# Your favourite 5ish books and what you are currently reading. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2002, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810 "2002-08-27T18:42:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nefertari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7bcc69/32.png) [@nefertari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nefertari)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/41 "2002-09-07T12:11:15Z")
I no particular order: “Dune” Frank Herbert “Wide Sargasso Sea” Jean Rhys “Invisible Monsters” Chuck Palahniuk “Hitchhikers…” Douglas Adams “The Book on the Bookshelf” Henry Petroski “Mummy Congress” Heather Pringle …oh wait that six. 🙂 Currently reading “Melbourne’s Radical Bookshops” and the Gormenghast Trilogy. anyone else find “Titus Alone” really…hard to stay interested in?? nefertari ---
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/42 "2002-09-07T18:05:33Z")
Favorite books…hmm… 1. _Contact_, Carl Sagan 2. _The Martian Chronicles_, Ray Bradbury 3. any of Madeleine L’Engle’s fantasy novels and a select number of her regular fiction That’s some of my really favorite books right at the moment. I’m sure I’ve completely forgotten the books that I normally can’t put down. Anyway, right now, I’m reading various short stories out of my textbook for my English class. I find most of them rather confusing, but I’m sure that’s because I’m a shallow reader as defined by the author of the essays at the beginning of each group of stories in the textbook. I’m sure this person never, ever reads anything that does not include at least five levels of symbolism, (Dickens being an exception to the rule, of course) no matter how utterly boring it is. Bleh. Aside from that, I’ve been reading back through all of the Terry Pratchett novels I have lying around the house. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/43 "2002-09-07T21:30:48Z")
Top five is real tough when you’ve read as much as I have. Fortunately, picking the favorites is a little easier than picking the best. In no particular order: The Flashman series, George Macdonald Fraser (with side trips into “The Pyrates” and “The General Danced at Dawn” I tend to stick with the series, so I was surprised to find how much I liked his non-Flashy work) Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse Aubrey/Maturin, Patrick O’Brian. Especially the narrated version by Patrick Tull. He is phenominal at bringing the characters to life. “Lolita” by Nabokov. I read this, “Pale Fire” and “Sebastian Knight” when Library of America published three volumes on him, and I was astonished at how beautifully written these books are. I’m not a fan of “precious” writing, but his style complimented the stories without overwhelming them. The Lord of the Rings. Yes, me too, although I would absolutely not characterize Tolkien as “the author of the century,” as one biography put it. Currently, I’m reading the following: “The Body in the Bathhouse,” by Lindsey Davis. Roman Empire-era mystery “King’s Captain,” by Dewey Lambdin. British Navy captain fighting the Frogs (see Patrick O’Brian entry above) “Evidence” by Luc Sante, along with “New York Noir” which a Doper recommended to me a few months back in the true crime thread. ---
**Author:** ![Anubis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Anubis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anubis)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/44 "2002-09-07T22:38:24Z")
Hitchhiker’s trilogy by Douglas Adams Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams Starship Titantic by Terry Jones Other stuff by Douglas Adams or stuff based on stuff by him and if you count dictionary-type books, The Deeper Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/45 "2002-09-08T00:26:40Z")
So many to choose from… in no particular order: **Lord of the Rings** by Tolkien **Ender’s Game** by Orsen (sp?) Scott Card **The Parable of the Sower** by Octavia Butler **Dandelion Wine** by Ray Bradbury – this book exemplefies summer for me **Catch-22** by Joseph Heller **The Poisonwood Bible** by Barbara Kingsolver **His Dark Materials** trilogy by Phillip Pullman, esp. the first one (though they’re all good) **Guns, Germs, and Steel** by Jared Diamond **Starship Troopers** and **The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress** , both by Heinlein and stuff by Douglas Adams right now I’m reading **The Children** by David Halberstam about the civil rights movement as experienced by the college students on the frontlines… good stuff. And I just finished **The Godfather** by Mario Puzo. ---
**Author:** ![JayElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@JayElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JayElle)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/46 "2002-09-08T01:53:52Z")
Let’s see… **The Autobiography of Henry the VIII** , Margaret George **Memoirs of a Geisha** , Arthur Golden **Little Altars Everywhere** , Rebecca Wells **The Indians of Texas** , W.W. Newcomb, Jr. **Food in History** , Reay Tannahill I’m currently reading **Floods, Famines, and Emperors:El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations** , Brian Fagan. And to chime in on the Gary Jennings issue, **The Journeyor** is my favorite. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/47 "2002-09-08T02:11:01Z")
My favorites: **Good Omens** by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett **Watership Down** by Richard Adams **To Kill a Mockingbird** by Harper Lee **Galapagos** by Kurt Vonnegut All of the collections of **Roy Blount Jr** ’s essays; _Now, Where Were We? Getting Back to Basic Truths We Have Lost Sight Of Through No Fault of My Own_ is my favorite if I have to pick one. Currently reading: this thread, to get some ideas what to read. I’m technically in the middle of _Magician: Apprentice_ by Raymond Feist but I’m not that excited at the thought of finishing it. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/48 "2002-09-08T02:18:33Z")
Picking favorite books…well, those change fairly regularly, but my current favorite five…ok 1. _On The Road_ Jack Kerouac 2. _The Jungle_ Upton Sinclair 3. _Tess of the D’Urbervilles_ Thomas Hardy 4. _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_ Betty Smith (sidenote: I read this for the first time this summer at the urging of my boss. How was this never required reading in the schools I attended???) 5. I’ll leave this one open…it could be _Lolita_ or _Father Elijah_ or _Enchantment_…but it will probably change with the next book I read. As for what I’m currently reading…since the semester started, I’m having a delightful time reading: _A Manual for writes of term papers, theses and, dissertations_, Turabian _Reference and Information Services_ Bopp & Smith _Online Retrieval: A dialogue of theory and practice_ Walker & Janes _The Organization of Information_ Taylor Along with many reserve readings. It’s interesting stuff, really. I just want to be able to curl up on the sofa one of these days and read a book for pleasure. ---
**Author:** ![mishypoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@mishypoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mishypoo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/49 "2002-09-08T02:41:04Z")
So many books I love have been included already… the rest in no particular order -All of the Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend -the complete Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin -“The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein -“Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” by Tom Robbins Right now I’m reading “Coercion” by Douglas Rushkoff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810.md?page=2)