I thought this would be a fun topic in light of the posts about top 5 tobaccos and whatnot. So lets hear it. What are your top five favorite books currently?

Mine would be:


Sherlock Holmes volume 1
Sherlock Holmes volume 2 (yeah I know, I know)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Master and Margarita
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

The Stranger - Albert Camus
Trout Bum - John Geirach
Travels with Charley - John Steinbeck
The Longest Silence - Thomas McGuane
Mere Christianity - CS Lewis

Currently reading The Hobbit by Tolkein, a very fun little book

Puff, The Stranger is a really good book. I enjoyed reading not too long ago.

I love Camus' writing style. Grab a copy of Resistance, Rebellion and Death, a fascinating read!

Richard Brautigan - The Hawkline Monster - A gothic Western
Neal Stephenson - The Big U, Cryptonomicon, (OK anything by him)
John Barth - Letters
Connie Willis - To Say Nothing of the Dog (ok everything she has written too)
Douglas Montgomery - Response Surface Methodology


It might actually be easier to list the top 50 or 100

Great thread, Aaron!

Loneseome Traveler -- Jack Kerouac
Trout Fishing in America -- Richard Brautigan (an often overlooked American CLASSIC, IMHO)
The Hobbit -- JRR Tolkien
The River Why -- David James Duncan
The Sea Wolf -- Jack London


(In no particular order)

The dreaded top 5. I reserve the right to change this list on a whim.

1. Hemingway--The Sun Also Rises
2. Denis Johnson--Already Dead: A California Gothic
3. Don DeLillo--The Names
4. Leonard Cohen--Beautiful Losers
5. Henry Miller--Tropic of Cancer

Huckleberry Finn - It's a deeper social commentary than most people realize.

The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Lonesome Dove - McMurtry

Leaving Cheyenne - McMurtry

Careless Whispers - Carlton Stowers

Stan41

Fantastic thread Aaron!

1. The Lord of The Rings: J.R.R. Tolkien (I have read this every winter for the past 30 years, worn out about 5 paperback sets) For Tolkien enthusiasts The Encyclopedia of Arda
2. The Treasured Writing of Kahlil Gibran: Kahlil Gibran
3. The Road: Cormac McCarthy (any thing by him will do)
4. The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck
5. The Year of the French: Thomas Flanagan

Too many books for even 10 lifetimes! I hope there are well lit libraries in 'the next place'.

Wow, really tough question. I'll see if I can't pick 5 of my favorites without too much mental contortion. Of course, this is subject to change

1. The Bible
2. The Elegant Universe, Brian Green
3. The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4. The Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis (yes, I'm counting them as a 1)
5. The Complete Sherlock Holmes (I know, cheating)

-Andrew

In no particular order:

1.The Lord of The Rings- J.R.R. Tolkein
2.No Great Mischeif- Alistar McLeod
3.Slaughterhouse Five- Kurt Vonnegut
4.Rant- Chuck Pahalniuk
5.Ham On Rye- Charles Bukowski

as for series
The Dark Tower, Chronicles of Narnia, The Drizzt stories by R.A. Salvatore and many more

Five favorites of many:

Goodbye to a River - John Graves
John MacNab - John Buchan
A Hunter's Fireside Book - Gene Hill
Fishless Days, Angling Nights - Sparse Grey Hackle (Alfred Miller)
PrairyErth - William Least Heat Moon

Good lists!

1. Stephen King - The Green Mile
2. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
3. Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
4. Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (pretty much anything by HST could easily make the list!)
5. Iain Gately - Tobacco

and so, so, so many more...

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Pattern Recognition - William Gibson (well, anything by Gibson)
Le Morte D'Arthur - Thomas Mallory (tough to get through - it's a project of mine)
Moby Dick - Herman Melville (even tougher to get through - another project that's failed several times)
Iron Coffins - Herbert Werner