# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![statij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@statij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statij)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/101 "2009-02-18T01:12:54Z")
> [@Jettboy](#): > > Wow, that’s a strong endorsement. I’ve almost bought that one on a number of occasions. I read David James Duncan’s short story collection _“River Teeth”_ and thought it was fantastic. I may have exaggerated just a _tiny_ bit regarding god, but I do remember, after laughing out loud and bawling like a baby over the course of a few pages, at least entertaining the thought. It really is that good. I’ve read about half of _River Teeth_ and, as good as it is, _The Brothers K_ is much better. My copy made it through several other people before I lost track of it and they all loved it. Even my mom, who generally reads crappy grocery store paperbacks, picked it up while visiting and could not put it down. PLEASE, for your sake, READ IT! Nay, I INSIST you read it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/102 "2009-02-18T01:20:15Z")
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell Little Women - Louisa May Alcott Green Darkness - Anya Seton The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury Forever Amber - Kathleen Windsor Lord of the Rings, all three, is, of course, a given and doesn’t have to be in the list! ---
**Author:** ![corvidae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@corvidae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corvidae)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/103 "2009-02-18T01:40:37Z")
_Old Love_ by I. B. Singer _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ by John Irving _Prince Ombra_ by Roderick MacLeish _Alias Grace_ by Margaret Atwood _Behind the Scenes at the Museum_ by Kate Atkinson ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/104 "2009-02-18T02:17:03Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > 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. Heh. I read Magister Ludi between high school and college and had an identical reaction to yours. I guess I should reread it now. If you like fantasy, you might want to try _The Name of the Wind_, which is a bit like the Glass Bead Game at Hogwarts. I very rarely reread books, so this list isn’t based on rereading. I reserve the right to revise it at the drop of a hat. 1. The Crooked Timber of Humanity, by Isaiah Berlin. This collection of essays on the history of Western thought fundamentally reshaped my worldview, turning me from a radical into a liberal. It was one of the great changes in my life. 2. The Blank Slate, by Stephen Pinker. This book was utterly convincing to me in its suggestion that our personalities as individuals and as a species are heavily influenced by our genes. This has profound implications, and has changed my worldview almost as much as Berlin’s book did. 3. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexander Dumas. I’ve heard it described as the best adventure novel ever written, and I believe it. It’s not just a cracking good yarn, it’s also a complex, beautiful meditation on the nature of vengeance and forgiveness. 4. Harold and the Purple Crayon. It’s a children’s book that embodies for me the limitless imagination that is one of my favorite things about kids, and that I aspire toward. 5. The Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook. This book isn’t especially well-written; I’ve read hundreds of books written better. But its influence on my life is tremendous: I have spent more time engaged in the hobby of gaming than in any other hobby, most likely, and I’ve built many friendships around it. Daniel ---
**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 18, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/105 "2009-02-18T03:08:55Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > …Lord of the Rings, all three, is, of course, a given and doesn’t have to be in the list! For you and me, of course, and so much the better. But not for some (many?) Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/106 "2009-02-18T03:12:31Z")
I notice that at least a dozen people have mentioned \*\*Watership Down \*\*as one of their favorites. Anyone wanna take a brief stab at explaining what makes this book so great. (Obviously, I have never read it. I think it has something to do with rabbits.) ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/107 "2009-02-18T03:44:22Z")
[I’m sticking to fiction only] **Moby-Dick** , Herman Melville **Einstein’s Dreams** , Alan Lightman **Underworld** , Don DeLillo **Reading in the Dark** , Seamus Deane **Beloved** , Toni Morrison ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/108 "2009-02-18T04:01:10Z")
[QUOTE=statij] It really is that good. I’ve read about half of _River Teeth_ and, as good as it is, _The Brothers K_ is much better. My copy made it through several other people before I lost track of it and they all loved it. Even my mom, who generally reads crappy grocery store paperbacks, picked it up while visiting and could not put it down. PLEASE, for your sake, READ IT! Nay, I INSIST you read it. [/QUOTE] I’ll make ya a deal. I’ll read your Great American Novel if you’ll read mine. _Paradise Falls_ by Don Robertson. You’ve probably seen one or (if you’re lucky) both volumes at secondhand stores or garage sales. I ignored the book for years because it was a book of the month club selection, and my first thought was soapy potboiler. It’s about an up and coming man of business in the years right after the Civil War. He makes Charles Foster Kane look like a puss. I haven’t run across another novel that encompasses the post-war changes in America like this one does. Then I read Robertson’s _The Ideal Genuine Man_, because of Stephen King. King liked the book so much, he published it himself. It knocked my socks off and since then, I’ve bought and traded and managed to find just about everything Robertson has written. He’s out of print except for his Morris Bird books. _The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread_ is the first to come back. It evokes childhood in the 50’s like nothing else; it’s painfully sweet. He’s also written Civil War novels that rival the Shaara novels for authenticity and eloquence, and a long novel that takes place entirely on Election Day 1948, _A Flag Full of Stars_. Two of his Bird novels have been made into TV movies. Peter S. Beagle wrote the screenplay for one of them, and is a big Robertson fan. Oh dear. I have blathered on. And I didn’t even touch on _Praise the Human Season_ or _Victoria at Nine_. So that’s the deal. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/109 "2009-02-18T04:11:28Z")
**AuntiePam:** _The Brothers K_ is every bit as wonderful as **statij** says. Maybe more so. **Frostilicus:** _Watership Down_ is…I have no words. It’s not about rabbits. It’s about storytelling. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/110 "2009-02-18T04:12:17Z")
Charlotte’s Web Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars Watership Down Holes Maniac Magee ---
**Author:** ![Lungfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@Lungfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lungfish)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/111 "2009-02-18T04:28:25Z")
Biggles Learns To Fly - Captain W. E. Jones The Dogs of War - Frederick Forsyth Goodbye, Darkness - William Manchester The 13th Valley - John M. Del Vecchio A Genius For War (A Life of General George S. Patton) - Carlo D’Este ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/112 "2009-02-18T04:34:14Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > I notice that at least a dozen people have mentioned \*\*Watership Down \*\*as one of their favorites. Anyone wanna take a brief stab at explaining what makes this book so great. (Obviously, I have never read it. I think it has something to do with rabbits.) The rabbits are anthropomorphized - but not fully. I mean they are rabbits, sure, but they have human personalities. The story is epic, sweet and dripping with pathos. You will cry like a baby. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/113 "2009-02-18T04:52:36Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > I notice that at least a dozen people have mentioned \*\*Watership Down \*\*as one of their favorites. Anyone wanna take a brief stab at explaining what makes this book so great. (Obviously, I have never read it. I think it has something to do with rabbits.) Well, it’s not in my top 10 but it’s a very fine book. I don’t love it enough to give you a deep sales pitch, but I’ll tell you that the book features one of the goddam scariest villains in literature… and, yeah, he’s a rabbit. The book handles the anthropomorphizing of rabbits pretty much flawlessly. You’ll learn stuff about rabbits and won’t mind that the little bunnies know how to talk. If I remember, it’s mostly a quest story. ## The follow-up book Shardik (about a bear, and which I read before _Watership_) was one of my five or ten most annoying reads ever. My own list is pretty much from my “wonder years” of reading, mid teens to late twenties. And of course, it’s mostly arbitrary. Sotweed Factor-- John Barth Catch 22-- Joseph Heller Alive: The story of the Andes survivors-- Piers Paul Read Lord of the Rings trilogy-- Tolkien That’s four and let me give a shout out to some other books that could use some love: Lord of Light-- Zelazny 1984-- Orwell Holes-- Sachar Naked and the Dead, Tough Guys Don’t Dance-- Mailer The Gods Themselves-- Asimov 900 Grandmothers-- Lafferty Gone With the Wind-- Mitchell Something by Anne Tyler… Maybe the Accidental Tourist Something by Tom Robbins… Lord, can he write when he’s got a good story. Sometimes a Great Notion… Kesey (prefer it to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) Glory Road-- Heinlein Something by Phillip K. Dick, Something by Vonnegut Something by McMurtry Something by John LeCarre Something by Emore Leonard Grapes of Wrath–Steinbeck ---
**Author:** ![judikium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@judikium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/judikium)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/114 "2009-02-18T05:05:35Z")
I’m not particularly well read, but here goes: -Ender’s Game/Ender’s Shadow (Orson Scott Card). They fit together so brilliantly and are separately fascinating. -The Giver (Lois Lowry). I get caught up in Jonas’ world so easily. -Dry (Augusten Burroughs). Such a fully realized, intense portrayal of alcoholism. -The Long Walk (Stephen King). Awesome concept, awesome execution. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/115 "2009-02-18T05:31:56Z")
I can’t believe that there are no classics on my list, but here goes: **Long Walk** –Richard Bachman. I first read it when I was only a couple years older than the Walkers. It made me realize that there is a fine line between life and death. **First Blood** –David Morrell. The first time I ever found myself cheering for a serial killer. **Love, Dad** –Evan Hunter. I grew up with a wayward sister. This novel helped me understand that it was just a time in history and she could overcome. **Johnny Got His Gun** –Daulton Trumbo. A good story of loss, survival, and understanding. Also the only book that may be considered a classic on my list. **The Stand** –Stephen King. Epic good vs. Evil. If I was born in Iraq, I would have said **Satanic Verses.** SSG Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![statij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@statij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statij)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/116 "2009-02-18T06:23:27Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I’ll make ya a deal. I’ll read your Great American Novel if you’ll read mine. _Paradise Falls_ by Don Robertson. You’ve probably seen one or (if you’re lucky) both volumes at secondhand stores or garage sales. I ignored the book for years because it was a book of the month club selection, and my first thought was soapy potboiler. It’s about an up and coming man of business in the years right after the Civil War. He makes Charles Foster Kane look like a puss. I haven’t run across another novel that encompasses the post-war changes in America like this one does. Absolutely a deal! This book sounds excellent. Can’t promise I’ll read it immediately as I have quite a queue, _Watership Down_ being high on the list and moving up fast due to this excellent thread. Thanks for the recommendation. (By the way, I went to read Amazon reviews and found only one. You might recognize it. :)) ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/117 "2009-02-18T13:51:34Z")
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - R A Heinlein Gaudy Night - Dorothy L Sayers Island in the Sea of Time - S M Stirling The Mote in God’s Eye - Niven and Pournelle Shogun - James Clavell I really want to include one each of the Aubrey/Maturin and Flashman series but they miss out because I can’t decide which one :smack: ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/118 "2009-02-18T14:58:19Z")
> [@statij](#): > > (By the way, I went to read Amazon reviews and found only one. You might recognize it. :)) Ha! It’s probably a waste of time for books that are out of print, but I plan on pimping all his books. Robertson didn’t even have a Wiki page until recently. I ordered _The Brothers K_ yesterday and will bump it to the top of the TBR. I’ll let you off the hook on _Paradise Falls_ since it’s OOP and it’s quite long – but _The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread_ is in print and it’s a lot shorter. It’s as good as _Paradise Falls_ and as a coming-of-age story, it rocks. ---
**Author:** ![tds1273](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@tds1273](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tds1273)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/119 "2009-02-18T16:11:53Z")
> [@judikium](#): > > -The Long Walk (Stephen King). Awesome concept, awesome execution. I can’t believe I forgot about this one. Great book! ---
**Author:** ![Alastair\_Moonsong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3e96dc/32.png) [@Alastair\_Moonsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alastair_Moonsong)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049/120 "2009-02-18T16:12:13Z")
1. Where The Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls. The only book that ever made me cry. 2. A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking. Read it when I was 14, and have been fascinated by the workings of the universe ever since. 3. Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkein. Inspired a lifelong love of fantasy after my mom read it to me as a bedtime story. 4. Hogfather - Terry Pratchett. Death subs for Santa. A brilliant piece of satire. 5. Dave Barry’s Bad Habits - Dave Barry. Barry is my guilty pleasure, silly and frequently juvenile humor and satire that never fails to make me smile. I still need to read most of the classics, but hey, I’m only 21 - I still have time. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-5-favorite-books-of-all-time/486049.md?page=7)