Books: Your top-25 books

[Saturated Fats]

Hello literati friends and bibliophiles! Inspired by the resurrection of the top-25 albums thread by Necropolis, let's revisit our GOAT books (and get some recommendations in the process!)

It's been a couple years since this thread, and in the interim, I - and I'm sure many of you who participated before - have read many more books. My list has seen a pretty significant overhaul.

And before it's asked, yeah - non-fiction counts.

1. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
2. Blindness - Jose Saramago
3. The War of the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa
4. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
5. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
6. The Power & the Glory - Graham Greene
7. Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth
8. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
9. Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
10. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
11. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
12. The Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolaño
13. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
14. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
15. The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer - Siddaratha Mukherjee
16. The Humans - Matt Haig
17. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
18. HHhH - Laurent Binet
19. The Tin Drum - Günter Grass
20. Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
21. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
22. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
23. Just Kids - Patti Smith
24. Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
25. Nausea - J.P. Sartre

Click to read more...

 

[Ceremony]

That picture is giving me the fear.

 

[kmad]

Top ten, because 25 is too much effort

1. Steinbeck - East of Eden

[a vast distance]

2. Nabokov - Lolita

[another vast distance]

3. Heller - Catch 22
4. Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
5. Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow (NF)
6. Conrad - Heart of Darkness
7. Greene - The 33 Strategies of War (NF)
8. Vonnegut - Galapagos
9. Martin - The Red Machine (NF)
10. Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath

HM to Jon Ronson - Men Who Stare At Goats, the book that got me back into reading a few years ago

 

[Behn Wilson]

Agree on Top ten, because 25 is too much effort

1.The Catcher In The Rye - JD Salinger
2.To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
3.Dracula - Bram Stoker
4.Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
5.The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
6.The Iliad - Homer (I love Greek Mythology)
7.1984 - George Orwell
8.Treasure Island - R Louis Stevenson
9.Brave New World Aldous Huxley
10.Animal Farm - George Orwell

 

[The Head Crusher]

17. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Honestly one of my least favorite books of all time. Had to read it in Grade 11 for a novel study and again in University. I think it has killed my desire to read any of Vonnegut's other novels.

 

[kmad]

Honestly one of my least favorite books of all time. Had to read it in Grade 11 for a novel study and again in University. I think it has killed my desire to read any of Vonnegut's other novels.

There is a strong overlap for nearly everyone concerning "one of my least favourite books of all time" and "I was forced to read it in high school"

 

[The Head Crusher]

My Top 10 (off the top of my head)

1. Sharpe's Trafalgar - Bernard Cromwell
2. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - George RR Martin
4. ******** and Boneheads - Will Ferguson
5. Sharpe's Tiger - Bernard Cornwell
6. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
7. Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
8. The Odyssey - Homer
9. The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers - JRR Tolkin
10. A Booke of Days - Stephen J. Rivele

 

[FLYLine27*]

1) Old Yeller

 

[The Head Crusher]

There is a strong overlap for nearly everyone concerning "one of my least favourite books of all time" and "I was forced to read it in high school"

I selected it as my novel so I had a choice not to read it, but it seemed the most interesting on of the remaining books. I didn't like the convoluted way Vonnegut tried to confuse/convince the reader about Billy Pilgrim's "time traveling," when in fact the man was just mentally insane and suffering from cognitive delusions following his accident. Felt he was trying his hardest to insult the intelligence of the reader, got into real heated discussions over this with my university prof about it. BUT the thing I hated the most about it (as a history major) was the way he tried to paint a picture of how the Firebombing of Dresden was significantly worse then both Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, when in fact it was only about 1/10th as bad as Vonnegut claimed it was in his book. I get he was trying to get recognition on the often overlooked firebombing campaign in Germany by the allies (which he was a survivor and witness to) and when he wrote the book he was acting on misinformation provided by Nazi propaganda which put it as being as bad as it was in the books. However back in the 1980's new research into the bombing corrected the estimates of number of deaths as being ~25,000 as apposed to the 250,000-500,000 the Vonnegut claimed (since confirmed again in 2010 by a study by the city). Vonnegut had over 20 years to even add a footnote into the start or the end correcting this aspect, but even up to and passed his death in 2007 all of his prints still claim that the Fire bombing of Dresden killed a quarter of a million people. Thats what annoys me.

 

[Shadowtron]

1) Shogun
2) It
3) American Psycho
4) Tom Sawyer
5) Count of Monte Cristo
6) Watchmen (not sure if Graphic Novels count)
7) A Christmas Carol
8) Gone with the Wind
9) Team of Rivals - The Politic Genius of Abe Lincoln
10) 11/22/63
11) World War Z
12) Helter Skelter
13) Hannibal
14) Bag of Bones
15) Hyperion
16) A Storm of Swords
17) North and South
18) A Time to Kill
19) The Road
20) Lord of the Flies
21) First Man of Rome
22) Dune
23) Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire
24) Time Traveller's Wife
25) Let the Right one In

 

[kihei]

I just did a long list of non-fiction books on another thread, so I will restrict this list to fiction:

1. In Search of Lost Time (all seven volumes counted as one), Marcel Proust
2. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
3. The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
4. The Dubliners, James Joyce
5. A Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert
6. The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass
7. The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
8. A Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
9. The Master and Commander series (20 or 21 books, depending on how one is counting), Patrick O’Brian
10. Three Day Road, Joseph Boyden
11. Ulysses, James Joyce
12. Journey to the End of the Night, Louis Ferdinand Celine
13. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
14. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
15. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Doestoyevski
16. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
17. Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
18. The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
19. The Once and Future King, T. H. White
20. The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
21. The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
22. Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. The Enigma of Arrival, V. S. Naipaul
24. The Stranger, Albert Camus
25. The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

26 The Life of Pi, Yann Martel
27. The Humans, Matt Haig
28. Not Wanted on the Voyage, Timothy Findley
29. Ravelstein, Saul Bellow
30. Smilla's Sense of Snow, Peter Hoeg



Trinity College Library, Dublin:

 

[Saturated Fats]

I just did a long list of non-fiction books on another thread, so I will restrict this list to fiction:

1. In Search of Lost Time (all seven volumes counted as one), Marcel Proust
2. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
3. The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
4. The Dubliners, James Joyce
5. A Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert
6. The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass
7. The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
8. A Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
9. The Master and Commander series (20 or 21 books, depending on how one is counting), Patrick O’Brian
10. Three Day Road, Joseph Boyden
11. Ulysses, James Joyce
12. Journey to the End of the Night, Louis Ferdinand Celine
13. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
14. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
15. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Doestoyevski
16. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
17. The Once and Future King, T. H. White
18. The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
19. The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
20. Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
21. The Enigma of Arrival, V. S. Naipaul
22. The Stranger, Albert Camus
23. The Humans, Matt Haig
24. Not Wanted on the Voyage, Timothy Findley
25. Ravelstein, Saul Bellow
25 (tie). Smilla's Sense of Snow, Peter Hoeg


Trinity College Library, Dublin:

Great list. I meant to say thank you - I think it was you who recommended The Humans to me earlier in the year. Wonderful book, absolutely loved it - as you can see from its presence on my list

 

[kihei]

Great list. I meant to say thank you - I think it was you who recommended The Humans to me earlier in the year. Wonderful book, absolutely loved it - as you can see from its presence on my list

Glad you enjoyed it. Nice list yourself.

I guess my list is still a work in progress as I keep fiddling.

 

[Spawn]

This was my list from a couple of years ago

My list:

1. The Road - Cormac McCarthy 9
2. Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling 3
3. Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden NR
4. A Song of Fire and Ice series - George R.R. Martin 5
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 10
6. The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster NR
7. The Stand - Stephen King 47
8. The Millenium Trilogy - Steig Larsson NR
9. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon NR
10. American Gods - Neil Gaiman NR

The bold would definitely still be there I think. The Road is still definitely #1. The other 3 might be a little lower. Not sure about the rest. Two years later I don't feel as strongly about them now. Even though it had been years since I had read some of them even two years ago. So I donno. Opinion changes I guess?

It's been at least a few years since I've really loved a book. Which is kind of sad

 

[member 51464]

I think Mother Night is Vonnegut's best work by a mile. In fact, many of his others I never even finished. But it seems I never meet anyone else who has read it.

 

[Eco]

Hard to think of 25, at least in some kind of order.

Here are 25 books that come to my mind:

1. ATLAS SHRUGGED
2. THE FOUNTAINHEAD
3. MASTER AND MARGARITA
4. SONG OF FIRE AND ICE (series)
5. THE IDIOT
6. THE MAGUS
7. INVISIBLE BRIDGE
8. ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE
9. HARRY POTTER (series)
10. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
11. DAVINCI'S CODE
12. ANGELS AND DEMONS
13. LAMB
14. THE KITE RUNNER
15. THE ROAD
16. BAUDOLINO
17. THE SHADOW OF THE WIND
18. THE ANGEL'S GAME
19. THE ORPHAN MASTER'S SON
20. THE GHOST
21. TIN DRUM
22. TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE
23. COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
24. OLD MAN AND THE SEA
25. OBLOMOV

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Delete

 

[Sombastate]

I'm a big fan of Gothic Horror, religious inspired books and Greek Mythology. So this is what I came up with:

25. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
24. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
23. Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
22. The Illiad by Homer
21. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
20. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
19. Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus
18. Two Years Before the Mast by R.H. Dana Jr
17. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
16. The Odyssey by Homer
15. The Last Question by Isaac Asimov (my favorite short story)
14. The Bacchae by Euripides
13. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
12. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
11. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
10. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
09. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
08. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
07. Animal Farm by George Orwell
06. Dracula by Bram Stoker
05. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
04. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
03. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
02. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
01. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri


P.S. I kept it Fiction so that i didn't include physics texts.

 

[Eisen]

Hard to do in order. I like different books for different reasons. Also, I know next to nothing about African, Asian and south American literature, especially classics. Also, I am excluding collections of short stories or plays.

Man of Straw by Heinrich Mann
Königliche Hoheit by Thomas Mann
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Faust by Goethe
Tin Drum by Grass
Jane Eyre by Bronte
Dune by Herbert (The first 4 books)
The Brothers Karamasov by Dostojewski
All quiet on the Western Front by Remarque
The Clown by Heinrich Böll
The Trial by Kafka
Baudolino by Umberto Eco
Midnight's Children by Rushdie
He, She and It by Piercy
Neuromancer by Gibson
Great Expectations by Dickens
Roads to Freedom by Sartre
The Outsider by Camus

Just to name a view


And just a mention, Middlemarch is utter drivel

Oops, I did include a play.

 

[Silentjury]

1. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
2. Going Native by Stephen Wright
3. The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis
4. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
5. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
6. The Fall by Albert Camus
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
9. Skellig by David Almond
10. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
12. Hoop Dreams by Paul Robert Walker
13. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
14. Crazy Love by Francis Chan
15. In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides
16. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
17. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
18. 1776 by David McCullough
19. Double Cross by Ben Macintyre
20. The Stranger by Albert Camus
21. Life on Mission by Tim Harlow
22. Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S. Thompson
23. My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
24. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
25. Kissing in Manhattan by David Schickler

 

[Sombastate]

Screwtape letters!! I have no idea how i missed that one. What a ****ing great book. That's my favorite C.S. Lewis book.

 

[Marshal Rochambeau]

1. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
2. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
4. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
5. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
6. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
7. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
8. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
9. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
10. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut

 

[GB]

It's really tough to narrow this down to just 25. I have 36 marked as 5* on Goodreads and a bunch rated 4* that I can't tell why I didn't give 5*. Here's the best I can come up with.

1) 1984 by George Orwell
2) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
3) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
4) The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
5) On the Beach by Nevil Shute
6) The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
7) The Plague by Albert Camus
8) Norwegian Wood by Haruki Marakumi
9) Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
10) Night Watch by Sir Terry Pratchett
11) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
12) The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
13) The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
14) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
15) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
16) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
17) A Grief Observed by CS Lewis
18) Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
19) The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller
20) Generation A by Douglas Coupland
21) The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
22) The Inheritors by William Golding
23) High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
24) The Man in The High Castle by Philip K Dick
25) Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

 

[kdb209]

Screwtape letters!! I have no idea how i missed that one. What a ****ing great book. That's my favorite C.S. Lewis book.

If you haven't listened to it, I highly recommend the 1999 audio version narrated by John Cleese.

It's out of print - but you can find it on youtube if you look.

 

[Hippasus]

1. Kurt Godel: "On formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems"
2. Alan Turing: "On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem"
3. Alan Turing: "Systems of logic based on ordinals"
4. Richard Dedekind: Essays on the Theory of Numbers
5. Georg Cantor: Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers
6. Gottlob Frege: Basic Laws of Arithmetic: derived using concept-script (2 vols. bound as one)
7. Gottlob Frege, edited by Terrell Ward Bynum: Conceptual Notation: and related articles
8. Various authors, edited by Hans Sluga: The Philosophy of Frege (4 vols.)
9. Gottlob Frege, edited by Michael Beaney: The Frege Reader
10. Gottlob Frege: Logical Investigations
11. Gottlob Frege: "The foundations of arithmetic: a logical-mathematical investigation into the concept of number"
12. Erich H. Reck, Steve Awodey, Gottlob Frege, Rudolf Carnap: Frege's Lectures on Logic: Carnap's student notes, 1910-1914
13. Michael Beaney: Frege: making sense
14. Ludwig Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
15. Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophical Investigations
16. Friedrich Nietzsche: On the Genealogy of Morals: a polemic
17. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy: out of the spirit of music
18. Friedrich Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra: a book for all and none
19. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Antichrist
20. J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit: or there and back again
21. Arthur Schopenhauer, edited by R. J. Hollingdale: Essays and Aphorisms
22. Arthur Schopenhauer: "On the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason"
23. Morris Kline: Mathematics: the loss of certainty
24. J.N. Crossley, et al.: What is Mathematical Logic?
25. Willard Van Orman Quine: From a Logical Point of View: nine logico-philosophical essays