1984
The Lord Of The Rings
Slaughterhouse 5
Shogun
For Whom The Bell Tolls
the Sotweed Factor
Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
History of Western Philosophy
Catch 22
One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest
Who?
See my reply to Estilicon above.
- The Brothers K - Glad to see at least one mention here. Why this book isn’t more widely read and appreciated will forever trouble me. My Great American Novel. It couldn’t be any greater or more American. This book almost made me believe in god. Not quite, but almost.
- Confederacy of Dunces
- Cryptonomicon
- The Sot-Weed Factor
- Infinite Jest
2-5 in no particular order. M,39
Oh, dear. I forgot Kristin Lavransdattir. I left off a lot of books. 
I hate these lists. I can’t nail down a mere five.
50, maybe.
500, more likely.
*Lonesome Dove
Band of Brothers
The Three Musketeers
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Hunt For Red October*
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.
This is an impossible task. I couldn’t possibly narrow it down to five, but, nonetheless, here are five books that I liked, for a variety of reasons:
The Chronicle of Battle Abbey (written by a bunch of conniving monks)
*Les lettres persanes *(baron de Montesquieu)
Maps of Time (David Christian)
Solomon Gursky Was Here (Mordecai Richler)
Hand Tools – Their Ways and Workings (Aldren Watson)
I’m 178 years old.
The Bible
Orthodoxy, by G. K.Chesterton
Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by E. F. Schumacher
I’m 38.
Gone With The Wind
Watership Down
The Haunting of Hill House
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Shining or Jane Eyre
Skald, I love The Lords of Discipline! When I saw your post, I was seized by a sudden urge to read it again…
Born Again - Kelly Kerney
Cat’s Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams
…pretty lite I suppose, but enjoyable.
26, btw.
I’m reading yours right now. 
Male, 30
Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
How can you pick just five ?? The best I can do …
- “Group Portrait With Lady” - Heinrich Boll. Probably the best novel I have ever read.
- “The Anubis Gates” - Tim Powers. I like just about all of his books, but this one is my favorite.
- “The Knot” - Tim Wynne-Jones. Best Canadian novel I’ve read.
- “Foucault’s Pendulum” - Umberto Eco.
- “A World Lit Only by Fire” - William Manchester. Great description of the medieval world.
I’m fascinated by how many poster has mentioned “Cryptonomicon” as one of the top 5 - I’m trying to read it right now, and not exactly getting into it (yet) - I keep trying to read it and then get distracted by something else (last night it was “Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair,” so you know my standards are not set reeeal high)
Gotta squish Gravitys Rainbow in there too.
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Mote in God’s Eye + The Gripping Hand - Niven & Pournelle
Earthsea (the original 3 books) - LeGuin
Discworld - Pratchett (O.K., 36+ books isn’t really fair, I choose…Hogfather…and Soul Music)
The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Doyle (hey, it’s one book on my bookshelf)
Hippos Go Berserk! - Boynton (or maybe Pajama Time!)
The Man Who Walked Home (any collection that has it) - Tiptree
Wait, is that 5?
These are books that, when I finish (and sometimes in the middle), I hold them like a dear friend, wipe the tears, and spend a bit of time reflecting.
I’ll be 58 in a few weeks. I have 8 kids–maybe that explains the emotionality.
Well if we can count series I’ll throw Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan series on my list.
What? Don’t give me that look. Yes, I know where I am, but they were fun, interesting reads.
::d&r::
Yup. Great book. You might also like Pat Conroy’s The Great Santini, a thinly-veiled autobiographical novel about his love-hate relationship with his hardass Marine dad, and My Losing Season, a nonfiction account of playing basketball for the segregated Citadel in the Sixties. Both are terrific.
Before I read the thread and let it influence me 
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Robert Heinlein
- Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card
-
Black Echo Michael Connelly
4a) LOTR JRRT
4b) Dune Frank Herbert - The Gunslinger Stephen King
HMs go to: The Talisman S. King, the rest of the Harry Bosch series by Connelly, and the Dirk Pitt novels by Clive Cussler