My top ten favorite books which I read ever (so far)

[w1k0]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

This is ... incredibly difficult.

Keeping to favourite books (which don't necessarily overlap with books I've appreciated or books I consider important or books I really should mention because they're more high-brow than those I am actually going to list but I won't because, well, they're just not truly my favourites), this is probably the best I can currently come up with.

Nicely put.

***

When I inspected my own list from the second post here I realized that in practically all cases the hero is some kind of a freak or weirdo. That hero may be an individual or a number of the individuals.

Someone stated that my list consists mostly of science-fiction. From my point of view all these books are fiction, in some cases some science may appear, and in a few cases it plays a crucial role. For me these books are the great achievements of the human imagination. That fiction – as I understand and interpret it – is more true than most of the facts – as the other people understand and interpret them.

I listed the books which changed my thinking about the language, the people, and the world. So they changed me.

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut is the book which I read the first. I met Kurt when I was at exactly the same age at which Philboyd Studge met Phoebe Hurty. Phoebe taught Philboyd to be impolite. Kurt taught me to watch the world, the people, and the language in a critical way – with a heavy irony. American Gods by Neil Gaiman is the book which I read the last (so far). Neil helped me to discover who I am.

[solitarywolf]

When I look at my list (over the years) I also like to take another perspective on why they are my favorites. Similar to a tarot reading I like to see how these books influenced me or why I am attracted to them and what they all have in common with me.

Its a nice introspection on who you are.

Thanks everyone for sharing your lists! I have a few new titles I need to add to my reading list.

[chromedome]

Difficult, I'm sure the moment I hit return to this response I'll think - Oh wait no - what about....

To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Watership Down - Richard Adams
River God - Wilbur Smith
Duma Key - Stephen King
A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
I am Legend - Richard Matheson
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

I feel somewhat guilty about not including L.O.T.R., but to be truthful I never really found it that enjoyable, I actually (I know heresy) preferred the films. Please don't shoot me.

[Geralt]

• A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3) by George R. R. Martin
• Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2) by Joe Abercrombie
• Retribution Falls (Tales of the Ketty Jay, #1) by Chris Wooding
• Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1) by China Miéville
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• Prokleta avlija by Ivo Andrić
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Last Wish (Saga o Wiedźminie #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski
• The Night Watch (Дозоры #1) by Sergei Lukyanenko
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philp K. Dick

Everything read in English except for Prokleta avlija by Ivo Andrić. That one I read in original, although if any of you are interested there is an English translation.

[xg4bx]

I don't know if I could think of 10 off the top of my head. Hmmm...

1984 by George Orwell
The Long Walk by Stephen King
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft
The Terror by Dan Simmons
The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers
That Which Should Not Be by Brett J Talley (I own 3 copies, ebook, pb, and hardcover)

[carpetmojo]

I'm afraid to say I've given up trying to compile an even moderately overlong list ........ Just an impossible task.

Here in the UK we have a programme called "Desert Island Disc." in which well-known people/celebrities (real ones, not just winners of any X-Factor or Jungle scenario!) choose their favourite ten pieces of music to take to a desert island'
I have enough trouble doing that task, even though I'm not a celeb headed for a marooning - and at the end , they even have to decide which one disc they would want to keep after a tsunami/hurricane hit the island !

Even more impossible .........

[Buruan]

Love this thread enough to use it for my very first post.
I will add series as single books, hope thats cool.
In no particular order :
Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire
Prattchett - Discworld (yes all of them)
Hesse - Siddhartha
Melville - Moby Dick
Tolkien - The Silmarillion
Asimov - The Robot Series
Abercrombie - The First Law Triology (Highly Highly recommended fantasy title)
Kerouac - On the Road
Weelock Thayer - The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven (dry read but I love Beethoven so much, I plowed through this in one go)

[AndrewH]

Alphabetical by author...

Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
John Gardner: Grendel
Frank Herbert: the Dune series (if I had to pick one from the series, it would be Dune)
Frank Herbert: Soul Catcher (his only prehumously published non-SF novel)
Barry Hughart: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox trilogy (if I had to pick one, it would be The Bridge of Birds)
Guy Gavriel Kay: A Song for Arbonne
Guy Gavriel Kay: Tigana
David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Buruan

Love this thread enough to use it for my very first post.
I will add series as single books, hope thats cool.
In no particular order :
Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire
Prattchett - Discworld (yes all of them)
Hesse - Siddhartha
Melville - Moby Dick
Tolkien - The Silmarillion
Asimov - The Robot Series
Abercrombie - The First Law Triology (Highly Highly recommended fantasy title)
Kerouac - On the Road
Weelock Thayer - The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven (dry read but I love Beethoven so much, I plowed through this in one go)

I see you like looooooooooong stories.

Welcome!

[sun surfer]

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the short story by Flannery O’Connor
Harry Potter, the series by J.K. Rowling
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Leaves of Grass, First Edition by Walt Whitman
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Ulysses by James Joyce
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

[Geralt]

Originally Posted by AndrewH

John Gardner: Grendel

An oldie but a goodie. Beautifully written

[sun surfer]

I've realised that I forgot Wuthering Heights, without a doubt one of my all-time favourites. I don't know how I managed that, but I'll edit and correct this right now.

[Silver Surfer]

1. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Kingkiller Chronicle - Patrick Rothfuss
3. The Commonwealth Saga - Peter F. Hamilton
4. The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran
5. The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
6. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
7. A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
8. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
9. The First Law - Joe Abercrombie
10. Cosmos - Carl Sagan

[Geralt]

Cool list! You are a bit tricksy though

Originally Posted by Silver Surfer

2. The Kingkiller Chronicle - Patrick Rothfuss
9. The First Law - Joe Abercrombie

These are not single books, they are book series with multiple books in them :P

[~Kate]

Boys Life - Robert McCammon
The Stand - Stephen King
Wool Omnibus- Hugh Howey
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Watership Down - Richard Adams
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
The Giver - Lois Lowry