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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:
twinmam · 12/08/2009 21:11

Wuthering Heights
Pride & Prej
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
and then I'm stuck as there are so may more I want to include.........

MissM · 12/08/2009 21:03

Well if you're old and sad then so am I! Although I think you're a little sadder as Thorn Birds is in your top 5

castlesintheair · 12/08/2009 18:21

Effie Briest
The Famished Road
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Tristram Shandy
Moll Flanders

SobriquetDuJour · 12/08/2009 18:15

Can't believe I left out Jane Eyre & Rebecca from the first list.

I'm no good at these threads.

R.e ThornBirds I still do read the saucy bits & lust after RC

Does that make me old & sad then? Actually don't answer that

LastTrainToNowhere · 12/08/2009 18:00

Hehe. I remember Thorn Birds from my teenage years too.
And various Harold Robbins. I don't think any of us ever read the whole book, just the, cough, relevant bits

MissM · 12/08/2009 17:46

Well I remember it from when I was about 14 - we read all the saucy bits at breaktime and lusted after Richard Chamberlein.

SobriquetDuJour · 12/08/2009 12:15

It's really good, honest!

MissM · 12/08/2009 11:30

Thorn Birds in amongst all those lovely classics!

SobriquetDuJour · 12/08/2009 10:54

argh, hate the pressure of choosing your top three or five, I alwyays think of more afterwards!

Ok first ones that come to mind are

Pride & Prejudice - Austen
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wilde
Bleak House - Dickens
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
To The Lighthouse - Woolf

Can I sneak in 5 more recent ones?

Music & Silence - Rose Tremain
The Quincunx - palliser (great if you like dickens)
The Thorn Birds - Coleen McCullough
Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky
Any Human Heart - Willam Boyd

LoveTheCarbs · 12/08/2009 10:07

Five of my favourite books, I don't think I could actually rate a Top 5:

The Time Traveller's Wife
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
The Hyperion series by Dan Simmons (I know not one book so it shouldn't be counted but I can't choose one out of the series)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

MissM · 11/08/2009 13:42

Top Fiveish:
Wuthering Heights
All Quiet on the Western Front (but not read it for years so that's based on my teenage self)
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Writing on the Wall (children's book from the 80s by Lynne Reid Banks)
Rebecca

LastTrainToNowhere · 10/08/2009 19:46

One Hundred Years of Solitude
A Picture of Dorian Gray
Midnight's Children
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Rebecca

MaybeAfterBreakfast · 10/08/2009 16:32

Pride and Prejudice
The Unconsoled
Rebecca
Notes from a Small Island
Alias Grace

Pacita · 10/08/2009 16:24

Not top five, but five books that moved me:

One hundred years of solitude, Garcia Marquez
Embers, Sandor Marai
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Mme. Bovary, Flauvert
Quiet flows the don, M. Sholokov
Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky

linz76 · 10/08/2009 16:09

The catcher in the rye - JD Salinger
The handmaids tale - Margaret Atwood
The sopranos - Alan Warner
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
The bell jar - Sylvia Plath

V difficult to only list five!

Dophus · 10/08/2009 10:47

The Road - Cormac McCarthy
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Look to Windward - Iain Banks
The Kiterunner

so many others!

Littlepurpleprincess · 10/08/2009 10:38

Magician - Raymond E Fiest
Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
The Naked Jape - Jimmy Carr
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Time Travelers Wife - Audrey Nefenager

Molesworth · 10/08/2009 10:37

The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro)
Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates)
Diary of a Nobody (George and Weedon Grossmith)
If This is a Man (Primo Levi)
The Quincunx (Charles Palliser)
another vote for George Orwell's essays too

infin · 10/08/2009 10:17

A top five discounting classics (as it's so long ago that I read any )
A Fine Balance -Rohinton Mistry
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
Any Human Heart - William Boyd
City of Djinns - William Dalrymple

And after I post this I'll want to switch all but the first one to something else!!

Original poster
enprovence · 10/08/2009 09:54

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I have been totally convinced to get 'To kill a mockingbird' as so many love this book.

Some of my faves are:

Love in a Time of Cholera - GG Marquez

AS I walked out one midsummer morning - Laurie Lee

Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan

My Father's Glory (& my Mother's Castle) Marcel Pagnol.

OP posts:
Takver · 09/08/2009 21:56

Mansfield Park
The Dispossessed (Ursula le Guin)
George Orwell's collected essays
Devil's Cub (Georgette Heyer)
Diary of a Provincial Lady (E M Delafield)

Rosieeo · 09/08/2009 21:45

I thought of one:

The 19th Wife

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 09/08/2009 21:43

To Kill A Mockingbird
The Alchemist
Jane Eyre
Sense and Sensibility
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

MANATEEequineOHARA · 09/08/2009 21:42

Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)

American Gods (Neil Gaiman)

Wasted (Marya Hornbacher)

Wicked (Gregory Maguire)

Wilt (Tom Sharpe)

Overmydeadbody · 09/08/2009 21:38

Mara and Dann by Doris Lessing

Birds without Wings

The Five People you meet in Heaven

Life of Pi

Veronica Decides to Die