TOP 5 BOOKS EVER.............?

[enprovence]

Desperate for some new reading matter, what are you TOP 5 BOOKS EVER?

Will rack my brains and add mine too..........

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

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

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

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

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.........

Ok my last one is Eva Luna (by Isabel Allende)

Five of my faves that spring to mind are:

Frenchman's Creek - Daphne Du Maurier

The Witching Hour - Anne Rice

The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - forgotten author!

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

But then there's To Kill a Mockingbird and the Catcher in the Rye and everything by Primo Levi... Damn, this is hard

catcher in the rye

the haunting - s jackson

one flew over the cuckoo's nest

Lord of the Flies

The House that Jack Built

(also...)

jurassic park I and II
all of Michael Crichton's

sorry but Dickens just bore me to tears,
The Lovely Bones is way too traumatic

best book ever is cather...you can read it over and over, so simple and sad and clever

Hmm, may consider digging out my old copy of catcher in the rye...I have to say I wasn't overly enthralled when I read it years ago.

I think you've got me there MissM

This is really interesting cos I saw an article somewhere the other day that was talking about how much everyone loved Jane Eyre, even people who didn't read much or didn't read classics particularly. It was wondering why it's such an enduringly popular book. The majority of people here have it in their top five (mind you, The Time Traveller's Wife also appears a lot and I couldn't STAND that book!)

And the old discussion about Catcher in the Rye, love it or hate it appears again...!

Birdsong - S. Faulks
Beloved - T. Morrison
Confessions of a failed Southern Lady ???
Pride & Prejudice = Austen
Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Confessions of a failed Southern Lady - Florence King

Middlemarch
Jane Eyre
Crime and Punishment
Rachel's Holiday
Black Sheep

This is hard!

Am trying to avoid having only Jane Austen in here so:

Sense And Sensibility
Pride And Prejudice
The Stand
Of Mice And Men
Waiting For Godot (or does it have to be a novel?)

Persuasion (beats P&P for me now-think its an age thing!)
Earthsea Thrilogy (cheatng a bit here - le Guin)
Revelation space (A Reynolds)
The marriages between zones three, four and five (Doris Lessing)
Tenant of Wildfall Hall

Yes, I think Persuasion is unquestionably a better book than P and P but I chose P and P as if I'm only allowed to read five books again in my life (I know that wasn't the OP btw but I like to make things hard for myself! ) I think I'd go for P&P over Persuasion for the sheer frivolity of it all.

Arghh - may want to change my mind again in a minute or two!

It is too hard isn't it. I have been pondering the ones I left out - East of Eden, Angela's Ashes several of Isabella Allende's books.

Oh my gosh - I forgot 'Paula'!!!

I have too many favourites but would take the following to a desert island:

Farewell My Lovely - Raymond Chandler
Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford
Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
& The Collected Stories of Damon Runyan...

I am clearly a 1930s girl...

Can't really do top 5, but 5 favourites today;

Persuasion

Tristram shandy

One dog man - Ahmad Kamal

To kill a mockingbird

Bridge of birds - Barry hughart

this is REALLY hard

top 5 books ever read:

persuasion
a fine balance by rohinton mistry
middlemarch
a place of greater safety by hilary mantel
war and peace (for some reason i want to apologise for putting this in)

er how about adrian mole