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
Favorite books…hmm…
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Picking favorite books…well, those change fairly regularly, but my current favorite five…ok
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.
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.