So start off by getting this in . . .

I really enjoyed the Magnificent Ambersons when I read it. A multi-generational tale of a family. The senior patriarch through skill and luck amasses a fortune. Mainly though the story is about how subsequent generations mistake inherited wealth for meritocracy, develop a false sense of class superiority, and as a result wind up living lives that are anything but happy and descend into the economic class from which in one generation they arose. This book sucked me in from the first chapter.

There is also a very good film adaption, in no small part due to direction by Orson Welles and with Welles as a narrator.

There are a lot of great books nominated here. Not even sure if I will even end up voting for my nomination . Kokoro, I wish I'd thought of that. I really like The Metamorphosis, but did not nominate it because it is really a short story and I already nominated The Trial (IMHO a far better book) for the next decade. Ethan Fromme, Death in Venice, Of Human Bondage, Under Fire—choices, choices . I know before being certain of making a proper vote I'll have to at least read The Good Solider and Main Street as well. This is probably not going to get my vote for best book, but maybe I'll read Tarzan of the Apes. If for nothing else then to read the source material for all those Johnny Weissmuller films that were a staple of my Saturday morning television viewing when I was little. I'd like to see Mark Twain get recognized, but his best work really dates to the 19th Century.