[ol][li]Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban[/li][li]Independent People by Hálldor Laxness[/li][li]The Dwarf by Par Lagerkvist[/li][li]Kristin Lavrandattir by Sigrid Undset[/li]Molloy by Samuel Beckett [/ol] Like gobear, four of whose titles find a place on my alternates list (along with three of Eve’s), these books represent novels that have an ongoing life for me, and call me back to them time after time: I will never finish with any of these.
Oooo, a Coupland fan!
I’m one too, and I have read both of those (just finished AFAP this week, actually) but I have to differ on what I consider his best, and my inclusion into my favorites.
Also, I must say that my “favorite” books change frequently… they’re not set in stone. Now that we have the disclaimers out of the way…
The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson)
Girlfriend in a Coma (Douglas Coupland)
Illusions (Richard Bach, and yes, I know it’s new-age fluff)
Nine Princes in Amber (Roger Zelazny)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (first four books, omnibus, Douglas Adams)
The Book Dragon - Dean Kuntzner
Shogun - James Clavell
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet
- Suttree Cormac McCarthy
- Dispatches Michael Herr
- New Hope for the Dead Charles Willeford
- Catch-22 Heller
- White Noise Don DeLillo
On further reflection I wouldn’t classify Dispatches as a novel. It’s actually New Journalism. So, bump everything up and add Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan.
I just finished it last week and it was awesome! Her best book, I think.
The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
The End of the Affair, Graham Greene
Ironweed, William Kennedy
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
On the Beach, Nevil Shute
The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman (since it’d probably be against the rules to pick the entire run)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Slaugherhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut
City of Glass by Paul Auster
Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
I’m going to get some Kazantzakis stuff on this thread:
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
1984 by George Orwell
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
In no particular order and knowing I’m going to leave something out:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Watership Down - Douglas Adams
Roots by Alex Haley
Dawn by Elie Wiesel
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
In no particular order…
*The World According to Garp
*Huckleberry Finn
*The Stand
*Sybil
*The Handmaid’s Tale
(For honorable mention: Anything by Ray Bradbury)
:::::::Sigh:::::::::::
All the year’s I’ve wasted reading romance novels…and I love it when these lists come around because it always opens my eyes towards new stuff that I would probably bypass at the book store.
My short list:
Night by Elie Wiesel (holocaust)
Donbas Jacques Sandelesque (holocaust)
**Holidays in Hell ** P.J. O’Rourke (travel writing/politics)
**Anything by Dave Barry ** (humor)
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen.
**Pure Drivel ** Steve Martin.
**Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy ** Doug Adams
And some romance picks for the frivolous readers
- Anything by Lynn Kurland
- Anything by Mary Jo Putney ( except one, it sucked.)
- Anything by Dara Joy
- All of Barbara Metzger’s work. [size=1]none of you will like it, as there are no androids, plots to take over the world with overlords and invasions. It’s Regency England. [/size=1]
If it has to be only five…then perhaps these:
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Wild Swans – Jung Chang
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The worst Journey in the World – Apsley Cherry-Gerrard
The Bone People – Keri Hulme
The Brother’s Kharamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
The Heart of Darkness - Conrad
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams (by far his funniest and cleverest work)
This is a hard question to answer, as favorite and best are not necessarily the same thing. There are books I love, read over and over, that are the printed versions of B-movies. All this being said, here are five books that I think have both high quality, and I enjoy.
1)To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
2)In This House of Brede-Rumer Godden
3)The Vicar of Christ-Walter Murphy
4)The Good Earth-Pearl Buck
5)The Moon is a Harsh Mistress-Robert Heinlein
There ought to be a companion thread for books aimed at kids or teenagers.
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
**Outlander ** - Diana Gabaldon
Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Thornbird - Colleen McCollough
In no particular order:
Fools Die - Mario Puzo
Ransom - Jay McInerney
The Razor’s Edge - Sommerset Maugham
The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurty
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Hello. My first post, a thread I couldn’t pass up.
- The Brothers K, David James Duncan (the fact that this book is at the top of the following list says A LOT about how great I think it is.)
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- Lord of the Rings
- The Sot-Weed Factor, John Barth
- Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
I can’t believe 1 and 4 weren’t already listed!! (unless I missed them.)
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
AuntiPam, I see that you’ve done an initial compilation of the suggestions in this thread. Thanks.
Posters might be interested in this thread, the Doper List of the 100 Most Important Books of the 20th Century, for a compilation of “must read” books that was done in August/September of 2002 (OP by Chronos).
The top 10 in that list was:
- 1984, Orwell
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee
- Animal Farm, Orwell
-
Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
tie for 5. Catcher In The Rye, Salinger -
Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
tie for 7. Catch-22, Heller - On The Road, Kerouac
-
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig
tie for 10. Brave New World, Huxley - Diary of Anne Frank, Frank
- In Cold Blood, Capote
- Night, Weisel
- Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut
In a class all by itself:
Flowers For Algernon, Keyes
Other than that, my personal top 5 would be:
- Slaughterhouse Five Vonnegut
- The Trial, Kafka
- Catch 22, Heller
- Unto This Hour, Wicker
- Lucifer’s Hammer, Niven and Pournelle
There are a couple newer novels that I really enjoyed, but haven’t yet stood the test of time to be ranked (and certainly would never appear on a list of “important” books)…
The Da Vinci Code, Brown
The Vanished Man, Deaver