What are your top 5 books of all time?

[The Goat Tsar]

I'll gladly contribute, but I don't think I'll be able to number them. I like these all for completely incomparable reasons.

Slaughterhouse-Five
The Song of Roland
Othello
Cry, the Beloved Country
I Am America (and So Can You!)

 

[KefkaCultist]

No real order here.

1) Titus Andronicus - An early work of Shakespeare that is basically his equivalent of a b-movie slasher flick. It's so over-the-top and I love it.

2) Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury is a genius. Enough said, really.

3) A Clockwork Orange - Saw movie first then decided to read book. Glad I did because it's awesome.

4) Dracula - I love gothic horror and Dracula is the quintessential book of that genre.

5) Shadow Over Innsmouth - Anything by Lovecraft actually, but this one especially.

Honorable mentions: Interview with the Vampire, The Hobbit, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 1984, Anthem, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

 

[Launcelot111]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
A Confederacy of Dunces
Heart of Darkness
Red Harvest
1984

 

[RedDeadFred]

I'll pick one book per series:

5. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
4. Ender's Game
3. Into Thin Air
2. The Lord of the Rings
1. A Storm of Swords

 

[Murais]

Personal List:

1. American Gods - Neil Gaiman (I am the first Gaiman fan here? I refuse to believe it!)
2. Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin
3. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
4. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
5. The Road - Cormac McCarthy

I think in a few decades from now, American Gods is going to come to top more than a few "modern classic" lists. It's absolutely sensational and incredibly reverent and thought-provoking.

 

[fenrizz]

1. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - The funniest book I ever read (even though the girlfriend part is a bi boring).
2. Shantaram - Semi biographical book about an escaped convict in India. A masterpiece.
3. 1984 - The story should be fairly well known to most, considered a modern classic with good reason.
4. The Lord of the Rings - The original epic fantasy novel, masterpiece.
5. World War Z - Account of the Zombie apocalypse, form start to finish. Takes itself rather seriously and is a delight to read.

 

[saintdane05]

Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The First Heretic
Blood Reaver
The Hork Bajir Chronicles
Watchmen

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

5)Thud! by Terry Pratchett. I must admit that I'm completely new to Discworld, so this one's liable to change as I read the other books. That said, this is the only time I've ever actually gone "Aww" at a book, and the only time I've gone "Aww" at anything involving children (you know which bit I mean.), so props to Pterry for achieving that much.

4)Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore. Funny, thoughtful, and contains the phrase "blessed are the dumbfucks."

3)Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling. I've noticed that a lot of people have sort of turned on this series recently, but I still think it holds up well, and HBP is definitely the high point as far as I'm concerned. And regardless of whether I can still enjoy it all these years later, the Harry Potter series is what convinced me to try my hand at writing, which in turn made me realize that I was pretty damn good at it, and what's more, that I enjoyed it.

2)Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen King. On closing the book, I quite literally did not know where I was for a few seconds. Tight plot, relatable characters, brilliant social commentary, and just generally entertaining.

1)Life, the Universe, and Everything- Douglas Adams is far and away my favorite author, and LUE contains my absolute favorite passage in the trilogy- the description of Bistromathics. Also the last Hitchhiker book to involve Zaphod, who is awesome.

 

[Yopaz]

This was a surprisingly hard list to make once I started to think back, here's my top five:

1) His Dark Materials - Great fantasy story with some really innovative ideas, love the characters (except Will who's kinda boring), have read this many times.
2) Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Hilarious and English, nuff said

These two are two of my top five too (not in order).
3: The Wheel of time (series) my favourite series and only 2 more months until it's all done.
4 1984 is an awesome book. I read in twice in high school and even wrote an essay about it comparing it to various other works.
5 The selfish Gene.

 

[Okulossos]

This one is difficult, could be different already one hour from now, but for now I will settle with these:

- Perry Rhodan Series (best Sci-Fi Series ever)
- The foundation trilogy - Asimov (needs no introduction)
- Solaris - Lem (should also need no explanation)
- Neuromancer - Gibson (basically one of the most influential books ever and its just awesome)
- Hull zero three - Bear (a fantastic book, that is weired, capturing and just a lot of fun to read)

I read so much, that my preferences change just as fast. So the list is not ordered And I went by what I feel at the moment. But I read and loved about 30 Books just this year (and a whole lot more i did not like that much) so... yea

 

[vasiD]

1) Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis
2) Fear and Loating in Las Vegas - Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
3) Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk
4) Battle Royale - Koushin Takami
5) Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

I feel weird about not putting Lovecraft on here, as he shaped my childhood, but he was more of a short story guy really...

Plus Ellis, Palahniuk, and Takami did their fair share to my childhood as well.

 

[Azahul]

1. Jingo (By Terry Pratchett, and I will now refrain from mentioning any other Terry Pratchett books or else that will be the entirety of my top 5)

2. The Bloody Red Baron (By Kim Newman, second book in the Anno Dracula series, World War I with vampires and some serious brutality and a shapeshifting Mannfred von Richtofen tackling planes in midair)

3. The Judgement of Tears (Third book in the Anno Dracula series)

4. Lamplighter (by D. M. Cornish, the second book in a Dickens-like story with monsters and people that can hurl lightning bolts, basically)

5. Sabriel (By Garth Nix, the first book in the Old Kingdom series)

 

[CdnDemoniac]

5: Foundation (Isaac Asimov) - Loved the cleverness of the plot, and it's one of the grandfathers of science fiction to boot. Still, it was a bit lacking in terms of writing style.

4: Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) - Interesting look at a dystopian society that is based on commercialization, instant gratification and genetic manipulation. Loved the writing style and how the story flowed in general. Great counter-point to Orwell's 1984.

3: Beyond the Chocolate Wars (Robert Cormier) - Read this when I was little (which now considering it was about a pseudo-mafia and had drugs, suicide and murder is kind of surprising since I was like in Grade 4). A dark story about how insane teenagers can get, really opened my eyes.

2: Watchmen (Alan Moore) - Even though it's a graphic novel, Watchmen really does nail everything that a novel can do. Deep look at superhero culture in the Cold War era. I loved how many layers there were to it, and the symbolism sprinkled throughout.

1: Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen [Specifically Memories of Ice] (Steven Erikson) - When everyone was reading A Song of Ice and Fire (ironically it was the Malazan series that got me on to George R.R. Martin), I was reading the Malazan series, a fantastically huge fantasy epic that's has some of the most hardcore battles I've ever read in addition to being equally philosophical and at time down right hilarious. Many describe it as the Dune of fantasy (and I maintain it's better than A Song of Ice and Fire).

Honourable mention to the Star Wars Expanded Universe novel Traitor (Michael Stackpole) in creating the kind of tragic back story that the Prequel Trilogy should have been.

 

[capper42]

Not really in an order.

1) 1984 - George Orwell - This was I think the first non-children's book I really got into. Read an old copy that belonged to my parents and fell apart as I read it, and loved it from start to finish. Still do.

2) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson - Saw the film first, and loved it. Read the book after, and loved it. It just feels so uniquely insane.

3) One of the Harry Potters I guess - J.K. Rowling - I don't know which one is my favourite specifically, but it'd be silly of me to leave these off seeing as I read them several times growing up, and they had a big impact on me.

4) On the Road - Jack Kerouac - I've since read other Kerouac books, and really enjoyed them, but this was my first, as I'm sure it is with most people. It just reads so well, like you're in his head hearing his thoughts. It also made me really want to travel.

5) Discovering Beautiful - Rory Miller - There's probably books I've enjoyed more that I just can't think of right now, but this is one I read fairly recently and found captivating. About a Yorkshireman who randomly decides to go to America, and how his time there developed. He traveled round in the same style as Kerouac, which is probably what I Liked about it. It gets a bit spiritual near the end, but it's worth checking out.

 

[The Funslinger]

5)Thud! by Terry Pratchett. I must admit that I'm completely new to Discworld, so this one's liable to change as I read the other books. That said, this is the only time I've ever actually gone "Aww" at a book, and the only time I've gone "Aww" at anything involving children (you know which bit I mean.), so props to Pterry for achieving that much.

Moving Pictures will probably have a similar effect. I was on a bit of a Discworld kick and getting a bit overfed with it, but Moving Pictures was surprisingly gripping, and the story's climax was very good.

Good dog indeed.

OT:

1) The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
2) A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
3) Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
4) Looking For Alaska by John Green
5) A tie between American Gods by Neil Gaiman and Paper Towns by John Green. Gun to my head, I'm probably leaning towards Paper Towns just because it impacted me more emotionally.

 

[shadow_Fox81]

at number 5. is the novel responsible for all subbsequent pentagonal collections of all time favorites

High fidelity- Nick Hornby, depressed recirds store owner ruminates on his five most tragic lost loves in the aftermath of his most recent.

at number 4.

the road- Cormac Mcarthy, opressing journey into the depths of despair anyone?

at number 3.

World War Z- somewhat of a cliche for nerds to love but given my present company lets say it speaks for itself.

at number 2.

The Long Patrol- Brian Jaques, Rabbits battleing rats thats it, Jaques prominetly english breed of fantasy featureing woodland creatures in sway of humans pulled me into the world of stories and will always remain dear to my heart.

and at a visciously contested number 1.

What is history- E H Carr, witty,informing, revelatory and life changeing the published lectures of one of britains most important historians is my favorite read.

 

[wolf thing]

1. Wonder of Women, a collection of science fiction short story by and about women

2. Starship Troopers, a political fable, about a young mans life in a future armys, contains power armor and talking dogs.

3. foundation, about a planet set up to try and save the galactic empire falling in to barbarism

4. the last wish, its what the witcher was based of off, very smart play on the fantasy setting with interesting characters

5. Dragonquest, the second dragon riders of pern book, about a group of men who ride dragons and use them to burn thread out of the sky

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Not sure about the exact order, but here's five books I love:

Thud! by Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane