5 ONLY books that MUST be read.

[Hullygully]

Any era, any genre.

No crap.

Go.

[FuckyNell]

The green mile - Stephen king

All quiet western front

Grapes of wrath

Wild swans

The tiger who came to tea

[highlandcoo]

OK, so obviously picking only five is very hard! I've gone for books that I love, and would read time and again, and I think that's because I find myself feeling really involved with one or more of the central characters.

Espedair Street - Iain Banks

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

The Observations - Jane Harris

The Old Wives' Tale - Arnold Bennett

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

[drudgetrudy]

The children's Book AS Byatt
A whistling Woman- AS Byatt
Pride and Prejudice
Wuthering Heights

The Women's Room Marilyn French

• lots more
  Honorable mention to Easr Riding. Winifred Holtby

[bimblebee]

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Wasp Factory - Ian Banks
The Collector - John Fowles
1984 - George Orwell

[drudgetrudy]

Ooops SOUTH Riding

[ZombiePenguin]

Of Mice and Men
1984
The Handmaid's Tale
Thirteen Reasons Why
Behind The Scenes At The Museum

[CinnamonPorridge]

Smilla's sense of snow

Der Plan von der Abschaffung des Dunkels (I don't think it's been translated into English, same author, Peter Høeg)

The picture of Dorian Gray

One hundred years of solitude

High Fidelity

[CinnamonPorridge]

maybe I throw the Handmaid's Tale in instead of Der Plan von der Abschaffung...

[HowGoodIsThat]

I Capture The Castle - everything you need to know about love in all its guises - the good bits and the bad.

In This House of Brede - meditations on why life need to be rigorously examined and tested, and a masterly insight into women

Slaughterhouse 5 - war, what is it good for.....

The Summer Book - beautiful writing, the link across generations - the particular relationship between those at the end of life and those at the beginning

Albert Speer: His Battle with the Truth - masterly dissection of the time but more so the man - if you want to talk of the human condition both the subject and the author will teach you a great deal.

[AphraBane]

Pride and Prejudice (Austen) and
Rape of the Fair Country (Alexander Cordell) contrast and complement each other rather well, showing opposite ends of 19th century society - the harsh, deadly reality of industrialisation without which the refined world of manners would not have been able to exist.

Into the Silence (Wade Davies) - a non-fiction account of the impact of World War One and the subsequent attempts to climb Everest in the early 1920s. A beautifully drawn essay (OK, a very long essay) on the long-term tragedy of war, with amazingly thorough research.

Ulysses (Joyce) - that would be my Desert Island book. You can open it at any point and start reading (preferably out loud) and just delight in the sheer pleasure of language.

Buddenbrooks (Thomas Mann). An amazing study of decline and fall at the family level - but also ultimately the end of empire.

[ZombiePenguin]

HowGood

I love The Summer Book. I didn't like Tove Jannson's children books but that book was very clever and interesting.

[Allalonenow]

Some wonderful books mentioned on this thread, here are some of my favourites:
This Thing of Darkness ~ Harry Thompson
A Suitable Boy ~ Vikram Seth
An Instance of the Fingerpost ~ Iain Pears
Clara ~ Janice Galloway
Suite Francaise ~ Irene Nemirovsky

All grab the reader by the throat and pull them into an alternative world, often harrowing or heartbreaking, sometimes humorous, always thought provoking.

[JennyOfOldstones]

Been working on my top five for years.....

To Kill a Mockingbird (popular for a reason)
Martin Chuzzlewit (for Mr Pecksniff)
Lord of the Flies (horrible and wonderful)
The Blind Assassin (beautiful writing)
Midnights Children (fantastic idea, well executed)

[JennyOfOldstones]

Posted then went back to check if anyone had the same five as me, if they had I would have proposed marriage. Although one other person likes Martin Chuzzlewit, worth exchanging emails for, I think....

[revivingsnowshower]

I'm just going to post some of my 5 favourites
The Charioteer by Mary Renault beautifully written and very romantic love story that happens to be about 2 gay men. I read this as a teenager and it changed the way I think about gay people.
The Godfather captures the fear and awe inspired by the Don. He is one of the great characters in modern fiction. It depicts that world so clearly.
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian can I have this whole series? The sea, the sky, the sea, the sky etc
Venetia by Georgette Heyer ok not world changing, but it is a really good historical romance with wonderful period detail
The no 1 ladies detective agency by Alexander Macall Smith its lighthearted but he is writing something about human decency and the good side of Africa, so often forgotten when we see tragedies in the news.
I had to leave out PG Wodehouse and Neville Shute and Tony Hillerman and Terry Pratchatt but anyway I couldn't decide which of their books I liked best x

[Louise1956]

I don't think any books MUST be read. And people's tastes are so different I couldn't list 5 books I think everyone else must read. but five books I really love are:

pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - I love the characters and the humour
An Autobiography by Agatha Christie - fascinating, especially about her childhood and youth
three Men In A Boat by Jerome K. Jerome - funniest book ever
Our Village by Mary Russell Mitford - fascinating essays about country life 200 years ago - a portrait of a vanished world
1066 And All That by W.R. Seller and R.J. yeatman - best history book ever.

[LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob]

Couldn't whittle it down, books are so personal. But, the 5 books I love and read again and again are...

the Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontes

The Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

[LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob]

Forgot to add reasons. Dorothy Dunnett is amazing! her books sing. Go read her. Now.

Chocolat always evokes a certain feeling, I read it coming up to Easter most years. It's like an old friend.

Sherlock Holmes, the short stories are great, I was given this book when I was 18 odd teenager and have been reading it for years

Wuthering Heights. A book about complete assholes being assholes, but beautifully bleak and perfect for January.

The Goblet of Fire because I bloody love the Harry Potter Books and this is when they started to get really good.

[bishbashboosh]

I've read 100s this year and 376 yet to go on my kindle

I loved perfect by Rachel Joyce. It was good when I wAs reading it but haunted me for days afterwards

The vanishing act of Esme Lennox

Shutter island

The handmaids take

If nice and men

I also loved small island and all of Victoria hislops books

But I'm in love with lots of books