# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/41 "2009-02-16T16:13:54Z")
**Nana** Zola \*\*The Hunchback of Notre Dame \*\*Hugo **The Grapes of Wrath** Steinbeck \*\*Alice In Wonderland & Alice Through The Looking Glass \*\*Carroll \*_The Dunwich Horror_ \*\*Lovecraft ``` *This short story had a greater impact on my life than anything else I have ever read. As a result of reading it, I developed a life-long interest in horror fiction, architecture, old books, New England history, and folk mythology. ``` ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/42 "2009-02-16T16:16:10Z")
**The Sot-Weed Factor** by John Barth. Truly, the Great American Novel. Hilarious, bawdy and, it turns out, much of it is true. **Replay** by Ken Grimwood. Terrific fantasy novel about what would happen if you could live your life over. And over. And over. **The Fatal Shore** by Robert Hughes. A history of the founding of Australia. Reads like a novel, and has some great characters and situations. **The Carpet Makers** by Andreas Eschbach. The best science fiction novel of the past 10 years. **Titan** by John Varley. Reading it turned me into a science fiction writer. I can’t explain why. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/43 "2009-02-16T16:21:59Z")
Right off the top of my head… 1. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller 2. Still Life With Woodpecker - Tom Robbins 3. Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson 4. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry 5. The “Titan” trilogy - John Varley (yeah, I’m lumping it all into one.) ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/44 "2009-02-16T16:31:01Z")
_Persuasion_, by Jane Austen _Gaudy Night_, by Dorothy Sayers _Last of the Breed_, by Louis L’Amour _I Capture the Castle_, by Dodie Smith _The Faerie Queene_, by Edmund Spenser This is my list for today. It will be different tomorrow. I’m 37. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/45 "2009-02-16T16:31:39Z")
_**Crime and Punishment East of Eden For Whom the Bell Tolls Pride and Prejudice Poisonwood Bible**_ …I guess. That’s for novels. I have no idea how to compare them to biographies I loved, like \*\*\*The First American \*\*\*or _ **Team of Rivals** _. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/46 "2009-02-16T16:32:41Z")
Just five? Damn, that’s hard. Well, these are the books I come back to again and again, I love them so: _The Lord of the Rings_ by J.R.R. Tolkien _Tuf Voyaging_ by George R.R. Martin _Aztec_ by Gary Jennings _The Forever War_ by Joe Haldeman _Founding Brothers_ by Joseph Ellis About a dozen others I could list, if anyone asks. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/47 "2009-02-16T16:36:14Z")
The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan 4.000 Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose The Harlot by the Side of the Road by Jonathan Kirsch Between Planets by Robert Heinlein ---
**Author:** ![SuntanTigerTamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@SuntanTigerTamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanTigerTamer)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/48 "2009-02-16T16:40:23Z")
1. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy 2. Moby Dick - Melville 3. Last Call - Tim Powers 4. The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan 5. No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/49 "2009-02-16T16:53:08Z")
1. For Whom the Bell Tolls 2. Bright Lights, Big City 3. Lamb (Christopher Moore) 4. The Great Gatsby 5. Pain Management (Andrew Vachss) ---
**Author:** ![Elyanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@Elyanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elyanna)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/50 "2009-02-16T17:02:20Z")
I guess five is better than narrowing it down to one. In no particular order: 1. Book of Lost Things, John Connolly. 2. Les Miserables, Hugo 3. Call of the Wild, London 4. Swiftly Tilting Planet, L’Engle. 5. Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lewis. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/51 "2009-02-16T17:21:27Z")
One way to narrow this down for me is to think of the books I have reread the most, so here they are. I have excluded the bible, which is in a separate category for me. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean Beautiful Swimmers: Waterman, crabs and the Chesapeake Bay, William W. Warner Surprised By Joy, C. S. Lewis ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/52 "2009-02-16T17:31:37Z")
> [@Elyanna](#): > > 1. Book of Lost Things, John Connolly. It’s good to see that book get a mention. I loved it, though it wouldn’t be in my top 5, which are, at the moment: 1. Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco 2. Lempriere’s Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk 3. Atonement by Ian McEwen 4. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 5. The Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle ---
**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, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/53 "2009-02-16T17:40:53Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > 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 Nope – changing #5 to _Magister Ludi_ by Herman Hesse. I read it when I was in college and totally wanted to learn how to play the Glass Bead Game, but didn’t understand the ending at all. Reread it when I left academia and did. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/54 "2009-02-16T17:54:19Z")
_“Bloodsport: A Journey Up the Hassayampa”_ by Robert F. Jones _“Boys Life”_ by Robert McCammon _“Jim Morrison’s Adventures in the Afterlife”_ by Mick Farren _“Life of Pi”_ by Yann Martel _“Youth in Revolt”_ by C.D. Payne ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/55 "2009-02-16T18:02:17Z")
These are the comfort books, the one I return to over and over, which I actually OWN (a big deal, I don’t have a lot of tolerance for clutter, so if I’m never going to re-read a book, out it goes. Mostly a library girl) In no order 1. **Jane Eyre** by Charlotte Bronte 2. **Pride and Prejudice** by Jane Austen UNLESS I’m currently reading another of her novels, in which case, I always discover to my astonishment that that one is my favorite 3. **The Sex Lives of Cannibals** by J. Maarten Troost, which I thinks makes it my third mention of this book on the SDMB in three weeks. Really, you should read it! 4. **The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** by Douglas Adams 5. **How I Got to Be Perfect** by Jean Kerr I’m 39, female. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/56 "2009-02-16T19:26:02Z")
I’ll restrict myself to prose, fiction, and works written in English. 1. A Recent Martyr, by Valerie Martin. 2. The Silmarillion, by J. R. R. Tolkien. 3. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler. 4. Grendel, by John Gardner. 5. The Lords of Discipline, by Pat Conroy. ---
**Author:** ![Night\_so\_be\_it](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b2d939/32.png) [@Night\_so\_be\_it](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Night_so_be_it)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/57 "2009-02-16T19:27:15Z")
1. _Hamlet_, Shakespeare 2. _Leaves of Grass_, Whitman 3. _Murphy_, Beckett 4. _The Odyssey_, Homer 5. _A Happy Death_, Camus (contains all the romanticism that Camus tried to hide in his later works; radiant despite being slightly juvenile) Oh and I’m male, 19. ---
**Author:** ![Seldon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/58 "2009-02-16T20:06:57Z")
This is easy, I’m actually away from home for 8 weeks at training and traveled with my favorite books I never leave home without! 1. Anil’s Ghost-Michael Ondaatje 2. Meditations-Marcus Aurelius 3. The Alchemist-Paolo Coelho 4. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls-Robert Heinlein 5. Fury-Salman Rushdie I just read two more books while I’ve been here that are absolutely amazing. I love books: The Love We Share Without Knowing-Christopher Barzak The Hungry Tide-Amitav Ghosh ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/59 "2009-02-16T21:03:31Z")
I honestly can’t make this list. But I can make a list of the five books that compete for my favourite book ever… it’s the best I can do: 1. Red and Black by Stendhal. Simply put best love story ever. If I could love someone with the passion Julian loves Constanza I would die a happy man. 2. Memoirs of Hadrian. A fake autobiography of a God, an emperor, a soldier, a poet. But it is also the a fake autobiography of a man, his passions, fears and struggles. 3. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. Simply put, the universe in a short collection story. 4. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope. I love english literature, Austen, Dickens and Thackeray are among my favourite authors but if I have to choose a single one, if you tell me I have to choose between such masterpieces as Lorna Doone, Persuasion, Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and many others, then this is the book I choose. 5. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The only way to describe this book is by quoting it. Just an example Gibbon’s description of empero Gallienus: “_It is difficult to paint the light, the various, the inconstant character of Gallienus, which he displayed without constraint, as soon as he became sole possessor of the empire. In every art that he attempted, his lively genius enabled him to succeed; and as his genius was destitute of judgment, he attempted every art, except the important ones of war and government. He was a master of several curious, but useless sciences, a ready orator, an elegant poet, a skilful gardener, an excellent cook, and most contemptible prince_” ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/60 "2009-02-16T21:40:58Z")
_A Prayer for Owen Meany_, John Irving. I read it once a year and I always find something new in the text. I always cry like a baby by the end, too. _Fierce Invalids Home from Warm Climates_, Tom Robbins. Wonderfully strange, strangely wonderful. Pyramid heads and renegade nuns! _The Blind Assassin_, Margaret Atwood. _The Phantom Tollbooth_, Norman Juster. Read over and over as a child. _Pride and Prejudice_, Jane Austen. Another once-a-year reads. I’m 27. The first two on this list are pretty locked in place… the last three change weekly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049.md?page=4)