# Your top 5 favorite books of all time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2009, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049 "2009-02-16T04:39:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Carmady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/21 "2009-02-16T09:09:52Z")
1. Crime and Punishment 2. The Brothers Karamazov 3. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler 4. The Man Who Was Thursday 5. Catch-22 ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/22 "2009-02-16T11:05:09Z")
1. The Bone People, by Keri Hulme 2. Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett 3. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte 4. Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen 5. Watership Down, by Richard Adams. (Honorable Mention to the “Twilight” series, which for some reason I’ve been reading over and over and over, compulsively, for about two weeks now. I wish there was some medication I could take that would make it stop.) ---
**Author:** ![Hrududu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Hrududu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hrududu)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/23 "2009-02-16T11:09:29Z")
1. The Crow Road by Iain Banks. 2. Atonement by Ian McEwan. 3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. 4. At Swim Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill. 5th place has to be a tie, because I really can’t choose between them: Watership Down by Richard Adams. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. ---
**Author:** ![George\_Kaplin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@George\_Kaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Kaplin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/24 "2009-02-16T11:10:59Z")
1. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison. 2. Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets - David Simon. 3. American Pastoral - Philip Roth. 4. Time’s Arrow - Martin Amis. 5. A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole. Honourable mention: It - Stephen King. ---
**Author:** ![3acresandatruck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e79b87/32.png) [@3acresandatruck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3acresandatruck)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/25 "2009-02-16T13:02:39Z")
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Uplift War - David Brin Working - Studs Terkel Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll ---
**Author:** ![Promethea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/26 "2009-02-16T14:06:34Z")
1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt 2. Lords And Ladies by Terry Pratchett 3. From Hell by Alan Moore 4. Valley Of The Dolls by Jacqueline Susann 5. Watchmen by Alan Moore ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/27 "2009-02-16T14:18:04Z")
[ol] [li]For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway[/li][li]To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee[/li][li]A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving[/li][li]Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry[/li][li]Tales from Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffett[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/28 "2009-02-16T14:19:41Z")
Main Street, Sinclair Lewis On the Road, Jack Kerouac Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/29 "2009-02-16T14:27:14Z")
The Lord of the Rings: J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit: J.R.R. Tolkien The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land: Robert Heinlein To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/30 "2009-02-16T14:32:23Z")
This is very difficult. I’ll list the first 5 I thought of, although there are others I love. 1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin 2. Araminta Station - Jack Vance 3. Otherland - Tad Williams 4. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L’Engle 5. The Color Purple - Alice Walker ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/31 "2009-02-16T14:39:49Z")
Mine has mostly changed the same over the years, only _English Passengers_ has broken through to the top 5 in the last couple of years. 1. Lonesome Dove- Larry McMurtry (I’m going to let it share with Dead Man’s Walk- since it’s part of the same story and almost as great IMHO). 2. English Passengers- Matthew Kneale 3. Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte 4. Gone With The Wind- Margaret Mitchell 5. Trainspotting- Irvine Welsh Actually, now that I list them out, I’m surprised that there is no Jane Austen there, but she’d be hovering in the 6-10th spots. I tried to pick out the books that really affected me the most, and those are it. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/32 "2009-02-16T14:44:25Z")
To Kill A Mockingbird Dr Zhivago One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Sister Carrie The World According to Garp ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/33 "2009-02-16T14:51:55Z")
Wow - I could never really narrow it down, but here is an attempt: - To Kill a Mockingbird (with Cannery Row and The Great Gatsby not far behind) - Dune (with countless sci-fi behind it and including Watchmen) - Guns, Germs and Steel (with plenty of other science-for-the-masses books right behind it) - The Masters of Rome series by McCullough (with other historical accounts, fiction or non, behind it) - Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami Aw man, I don’t even have room for Lolita, Hemingway’s Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Catch-22, Ball Four, any Robertson Davies and so, so, so much more… ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/34 "2009-02-16T15:16:25Z")
I would be very curious to know people’s ages on these. A given list would be one thing from a 24-year-old, another from a 54-year-old, who has a few more years’ reading time in. Not in order: 1. _The Song of the Dodo_ by David Quammen 2. _The Botany of Desire_ by Michael Pollan 3. _The English Passengers_ by Matthew Kneale 4. _The Sacred Canopy_ by Peter Berger (a bit of a nod to my previous incarnation as an academic) 5. I’ll have to give to a childhood favorite, if I could pick just one – but two books I read over and over and over were _Arm of the Starfish_ by Madeline L’Engle and _Wolves of Willoughby Chase_ by Joan Aiken ---
**Author:** ![footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9f8e36/32.png) [@footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/footballisplayedwithyourfeet)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/35 "2009-02-16T15:27:59Z")
1 Ada by Nabokov, Like it Better then Lolita 2 Love in a time of Cholera by Marquez, love really can be evelasting 3 Ana Karenina by Tolstoj, only for the last 70 pages which are pretty much the best thing ever written 4 His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, I know, it’s a children’s book but it is just briljant 5 Lolita by Nabokov, if nothing else for introducing me to Nabokov ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/36 "2009-02-16T15:33:17Z")
I can’t believe that I didn’t include **Martha Grimes’** “Richard Jury” series. I love so many of the characters - Richard, Melrose, Diane, Alfred, CarolAnne, The Cripses, Macalvie… there are too many to name. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/37 "2009-02-16T15:43:19Z")
**Nausea** - JP Sartre **Lord of the Rings** - JRR Tolkien **Player of Games** - Iain M. Banks **Good Omens** - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman **Climbing Mount Improbable** - Richard Dawkins ---
**Author:** ![Chum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/38 "2009-02-16T15:56:35Z")
In no particular order: _The Small House at Allington_ by Anthony Trollope _Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse_ by Louise Erdrich _East of Eden_ by John Steinbeck _Crime and Punishment_ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky _Jane Eyre_ by Charlotte Bronte ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/39 "2009-02-16T15:58:59Z")
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolken The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan The Sum of All Fears - Tom Clancy The Three Musketeers - Alexander Dumas Legacy - R. A. Salvatore (What can I say it was the frist book I ever owned) ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/40 "2009-02-16T16:06:29Z")
1. _Ulysses_ - James Joyce 2. _Finnegans Wake_ - James Joyce 3. _The Sandman_ - Neil Gaiman (does this count as a “book”?) 4. _Little, Big_ - John Crowley 5. _A Clockwork Orange_ - Anthony Burgess The top two are the easiest - those are the books I dive into again and again. #4 is a book I tried to read 25 years ago, bogged down halfway through, and didn’t finish. I finally returned to it a few months ago and was absolutely enraptured. Go figure. Choosing #5 was very difficult, bit of a coin flip there. _Pace_ Brunner, Pynchon, Tolkien, Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien, Alan Moore, Gene Wolfe, etc., and I’m disqualifying stuff like complete works of Shakespeare or Blake from being “a book.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049.md?page=3)