5 ONLY books that MUST be read.

[Hullygully]

Any era, any genre.

No crap.

Go.

Garp for me too

Couldn't we do 5 authors instead of books?

...and if you like the arctic/Antarctic expeditions try Skeletons of the Zahara which is a true story about a shipwreck that occurred in 1815. The survivors had to trek across the Sahara and survive getting captured by local slave traders. It's a fantastic read.

I could go on in this vein,
The Calaban Shore ,
In The Heart of The Sea ,
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano ,
Fatal Passage

...I could go on.

and on,

and on.

Excuse my earlier mistake that was supposed to read Lord of the Flies
To answer my own question I have just read the blurb on goodreads. I judged a book by its title for some reason and thought it was a fantasy type book .........oooh dear!

Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich
The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan
Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld
A Patchwork Planet, Anne Tyler
Diary of a Provincial Lady, E M Delafield

The Great Gatsby (and I've never seen any of the films so have not only just discovered it)
Testament of Youth- Vera Brittain
The Blood of Others- Simone de Beauvoir
Requiem por un campesino Espanol-JR Sender
The L Shaped Room trilogy

I would say:

Sherlock Holmes - I read this instead of revising for my finals and consider it time well spent.

Iris murdoch's 'the bell' - the first novel of hers that I read; I fell in love with her funny and compassionate perspective on the human condition.

The Magus - it's so wonderfully peculiar and plays with your mind.

King Lear - because it is the best play ever written IMO.

Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks - as it was so thought provoking and paradigm shifting .... Though can't decide on this or Jane Eyre, which was the first proper novel I read and always has me weeping every time I reread it.

I am going to have to ban the name of Sebastian Faulkes.

My desert island choices. I don't think they MUST be read, simply that they are the books I would cheerfully face shipwreck with.

Something by Barbara Pym. Today I'll go for Less than Angels, but I'd take pretty much any of hers. Funny and plangent.

The Debt to Pleasure, by John Lanchester for sheer good fun.

Non-fiction:

The Young Romantics, Daisy Hay. Haven't stopped thinking about this since I read it last year, particularly Claire Clairmont and how Byron took her little girl away.

The Lost Ark of the Covenant, by Tudor Parfitt. Invariably compared to Indiana Jones. Rattling good fund, a real-life quest through fascinating locations, not entirely without academic merit.

In Ruins, Christopher Woodward. If I say it's a kind of meditation on art history it makes it sound incredibly precious, but it's really accessible and eye-opening.

"read" not "fund".

shallishanti - Apparently there are two of us

Have now scrolled back and the rules.

"what does it bring to humankind's lonely dark trudge and solitary wrestling with this thing we call life en route to the yawning grave?"

Pleasure, that's what my choices bring. While we're on the lonely dark trudge, we might as well do our best to derive a little amusement along the way.

I have no idea what my five would be but I'm so glad that Mockingbird is on so many of your lists. It is my all time favourite and could quote most of it. I have reread it countless times

Oh YY The Magus!!

The Magus is wonderful. I haven't read it for ages, so it will have to go on my re-reading list. Can I just spend the whole winter in bed reading, please?

ThenSheSaid - Oooh thank you! I'll put it on my wish list. I'm currently reading 'The Worst Journey in the World', which is really good, but because he quotes at length from others' journals it's slightly disjointed, whereas 'South' is just incredible, both as a narrative and a tale of human endeavour. I am in awe of those men. Actually, I'm in awe of all that generation of polar explorers - the suffering they endured is unimaginable to me.

'In the Heart of the Sea' is amazing too. As is 'This Thing of Darkness'.

The Caliban Shore is v good.

I'm not a big re-reader of books. This sounds ridiculous written down, but I always worry that if I re-read something I thought was amazing I might not enjoy it so much and be disappointed. This particularly applies to The Magus which I especially think of as a young persons story. I loved the Magus, it blew me away. I read it when I was much younger than I am now when I was in my 20's. I have heard people say re-reading the Magus from a different point in your life (ie older) spoiled it

I do of course exempt Just William from the re-reading

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach- just beautiful.

Mists of Avalon by Marian Bradley - the best telling of the Arthurian legends IMO.

Strangers by Dean Koontz - the first really long book I never wanted to end.

The Girl of the Sea of Cortez by Peter Benchley - please read this book, it's magnificent.

Spanish Steps, Travels with my Donkey by Tim Moore - a true story of a man's 500 mile pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with a (very reluctant and stubborn) donkey called Shinto. Amazing, hilarious, inspirational and deeply heart-warming.

Oh yes - Jonathan Livingstone Bach by Richard Bach, loved it in my 20's. Must read it again.

Mort - because death scares me, but not if he likes cats.

Othello - because Shakespeare, and I adore Iago, he is the best worst.

Billy - I cried, it was just so fucking awful and sad

We Need to Talk About Kevin - because I love an unreliable protagonist, I have read this again and again.

Gobbolino the Witches Cat - A kids book, I know, but it was my favourite as a very little girl. We should all strive for the life we want rather than accepting the life we're born in to.

This is so hard. I had five planned and then I read the thread.

As my name suggests, I must have Persuasion by Austen. Because when you have a down day, doubting the power of love, or just craving escape you can open chapter 23 and the words "you pierce my soul" make you exclaim out loud and positivity is restored.

Goodnight Mister Tom, again because it restores your faith in humankind and introduces mental illness, grief etc to a young audience in a beautiful way.

So glad Louis de Bernieres was mentioned by at least one person. I saw that they picked the trilogy but if pushed to pick just one I would pick Señor Vivo and the Coco Lord. It shows determination and courage in the face of some of the most awful events and still manages to be funny.

The English German Girl - I am going out on a limb and saying I prefer this to The Book Thief (Holocaust) theme. It is beautiful, devastating and well researched. I read a lot of Holocaust related literature both fiction and non fiction and this is just amazing. Every single person should read this.

Around the World in Eighty Days - fantastic writing, a great yarn and bringing the world to people in 1872. For all of Fogg's flaws I find it an inspiring read to get up and do something.

I could easily add Wuthering Heights (my favourite - but following the rules), Frankenstein and To the Lighthouse (I struggle with Woolf until I just get to a point where she has written a sentence that just turns it all upside down).

Madame Bovary
Because whenever I fret about my lot I remember Emma on her taxi ride and how it all went

Rabbit, run (and subsequent books) Richard Ford
Beautiful language, reflective and not so reflective life

The Master and Marguerita, Bulgakov
Biting, extraordinary grim scary transcendent

Franny and Zooey J D Salinger
No idea why it's stayed with me for years and years after a single reading but it has

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S Thompson
A reminder not to be so reductive

God that was hard - down from 12

1. Catcher in the rye - JD Salinger

2. Angela's ashes - Frank McCourt

3. The Wasp Factory - Ian Banks

4. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

5. The Butcher Boy - Patrick McCabe