
1. Belgarath the Sorcerer, by David Eddings. 2. Guards, Guards, by Terry Pratchett. 3. Magic’s Pawn, by Mercedes Lackey ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/36 "2025-12-02T18:29:49Z")
1. Catch 22, Joseph Heller 2. Master and Margarita, Bulgakov 3. Cugel’s Saga, Vance (technically a novella, I believe). ---
**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:** [December 2, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/37 "2025-12-02T18:34:05Z")
1. **Catch-22** (my bible for 55 years) 2. **One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest** (Ken Kesey’s masterpiece) 3. **Deliverance** (a disturbing story made beautiful by a poet’s mastery of words) I’ve read all three of these many times. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/38 "2025-12-02T18:35:48Z")
_Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland_ (and _Through the Looking Glass_, and _What Alice Found There_) _The Lord of the Rings_ (and _The Hobbit_) _A Wrinkle in Time_ And if I could include another book it would be _The Last Picture Show_. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/39 "2025-12-02T18:43:46Z")
_By The Sword_ by Mercedes Lackey _Illuminatus!_ by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson _Time Enough For Love_ by Robert Heinlein ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/40 "2025-12-02T18:49:21Z")
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut Catch-22 - Joseph Heller Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316.md?page=3)