[LadyMTL]

Ooh, can I amend my list too? I forgot about "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"! I am ashamed of myself, that's one of the best books I've ever read.

[The Tyrant Lizard]

In no particular order.

1 Dark Tower Series, King.
2 MBotF, Erikson.
3 Rats trilogy, Herbert.
4 Rigante series, Gemmell.
5 Drenai series, Gemmell.
6 Riftwar trilogy, Feist.
7 Belgarath the Sorcerer, Eddings.
8 Salem's Lot, King.
9 The Godfather, Puzo.
10 Sleepers, Carcaterra.
11 Dracula, Stoker.
12 The Blade itself trilogy, Abercrombie.
13 The Prince of Nothing trilogy, Bakker.
14 Of Mice and Men, Steinbach.
15 I Am Legend, Matherson.
16 The Day of the Triffids, Wyndham.
17 Dragonslayer, the poem of beowulf, Sutcliff. (not peter)
18 Sepulchre, Herbert.
19 Cujo, King.
20 The Sword of Shannara, Brooks.

Mostly fantasy, I know. I held back factual books. (apart from Sleepers, which reads like a novel, and Day of the Triffids, which hasnt happened...yet.)

This post has been edited by The Tyrant Lizard: 15 January 2009 - 01:19 PM

[cjd262e]

It is cool to see "Count of Monte Cristo" on a lot of people's lists, that has always been my favorite. One I didn't notice on any lists was "Catcher in the Rye." There are very few books I've read where I felt a real emotional darknes. That book f'ed me up.

[Apocalypse Now]

cjd262e, on Jan 15 2009, 11:42 AM, said:

It is cool to see "Count of Monte Cristo" on a lot of people's lists, that has always been my favorite. One I didn't notice on any lists was "Catcher in the Rye." There are very few books I've read where I felt a real emotional darknes. That book f'ed me up.

The Catcher in the Rye was on my list.

WHY DOES NOBODY PAY ATTENTION TO ME

[no_survivors]

This is in no particular order. Favourites are definitely in correlation with my moods.

1. Malazan Book of the Fallen Series - Steven Erikson & Ian C. Esslemont
2. Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach - Steven Erikson
3. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrith - Philip K Dick
4 .Ubik - Philip K Dick
5. 1984 - George Orwell
6. A Song of Ice and Fire Series - George R.R Martin
7. The World Without Us - Alan Weismann
8. The Lies of Locke Lamore - Scott Lynch
9. KUshiel's Legacy - Jacqueline Carey
10. The Club Dumas - Auturo Perez-Reverte
11. Chronicles of The Black Company - Glen Cook
12. Animal Farm - George Orwell
13. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
14. The Golden Bough - James George Frazer
15. The Descent - Jeff Long
16. Masters of Rome Series - Colleen McCullough
17. Queen of the South - Arturo Perez-Reverte
18. The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
19. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
20. The Man in the High Tower - Philip K Dick

Honourable Mentions
Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
The First Law Trilogy - Joe Abercrombie
The Godless World Series - Brian Ruckley
GO DOG GO & Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss

[Use Of Weapons]

Arghh! Bad memory, you fail me yet again!

1. Flowers For Algernon, Daniel Keys
2. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
3. The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
4. Cosmos, Carl Sagan
5. Blood Music, Greg Bear
6. Dune, Frank Herbert
7. Intervention, Julian May
8. Earth Abides, George Stewart
9. Last and First Men, Olaf Stapledon
10. Pet Sematary, Stephen King
11. Firestarter, Stephen King
12. The True Game, Sheri S. Tepper
13. All The Weyrs of Pern, Anne McCaffrey
14. An Equal Music, Vikram Seth
15. The Sunne In Splendour, Sharon Penman
16. When Christ And His Saints Slept, Sharon Penman
17. I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
18. Memory, Lois McMaster Bujold
19. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
20. The Instrumentality of Mankind, Cordwainer Smith

I reserve the right to demote / promote / insert as and when others occur to me.

[alestar]

Including series ans one entry...in no particular order:

- Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
- Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin
- The Stand - Stephen King
- Snowcrash - Neal Stephenson
- Arabesk Trilogy - Jon Courtenay Grimwood
- Starfish - Peter Watts
- Jeniffer Government - Max Barry
- Prey series - John Sanford
- American Gods - Neil Gaiman
- Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
- DI Thorne series - Mark Billingham
- Incarnations of Immortality series - Piers Anthony
- 1984 - George Orwell
- Radix tetrad- AA Attanasio
- Arthor series - AA Attanasio
- Blood Music - Greg Bear
- The Talisman - Stephen King & Peter Straub
- Amber series - Roger Zelazny
- Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
- Body Count - William Huggett

[Apocalypse Now]

I'm surprised I'm the only one who chose The Great Gatsby or anything from Vonnegut. Vonnegut is the greatest author I've ever read.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

In no particular order and excluding anything I've only just read for the first time:

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
God Knows - Joseph Heller
Live From Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal - Gore Vidal
The Song of Ice and Fire series - George R R Martin
The Malazan Bok of the Fallen series - Stephen Erikson
The Fortress series- C J Cherryh
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
The Foundation series - Isaac Asimov
The Lensman series - E E "Doc" Smith
The Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny
The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe
The Chronicles of the Black Company - Glen Cook
1984 - George Orwell
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Jailbird- Kurt Vonnegut
Gravity Dreams - L E Modesitt Jr
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

This post has been edited by Gwynn ap Nudd: 24 January 2009 - 11:46 PM

[Morgoth]

Hm, In no particular order then

Faust - Goethe
Peer Gynt - Henrik Ibsen
Pan - Knut Hamsun
Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
I am Legend - Richard Matheson
Lasso rundt fru Luna - Agnar Mykle
Juleoratoriet - Gøran Tunstrøm
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
Use of Weapons - Iain M. Banks
Blindsight - Peter Watts
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
The Stranger - Albert Camus
The short stories of H.P. Lovecraft
Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Hamlet - Shakespeare
huset med den blinde glassveranda - Herbjørg Wassmo

... Not much fantasy and sci fi at all in there when all is said and done... Some of the books are norwegian, one swedish, so if you don't understand the title that's why. There's also several plays in here but I figured that was allowed.

[Morgoth]

I notice Dostoyevsky features on a lot of lists. I must admitt I have yet to be bothered finishing one of his larger books. There's something about his style that just irks me

[detritus]

Apocalypse Now, on Jan 24 2009, 05:32 PM, said:

I'm surprised I'm the only one who chose The Great Gatsby or anything from Vonnegut. Vonnegut is the greatest author I've ever read.

Hey! I have both in my list jive turkey!

Also, I would like to amend my list and drop High Fidelity and add Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.

[MTS]

In no particular order:

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
The Chronicles of the Black Company - Glen Cook
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - Stephen R. Donaldson
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Once and Future King - T.H. White
Baudolino - Umberto Eco
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Farseer and The Tawny Man - Robin Hobb
1984 - George Orwell
Magician - Raymond E. Feist
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

@ Morgoth: I understand what you mean about Dostoyevsky's style. At times it can be almost a chore to wade your way through his books, especially the big ones. I barely finished The Brothers Karamazov and Notes from Underground, but loved Crime and Punishment, strangely.

[amphibian]

Morgoth, on Jan 25 2009, 05:58 AM, said:

I notice Dostoyevsky features on a lot of lists. I must admitt I have yet to be bothered finishing one of his larger books. There's something about his style that just irks me

I will reproduce, as best I can, the words of my sainted mother here:

amphibian's mum said:

I read Crime and Punishment. That's such a strange book. For the first half, I didn't like it. I was slogging through it and was about to start hating it. And then everything fell into place and I couldn't put the damn book down.

[HoosierDaddy]

In particular order:

1. Les Miserables, Hugo
2. War and Peace, Tolstoy
3. 1984, Orwell
4. To Catch a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
5. The Dark Tower, The Dark Tower VII, S. King
6. Midnight Tides, SE
7. Reapers Gale, SE
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (representative of the entire series)
9. A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway
10. Red Storm Rising, Tom Clancy
11. Pet Sematary, S. King
12. Shadow Rising, Robert Jordan
13. Deadhouse Gates, SE
14. A Storm of Swords, G.R.R.M.
15. Different Seasons (Steven King)
16. Rage of Demon King, Raymond Feist
17. The Black Company, Glen Cook
18. The Taking, Dean Koontz
19. MoI, SE
20. The Runaway Jury, Grisham

Hon. Mention: Count of Monte Cristo, Catcher in the Rye, Invasion by Eric L. Harry, Lord of Chaos, RJ, & A Game of Thrones, GRRM.

[lord of tragedy]

farewell to arms is shite. utter shite. war and peace not much better.

ulysees. the crying of lot 49. the god of small things. burmese days. billy budd. underworld. (de lilio). kim. one flew over the cuckoos nest. the pearl. the dubliners. the remains of the day. midnight tides. chasm city. gardens of the moon. if this is a man. bury my heart at wounded knee. fatal revnant.

[koryk]

A lot of secondary school required reading still appears on this list - shows how impressionable we are at that age. How can one possibly list Dostoevsky or Dickens with Vonegut, Asimov, Tolkein, Feist, etc., not to mention the great classical output of Homer or Sei Shonagon? Keep things simple, i.e. Fantasy & SF

Not in any order:

1) The Lord of the Rings, because it started so much
2) Thomas Covenant first trilogy, because it was so different from Tolkein
3) Piers Anthony before he sold out - pure SF, huge imagination
4) Drenai novels of David Gemmell - for understanding what is important to men
5) Julian May - Intervention, Galactic Milieu & Pliocene Exile
6) Frank Herbert's Dune books
7) Peter Hamilton - Night's Dawn Trilogy
8) Dan Simmons - Hyperion etc. What a brilliant writer! Read anything by him!
9) Terry Pratchett - much more than comedy
10) Steven Erikson - what this man is doing is awe-inspiring

what you might have expected:
Brooks - diminishing returns
Feist - as above
Jordan - derivative
Martin - good but not great
Goodkind - rubbish
Guy Kay - flatters to deceive

nd

[masan's saddle]

In no particular order,

Slowness - Milan Kundera
Paradise Lost - John Milton
Malazan Books of The Fallen - Steven Erikson
Ways of Seeing - John Berenger
Use of Weapons - Iain M Banks
Lord of The Rings - J R R Tolkien
Dune - Frank Herbert
Candide - Voltaire
Yes Minister/Primeminister - Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K. Dick
The Wind up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
A Song of Ice and Fire - George R R Martin
Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
The Enigma of Arrival - V.S. Naipaul
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Asterix The Gaul - Goscinny and Uderzo !!!!!!! ( Class)

Tough one, I've probably forgotten loads of excellent reads, hey ho, I need to sleep. Shift work is a bitch.