5 ONLY books that MUST be read.

[Hullygully]

Any era, any genre.

No crap.

Go.

I'd decide who you want to read about, taffleee,and start from there...not the latest ones,and not the first few either IMO as it takes a while for Discworld to take off.(So not The Colour of Magic,The Light Fantastic,Sourcery...)

Maybe Guards,Guards (first book about the Watch) or Wyrd Sisters (first book about the witches).Or Pyramids - stand alone. Or Reaper Man (about Death - the character)
What do other people think??

Perfect advice IMO Life!

The Lord of the Rings (the whole lot)
The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
Nansens Furthest North A record of a voyage of exploration of the ship Fram, 1893-96, and of a fifteen months sleigh journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen
The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily - Dino Buzzati. I just don't understand why this book isn't more popular.

Illywhacker. Peter Carey

I tried to think of my books as quickly as possible, I would probably have 5 different books if you asked me in five minutes. I bet when I read everyone else's suggestions I will want to change my mind.

Only just spotted that this is in adult fiction as I joined from most active discussions

Think I may have broken the rules.

Life see!?? Its so difficult to know where to begin with Pratchett, what did you read first??

I am amazed at the inclusion of LOTR so many times, yes it's a great elfin romp with an incredibly long and boring war and a ring - but it doesn't lead us to peer into our souls and search the very depths now, does it?

Ialways I have to agree about lord of the rings. My Dad was bought the 'tape set, read' about 25 years ago, and I listened to all the books from the age of 7, before reading them for myself - amazing and brilliant

Ovid - metamorphoses. At first glance it looks like a collection of myths arranged pretty haphazardly but is also political commentary, funny and very precisely written.

Austen- pride and prejudice: my favourite Austen book. Always cheers me ip and lightens the gloomy trudge through this dark world!

Robertson Davies - the Cornish trilogy. I chose this one to fit with the very precise requirements! It is examining how someone finds the meaning of his life.

Bulgakov - the master and margarita. It reads like a surreal fantasy novel but covers soviet politics, Christianity, mental health and naked flying witches!

MM Kaye- the Ordinary Princess. This is a children's book but is lovely to read - the descriptions are beautiful, the characters are funny and the princess disguises herself as a maid to avoid an arranged marriage.

lord of the rings
to kill a mockingbird
mila 18
the god of small things
shindlers ark

skaen wow, never heard of the MM Kaye book, will read x

lambbone ha! I dithered, I tell you, dithered over which DWJ to choose. I met her once you know. I was completely star struck. I We talked at length about how crucial happy endings and moral clarity are in fiction in order for it to be worth investing hours of our time in reading it. God, that bit at the end of Fire and Hemlock is heart breaking, isn't it

Do try the Steve Augarde books - trust me, it all comes out right in the end :)

I'm loving Freetchen's list - I was blown away by the Hunger Games trilogy. The Margaret Attwood ones are probably a bit dark though, aren't they?

And yes yes yes to everyone who said The Book Thief. Devastating but also uplifting in a way that the sodding boy in the sodding striped pyjamas simply wasn't.

And The Time TRaveller's wife - almost ruined by the movie, but one can imagine one hasn't watched it after all.

LOTR are brilliant, they are just so epic It was the first book(s) I thought of when I saw this thread. I have read them from cover to cover twice.

One of my other suggestions was for Nansens Farthest North which was a real life epic adventure. It is basically the log book of Nansens ill fated 3 year adventure into the Arctic in the 1890's. It's mesmerising.

I guess I like a bit of epic'ness

skaen - Oh I LOVE the Ordinary Princess. It comes around and around for me - I read it every few years. She was my idol (the princess) as a child - that's definitely the kind of princess I am going to be when I grow up

You're in for a treat, Ommmm. :)

Crime and punishment - blew me away, made me question my owm morality

The psammead series because it enchanted me and enchants my dd.

The lion the witch and the wardrobe - cs lewis was a genius

great expectations I loved/loathed all the characters equally

rebecca its about love, innit x

day of the triffids we all love to be scared out of our wits

The story of o harrowing reality of 50 shades shite

Wonders if I should read to kill a mockingbird?

taffleee, as far as I can remember I read them in order (sadly I am old enough to have read most of them as TP wrote them!)

But while I thought The Colour of Magic was great at the time,the later books are just so much more. At the mo DS and I are reading them,and I won't suggest the early ones til we are stuck for what to read next. We have read a random assortment -Guards,Guards,the first two witches books,Interesting Times,Soul Music,Pyramids,The Lost Continent...if I asked him he would say read The Lost Continent!

Sorry,bit of a diversion from the thread there.

Loved The Various and sequels,and I've not met anyone who has read them in RL.

I've found the books made an impact on me on the lonely dark trudge and solitary wrestling haven't always been classics or great books in themselves,but just had something relevant when I read them,so it is hard to choose books everyone should read.

Keith Roberts - Pavane - because it's beautiful, because it's a ground-breaking example of alternative reality fiction, because I will never stop re-reading it, because of its subtle Celtic mythology.

Diana Wynne Jones - The Homeward Bounders. Quite possibly her most underrated book. Beautiful use of mythology and human tragedy

Tim Powers - The Anubis Gates. Because I love the time travel aspect of it, because he really knows his fencing and because he interweaves poetry and Egyptian mythology.

L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt - The Roaring Trumpet. Yes, Norse mythology. It's also very witty and clever, and I just love the cockroach racing scene in the fire giants' jail between Heimdall and the protagonist. Cracks me up every time.

Terry Pratchett - Night Watch. The best Vimes book of the lot, although all the Vimes ones are stunning.

They should be universal in the manner of FR Leavis' Great Tradition. They should speak to us all.

Crap. I haven't managed to fit any Louis de Bernieres in there.

Can I break the rules and add the entire Latin American Trilogy in as my sixth?

No, didn't think so...

Fabulous thread concept, by the way!

The Quincunx - Charles Palliser
The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
The Barsetshire Chronicles - Anthony Trollope
............... still honing.

Vanity Fair - a massive panorama of life lived in society.
When We Were Orphans - because when you work out just why he's using the 'unreliable narrator' device, you will weep for all that you've lost, just by being born at the time you were.
The Master and Margarita - big subjects in the hands of an, erm, master. It will draw you in, take up all of your imagination and spit you out again, and you'll love it for that.
Lights Out For The Capital - if you don't love London, you don't get it, and that makes you spiritually impoverished.
And echoing so many on here - To Kill A Mockingbird, because Atticus Finch is the father that we all should have had.

Rebecca
The Stand
Pride and Prejudice
Lolita
The Goldfinch