# Top 5 Book series of all time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 9, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713 "2018-10-09T17:51:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/1 "2018-10-09T17:51:15Z")
1. Parker - Richard Stark (Don Westlake) 2. Jack Reacher - Lee Child 3. Myron Bolitar - Harlen Coben 4. Hank Thompson - Charlie Huston 5. Gentleman Bastards - Scott Lynch Honorable mention: James Bond - Ian Fleming Alex Delaware - Jonathan Kellerman ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/2 "2018-10-09T18:03:23Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > 1. Parker - Richard Stark (Don Westlake) > 2. Jack Reacher - Lee Child > 3. Myron Bolitar - Harlen Coben > 4. Hank Thompson - Charlie Huston > 5. Gentleman Bastards - Scott Lynch Interesting that I’ve never heard of any of these (series or author) except vaguely recognize the name “Jack Reacher.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/3 "2018-10-09T20:13:51Z")
The Anno Dracula series - Kim Newman The Commonwealth series - Peter F. Hamilton The Flashman series - George MacDonald Fraser The Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling The Vorkosigan series - Lois McMaster Bujold ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/4 "2018-10-09T20:33:01Z")
LotR Discworld, pTerry The Flashman series - George MacDonald Fraser Hornblower- CS Forester. Harry Potter-J.K. Rowling The Dresden Files- Jim Butcher Nero Wolfe- Rex Stout. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/5 "2018-10-09T20:34:10Z")
Not sure I can stretch to five, but Aubrey/Maturin (Master and Commander) - Patrick O’Brian Vorkosigan saga - Lois McMaster Bujold The Culture novels - Iain M Banks If trilogies count then The Karla trilogy - John Le Carre ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/6 "2018-10-09T20:35:01Z")
The Aubrey - Maturin Series by Patrick O’Brian. ---
**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:** [October 9, 2018, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/7 "2018-10-09T20:39:22Z")
In no particular order: Harry Potter by JK Rowling Discworld by Terry Pratchett Narnia by CS Lewis Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/8 "2018-10-09T20:43:34Z")
LOTR Harry Potter ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/9 "2018-10-09T20:49:18Z")
In no particular order, Discworld - Terry Pratchett Vorkosiganverse - Lois McMaster Bujold The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper The Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis The Fairyland series - Catherynne M. Valente ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/10 "2018-10-09T20:53:37Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper > > The Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis The Dark is Rising is also excellent. Crappy film, tho. Narnia is great but doesnt quite hold up as much for adults. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/11 "2018-10-09T20:53:41Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > LotR IMHO, not a series. A single work that was published in three volumes. Certainly not the same _kind_ of series as others mentioned in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/12 "2018-10-09T20:55:58Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > IMHO, not a series. A single work that was published in three volumes. Certainly not the same _kind_ of series as others mentioned in this thread. Yes & no, but that is why I listed it by itself, no author and five others. The Hobbit and LotR is a small series. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/13 "2018-10-10T00:19:41Z")
Frankly I think L. Frank Baum’s OZ books are more entertaining to read than anything C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, or J.K. Rowling wrote. When I was younger, the Choose Your Own Adventure and the Which Way Books series was very popular. I also was a fan of the men’s adventure genre: The Executioner series, Phoenix Force, Able Team, and Deathlands. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/14 "2018-10-10T00:28:56Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Frankly I think L. Frank Baum’s OZ books are more entertaining to read than anything C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, or J.K. Rowling wrote. > > When I was younger, the Choose Your Own Adventure and the Which Way Books series was very popular. I also was a fan of the men’s adventure genre: The Executioner series, Phoenix Force, Able Team, and Deathlands. I enjoyed a number of the Destroyer series with Remo Williams, and the early Casca series. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/15 "2018-10-10T00:40:22Z")
La Comédie humaine, by Honore Balzac Les Rougon-Macquart, by Emile Zola The Chronicles of Barchester, by Anthony Trollope Vanity Fair (and its prequels/sequels), by William Makepeace Thackeray ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/16 "2018-10-10T00:50:06Z")
The Gormenghast books, by Mervyn Peake. Unfortunately there are really only two: **Titus Groan** and **Gormenghast**. By the time he was writing **Titus Alone** he was already in the grip of Parkinson’s disease. If two books constitute a “series,” then Lewis Carroll’s Alice books. Hurrah for Richard Stark making the first post! I read the first two of Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula books — didn’t know there were more — had enough by the end of Part II, really. Can’t get enough of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels, but I wish he’d written twice as many during the 1930s…those were the best! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/17 "2018-10-10T01:30:20Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Frankly I think L. Frank Baum’s OZ books are more entertaining to read than anything C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, or J.K. Rowling wrote. They are a fun, entertaining, and perhaps unfairly neglected series. They’re simpler, more juvenile, and less ambitious than those others—not that there’s anything wrong with that. They’re open-ended, imaginative, and fairly cheerful—something I sometimes wish there were more of in modern fantasy fiction. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/18 "2018-10-10T17:55:47Z")
Some nonfiction series I’d recommend: 1. The Straight Dope. 2. The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky,Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace. (Though they maybe outdated at this point.) 3. 1001 Before You Die series. (it starts 1001 Movies You Must See Before Die and goes on from there.) [https://www.goodreads.com/series/55173-1001-before-you-die](https://www.goodreads.com/series/55173-1001-before-you-die) 4.Time Life’s Mysteries of the Unknown series [https://www.goodreads.com/series/97387-mysteries-of-the-unknown](https://www.goodreads.com/series/97387-mysteries-of-the-unknown) 4. Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/19 "2018-10-10T18:47:12Z")
1. Outlander And, in no particular order 2) Wizard of Oz 3) Gentlemen Bastards 4) Harry Potter 5) Masters of Rome (Colleen McCullough) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713/20 "2018-10-10T19:07:09Z")
It looks like you guys have this pretty well covered, and I don’t have the energy to make up a list myself, but if I may nominate a current series for honorable mention, I’d like to sing the praises of [The Books of Babel](http://www.thebooksofbabel.com/), by Josiah Bancroft. It’s a steampunk adventure about a man searching for his lost wife in the Tower of Babel, and the only bad thing I can say about it is it’s not finished yet. Of course, that’s also a good thing because I have more of this wonderful journey to follow in future… I just thought of another really amusing series that brought me much joy: [The Johannes Cabal series](https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/jonathan-l-howard/necromancer.htm) by Jonathan L. Howard. Johannes Cabal is a necromancer and misanthrope who has sold his soul to the Devil. Check out the preview at the link; thank me later. 🆒 That reminds me, [The Lockwood & Company series](http://www.jonathanstroud.com/lockwoodandco.html) by Jonathan Stroud is a YA series, but I read it as an adult and loved it. It’s about a company of young ghosthunters and has a strong female protagonist. A YA series (or maybe just a trilogy) that grabbed me when I was an actual kid, [the Lewis Barnavelt books](http://johnbellairs.wikia.com/wiki/Lewis_Barnavelt_Series) are classics. Go see The House With A Clock in Its Walls at the movie theatre if you must, but I hope you get to read the book first. Well dang, here I am making a list…I’m going to save my last spot in case I think of any others later! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-book-series-of-all-time/822713.md?page=2)