Top Five Books Ever?

[Charlieboo30]

I'm an avid book worm - I read one a week, more if I'm on holiday - so get through a fair few books. It got me thinking, what would be my top five list.

I think (I will probably change my mind tomorrow) it would be:

'Chocolat' by Joanne Harris - the woman is a genius. I read this at least once a year. It's just magical.

'Just what kind of mother are you?' by Paula Daly. Only read this recently but I loved it. I'm very jealous of anyone who hasn't picked it up.

'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks. Had to read this for my A-levels and really didn't want to. In fact, I threw the mother of all strops and said it was a book for boys. I looked stupid when I admitted I had raced through it!

'Cross Stitch' by Diana Gabaldon. Not my genre at all but recommended by a friend. I couldn't put it down. Sadly the rest in the series are no-where near as good.

'The love of her life' by Harriet Evans. Not the most literary of books but a great easy read.

So not the most high brow of lists, but there you go! What would yours be?

Today's pick would be:

Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer

and I can't decide between Emma and Tess of the D'Urbervilles: both A Level texts which I have a lingering and deep-rooted affection for.

The Beach, Alex Garland (I loved that book so much I nearly burnt it when they made that horrific film and changed everything that was great about it, grrrr!!!!)

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce (was recommended by a friend and just loved the quiet subtle build up, beautiful to read, could not put down!)

The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night time, Mark Haddon (was so well written, totally different and made you think in his mind, laugh out loud funny too)

His Dark materials, Phillip Pullman (read as an adult, and could not move till I read all three books, again another fantastic author destroyed by a terrible film!!!!!, which is why they didn't make all three!!)

Wizards first rule, Terry Goodkind (only read first book in series, but fab so far, old book, think written over 25 years ago? but I'm a sucker for a charity shop pick up and read!)

Oooh, read alot of John Grisham too, wouldn't put him in my top 5 I think, but will read anything by him ever - I'm a reader, death to the kindle lol, nothing like reading a good book in the quiet!! x

The Grapes of Wrath

Emma

To Kill a Mockingbird

Bleak House

Love in The Time of Cholera

The Lacuna

Forgot The Kite Runner - can't possibly just pick 5 books!

The bookseller of Kabul. It really helped me understand what life is like for women in Afghanistan.
The time travellers wife, really enjoyable and engrossing.
The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared. Funny
Anything by Bill Bryson, he is a legend.

Rebecca
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn -Betty Smith
P&P
The Common Years by Jilly Cooper (or Imogen or Rivals)
Asta's Book -Barbara Vine

Tess of the d'Urbervilles ~ Hardy
Clara ~ Janice Galloway
Wolf Hall ~ Hilary Mantel
Our Mutual Friend ~ Dickens
Ulysses ~ Joyce

Also love A Confederacy of Dunces by JK Toole, anything by Patrick Leigh Fermor, and am enjoying Goldfinch ATM.

The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett, they are magnificent.

Also Chocolat, you can read it in one big gulp, love this book.

Vanity Fair, read it once a year, it's like an old friend.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I've had a copy for thirty years and it's my most thumbed book.

Anything else Dorothy Dunnett ever wrote, seriously, the woman was a genius.

I have three (was two but I read Best1sWests above and added one):
Jane Eyre
The Secret History
The Common Years
Am a prolific reader but am beginning to realize that starting a new book is generally a triumph of hope over experience for me...
I just don't LOVE many of them any more. Is it an age thing? I remember getting Jane Eyre out on the tube 20 years ago even though I was only going one stop...

Lord of the rings trilogy
Harry potter series
The hobbit
Game of thrones series
His dark materials trilogy

Guess I like fantasy......

Five is tough, but mine would probably be:
Three men In A boat by Jerome K. jerome - funniest book ever.
An Autobiography by Agatha Christie - best autobiography i've ever read.
jane and prudence by barbara pym
pride and prejudice by. Jane Austen
Our Village by mary russell mitford

So hard to choose just five...

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke or Sepulchre by Kate Mosse...I couldn't choose!

Gullivers travels-Swift
One hundred years of solitude-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Immortality-Milan Kundera
Catch 22-Joseph Heller
Birds without wings-Louis de Bernieres

Though I've read the first 3 of Karl Ove Knausgaards "My Struggle" series and think they are phenomenal but are they fiction or memoir ?
As the OP states though, I would probably change my mind if asked tomorrow.

If it must only be five....

The Magic Faraway Tree -Enid Blyton - for the first time I truly lost myself in a book
Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland - for remembering the first time I fell in love
The Colour Purple - Alice Walker - a university text and reread many times since
Me Before You - JoJo Moyes - this just got me. Tip for those still to read, NEVER read the end on a packed train or any public place!
The Time Travelerr's Wife - Audrey Niffinegger - magically told, I would love to be reading this again for the first time.

Great thread.

Aaargh can't possibly just do 5. So many good ones already mentioned including The Beach, Bookseller of Kabul, Kite Runner, Winnie the Pooh.

2 books that I regularly reread are Toast by Nigel Slater the Millstone by Margaret Drabble.

And then there were none- Agatha Christie
thr witches - Roald Dahl
The hobbit
Anna Karenina
And jane eyre.

The hunger games and harry potter narrowly missing out.

Ah, I love a good list!

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson): eerie, moving, gripping story of life as an outsider in smalltown New England. I couldn't stop reading it - her style is so plain and unfussy but just perfect.

The Cement Garden (Ian McEwan): actually kind of similar to We Have Always Lived in the Castle in terms of narrative, but darker. I read the last page over and over again.

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (MR James): the best collection of ghost stories ever, IMO, sparse and chilly.

Sleep it Off, Lady (Jean Rhys): a short story collection which actually reads like an autobiography, achingly sad, rich, fierce stories reflecting Rhys' strange life.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Joan Lindsay): hard to describe how this makes me feel. The unanswered questions this book leaves me with are tinged with such strong sadness - the end of summer, of youth, a longing to go back to some dreamy past which might never really have existed.

Remains of the day
Pride and prejudice
The growing pains of Adrian mole
Handmaidens tale
The little stranger

The secret history
catcher in the Rye
jane eyre
black dagger brotherhood series

and can't think of a 5th right now

My top 5 (in no particular order)
The Stand - Stephen King
Red/Green/Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson (a bit cheaty as it is a trilogy)
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
Terms of Endearment - Larry McMurtry

To Kill a Mockingbird - my favourite book as a teenager
Love in a Cold Climate - bitingly funny
Vanity Fair - for being big and baggy and full of life and having Becky Sharp
Armadale - for Lydia Gwilt
Fingersmith - for being the most enjoyable book I've read this year

A fine balance (Rohinton Mistry)

The red tent (Anita Diamant)

The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared

Siddartha

Interpreter of maladies

The Magus - John Fowles
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The World According to Garp - John Irving
The Town and the City - Jack Kerouac

am I only allowed five? There are many more I love, but those are the ones that I go back to time and time again, especially The Magus.

My DS1 is almost 12 and I'm really enjoying some of the teen fiction around, The Hunger Games books were fab, Charlie Higson's zombies are brilliantly written. I'm also enjoying intorducing him to some of the books I read when I was his age; Alan Garner, Ursula le Guin, Mary Stewart's Arthurian legends.

oh, The Buddha of Suburbia, A Room with a View, Lady Chatterly's Lover

Can we make it 10?

A prayer for Owen Meany
Poisonwood Bible
A Fine Balance
The Corrections
The Gift of Rain