Your Top Ten Books

[Darkseid Sr.]

I know this will be hard for some people, and it was hard for me, but I feel as if I have created a definitive list. List your Top Ten books of all time.

10. "The Red Badge of Courage" - Stephen Crane
9. "The Invisible Man" - H.G Wells
8. "Ivanhoe" - Sir Walter Scott
7. "St. Francis Assisi" - G.K. Chesterson
6. "The War of the Worlds" - H.G Wells
5. "The Voyage of the Dawn-Treader" - C.S Lewis
4. "The Two Towers" - J.R.R Tolkien
3. "The Time Machine" - H.G Wells
2. "Of Mice and Men" - John Steinbeck
1. "The Count of Monte Cristo" - Alexandre Dumas

[Boosnickerty]

Good list. You know you have the Invisible Man listed twice?

[Darkseid Sr.]

Good list. You know you have the Invisible Man listed twice?

Thank you, and edited.

[Maniac_nmt]

1. The Illiad
2. Beowulf
3. Ivanhoe
4. The Icelandic Sagas
5. Ian Flemming's James Bond books (can't pick one, and as a series they go together)
6. REH's Conan (as these were all originally pulp magazine works, I will include them in one lump like James Bond)
7. Heimskringla - saga of the Norse kings
8. John Carter, Warlord of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs (I'd probably list the series as a whole)
9. Proverbs - Old Testament book
10. Tarzan - Edgar Rice Burroughs

[readyeddy?]

Mine would be these:

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy by (Oh you figure it out.)

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

A Feast Unknown by Philip Jose Farmer

Not necessarily in that order as it would be pointless to rank them.

[AlienFlanders]

These are books/series that I would recommend people read at least once for various reasons:
Gunslinger the first book of The Dark Tower series.

The Buterlian Jihad, Machine Crusade and the Battle of Corrin. (the funny thing is that I don't like the House series written by the same authors)

Rynosseros, Blue Tyson, Twilight Beach - Terry Dowling (an Australian series set in a Post apocalyptic world, it probably doesn't read well outside Australia but I like it. It appears that a fourth book in the series has just been released called Rynemonn - I will have to track it down.

Foucalt's Pendulum - Umberto Eco

Dead Witch Walking - Kim Harrison

Cthulhian mythos of HP Lovecraft - can't just pick one.

The Cooler - George Markstein (A WW2 story along the lines of the Prisoner)

The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien (I picked this book up as a result of a reference in Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)


The Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Musashi (to be crude it is a japanese version of the Art of War told by a swordsman of 14th-15th century)

Politics - Aristotle

The Art of War - Sun Tzu

The Prince - Machiavelli

And from the closet, 20 years worth of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact magazine (1965 - 1985 nearly complete) these contain some of the greatest SF short stories ever written, and the factual articles and J Campbell's editorials are still great reads.

[MattPetersen]

You are right, this is tough.

In NO particular order, I'd have to say these are my top 10 books/series:

Conan - Robert E. Howard
John Carter of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
Discworld - Terry Pratchett
James Bond - Ian Flemming
The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkein
McElligot's Pool - Dr. Suess (I still love reading it to my class)
The Steel Caves - Isaac Asimov
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

Runners Up:

Three Musketeers - Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
Man in the Iron Mask - Dumas
Scarlet Pimpernel - Orczy
I, Robot -Asimov
The Illustrated Man -Bradbury
Martian Chronicles - Bradbury
A Christmas Carol -Dickens
First Lensman - E.E. Smith
Grimm's Fairy Tales - Brothers Grimm

[spiderman9797]

1. "The Subtle Knife" by Phillip Pullman

2. "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Tenboom

3. "The Amber Spyglass" by Phillip Pullman

4. "Prey" by Michael Crichton

5. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

6. "Cell" by Stephen King

7. "Sphere" by Michael Crichton

8. "The War of the Worlds" by H.G Wells

9. "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck

10. "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton

[gawain]

The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton
The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
Watership Down, Richard Adams
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Republic, Plato
The Iliad, Homer
Phantastes, George MacDonald
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Candide, Voltaire

[VelvetGuru9]

this is harder than picking the "ten records/CDs you'd want to have if you were deserted on an island." theme...of course no one ever asks how you'd listen without electricity or what you'd do when the batteries went dead, but hey, as long as you're stuck there with your music, then you might as well have some books to while away the hours as you devise ways to bring electricity to the island.

Top Ten:
1) Candide by Voltaire - it is, IMHO, the greatest book ever written.

2)The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (with The Missing Piece by S.S. coming in a close second). Not only is TGT a beuatiful children's book, but I've read it to many ladies and the results are usually favorable.

3) Any Terry Pratchett book - sorry, but can't name just one.

4) The Harry Potter series of books - just like with with Elvis; 50 million fans can't be wrong.

5) Chicago Poems - Carl Sandburg. His journalistic endeavors for the Chicago daily News during the Chicago race riots alone should make everyone applaud him, and even with it's mistakes his Lincoln books are second to none.

6) The Prophet - Khalil Gibran - "What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?"

7) On the Road - Jack Kerouac - Every open road, every stretch of highway is a story. Say hi to Dean Moriarty for me Jack ;).

8) The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky - My great Uncle Jim Brosnan turned my dad onto this book and I'm glad he did. BTW, since this is a book thread, my Uncle Jim wrote was is still considered by many to be the greatest book ever written about baseball, The Long Season.

9) The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien. If it was good enough for John Lennon then it's good enough for me. He even wanted to make it into a film back in the 60s; I only wish he'd been able to see the Peter Jackson version - Peace John.

10) I'd go with a classic here, but instead I'm going to go with a book that hit home with me on a couple of levels: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It had a moment or two where it lost me, but in the end I looked at my wife and red-eyed, thanked her for pushing it on me - Now lets see how Peter Jackson converts it to film.

10 1/2) :) Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre - Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

Special props to my favorite classics: Pride and Prejudice, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, The Old Man and the Sea, Picture of Dorian Gray and of course Moby Dick.

In one of the music threads there's a topic of favorirte lyrics; one of mine has always been:
"Book after book
I get hooked
Everytime the writer
Talks to me like a friend"
-Marc Bolan (the Guru of VG9)

[Saklas]

1) Hitchhiker's Guide
Loves me some brit humor

2) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
heheh

3) 'Salem's Lot
Stephen King at his Finest IMO

4) Nightmares & Dreamscapes
Stephen King's best short story comp that I've read. I especially liked Dolan's Cadillac.

5) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

6) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

7)Different Seasons
I REALLY like Stephen King

8) Lord of the Rings
c'mon...it would of been higher but it's really too wordy in some parts

9) Romeo and Juliet
Hah, brings out the emo in me.

10) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[EmperorNorton]

1) Faust - Johann Wolfgang Goethe

2) Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre - Johann Wolfgang Goethe

3) Die Abenteuer des Don Sylvio von Rosalva - Christoph Martin Wieland

4) The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

5) Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco

6) Der Erwählte - Thomas Mann

7) Die Leiden des jungen Werthers - Johann Wolfgang Goethe

8) Don Quijote - Miguel de Cervantes

9) Baudolino - Umberto Eco

10) 1984 - George Orwell


Numbers 1 and 2 on this list are fixed, while the rest is bound to change almost daily.
I left out Shakespeare, because his dramas are meant to be seen, other than Faust, which is a tragedy by name but less by design.

[VelvetGuru9]

Cthulhian mythos of HP Lovecraft - can't just pick one.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to AlienFlanders again.
My fave of his is the poem "The Garden"

[AlienFlanders]

Lovecraft's letters from the 1920's/30's are interesting as well, I tried to get them as a collection a few years ago but the price was a joke (which I didn't have at the time).

[VelvetGuru9]

Lovecraft's letters from the 1920's/30's are interesting as well, I tried to get them as a collection a few years ago but the price was a joke (which I didn't have at the time).
I've seen them, but never bought or read any. It's something I'll have to look into getting my daughter since she's a big Lovecraft fan.

[SeekerMuadib]

WOW this is hard to figure out. But here we go and in no particular order.

The entire DUNE series, including the others by Brain Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. This entire series is something I will pull out and read if I cannot find any thing else to read.

H.P. Lovecraft - I do not have a special story I enjoy the most. I just no I like his work.

All of the books by Matthew Reilly - He writes action books like John Woo used to direct good action movies. He is honestly one author that when his books come out I will put every thing else aside to just read his books.

Rogue Warrior - Richard Marcinko, he is the man who originally created the Navy's SEAL Team 6. Team 6 being the Navy's first anti-terrorist team.

John Carter Warlord of Mars - just a great read.

Not exactly reading material, but any book from Luis Royo and Brom. I absolutely dig their work.

C.S. Lewis The Narnia Series - gotta say I read them as a kid, all religiuos stuff aside I enjoyed them. I know all religiuos stuff aside there isn't much to read after that.

Ok I guess that's it for now. I could only come up with 7 for now. But like others have said it is hard to come up with a list of stuff I enjoyed.

[Xero Boy]

I don't feel I'm qualified to rate the best books of all time. I've read a lot of books, more than some and less than others. But I'll take a crack at the 10 best books that I've read:
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker
Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I Have No Mouth and Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
1984 by George Orwell
Startide Rising by David Brin
The Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Telempath by Spider Robinson

I can't put them in an order, they are just ten of my favorite books.

[lensnart]

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - David Eggers

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Catcher In The Rye/Nine Stories - J.D. Salinger (I couldn't pick just one)

Junky - William S Burroughs

Down and Out In London and Paris - George Orwell

How To Talk Dirty and Influence People - Lenny Bruce

The Old Man and The Sea - Ernest Hemingway

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

Hiroshima - John Hersey

Honourable Mentions:
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
The Mysteries Of Pittsburgh - Michael Chabon
1984 - George Orwell
In A Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson
Hollow Chocalate Bunnies of the Apocalypse - Robert Rankin
Swimming In Cambodia - Spalding Gray
Neverwhere/Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Hells Angels - Hunter S. Thompson
Hitchhiker"Trilogy" - Douglas Adams
Portrait Of The Artist as A Young Man - James Joyce

[Hatut Zeraze]

Fun! OK, not sure if these are my all-time faves, but as of this writing, these ten (in no particular order) are the ones that come to mind:

1. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
2. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. The Last Night of the Earth Poems - Charles Bukowski (I'm partial to this book because it was the first Bukowski I'd read)
4. Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
5. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
6. Dance Dance Dance - Haruki Murakami (Once again, not sure if this is his best, but it was the first book of his I read and I really dug it)
7. The Trial - Franz Kafka
8. Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut
9. Operation Shylock - Philip Roth
10. Filth - Irvine Welsh

Whew! That was tough. I tried not to include more than one book by an author. That was really hard for authors like Vonnegut, Hesse, Roth, Murakami, Bukowski, Kafka, and Doestoyevsky. I've read at least 3 books by each of those writers.

Other notables I had to exclude: Flight by Sherman Alexie, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, The History of Luminous Motion by Scott Bradfield, Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, Aloft by Chang-Rae Lee, and various fun reads by H.P. Lovecraft, Tom Robbins, Terry Pratchett, Tony Hillerman, Chuck Palahniuk, and Neil Gaiman.

Oh, and the graphic novels I skipped....................

[Yeshuaskin]

The Bible - The Holy One of Israel
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
This Present Darkness - Frank Peretti
Space Trilology - C.S. Lewis
Tarzan Series - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Ender's Game - Orsen Scott Card
The Death and Life of Superman - Roger Stern
Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
The Return (of Capt. Kirk) - William Shatner
Couplehood - Paul Reiser

Honorable Mentions:
The Kingdom of God - Geerhardus Vos
Piercing the Darkness - Frank Peretti
Practicing the Presence of God - Brother Lawrence
Arthurian Saga - Mary Stewart
Once and a Future King - T.H. White
Descent into Hell - Charles Williams

[Gargantua]

I intentionally refrained from posting as soon as I saw this thread to avoid thinking of all the books I should have posted later. So I gave myself a couple of days, and sure enough, I thought of a few more. I'll probably still think of others I should have added later, but oh well.

In no particular order:
1. The Bible
2. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
3. House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
4. Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy GAvriel Kay
5. Once and Future King - T.H. White
6. First Man in Rome - Colleen McCullough
7. Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
8. 1001 Arabian Nights
9. The Sea Hawk - Rafael Sabatini
10. The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey

Honorable Mentions
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
The High King - Lloyd Alexander
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
John Adams - David McCullough
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

[DocDoom187]

Honorable Mentions
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
The High King - Lloyd Alexander
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
John Adams - David McCullough
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
I didn't know anyone else even read this!?! this book so much. I've reread it twice, and it's just great everytime. I especially enjoy the footnotes.

[thepunisher27]

These are my ten.

10. Eragon-Christopher Paolini
9. Harry Potter-JK Rowling
8. The Green Mile-Stephen King
7. Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy- Douglas Adams
6.Curious George-H. A. Rey and Margret Rey
5.The Catcher In The Rye-J.D. Sallinger
4.Faith of the Fallen- Terry Goodkind
3.In Cold Blood-Truman Capote
2. A Clockwork Orange-Anthony Burgess
1. The Lord of The Rings- JRR Tolkien

[charlesx]

This is even harder, the more I think about it...

In no particular order (save for the first, which is my all-time favorite):

The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

God Emperor of Dune and the rest of the Dune books by Frank Herbert (I pretend that the books not written by Frank don't exist)

Shogun - James Clavell

The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

The Annotated Lovecraft books - HP Lovecraft & ST Joshi

Love in the Time of the Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmons

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon

I, Claudius/Claudius the God - Robert Graves

and a tie: Stardust and American Gods - Neil Gaiman

[The BoyBlunder]

In no particular order

Mistress of the Empire: Raymond E. Fiest and Janny Wurts

Silverthorn: Raymond E. Fiest

World War Z: Max Brooks

The Seven Songs of Merlin: T.A.Barron

Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food: Figure it out.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy "Trilogy" (I have the first four in one book, so I count them as such.): Douglas Adams

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher: Bruce Coville

The Yearling: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Prince of the Blood: Raymod E. Fiest

Rise of a Merchant Prince: Raymond E. Fiest.


Yeah, I like Raymod E. Fiest a lot.

[Gargantua]

I didn't know anyone else even read this!?! this book so much. I've reread it twice, and it's just great everytime. I especially enjoy the footnotes.

I really enjoyed the richness of it. I hear they're planning to do a movie of it. I don't know that a movie, even a 3-4 hour epic could do it justice. While I was reading it, I kept thinking how it would be perfect for like an 8-part Masterpiece Theatre.

[DocDoom187]

I really enjoyed the richness of it. I hear they're planning to do a movie of it. I don't know that a movie, even a 3-4 hour epic could do it justice. While I was reading it, I kept thinking how it would be perfect for like an 8-part Masterpiece Theatre.
A movie could not do it justice. Anything but book form couldn't IMO. The wordsmithing, foot notes, and all around novel way it was written made it so special, IMO, in a way that could never be replicated by a movie.

[Darth Sabre]

The Bible
Salem's Lot -Stephen King
The Pelican Brief- John Grisham
The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkein
Fairie Tale- Raymond E. Feist
Needful Things- Stephen King
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
The Autobiography of Malcom X- Malcom X w/ Alex Haley
Of Mice and Men -John Steinbeck
Animal Farm - George Orwell

[bagman04]

Here goes

1- Lord of the Flies- William Holden
2- Call of the Wild- Jack London
3- The Things They Carried- Tim O'Brien
4- I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell- Tucker Max
5- The Count of Monte Cristo- Alexander Dumas
6- Liberalism is a Mental Disorder- Michael Savage
7- Helltown- Denny O'Neil
8- All For The Boss- Ruchoma Shain
9- No Country for Old Men- Cormac McCarthy (middle of it)
10- Carrie- Stephen King

[EmperorNorton]

10- Coming Soon

I don't think you should post a top ten before you have read at least ten books. ;)

[bagman04]

HA! Rep for you smart guy. No, I just orderd Liberalism is a Mental Disorder, and I am a big Michael Savage fan so I want save a spot for the book. As of now my 10 would be The Wizard of Oz.

[AZS]

In no particular order (and not adding up to mor or less than 10 depending on how you count them):

The Stand & It – Stephen King

Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the 4 book ‘trilogy’) – Douglas Adams

Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

Slaughterhouse Five & Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut

Lightning & Watchmen – Dean Koontz (the only two books of his I liked, incidentally.)

[DocDoom187]

Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut

*High Fives AZS!*


Such a great book. Really amazing. It's so out there, and really thought provoking.

[Webslinger92]

10. Treasure Island
9. The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia)
8. War of the Worlds
7. Holes
6. Where the Red Fern Grows
5. The Fellowship of the Ring
4. The Hobbit
3. The Two Towers
2. THe Time Machine
1. Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia)

[jedah_s]

I suppose I should try my hand at this.

Swan Song
The Talisman
Heritage of Shannara
The Stand
It
Twilight Eyes
Plum Island
Dracula
Frankenstein
Divine Comedy (Inferno & Purgatory)