# What are the 5 best novels you've ever read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2003, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068 "2003-07-26T12:37:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/1 "2003-07-26T12:37:08Z")
My list of this keeps changing, but at the moment, off the top of my head, my list is (in no particular order): _A Prayer for Owen Meaney_ by John Irving _The Corrections_ by Jonathan Frantzen _A Suitable Boy_ by Vikram Seth _Midnight’s Children_ by Salman Rushdie _Birdsong_ by Sebastian Faulks Anyone else like to share their list? I’m thinking this might be a good thread to pick up reading tips. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/2 "2003-07-26T12:55:32Z")
I can’t bring myself to whittle my list down any more than this: For Whom the Bell Tolls Don Quixote Lolita The Grapes of Wrath The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn To Kill a Mockingbird Cold Mountain The Name of the Rose ---
**Author:** ![Miaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/439d5e/32.png) [@Miaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miaz)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/3 "2003-07-26T13:00:13Z")
Original Dune Trilogy (Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune) by Frank Herbert Ishmael by Daniel Quinn The Story of B by Daniel Quinn ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/4 "2003-07-26T13:40:13Z")
_Les Miserables_, Victor Hugo _Stranger in a Strange Land_, Robert Heinlein _A Tale of Two Cities_, Charles Dickens _The Chronicles of Narnia_, C.S. Lewis (cheating) _The Lord of the Rings_, J.R.R. Tolkien ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/5 "2003-07-26T13:50:31Z")
The Godfather The Exorcist Shibumi Perfume Cold Mountain ---
**Author:** ![Nvme77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Nvme77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nvme77)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/6 "2003-07-26T14:04:44Z")
Microserfs Mists of Avalon All families are Psychotic The Witching Hour Little Women ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/7 "2003-07-26T14:35:57Z")
Mine’s a rather long list, too, but some that have stuck with me over the years as favorites are: A Wrinkle in Time - Madelein L’Engle Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell Mendel’s Dwarf Cold Sassy Tree - Olive Ann Burns The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde These are just a few that I’ve read that when I’ve finished I’ve been sad to see the story end. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/8 "2003-07-26T14:53:47Z")
Vanity Fair-William Makepeace Thackeray I, Claudius–Robert Graves Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoevski Light in August–William Faulkner Barchester Towers–Anthony Trollope It’s really difficult to name just five, so the books I named are novels that I’ve read several times and gotten something new out of them every time, but I could just as easily and fairly name many other sets of 5 novels as “my favorites.” ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/9 "2003-07-26T15:11:25Z")
I have no qualification to rate these as literature. They are just the novels of which I have the most favorable and lasting memories. Geek Love Katharine Dunn The Last Confession of Mabel Stark ? Keough Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald Chicken Every Sunday Rosemary Taylor As soon as I post I will think of 3 others that I should have said instead. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/10 "2003-07-26T15:28:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gwendee \* > **I have no qualification to rate these as literature. They are just the novels of which I have the most favorable and lasting memories.** Yeah, those are the only real criteria I have. Enjoyment is in the eye of the beholder, and damn anyone who gets elitist about it. “Top five” is a very tough choice, but it’s a fun exercise anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/11 "2003-07-26T16:11:16Z")
_The Old Curiosity Shop_, by Chas. Dickens _Bohemians of the Latin Quarter_, by Henri Murger _Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_, by Anita Loos _Vile Bodies_, by Evelyn Waugh _Now, Voyager_, by Olive Higgins Prouty ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/12 "2003-07-26T16:25:34Z")
I will limit myself to single novels - thus no trilogies or _The Chronicles of Narnia_. _The Dispossessed_, by Ursula LeGuin _Pride and Prejudice_, by Jane Austen _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_, by Mark Twain _Crime and Punishment_, by F. Dostoveskey _The Maltese Falcon_, by Dashiell Hammett I only get to name five? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/13 "2003-07-26T16:31:02Z")
I make no particular claims for extraordinary literary merit, but these are the five I keep reading over and over again: _Jane Eyre_ and _Villette_ by Charlotte Bronte _Great Expectations_ by Charles Dickens _A Room with a View_ by E. M. Forster _Gaudy Night_ by Dorothy L. Sayers ---
**Author:** ![chestnutmare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@chestnutmare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chestnutmare)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/14 "2003-07-26T16:33:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gwendee \* > **I have no qualification to rate these as literature. They are just the novels of which I have the most favorable and lasting memories.** And with that in mind… _A Suitable Boy_ by Vikram Seth ( I thought I was the only one to make it through all 1500 pages) _Pride & Prejudice_ by Jane Austen _Still Life with Woodpecker_ by Tom Robbins (note: this is primarily due to a quote from this book _Redheads are either demigods or potential demigods_ or something to that effect.) _House of the Spirits_ by Isabelle Allende _Love in the Time of Cholera_ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ---
**Author:** ![chestnutmare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@chestnutmare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chestnutmare)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/15 "2003-07-26T16:34:39Z")
Correct Tom Robbins quote “Redheads are either descendents of or are potential demigods” :smack: I remembered as soon as I hit post reply ---
**Author:** ![Nightime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Nightime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightime)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/16 "2003-07-26T17:05:29Z")
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller - Italo Calvino The Trial - Franz Kafka Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevski Catch 22 - Joseph Heller One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Man Who was Thursday - GK Chesterton Of course, this ignores series such as The Chronicles of Narnia, the Foundation series, and the Hitchhiker’s Guide, as well as stories like those of Poe and Saki. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/17 "2003-07-26T17:13:10Z")
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier A Soldier of the Great War - Mark Helprin oh, almost forgot (sorry to go over the limit, but…) The Regeneration Triology: Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road - Pat Barker ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/18 "2003-07-26T17:14:43Z")
Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin The Princess Bride by William Goldman masquerading as S. Morganstern The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck The Witching Hour by Anne Rice ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/19 "2003-07-26T17:16:00Z")
Watership Down - Richard Adams Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain Hamlet - William Shakespeare (not a novel, but…) Geek Love - Katherine Dunn The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068/20 "2003-07-26T17:35:56Z")
_Little, Big_ - **John Crowley** _A Soldier of the Great War_ - **Mark Helprin** _Three Men In A Boat_ - **Jerome K. Jerome** _Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars_ - **Kim Stanley Robinson** _Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance_ - **Robert M. Pirsig** [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-5-best-novels-youve-ever-read/191068.md?page=2)