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Original poster

TOP 5 BOOKS EVER.............?

155 replies

enprovence · 09/08/2009 14:36

Desperate for some new reading matter, what are you TOP 5 BOOKS EVER?

Will rack my brains and add mine too..........

OP posts:
janeite · 04/09/2009 17:55

Always Smiling - have you read P&P and Zombies yet? I totally recommend it!

FlyingMonkey · 04/09/2009 14:37

V. difficult to chose just 5 but casting my eye over my bookshelves, I would say:

Music & Silence - Rose Tremain
Brighton Rock - Graham Greene
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
Waterland - Graham Swift

And Adrian Mole

flyingcloud · 02/09/2009 09:46

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Atonement - Ian McEwen
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

AlwaysSmiling · 02/09/2009 09:14

hey mine have mostly been said by others as I am a great Austen fan. (not so much Brontes I hated Wuthering Heights, but Jane Eyre wasn't so bad - but you can't beat Austen for wit) anyways just for those who also love Austen I read a book recently called "The Man Who Loved Austen" it was a totally fictional story about Darcy being a real man who Jane met. Its a bit out there but the fun of it is so Austen, I reckon she would have liked it.

Litchick · 28/08/2009 18:10

Trainspotting - Irvin Welsh
A secret History - Donna Tartt
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
Notes on A Scandal - Zoe Heller
Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck

kentmumtj · 28/08/2009 01:44

er how about adrian mole

choosyfloosy · 28/08/2009 01:09

this is REALLY hard

top 5 books ever read:

persuasion
a fine balance by rohinton mistry
middlemarch
a place of greater safety by hilary mantel
war and peace (for some reason i want to apologise for putting this in)

saintmaybe · 28/08/2009 00:25

Can't really do top 5, but 5 favourites today;

Persuasion

Tristram shandy

One dog man - Ahmad Kamal

To kill a mockingbird

Bridge of birds - Barry hughart

BelleWatling · 27/08/2009 23:27

I have too many favourites but would take the following to a desert island:

Farewell My Lovely - Raymond Chandler
Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford
Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
& The Collected Stories of Damon Runyan...

I am clearly a 1930s girl...

janeite · 22/08/2009 14:25

Oh my gosh - I forgot 'Paula'!!!

drosophila · 22/08/2009 14:24

It is too hard isn't it. I have been pondering the ones I left out - East of Eden, Angela's Ashes several of Isabella Allende's books.

janeite · 21/08/2009 22:26

Yes, I think Persuasion is unquestionably a better book than P and P but I chose P and P as if I'm only allowed to read five books again in my life (I know that wasn't the OP btw but I like to make things hard for myself! ) I think I'd go for P&P over Persuasion for the sheer frivolity of it all.

Arghh - may want to change my mind again in a minute or two!

Blackduck · 21/08/2009 22:22

Persuasion (beats P&P for me now-think its an age thing!)
Earthsea Thrilogy (cheatng a bit here - le Guin)
Revelation space (A Reynolds)
The marriages between zones three, four and five (Doris Lessing)
Tenant of Wildfall Hall

janeite · 21/08/2009 22:08

This is hard!

Am trying to avoid having only Jane Austen in here so:

Sense And Sensibility
Pride And Prejudice
The Stand
Of Mice And Men
Waiting For Godot (or does it have to be a novel?)

Nighbynight · 21/08/2009 22:00

Middlemarch
Jane Eyre
Crime and Punishment
Rachel's Holiday
Black Sheep

drosophila · 21/08/2009 21:57

Confessions of a failed Southern Lady - Florence King

drosophila · 21/08/2009 21:54

Birdsong - S. Faulks
Beloved - T. Morrison
Confessions of a failed Southern Lady ???
Pride & Prejudice = Austen
Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

MissM · 13/08/2009 13:12

This is really interesting cos I saw an article somewhere the other day that was talking about how much everyone loved Jane Eyre, even people who didn't read much or didn't read classics particularly. It was wondering why it's such an enduringly popular book. The majority of people here have it in their top five (mind you, The Time Traveller's Wife also appears a lot and I couldn't STAND that book!)

And the old discussion about Catcher in the Rye, love it or hate it appears again...!

SobriquetDuJour · 12/08/2009 21:25

I think you've got me there MissM

Thequeensfool · 12/08/2009 21:20

Hmm, may consider digging out my old copy of catcher in the rye...I have to say I wasn't overly enthralled when I read it years ago.

VoodooBetterGetPacking · 12/08/2009 21:18

best book ever is cather...you can read it over and over, so simple and sad and clever

VoodooBetterGetPacking · 12/08/2009 21:17

catcher in the rye

the haunting - s jackson

one flew over the cuckoo's nest

Lord of the Flies

The House that Jack Built

(also...)

jurassic park I and II
all of Michael Crichton's

sorry but Dickens just bore me to tears,
The Lovely Bones is way too traumatic

twinmam · 12/08/2009 21:15

But then there's To Kill a Mockingbird and the Catcher in the Rye and everything by Primo Levi... Damn, this is hard

Thequeensfool · 12/08/2009 21:14

Five of my faves that spring to mind are:

Frenchman's Creek - Daphne Du Maurier

The Witching Hour - Anne Rice

The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - forgotten author!

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

twinmam · 12/08/2009 21:13

Ok my last one is Eva Luna (by Isabel Allende)