Your 5 Favorite Books

[danceken1]

Your 5 Favorite books of all time. This should make a good tbr list for everyone. Mine are
Harry Potter
Eragon
Twilight
Wintersdance
Bookthief

[dtcarson]

Hey, some of those are *series*, that's cheating :)

Interestingly enough, some of my favorite books I have never reread, and some I have read multiple times.

Replay - Ken Grimwood
Youth in Revolt - CD Payne
Stranger in a Strange Land - RA Heinlein
Complete Asimov (book 1 or book 2, it's a tossup)
Demian - Hermann Hesse really affected me when I first read it in HS (voluntarily), but I haven't revisited it

Favorite series:
Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality and Apprentice Adept serieseses
RA Heinlein's Future History universe (ok, I'm cheating a bit with this one)
Sure, Harry Potter
I really enjoyed the first half or 2/3 of David Weber's Honor Harrington series, but it got old toward the end.

[Gilgamesh1082]

Favorite books
Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Can't really come up with a top 5 as other than those 2, I have tiers of around 20 books in descending quality.

Favorite series:
Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
A Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. "I'm not your bitch" Martin
Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
The Grand Admiral Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn
Cheysuli Chronicles - Jennifer Roberson

[MovieBuff_Flea]

"To Kill a Mockingbird"

[MinLShaw]

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - The first time I read any book in one setting. Like many, I read this while in my teens and it played right into my anxieties and fears. I had never been so emotionally impacted by anything I read--and have yet to reach that level since.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - A bit of a head-trip. I strongly advise drinking bourbon while reading this one. Thoroughly engrossing and quite striking from start to finish.

Boone: A Biography by Robert Morgan - More than a biography, more even than a historiography, Boone may well be the definitive third party work on one of my all-time favorite historical figures. Many sincere thanks to Lateralus for turning me onto this.

Willie: An Autobiography by Willie Nelson - My favorite things to read the last few years have been autobiographies. Willie's is one of the easiest to read, and one of the most fascinating.

I'm Not Really Here by Tim Allen - Nothing at all what I expected it to be. This reads more like a reflective journal written mostly over a weekend while his wife was out of town. Allen explores some weighty themes, and somehow manages to simplify them while not dumbing them down.

Of course, I reserve the right to revise this list at any time. The top two are permanent, though.

[golden_rod]

Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Imajica by Clive Barker
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

Honorable mentions:

The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
The His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff
Blindness by Jose Saramago

[Straker]

The Power Broker by Robert Caro
The Making Of The Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
Conquest by Hugh Thomas
The Bounty by Caroline Alexander
The Reformation by Diarmaid McCullough

Honorable Mention:

Ted Williams by Leigh Montville
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

[Sondheim]

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Marie Remarque
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler -
The Plague, by Albert Camus
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

Runners-up:
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
A Hero of Our Time, by Mikhail Lermontov
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

[QuirkyMovieGirl]

1) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
2) Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
3) Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
4) Sanctuary, by William Faulkner
5) Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi

And Harry Potter "The Series" deserves most honored mention.

[dino88]

On the Road Jack Kerouac
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ishmael Daniel Quinn
Survivor Chuck Palahniuk
The Beach Alex Garland

Honorable Mention:
Lord of the Flies William Golding
Cosmic Banditos A. C. Weisbecker

[Maxflier]

Since the OP is counting entire series as a book, here is mine:

1) The Seventh Scroll by Wilbur Smith
2) Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler
3) Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin
4) Camulod Chronicles series by Jack Whyte
5) Sphere by Michael Chricton

[rw2516]

The Stand-Who wrote this?:)
Night Probe-Clive Cussler
Forbidden Borders Trilogy-W. Michael Gear
Spider Trilogy-W. Michael Gear
They Thirst-Robert R. McCammon

[fiver]

Watership Down by Richard Adams
Neverness and the Requiem for Homo Sapiens series by David Zindell
The Gap series by Stephen R Donaldson
The Collector by John Fowles
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

[Easy]

Lonesome Dove
To Kill a Mockingbird
Dune
The Hunt for Red October
Shogun

[MR Round]

Neverwhere-Neil Gaiman
Dune-Frank Herbert
Stardust-Neil Gaiman
American Gods-Neil Gaiman
A Series Of unfortunate Events 1-13-Lemony Snicket

[asianxcore]

Stiff by Mary Roach
Abel's Island by William Steig
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
Dune by Frank Herbert
Monster Island by David Wellington

[DaveCole]

Good Omens-Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchet
Illuminatus Trilogy
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Fight Club
Jennifer Government-Max Barry

[Quake1028]

And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life - Lance Armstrong
Congo - Michael Crichton
Dragons of Autumn Twilight - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

These might not even be the 5, although the top 2 are pretty locked in. I have read so many books it's hard to recall.

[wakwak007]

off the top of my head:
Mother Night: Kurt Vonnegut
Lamb: Christopher Moore
Girlfriend in a Coma: Douglas Coupland
Congo: Michael Crichton
Confederacy of Dunces: JOhn Kenndy O'Toole ( I probably be off on the Author's first name.)

[movieking]

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Others in the top five:

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
Master And Margarita

After that, it's a tossup. I'll have to come back to complete my list after I think about it for a while.

[arminius]

In no particular order:
Watership Down Richard Adams - Always an emotional read
Catch 22 Joseph Heller - Has me laughing every time
The Foundation Trilogy Isaac Asimov - Great books by a great author
Congo Michael Crichton- Read it in one sitting while on sick call and could not put it down
Stuka Pilot Hans Ulrich Rudel - First read it in jr high and was amazed, this guy was insane

[darkhawk]

Inside Oscar
Inside Oscar 2
The Chronicles of Naria: Lion, Witch & Wardrobe

[Mike UFC]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
Swag by Elmore Leonard
Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg

[FantasticVSDoom]

Fight Club-Chuck Palahniuk
HP:Gob of Fire (not cheating, picking one book :))
The Road-McCarthy
Salem's Lot-King
Memoirs of a Geisha-Golden

[Geofferson]

I'll have to give Chrichton's Congo and Sphere a read (always overlooked them because the movies didn't turn out all that great).

Here's my 5:
The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly
The Hunter by Richard Stark
The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block

[The Bus]

Off the top of my head:

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Stories by T.C. Boyle
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

[RagingBull80]

These are absolutely some of my favorites:

Less than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Stranger - Albert Camus

Honorable mention:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
The Siege of Trencher's Farm - Gordon M. Williams
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

[rkndkn]

The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Butcher's Moon - Richard Stark
Magic - William Goldman
Swan Song - Robert McCammon
Watchers - Dean Koontz

[darkside]

1984 - George Orwell
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Running with the Demon - Terry Brooks

[Tscott]

I'm sure I've posted in a similar thread before but:

Gödel, Esher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas R. Hofstadter
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
The Locked Room - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
And since we're listing series as one book: The Sandman - Neil Gaiman

[Drop]

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Cat's Cradle By Kurt Vonnegut
A Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Choosing five is ridiculous, there are so many more.

[lizard]

Hmm, a list like this would change over time, save for the first one:

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Trickster's Choice, by Tamora Pierce
Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain
Honor Harrington series, by David Weber, if I had to pick just one, I'll just go with the first: On Basilisk Station
Harry Potter series, by J. K. Rowling, if I had to pick just one, I'd choose Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

All of the above I've read multiple times. Although I've only read them once each, a couple of memorable books for me years ago were The French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowles and Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo.

Honorable Mention:
Sword of Truth series, by Terry Goodkind, if I had to pick one, I'd go with Faith of the Fallen.

I rarely read nonfiction, preferring escapist stuff, but two favorites are Seabiscuit, by
Laura Hillenbrand and The Beak of the Finch, by Jonathan Weiner