Gone With The Wind-Margaret Mitchell
Sorry I am stupid…so anyway…
Wicked-Gregory Maguire
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister- also by Maguire
Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
Wow! Just 5?..
OK… Here goes…
Pale Fire - Nabokov
Ulysses - Joyce (Yes, I know. Pretentious as hell. But I have actually read it like four times and it really is one of my favorites)
Invisible Cities - Calvino
Labarinths - Borges
House of Leaves - Danielewski (one of the scariest books I’ve ever reead and at the same time a wonderful exploration of semiotics and the printers art. Plus it’s a ripping good yarn.)
Pride and Prejudice, Austen
To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee
Gaudy Night, Sayers
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lewis
The Iliad, Homer (not a novel, so sue me)
Julie
The Stranger, as translated by Matthew Ward, not Stuart Gilbert
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
The Count of Monte Cristo
Finnegan’s Wake, by James Joyce. (just kidding)
Where I’m Calling From, by Raymond Carver
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T.E. Lawrence
These 3 are just perfection:
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Ada, Vladimir Nabokov
The Beginning of Spring, Penelope Fitzgerald
These 3 are marvelous, pure pleasure, page turners:
The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One of my favorite novels is disguised as a short story collection:
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
I’ve enjoyed reading through these lists and adding books to my “To Read” list (especially from posters who listed some of my favorites, like
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Accidental Tourist, Ann Tyler)
But those are taken, so I get to start a new list and not count those! I have a terrible memory, and have even come to close to the end of a book before realizing I’ve read it before. I went through Ken Follett and Elmore Leonard stages (and who’s the guy who wrote all the cop books?), but can’t remember the names of the books. So, through my swiss cheese brain, I’ll add some fun books nobody’s mentioned yet that spring to mind:
Painted Canoe, Anthony Winkler
Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen (so it’s non-fiction, sue me)
Turtle Diary, Russel Hoban
A Bend in the River V.S. Naipaul
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss
I realized when I tried to do this that many of my favorite books have been non-fiction - travel stories, biographies, etc. I also realized that I enjoyed a lot of books I’m a little embarrassed to mention, like Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy (admit it, a lot of you have favorite books you’re afraid to mention or you’ll look shallow).
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque
Romance of the Three Kingdoms Lo Kuan Chung
*The Unconquered Country * Geoff Ryman
The True Story of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey
Good Omens Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
It’s tough to only pick five, but here goes:
Ada by Vladimir Nabokov
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Bad Brains by Kathe Koja
Other Voices, Other Rooms Truman Capote
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
If I was allowing multiple titles per author, I would’ve included Nabokov’s Lolita and Transparent Things and Hesse’s Demian.
Oh, hell, I would’ve included everything by Nabokov. 
The, by this stage, almost obligatory:
- Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
- Babbit - Sinclair Lewis Only one other mention!! I’m shocked!
- Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk (and Fight Club)
- Crimson Petal and the White - Michael Faber
- 1984 - Orwell
…and Alias Grace/Handmaiden’s Tale (Atwood), Hitchhiker’s (Adams), Perfume (Suskind), Fingersmith (Waters)…Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Bronte)…
“Burr” - Gore Vidal (I’ll add “Lincoln,” “Empire” and the rest of the series, but it started with “Burr”).
“The Cider House Rules” - John Irving (also liked “Prayer for Owen Meany,” but didn’t care for “Hotel New Hampshire,” or “The 158 lb. Marriage”).
“Slaughterhouse Five,” - Kurt Vonnegut (a co-worker had dinner with Mr. Vonnegut and said that he’s not much of a dinner companion).
“Treasure Island” - Robert Louis Stevenson (I must have read this about a thousand times as a kid. I still enjoy it).
“The Shining” - Stephen King (I slept with the lights on).