Your Top 5 Book List

H

Hippie Dribble

Guest
...or 10 if your game.

What are the books that have stayed with you? That you couldn't put down? That you couldn't stop thinking about? That you shed a tear when you realised you'd read the last page?

Difficult-bordering-on-impossible to prioritize a select few perhaps, but what would be yours? I'll start...

An Equal Music, Vikram Seth
The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
Breath, Tim Winton
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
The Glass Canoe, David Ireland
The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch
Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters
The Waves, Virginia Woolf
 
Here are five that have stuck with me recently:
  • Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson (first book of an excellent trilogy)
  • Love and Rockets: New Stories vol. 7, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez
  • The Residue Years, Mitchell S. Jackson
  • The Cartoon Guide to Statistics, Larry Gonick and Woollcott Smith
 
Here are five that have stuck with me recently:
  • Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson (first book of an excellent trilogy)
  • Love and Rockets: New Stories vol. 7, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez
  • The Residue Years, Mitchell S. Jackson
  • The Cartoon Guide to Statistics, Larry Gonick and Woollcott Smith

I only have one and it is Red Mars. Incredible book. I am going to have to check out your other suggestions.
 
Last edited:
Here are five off the top of my head:

The Little Prince, Antoine de St. Exupery
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garbriel Garcia Marquez
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut
The Last Unicorn, Peter Beagle
 
Uncle Tom's Cabin -Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York - Robert Caro
Here I Stand - John Shelby Spong
Nixon volumes I, II, and III (The Education of a Politician, The Triumph of a Politician, Ruin and Recovery) - Stephen Ambrose
The Rabbi - Noah Gordon

...and from my very early days,
Charcoal - author??
I Decided - Frances Horowitz (Miss Frances of Ding Dong School)
Poor Little Rich Girl - author??
 
Last edited:
THE WORLD WITHOUT US - Alan Weisman - Whither humanity?
THE WILD TREES - Richard Preston - Exploring the forest canopies
THE HARVARD BRIEF DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - Constantly reminding me
DANSE MACABRE - Stephen King - Analysis of horror-thriller media
I FEEL MUCH BETTER (Now That I've Given Up Hope) - Ashleigh Brilliant
 
Sir MacHinery by Tom MacGowan
Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
The Practically Complete Guide To Almost Real Musical Instruments For Nearly Everyone by Harvey Rudoff
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
The Star Thief by Andrea Dinoto, illustrated by Arnold Lobel

All could be considered children's books, but all have stayed with me more than 45 years. I would not even consider not having a copy of any of these - and while only the D'Aulaire and the Sendak are still in print, I do constantly scan the Interthingy for Copies - I have 3 of the Rudoff.


-Kurt​
 
I seem to have this horrible habit of killing discussion threads..

C'mon people, I take a shower daily!

Doesn't anyone else read????


-Kurt​
 
The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski
This is a fairly dark book and I don't think anyone reading it would come away unmoved or unaffected in some way. I never would have read this otherwise but boredom and circumstances put this book in my hands 30+ years ago and I've read it several times since.

The Wind Chill Factor - Thomas Gifford
A wonderful thriller whose appeal was enhanced because a large part of the story took place in my home state of Minnesota. I started reading it one evening and it kept me up until 2 AM. I went to sleep and when I woke up in the morning, I had to finish the book.

The Laughing Sutra - Mark Salzman
A humorous coming of age story among the themes of culture clashes, honor, duty and loyalty. I found it funny and charming.

The Stand - Stephan King
I really connect with King's writing style and have read almost everything he's written. He can really paint a picture with his words and I can easily get lost in whatever world he's "painting" in. The Stand has probably made the biggest impression on me among his books and I've read it several times.

Revival's Golden Key - Ray Comfort
This book really helped me to gain a meaningful understanding of the gospel and salvation message of Jesus Christ
 
I love this topic! But I hate narrowing my choices to a given number - I'll try anyway.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Travels with Charlie - John Steinbeck
The White Album - Joan Didion
The Journey Home - Edward Abbey
On the Road - Jack Kerouac

Of course, subject to change at a moment's notice - this is more of a reflection of my top five authors than it is my top five books :) And if you ask me tomorrow I'd probably swap out some of those for something by Jon Krakauer or Ruth Ozeki or... or... or...
 
An eclectic list, but I love these beautifully written books.

Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry, a Western classic
The Martian - Andy Weir, surviving against all odds
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris, bust a gut funny
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins, strong female protagonist
The Alchemist - Paula Coelho, don't lose sight of your Dream...
 
Nova Express WS Burroughs
Ask theDust -John Fante
My Cousin My Gatroenteroligist - Mark Leyner
The Ra Expeditions Thor Heyerdahl
Ficciones- Borges
 
I will count each series as a single 'item', I hope you don’t mind...also, I have about 3 sets of 5, off the top of my head...these are not in any special order, but I can retain most if not all the details of the following stories, and I feel that they have all helped to shape my thinking about myself, and the world, and effect my behavior therein since reading them.

For each one of these there was either/both/all an emotional, intellectual or spiritual awakening or epiphany during and after reading that I feel had changed me internally in some way, each one a different way, but each experience a meaningful and cathartic process nonetheless.

Previously read, and treasured (impossible for me to omit any of them):


Lord Of The Rings series (and related (Hobbit, etc)) - J.R.R. Tolkein
Incarnations of Immortality series (5 books) - Piers Anthony
Bridge Across Forever (and 2 sequels) - Richard Bach
Veronica - Nicholas Christopher (I literally cried for days after I finished this one)
The Gunslinger series (5 books so far) - Stephen King
Johnathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach

Being Digital - Nicholas Negroponte (former head of MIT Media Lab)
The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene (PhD professor of Physics. Columbia U, NYC)
Ghost In The Mind's Machine - Arthur Koestler
On Synchronicity - Carl Jung
The Spirit Of Shaolin - David Carradine (yes, the guy from the King Fu tv series)

The Physics Of Star Trek - Laurence Krauss (PhD professor of Astrophysics/Cosmology, Indiana U)
The Path - Esmarelda Spalding (student of Carlos Castaneda)
The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield
Firefly - Dean Koontz
Homeland - Cory Doctorow (most recently read, impossible to put down, burned through it in about 10 hrs, thankfully Little Brother (below) is supposed be a sort of sequel)

On my list to read next:

Little Brother - Cory Doctorow
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - Robin Sharma
One Train Later - Andy Summers (guitarist for The Police, and many solo works, consummate photographer & one of my personal heroes)

(Please don't hate me for going over the requested limit, but I feel that certain parts of all of these books are alive within me since reading them)
 
Last edited:
I will count each series as a single 'item', I hope you don’t mind...also, I have about 3 sets of 5, off the top of my head...these are not in any special order, but I can retain most if not all the details of the following stories, and I feel that they have all helped to shape my thinking about myself, and the world, and effect my behavior therein since reading them.

For each one of these there was either/both/all an emotional, intellectual or spiritual awakening or epiphany during and after reading that I feel had changed me internally in some way, each one a different way, but each experience a meaningful and cathartic process nonetheless.

Previously read, and treasured (impossible for me to omit any of them):



Incarnations of Immortality series (5 books) - Piers Anthony

[/I]

I read a lot of Anthony, but my interest petered out around the 19th Xan(th) book.. However:

The Incarnations of Immortality are, in my opinion, aong the best things Piers Anthony ever wrote, followed by the Tarot series. Nothing was what I expected, and I just kept wanting more.

Gail Carriger and Brandon Sanderson's books are doing that to me now. I can't get enough of them.

-Kurt​
 
I read a lot of Anthony, but my interest petered out around the 19th Xan(th) book.. However:

The Incarnations of Immortality are, in my opinion, aong the best things Piers Anthony ever wrote, followed by the Tarot series. Nothing was what I expected, and I just kept wanting more.

Gail Carriger and Brandon Sanderson's books are doing that to me now. I can't get enough of them.
-Kurt​

What got me to the 'Incarnations of Immortality' series was actually after I had read the Douglas Adams 'trilogy' of 'Hitchikers Guide to The Galaxy', 'Life, The Universe and Everything' and finally 'So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish'. Someone recommended Piers Anthony to me, and I accidentally picked up 'Being A Green Mother', which is actually the last and 5th book in the 'Incarnations of Immortality' series, so naturally I had to go back and read the first 4...been a fan of Piers Anthony since, and read MANY of his books, he's been quite a prolific author and been writing (mostly SciFi/Fantasy) since the late 1950's.

I too was reading the Xanth series, but lost momentum after the one titled 'NightMare' (don't remember which # that was, 12 maybe?)

I hope to get back to it and read the rest, but such reading time is in short supply as of late. :(
 
Geez , I've gotta get on my ass and start reading more. I've only read two of the books listed.
 
Hey, if it's ALL-TIME fave books, editions whose physical copies I will never relinquish, they'd maybe be:

THE BIRTH OF THE GODS by Guy E Swanson -- an analytical look at world religions
The previously-mentioned THE HARVARD BRIEF DICTIONARY OF MUSIC -- so handy
FADS & FALLACIES IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE by Martin Gardner -- a hearty classic
THE EYE OF EISENSTAEDT -- how pioneering photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt saw
THE DRIFTERS by James A Michener -- great portrait of a certain time and culture

But the others I mentioned are pretty damn good too.
 
I don't read books much any more, but I can name my favorite five. I had to get rid of some of these to keep from reading them any more.

The Source (and many other works) by James Michener
Grapes of Wrath (and all other works) by John Steinbeck
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Call of the Wild (and lots of short stories) by Jack London
Huckleberry Finn (and lots of other works) by Mark Twain

It's very difficult to pin down just five works from all the books that I've read. :eek:ld:
 
Top Bottom