Mine are pretty common,
Catch-22, Joe Heller, and A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole…
Oooh maybe The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Cason McCullers
Damn, too many choices
if i were limited to only being able to name one book it would have to be Dune by Frank Herbert.
Without a doubt, a gentleman named Jack Whyte. He is still working on “The Camulod Chronicles,” a look at the rise of King Arthur from about three generations back.
Here’s the neat part: there’s no fantasy in it. the entire series is historical fiction, and a very believable account of a familiar theme. Art’s great-grandparents are Roman citizens, retired commander and his Primus Pilus, living in England and witnessing the begining of the fall of the Roman Empire.
It explains every part of the mythos including the Lady of the Lake, Excalibur, The Sword in the Stone, Merlyn’s reputation, etc. and all in a way that makes you say, “Well, it really could’ve happened like that.”
Very entertaining, very educational, and I recommend it to anyone I can. Any dopers who have read it, please let me know what you think; it’s an enjoyable conversation piece.
Book 1: The Skystone
Book 2: The Singing Sword
Book 3: The Eagle’s Brood
Book 4: The Saxon Shore
Book 5: The Fort at River’s Bend
Book 6: Metamorphosis
This is a perfect topic for the IMHO forum. As it says on the Message Board front page, “‘What’s your favorite …?’ For frank exchanges of views on less-than-cosmic topics.”
The Great Gatsby, by the great F. Scott Fitzgerald
Goboy, if I weren’t already married, I might propose based on your choice of authors. There can’t be too many people in the world who have even heard of both Pratchett and Trollope, let alone love them both.
Have you read any Connie Willis? If not, you have an enormous treat ahead of you. Bellwether is a wonderful comedy that I would describe as Jane Austen meets Dilbert, and The Doomsday Book manages to be funny, tragic, and uplifting all at once. The latter is probably my single favorite book, although it’s an awfully tough choice.
I would love to look really cool and name some really high-brow stuff like Joyce, Umberto Eco, Baudelaire, or Kafka. Then I could go buy myself a pipe and a beret and become a bona fide card-carrying intellectual.
However, upon trying to narrow it down to one book/author, I got a different result. Since this book qualifies as a candidate for the “Best Book I’ve Ever Read” award, then it follows that the author automatically receives the “Favourite Writer” award.
Anyway, the winner is…
drumroll
Philip K. Dick; VALIS.
Oh… considering my nickname and all that, I should give a mention to Douglas Adams’ The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Tom Clancy is my favorite author…it’s kinda hard for me to pinpoint my favorite book, but right now I would have to say the entire Lord of the Rings set by J.R.R. Tolkien. I mean, they’re all the same story, closely tied together, so I guess they can count as one book…
I can’t narrow it down like that. Well Ill give you my top ten authors and top five books
Stephen King
Tom Clany
Robert Ludlum
John Sanford
James Patterson
Robin Cook
Steve Martini*
John Grisham
Dean Koontz
Patricia Cornwell
In pretty much that order
Books
The Talisman - Stephen King & Peter Struab
The Runaway Jury - John Grisham
The Empress File - John Sandford
Rainbow 6 - Tom Clancy
The Dark Tower (series) - Stephe King
- though I didn’t list any of his books, I believe Steve Martini is a superior legal suspense writer than Grisham.
Two (well, three) books:
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons - The ultimate Science Fiction novels. Virtually every sub-genre is seamlessly incorporated into the story, and so much more: Chaucer, Catholicism, Zen, the Bible, sub-atomic physics and Keats. Especially Keats.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay… but you already know that.
The Stand, by Stephen King. A close second would be Swan Song, by Robert McCammon.
my favourite author is kurt vonnegut.
my favourite book is a clockwork orange by anthony burgess.
hijack coming:
Delores:
I loved that book Swan Song, I can’t believe I left it out. Me and my mother used to srgue about which was better The Stand or Swan Song. You’re the only person I’ve met whose read both, so what made you choose The Stand over Swan Song
end hijack
Patrick O’Brian is my favorite author, but narrowing down to one book is hard. I think I have to treat his Aubrey-Maturin series as one big novel in 20 volumes.
I’m very much in agreement with Oicu812 
( Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love” )
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
I have read this book over and over and over and, yes, over. Every time I read it my heart pounds.
I’ve posted this in answer to this question so often that it’s not funny anymore. “Ancient Lights” by Davis Grubb. Has no one else ever read this book?
Favorite author (5 years running now!): Kurt Vonnegut
Favorite book: aargh, can’t decide. Heres my top 5:
Godel, Escher, Bach (Hofstadter)
Animal Farm (Orwell)
Cats Cradle (Vonnegut)
Infinite Jest (Wallace)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Pirsig)
Also, since no one has mentioned it yet, theres this really great author named Cecil Adams who writes this series called “The Straight Dope”. You should totally check it out.
Really, really hard choices here. The ones I name below does not even come close to comprising a complete list.
Authors that I currently really like and anticipate their next book:
John Irving
Neal Stephenson
Orson Scott Card
Terry Pratchett
A few fiction books that I totally admire:
A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson)
The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien)
The Ender series (Orson Scott Card)
The OP never mentioned non-fiction, which is too bad, because some great books exist in that category. Non-fiction books I loved:
One L (Scott Turow)
Undaunted Courage (Stephen Ambrose)
The Cuckoo’s Egg (Cliff Stoll)
A Civil Action (can’t remember author’s name)
Favorite Books:
-
Catch-22
-
Animal Farm
-
Catcher in the Rye
-
A Confederacy of Dunces
-
1984
-
Tied for about eight Stephen King books
Favorite Authors: -
Stephen King
-
George Orwell