What are your 5 favourite books of all time?

A Suitable Boy
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Pride & Prejudice (just as witty and erudite as it should be)
Grapes of Wrath
Ballet Shoes
And plenty others can't recall right now.

Well in the last few months I have enjoyed immensely

The girl on the train
Blackwater lightship
I am pilgrim
A man called ove
That sequel to the shining but can't remember the name

Jilly!!

Too many beloved books to mention but a few that are especially amazing:

Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
LA Confidential by James Ellroy
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Here be Dragons by Sharon Penman
Poisonwood Bibles by Barbara Kingsolver

Where's all the jolly cooper

Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

I love Wilkie Collins' books too, but the above are my abiding favourites.

The secret history
Bonjour tristesse
Anna karenina
The Scotland st books
Anne of green gables series

These are the ones I re read anyway

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
The Real Charlotte - Somerville & Ross
Notes on a Scandal & The Believers - Zoe Heller
The Death of the Heart - Elizabeth Bowen
Le Grand Meaulnes - Alain Fournier
The Curse of the Wise Woman - Edwin Dunsany

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Unreliable Memoirs - Clive James

Love many others

As other posters have said, I have a few staples that never change, and a few that are subject to mood, but I think are in the 'best I've ever read' pile.

Staples that I read at least once a year are:

1. Wuthering Heights
2. Dracula
3. The lonely passion of Judith Hearne

Changeable but brilliant

1. Notes on a scandal (read it for the second time last week!)
2. The entire Harry Potter series

I've picked up some great recommendations from this thread too, thanks op

Herriot even, autocorrect doesn't like his name apparently.

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
Othello - Shakespeare
Me before You - JoJo Moyes
The Green Mile - Stephen King
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenger

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Tess of the D'Urbervilles , Hardy
The Colour Purple/Possessing the Secret of Joy - Alice Walker

Contemporary books would be -

Me Before You - Jojo Moyes
Harold Fry (can't remember the author off hand, but it was one of the only modern books I've read to leave me sobbing)
Elizabeth is Missing - I'm an auxiliary nurse and the writer gave an incredible insight to the mind of a confused person
Vince and Joy - Lisa Jewell
Angela's Ashes

These are the books that have influenced my reading the most, in the order that I read them:

The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy
Golden Apples of the Sun, Ray Bradbury
Wyrd Sisters, Sir Terry Pratchett
Rachel's Holiday, Marian Keyes
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman.

Pride and Prejudice
100 Years of Solitude
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Lord of the Rings (all 3)

Jurassic Park

With honourable mention to all the James Heriot books as they (and the TV series) inspired me to become a vet

LauraChant I love The Changeover too.

Strongly recommend the 50 books in a year thread over on adult fiction btw. Read that and your tbr pile will soon be taller than you are.

It already is, I dare not.

This is was quite hard to do!

1. Hamlet
2. Wuthering Heights
3. Beloved (Toni Morrison) - This book almost broke me!
4. Frankenstein
5. Faustus (Christopher Marlowe)

Another who's favourites depend on mood/time of year

Pride and prejudice
Rachel's holiday

These 2 never change.

Before I go to sleep (don't let film put you off)
A is for alibi Sue Grafton (but you'll then need to read the rest)
A Christmas carol

Oops that should be Gaudy Night not Nights

My five favourite are not necessarily what I think are the five best books I have ever read...just the ones I keep going back to.

The Secret History (Donna Tartt)
Gaudy Nights (Dorothy L Sayers)
The Once and Future King (TH White)
The Children of Green Knowe (children's book but I love it)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

And I will add The Changeover, a YA book, because that is where my user name comes from and I love it also.

Pride and Prejudice
Rebecca
Blind Assassin
Good Night Mister Tom
Anna Karenina

Jane Eyre
The Secret History
Dracula
The Stand
Jurassic Park

Strongly recommend the 50 books in a year thread over on adult fiction btw. Read that and your tbr pile will soon be taller than you are.

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffenger
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger