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.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.
Right off the top of my head…
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.
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.
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.
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
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Bright Lights, Big City
Lamb (Christopher Moore)
The Great Gatsby
Pain Management (Andrew Vachss)
I guess five is better than narrowing it down to one.
In no particular order:
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
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:
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.
“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
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
I’m 39, female.
I’ll restrict myself to prose, fiction, and works written in English.
Oh and I’m male, 19.
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!
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
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:
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.
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.
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. Simply put, the universe in a short collection story.
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.
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”
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.