# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Rangerdanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/67e7ee/32.png) [@Rangerdanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rangerdanger)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/101 "2025-12-04T01:58:36Z")
The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols Still Life with Woodpecker, Tom Robbins The Fool’s Progress, Edward Abbey ---
**Author:** ![cieskokid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cieskokid/32/5374_2.png) [@cieskokid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cieskokid)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/102 "2025-12-04T06:26:34Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > m Robbins Ah, I wondered if & should’ve sensed a fellow Doper would have my #1 somewhere on their list & am honored to see a fellow afficionado of the unique quasi\*psychedelia of Tom Robbins. My List: 1. Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins 2. Neuromancer - William Gibson 3. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien ---
**Author:** ![Cachalot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@Cachalot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cachalot)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/103 "2025-12-04T06:47:51Z")
1. Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig 2. Shogun by James Clavell 3. The Sheriff of Nottingham by Richard Kluger ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/104 "2025-12-04T06:50:34Z")
In no particular order: The Golden Globe by John Varley Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/105 "2025-12-04T12:33:27Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole This one missed my list by a cat whisker. (and I’m aware lots of folks hate it.) mmm ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/106 "2025-12-04T12:52:53Z")
I was living in Budapest at the time I read it – among the expats a little personal library system developed, and I was browsing a friend’s bookshelf and found the title intriguing. I had never heard of the book before and went into it completely blind, except for reading the blurb on the back cover. Funny as hell, and I could just not put that down, but I do tend to like stories with protagonists/narrators one would not typically identify with. (Also, see: Lolita). Might be worth a reread soon. But I’ve also lately been tempted to reread Hitchhiker’s Guide and see if it’s still as funny some 30 years on. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Gordon\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_G)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/107 "2025-12-05T11:21:10Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > - Catch 22, Joseph Heller > - Master and Margarita, Bulgakov Finally! I had to scroll through the first third of the thread to find anyone mentioning any of my favorites. (Though even these don’t make my Top Three.) I’ll take 1. Something by Mark Twain, e.g. Huckleberry Finn. 2. Something by Tom Wolfe, e.g. The Bonfire of the Vanities. 3. a modern thriller, perhaps le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. That’s assuming novellas are disallowed. I prefer novellas, so if allowed I’ll pick 1. Hemingways’s The Old Man and the Sea 2. London’s Call of the Wild 3. Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground > [@](#): > > no-more-than-three-please I’m sorry. With the novella/novel distinction left ambiguous I felt I had no choice but to respond as I did. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/108 "2025-12-05T14:30:45Z")
Oh shit!!! I forgot about Master and Margarita. That really should be my 2, bumping everyone else down one. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/109 "2025-12-05T15:41:00Z")
Ha! I didn’t even notice. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/110 "2025-12-05T22:41:48Z")
_All the Kings Men_ - Robert Penn Warren _Blood Meridian_ - Cormac McCarthy _Cloud Atlas_ - David Mitchell ---
**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 10, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/111 "2025-12-10T21:33:50Z")
> [@Zoobi](#): > > Foucault’s Pendulum > > 2666 > > Cloudsplitter Wow. I didn’t think anybody had ever heard of _Cloudsplitter_, a gigantic book by Russell Banks with a gigantic subject, John Brown and the anti-slavery movement. I seriously considered it for my list. Rochester, like many cities, did an “If Everybody Read the Same Book” event. I’d never heard of Banks before he was made that year’s author, although his _The Sweet Hereafter_, much shorter and easier to read, was the book. I was a volunteer doing scrub work behind the scenes and our “pay” was a stack of signed Russell Banks trade paperbacks. _Cloudsplitter_ is up there with Huck Finn as a super-important must read of American historical fiction. Octavia Butler was the author the next year, and I got to drive her around and have lunch with her. Much more fun than Banks. ---
**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 10, 2025, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/112 "2025-12-10T21:52:33Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Octavia Butler I’ve gotten her signature on her books twice (for several books each time). Once was at Balticon in Baltimore. The other time was at a bookstore in Washington, D.C. which apparently doesn’t exist anymore. I just finished reading her book _Fledgling_ which was the only one of her books I own that wasn’t signed by her. It was published about five months before she died, so she probably didn’t have time to do a lot of signing sessions for it. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/113 "2025-12-10T23:16:27Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Wow. I didn’t think anybody had ever heard of _Cloudsplitter_, a gigantic book by Russell Banks with a gigantic subject, John Brown and the anti-slavery movement. I seriously considered it for my list. Just added the sample to my Kindle. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/114 "2025-12-10T23:56:28Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I chose novels that I go back to again and again. Same, so for me, and in no particular order: _Aurora_ - Kim Stanley Robinson _Existence_ - David Brin _The Boat of a Million Years_ - Poul Anderson I’ve read each of these enough times that I’ve actually repurchased _Aurora,_ and, _Boat of a Million Years_ because my first purchases have started falling apart, and I’m looking for a new _Existence_ as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/115 "2025-12-11T00:08:49Z")
1. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien 2. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin 3. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/116 "2025-12-11T00:13:05Z")
Third: _ **A Wrinkle in Time** _ by Madeleine L’Engle Second: _ **The Dispossessed** _ by Ursula K. LeGuin First: _ **Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell** _ by Susanna Clarke ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/117 "2025-12-11T00:20:51Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > All the Birds in the Sky – Charlie Jane Anders Indeed! I regret not including it in my list. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/118 "2025-12-11T00:23:01Z")
I find few duplications through the whole list (except for _Lord of the Rings_, natch!). Impressive diversity. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/119 "2025-12-11T00:29:43Z")
1. _The Sign of the Four_ by Arthur Conan Doyle (really kind of a stand-in for all the Holmes stories) 2. _The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie_ by Alan Bradley 3. _Motherless Brooklyn_ by Jonathan Lethem I seriously cannot believe I am the first person to list Conan Doyle. ---
**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 11, 2025, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316/120 "2025-12-11T01:52:28Z")
LotR beats out Catch-22, 12-9. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-all-time-three-favorite-novels-in-order-no-more-than-three-please/1025316.md?page=7)