Your top 5 books

[Morph]

Ok, I know it's hard sometimes to choose a few when I'm sure some of you (like me) are bookaholics however, try to choose 5 all time favourite books. They will be seen as all favourites rather than 5 being the least and 1 being the best. All 5 are the best if you like, expand to 10, 20 lol, its just a bit of fun.

Here are my 5

 

1 - The Burning Soul - John Connolly

2 - Ring (series) - Koji Suzuki

3 - The house at midnight - Lucie Whitehouse

4 - The Hunting Season - Elizabeth Rigbey

5 - Birdman - Mo Hayder

 

A special mention also to the opening ghost story "Under the ice" by Tony richards from the collection of short stories (Ghost Dance) exceptional short story

[Special_talent123]

1. Dolphin Tale

2. Kissing Kate

3. Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome

4, I like girls (i think its called)

[matzoball]

In no particular order...

 

Dune - Frank Herbert

Hells Angels - Hunter S Thompson

Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin

Blood Music - Greg Bear

Isaac Asimov's entire bibliography

[Aeolienne]

The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid by Douglas R Hoftstadter

The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Do whole series count?

[darkshine]

5 is so hard!!! How about top 50 instead? Or top 100? I could do 100 far more easily than reduce my literary faves to a mere 13 (cuz I am about to cheat cheat cheat)

 

1. Hannibal Lector quadrilogy - T. Harris

2. The Underground man - M. Jackson

3. Human Traces - S. Faulks

4. The Beach (book only the film was pants) A. Garland

5. Earth's Children series - J. Auel

 

If anyone cares I'd be happy to justify why I've picked these - because I've looked at the lists so far and I'm wondering what made people pick what they picked - which to me - is more interesting than the choices themselves

 

Or is it just me who thinks that?!?

[Morph]

No darkshine, I totally agree with you. If you tell me why you've picked yours, I will do the same

[darkshine]

No darkshine, I totally agree with you. If you tell me why you've picked yours, I will do the same

Go on then

 

1. Hannibal Lector quadrilogy

2. The Underground man

3. Human Traces

4. The Beach

5. Earth's Children series

1. Because Hannibal is cool, he's something to be worked out and when he isn't killing people (which isn't really that often) he's a great character that just totally appeals to my curiosity - I do not think that I will ever be able to look at that character and fully figure him out - which is why the author is so good in my mind - because it pulls me in every time I decide to read the books (I actually prefer the first 3 he wrote - the 4th - hannibal rising is ok as it adds background but I don't rate it as highly)

 

2. This book was just weird, the guy in it is a recluse and the way his mind kinda goes haywire intrigues me due to personal experience with a different mind - the part where he drills a hole in his own head is very weird though - but the way he lives in a way that people would generally describe as insane such as travelling through underground tunnels to avoid people - isn't so much of a long shot to my own normality at times - people in my life have seen me as strange, and I guess I remember this book purely because it was so odd and different to other things I've read.

 

3. I'm interested in psychology and the 3rd book in my list fictionalises fact about some of the beginnings of these types of research - I actually don't remember too much of the storyline at the moment - but I do know that I really enjoyed it - its on my list because I could read it again and its my favourite by that author (I've read most of his books and have kept them all - another big sign I like them).

 

4. The beach might seem like a naff choice to some - but when I read this aged 16, I had never read anything like it, so weird and random, I guess that initial impact is what gives it importance to me. I thought the idea was cool, of having a secret perfect place to live away from everyone, but even with a spectacular haven to live in, people can mess it up and complicate it, ruin it. The ending of the book is far far better than the film, and I've read the book at least 5 times (I don't do this with many books) I liked the totally strange character Daffy

 

5. Another fictional thing based on fact - the story aint that great (although it has to be at least ok or I wouldn't have read 5 out of the 6 books) I have an interest in the origins of humanity - the ideas in the books are feasible and is based on a fair amount of research - its easier than reading several tons of history/geography books and the speculation in them is probably as good a guess as anyone's).

 

I though of a random book I read last year called "john dies at the end" I should have listed that instead - if people like weird with some humour and a pretty good storyline they should look this one up - it has everything and should be totally unbelievable but it still pulled me in

 

Another key thing for me is how long it takes me to read a book of say an average of 400 pages - if I read it in one or two sittings - it counts as a damn good book - all the above filled that criteria - plus the other more solid reasons

[LancsLad]

Really great post everyone. I find this such a tough question as I have a house filled with non fiction which must have cost me 10's of thousands of pounds. If I had to list my favorite 5 books in no particular order as that makes it more difficult they might be;

 

Going Long, training for Triathlon's ultimate challenge - Joe Friel & Gordon Byrn. Great technical book which provides the basis for my training and what I do currently as my special project.

 

Taking on the World - Ellen MacArthur. Simply one of my heroes because of her ability to achieve things in isolation in her own special place, totally selfish aproach in life and 110% focus on the task in hand.

 

In Search of Robert Millar - Richard Moore. The heroe of my youth, enegmatic character when racing, even more so since, unconventional, work ethic, immense talent, importantly unique.

 

Touching the Void - Joe Simpson. Mountaineering previous love of mine, true story demostrating what we are capable of in the most adverse of scenarios.

 

Design for the Real World - Victor Papanek. Book about human ecology and social change. Told me there is another way when I was open to influence and ideas aged 18.

 

I am not sure if these are my 'favorite' books but they are some of the most influential in my life. Unfortunatly I have often found books to be related to knowledge aquisition and as I have matured this has moved to books which challenge me to think more than they do inform. When it comes to fiction I have fond memories of the books of my childhood up to about the age of 9 where they were complete escapism. Treasure Island, The Hobbit, Magic Far Away Tree etc.... after this period my difficultites with school must have done a lot of damage in this area but books such as To Kill a Mocking Bird did punch through and have an impact.

 

As an adult I rarely read fiction for pleasure, though I do get real pleasure by looking through something like a medical book on anatomy. A few authors have made an impact and I tend to read everything the have written as a kind of special project. My favorite out of theese would be Carl Hiaasen as he simply sees the world as being filled with a multitude of characters who are all basically fucked up, something I kind of share with him at times.

 

What I am finding is that reading with my son who is 7 is relighting the fire at a more emotional level and our favorites are the Mr Gum series by Andy Stanton which are pure magic and again full of bizzare characters in a very unconventional world.

[littleplum]

Here's a fairly random top 5, in no particular order:

• Manuel L. Smith, When I Say No, I Feel Guilty: How to Cope, Using the Skills of Systematic Assertive Therapy
  
• Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
  
• Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
  
• Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet
  
• Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
  

I suppose the common thread that connects them all is that, in one way or another, they made me think about what it is to be human and why we are the way we are and, maybe, how we can change.

Edited February 17, 2012 by littleplum

[littleplum]

5. Another fictional thing based on fact - the story aint that great (although it has to be at least ok or I wouldn't have read 5 out of the 6 books) I have an interest in the origins of humanity - the ideas in the books are feasible and is based on a fair amount of research - its easier than reading several tons of history/geography books and the speculation in them is probably as good a guess as anyone's).

 

Agree with you totally about this series. Which made it all the more frustrating when, after waiting years for it to arrive, the latest instalment turned out to be total pants. The first one is still the best. I love those Neanderthals.

[darkshine]

Agree with you totally about this series. Which made it all the more frustrating when, after waiting years for it to arrive, the latest instalment turned out to be total pants. The first one is still the best. I love those Neanderthals.

Aha someone else who has read this - and who understands the endless waiting, I waited for book 5 for quite a while too as I read the other books in about 1997 ish - I was getting to the point where I was worried she might die or give up before she finished that sounds so bad...

 

I haven't read the final book yet, but I did wonder about it because there was supposed to be 7 books originally not 6 and it said on a website that she was putting them both together due to time and ill health (dunno how true that was).

 

The publishing gaps are pretty interesting, this series has taken quite some time to complete:

 

Book 1. 1980

Book 2. 1982

Book 3. 1985

Book 4. 1990

Book 5. 2002

Book 6. 2012

[AdamJ]

Reading fiction is something I find very difficult. If there are more than a handful of characters, I lose track of who is who, the relationship between them, etc. With movies, the visual cues make it easy to follow but with only the written word, I find myself continually having to reread chapters to make the connections.

 

One book I did persevere with recently was The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, with whom I went to school. It was her debut novel and it became a US No. 1 bestseller!

Edited February 18, 2012 by AdamJ

[darkshine]

I can totally understand that Adam, last year I bought A Week In December (think that title is correct) by the faulks guy - it follows 7 people - I've put off reading it until last month - I only got maybe 10 pages in before I couldn't handle remembering who was who and who did what and how it connects - so I gave up annoyed because I like most of his other books.

 

You know what's funny? I did English Literature at college for a year and had to drop out because I struggled to understand what they wanted me to learn, about how to look so closely at a book and how its written, what it means etc.

 

And you know what's even funnier? Quite often I read a book and don't really have a clue what's going on! I can't predict character's intentions, I can't see the things that are described, I don't know how the characters look like, or how the scenery would be, and whenever someone is going a direction I always imagine it the wrong way round (when the direction is stated I was thinking the wrong way) but its like every time this happens (by direction I mean, left to right, coming towards or away stuff like that).

 

Another funny thing is I am terrible at relaying plots of books because I can't tell a story from A to Z - I only remember the bits that stood out (in any order) and often what I remember isn't relevant and only confuses people. I can tell a story I make up (they are boring though so I don't bother).

 

People might ask why I read fiction at all - and the answer is that its easy - easy in the sense that I am not trying to learn it, it doesn't matter if I don't fully understand because nobody cares, its something that if a book has been written in a style that appeals - I'll keep reading the book, if it doesn't I don't bother and close it.

 

I have my fact books to read, but I don't bother that much because nobody wants to hear me tell them all about something like fossilisation or whatever - it bores people or they get overloaded with info - so what's the point? Sure I can be good in a quiz, but I'm not keen on quizzes. Of course, factual books are great to increase knowledge, but sometimes its nice to share that knowledge and I often find that the people in my life just don't want to hear about things like space, the evolution of the world, what records have been broken in GWR, history, psychology, some biology, the natural world etc etc But they do listen when I say I read a good (fiction) book go figure...

 

So........ is this just me