What are your top 5 books of all time?

[Nemu]

I'm more of a non-fiction reader, but it's hard for me to decide on any titles atm. So here are my top fiction books, in no particular order:

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
World War Z by Max Brooks [footnote]GOD...the movie looks TERRIBLE[/footnote]
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
(Honorable Mention: Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques)

 

[Hollyday]

1. The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood - Her first novel, it has a darkly funny concept (a woman slowly loses her ability to eat as she attempts to fit in with society) populated with a cast of completely f***ed up characters who are still really likeable.

2. 1984, George Orwell - Not an original choice I know but hey, it's frickin 1984.

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Nealle Hurston - A beautiful and tragic love story set just after the abolition of slavery in the US. Doesn't pull its punches.

4. Battle Royale, Koushun Takami - I love everything about this book, especially the fact that you feel the full impact of each and every death, even when you've only been introduced to the character a page ago.

5. Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie - My favourite book as a child, and one that I still turn to when I feel sad.

 

[Artemis923]

-A Song of Ice and Fire from George RR Martin
-The Wheel of Time, from the late Robert Jordan
-The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit from Tolkien
-The Legend of Drizzt from R A Salvatore
-The Complete Works of Lovecraft

Honorable mentions go to Solomon Kane, Conan the Barbarian, and Elric of Melnibone.

Lots of fantasy/sword and sorcery in there. I do read and enjoy other books but I've been reading these since I was a kid.

 

[rob_simple]

House of Leaves (Mark Z Danielewski)- A book everyone should at least try to read.
Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill) - I think this was the first novel by Stephen King's son, and I think he might actually be better at horror than his dad.
The Secret of Crickley Hall (James Herbert) - He's generally a shitty writer, but this story was absolutely brilliant; a classic haunted house story.
Lunar Park (Bret Easton Ellis) A fictional auto-biography of the actual author and genuinely creepy as shit.
All of John Connolly's work - I've loved everything I've ever read by JC, and he gets a special mention for being the only author I've seen who writes gay characters whose single defining characteristic isn't that they're gay.

 

[SirAxel]

In no particular order.
1. Dragon Age: The Calling (David Gaider) - It might be because I am huge fan of Dragon Age, but I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters were lovable and interesting, the twists and turns were more then enjoyable, the backstories are charming and memorable (or at least one in particular), the characters relationships were engaging and edgy.
2. Feet of Clay (Terry Pratchett) ? My favorite Discworld novel until now. Perhaps it?s because it?s more of a criminal novel then a Discworld novel, that doesn?t mean that Discworld novels are bad. This book is just in the golden middle zone between a criminal novel and a Discworld novel.

And I am going to leave the list at 2. Reason being that the other books I like aren?t really anything special (and I am a bit to lazy to write about it at the moment D. Alright here are some other writers and names.
-Christie Golden ? I generally like her writing style. To be honest I have read mostly her WarCraft books, so keep that in mind. Sometimes the books look a bit too short but most of the time everything in the book goes from good to excellent.
-R.A Salvatore ? His Forgotten Realms books are awesome (Haven?t read all of them ;.. At time they could really be slow and boring but when you get to the end of the book? everything feels just right.
-THIS SHOULD SATISFY YOUR CURIOUSITY.

THE END. D;

 

[Lt._nefarious]

5) Dearly Devoted Dexter - Not quite as brilliant as the first book but still cram packed with all of Deviant Dexter's Devilish Delight.

4) Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Sexy, violent and often funny, this book lives up to the expectations the show gave me and goes even further.

3) TGWTDT - I'm not writing the entire title. Steig Larsson's first entry into the Millenium trilogy is fucking fantastic, shame the book went down hill afterwards, I've not even been able to slog through the last few chapters of TGWPWF.

2) Without Remorse - Drugs, whores, racism, the Vietnam war and a sniper rifle. Easily Tom Clancy's best work.

1) Halo: Fall of Reach - Adds tons of depth to Halo. I loved all the books (except Contact Harvest) but this one is probably the best.

 

[Sammyjb17]

Like some others, I'm going to eschew traditional numbering so I don't go mad with internal debates.

A STORM OF SWORDS by George R.R. Martin- ASoIaF is all very good (though Feast for Crows was stretching that), but this was my favorite. I don't know how GRRM managed to tell a fantastically paced tale for over a thousand pages, but there you are. Close second favorite of the series is Clash of Kings.

THE MAGICIANS by Lev Grossman- A really touching and emotional book, one that surprised me in how it evolved. For anyone who hasn't read it or heard of it, definitely check it out. The traditional description is "Harry Potter meets Narnia with drugs and sex". It's not entirely off to say that.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS by JK Rowling- I was always the Harry Potter kid and school, and for good reason. I won't go into it much here, but the entire series was a pleasure to read and memorize. This was the last book I went to a midnight release of, and I finished it five hours later. Riveting, amazing series.

THE TALE OF DESPERAUX by Kate DiCamillo- While it's written for a childish audience, it's broad enough that I break it out often just to relive it. And it taught me the definition of 'perfidy', which actually helped me on my SATS that many years later.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens- It's Dickens! What else is there to say?

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

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.

I was involved in a amateur (really amateur) production of that story, so I've got a real soft spot for it. It is over-the-top and is utterly awesome.

My favorites are:

1. War Of The Worlds - H.G. Wells
2. The Dark Tower (series) - Stephen King
3. Shadow Over Innsmouth - H.P. Lovecraft
4. The Thief Of Always - Clive Barker
5. The Shining - Stephen King

 

[lemby117]

5. CHERUB Robert Muchamore - I frickin' love this series. It matured with me as I grew

This This A MILLION TIMES THIS!
*Ahem
OT: A Song Of Ice and Fire, Alex Rider, Cherub (obviously), and Animal Farm are all briliant

 

[Rooster893]

1. Carter Finally Gets It
2. Martin the Warrior
3. Adam Copeland on Edge
4. Mossflower
5. Space Station Seventh Grade

 

[KingHodor]

* All the "A Game of Thrones books" with the possible exception of "A Feast for Crows" (which I felt was captivating, but most of it was just needless backtracking... oh, and the Viking pirate king elections, which were a lot less interesting than it sounded.

* Welcome to the NHK: Pathetic loser suffering from crippling depression and anxiety disorders suddenly decides to turn his life around with the aid of a girl who improvised a psychotherapy program for hikkikomori like him. He does so after experiencing a paranoid vision brought on by the use of large doses of magic mushrooms and DMT potentiated with MAO inhibitors. Yeah, the book version is a lot more explicit on the source of the main character's visions and rambling thoughts and ideas than the TV show. At any rate, the main cast of characters is just fascinatingly pathetic - I guess one could liken it to a cross between Catcher in the Rye, those manic pixie dreamgirl films, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Japanese Otaku culture.

* Dune: Frank Herbert created a unique SciFi universe full of fascinating characters and cultures without invoking stereotypical aliens... or any sentient alien species for that matter. I also love the 1984 film version, even though it took major liberties with the story - but damn, you can't get much more awesome than having Captain Picard use nukes to blow up a mountain ridge to ride through on your 400-meter-sandworms, shooting a gun that turns your voice into deadly sonic blasts at a bunch of elite mooks in asbestos suits, and all this while Brian Eno is rocking out in the background. Oh, and you get to kill Sting. And how can this be? For he IS the Kwisatz Haderach.

 

[BlueberryMUNCH]

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

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

Just out of interest, are you a fan of Othello himself? What dyou think about Iago?

 

[govan640]

1. A Song of Ice and Fire series (Hopefully the rest too if GRRM finishes the damn thing)
2. Lord of The Rings
3. The Dirt (The motley crue story)
4. Of Mice and Men
5. The Heroin Diaries

I plan to read World War Z, The Farseer Trilogy, and a few other series of books, so after those my top 5 may change a tad.

 

[mrhappy1489]

1. A Storm of Swords: While all the ASoIF books are worthy of a spot in my top 5 books of all time, ASoS is by far the best. It provided some of the best insight into not only the main characters and there motivations, but the secondary and minor characters. While not wishing to spoil, some of the plots designed by the secondary characters has left me speechless and honestly I cannot look at the series the same way. Also I'd like to say the fact that no one appeared safe no matter how important has also made me question which characters I get invested in.

2. Brave New World: This book is just fantastic, very depressing, but fantastic. Comparing it to the other Dystopian future novel that I've read, this one is just miles ahead in my opinion. What it did that I really enjoyed, was that while the characters were relatable, they had a number of alien qualities that I believe set them apart from other protagonist and deuteragonist. Plus the ending honestly made me cry.

3. Point of Origin: This book in my opinion would have to have been Patricia Cornwell best. It was griping suspenseful and above all else immersive. I've read a number of her books, but this is by far the most engrossing and well written of her vast bibliography.

4. Pride and Prejudice: This book really surprised me when I read it. Not thinking anything of it beforehand, I was shocked by just how much I liked all the characters, like in this meaning I liked their character arcs and development not necessarily actually being fond of the characters. I think what I enjoyed most of all, is how it played on the presupposed stereotypes we develop of characters giving a rich human quality to all the characters and not just another boring cliched romance novel.

5. The Deathly Hallows: This book is only in my top five, because of 1 scene, Snape's Death scene (If you haven't seen this yet or read it then that's your problem). In my opinion this was the best scene not only from this book, but the entire series. In one scene, it changes Snape from the perceived villain he's been throughout the novel and turned him into the best by far.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

1.halo: the fall of reach- the best book on any video game series EVER. basically sets a few ground rules on the extended fiction, while fleshing out Captain Keyes and Master Chief's backstory. also, it talks about the creation of the spartans, master chief's friends (before the games), and Reach. any serious halo fan must read this.

2. world war Z- this journalistic account of the zombie apocalypse is awesome, interesting, and it also delves into the political crisis the world goes through in such an event. fantastic.

3. the outsiders- an interesting book that helped enrich me in the 8th grade.

4. harry potter- the first story i've read about witches and wizards that was actually good, and spawned an amazing franchise.

5. lord of the rings- the grandfather of high fantasy does not disappoint. excellent writing, although the pacing can be a bit off.

 

[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 reason.

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

Just out of interest, are you a fan of Othello himself? What dyou think about Iago?

The thing I like about Othello is that I didn't see the ending coming. Well, some of it was obvious, but I was so sure that

Spoiler

Cassio was going to die along with Othello and Desdemona.

Othello as a character is good I guess. Iago was more interesting, especially since he got a lot more lines to flesh out his character. It was also interesting to see how he was able to manipulate people. Really, all that the other characters had to do was talk to each other and his plan would fall apart, but he made them hate each other so much.

Looking back, I can't really pick out a reason why I preferred it over other Shakespearean plays. The somewhat unexpected ending really doesn't set it that far ahead of Romeo & Juliet or Macbeth. I just liked Othello more.

 

[Krantos]

1. The Count of Monte Cristo - Seriously, this is one of those books that everybody needs to read once. Preferably the Penguin Classics unabridged edition, as that seems to the best and most complete translation I've seen.

2. Mistborn & Trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson - Sanderson is currently my favorite author, and the Mistborn Trilogy, especially the first book (called Mistborn, or The Final Empire). Really, though Sanderson's other books could fill the rest of this list, so they're all worth a look.

3. Lord of the Rings - The granddaddy of popular fantasy. Read it primarily for the detail Tolkien put into his world. He makes Middle Earth feel real.

4. The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote - What? No one said they had to be fiction. Seriously though, this is the most readable and comprehensive account of the American Civil War I've had the pleasure to read. This is what happens when a novelist takes ten years and writes a history book (true story).

5. Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn - I still say this was the best example of taking a popular universe like Star Wars translating it to print. The action is tense, the characters well rounded and likeable, and there are just enough story twists to keep you turning the pages. Best Expanded Universe series, period.

 

[razor343]

1. Cell - Stephen King

2. Barefoot But With Spurs - Stanislaw Grzesiuk

3. What The Night Knows - Dean Koontz

4. The Confession - John Grisham

5. IT - Stephen King

 

[gorfias]

Hey, wanna know my top-5 graphic novels? Still no particular order...

Superman: Red Sun

Batman: Long Halloween

Batman: The Killing Joke

Infinity Gauntlet

Marvel Zombies

Cool! Thanks! I want to read those zombie books sometime.

Can I include Watchmen in that list?

And Batman, The Dark Knight Returns series?

Love Batman! Him vs. Grendel was pretty special too.

Have you heard the Long Halloween was an inspiration for Chris Nolan's "The Dark Knight" ?