Top 10 books ever

[jock]

What are the top 10 books that you really must read?
Fiction/Non Fiction, Classics, Contemporary��Important Ideas? I'm sure answerbankers have an opinion on this!

[rampart]

The Bible

Anything by Dick Frances or Tony Hillerman (both are mystery/intrigue)

The Complete Training Course for Altar Guilds by B. Don Taylor is excellent for anyone who works or volunteers at church.

[Gooner_Badge]

The bible .. as said before.

Da Vinci Code

Frank Skinner's autobiography -- hilairious/touching

Guiness book of records -- every year

[lissyl78]

My top ten books, but not in order, would be:

Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky

Madame Bovary - Flaubert

Don Quixote - Cervantes

The Famished Road - Ben Okri

Brave New World - Huxley

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Outsider - Camus

Wuthering Heights - Bronte

Unbearable Lightness of Being - Kundera

Last Exit to Brooklyn - Selby Jr

Few cliches in there - sorry!

[thikasabrik]

My all time favourite is East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

I will read anything by Bill Bryson as he is the funniest author that has ever lived.

[Lillabet]

Ok bits of my list change regularly but at the minute my 11 (2 are by the same author so I'm cheating and counting them as one) are (in alphabetical order by author) as follows:

5 people that you meet in heaven Mitch Albon. Both this and the Lovely bones made me think about the afterlife and heaven and question my ideas whilst being both depressing and optimistic

The Handmaid's Tale and Cats Eye Margaret Atwood. I have read all of her books and these are my 2 favourites. The dystopia of Gilead is linked so cleverly to our world and Cat's eye is so evocative of how horrid girls can be to each other.

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen It's a classic for a reason. Beautiful language. Witty and romantic.

A brief history of time: from the big bang to black holes Stephen Hawking The biggest ideas from perhaps the best mind of this generation. Hard going but so worth it.

To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee Growing up in rural England this book introduced me to racism and injustice and a whole other world. It's brilliant.

Cloud Atlas David Mitchell A new favourite. I keep thinking about it - which means it got to me...

Paradise Toni Morrison Famous for writing about race in this book Toni Morrison both makes race a central theme and at the same time demonstrates how falsely constructed such concepts are.

1984 George Orwell Truly terrifying - still powerful today. The really important Big Brother

His Dark Materials Philip Pullman The biggest and most complex debates taken straight through Milton's Paradise Lost and then packaged as a children's book. Genius.

Perfume Patrick Suskind One of the most menacing protagonists I've ever come across. I defy anyone to read this and then not have it stick in their mind.

[kev100]

The complete works of Dickens

The Hobbit (Lord of the Rings bored me to tears but the Hobbit is a great book)

[misslideaway]

Not in any specific order..my top 10

To Kill a Mockingbird. -

Good Omens

The Lovely Bones

The Beach

The Tao of Pooh

Mr Nice

The Alchemist

The Acid House

The Time Travellers Wife

Memoirs of a Geisha

Quite a mixed bag, all brilliantly written books.  All of them page-turners.  Have re-read most of them several times.

[littleoldme]

As well as another vote for To Kill A Mockingbird, I'd also nominate catch 22 by Joseph Heller - much better than the film.

I'm also with thikasabrik as regards Bill Bryson.

[MargeB]

The Bible (in case I was cold and needed to burn something)

'The Coma' by Alex Garland. and the 'Beach'

[Octavius]

Great Expectations - Charles Dicken's

Almost anything by Terry Pratchett (thats not a book title)

Emperor (3 books so far) series by Conn Iggulden

Almost anything by Valerio Massimo Manfredi (Spartan, Lost Legion etc )

[kick3m0n]

another vote for each of To Kill a Mockingbird and Catch 22.  Also add Iain Banks -The Wasp Factory and Roddy Doyle - The Woman Who Walks into Doors.

[waiglet]

J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and either The Loved One or Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

[Aschenbach]

These are some of my favourites book of all time. I'm always changing my mind but these are must reads.

Jeffrey Archer - The 11th Commandment

Jilly Cooper - Little Mabel Saves the Day

Barbara Cartland- Love Finds the Way

Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf

David Iche - The Freedom Road

(anon.) Transformers - Autobots Lightning Strike

Graham Taylor - Successful Management

Andy McNabb - Bravo Two Zero

Big Brother (the TV companion not that preachy Orwell book)

Harry Potter (OK a bit far-fetched this one)

Happy Reading!

[woofgang]

These are all the ones I read and re read

1 anything by jane austen

2 wind in the willows kenneth graham

3 the tolkien trilogy (cheating, my version has them bound into one volume

4 palgrave's golden treasury (poetry)

5 the right stuff (true life) Tom Wolfe

6 the Merry Hall trilogy by beverly nicols (3 short one by same author)

7 tiger in the smoke by marjorie allingham

8 busman's holiday by dorothy sayers

9 yes the bible King james version

10 anything (everything!) by Terry Pratchett including the science of discworld books which are steven hawking for dummies like me

...and a bonus (big one) the wheel of time series by Robert Jordan

[woofgang]

oooh ooh ooh forgot the chalet school series by Elinor Brent-Dyer

[Cristo]

Lord of the Rings

Dune

The Many Coloured Land

Robinson Crusoe

The Silmarillion

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Dogs of War

Dickie Bird autobiography

Tarzan (original version)

and any original Winnie the Pooh stories.

[luckyboy]

Kidnapped - robert louis stevenson

The grapes of wrath - john steinbeck

Heart of darkness - joseph conrad

Catch 22 - joseph heller

Animal farm - george orwell

The complete history of jack the ripper - pHillip sugden

Shout - phillip norman.

Gladstone - Roy jenkins.

Rise and fall of the third reich - williarm shirer.

[natalie_1982]

To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee

Brick Lane - Monica Ali

Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson

My Story - Dave Pelzer

Angels and Demons - Dan Brown

All the Small Things - Chinua Achebe

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

Someone Else's Kids - Torey Hayden

Bravo Two Zero - Andy McNab

[indian]

the adrian mole diaries- classic, funny, re-readable

wuthering heights- its so full of passion and anguish! one for the romantics

dr jekyl and mr hyde- this really made me think about human nature, i didn't expect it to be this good

thats all i can think of at the moment. im off to the library now to find some books!

[gavinbecky]

my fave books have got to be

the harry potter books
A million little pieces
any thing by james patterson