What are your top 5 most favorite books of all time?

[DeeBee3]

p.s. Did anyone else read those "choose your own adventure" stories where you could pick different endings? I LOVED them as a kid.

 

[sdk1231]

This is so fun! And so HARD to pick 5, but I'm giving it a shot:

1. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3. Thorn Birds by Collen McCullough
4. Salem's Lot (tie with The Shining) by Stephen King
5. Harry Potter series J. K. Rowling

Other Top Picks:
True Grit by Charles Portis
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Stephen King - any, though I prefer his older stuff
James Lee Burke
A Song of Ice and Fire (GOT series) by George R R Martin
LOTR and Chronicles of Narnia
Jane Austen, Bronte Sisters - really, any classic lit
Mysteries - Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Josephine Tey, PD James, Colin Dexter, etc.

And now I must stop because I could go on and on.... and I'm taking notes on other peoples' toppers and putting them on my "must read" list. (I keep noticing Outlander... interesting).

 

[PollyannaMom]

p.s. Did anyone else read those "choose your own adventure" stories where you could pick different endings? I LOVED them as a kid.

Yes - loved those, and the hardest time finding them for DS when he was young! I did eventually collect several, which I saved, and now my friend's little ones are enjoying them too.

 

[1420Elexismc]

Go Ask Alice
Jurassic Park
The Green Mile

 

[2TxAgs]

Harry Potter
Hunger Games
Handmaid’s Tale
The Stand
The Giver

LOVED The Giver. Also loved The Chosen, by Chaim Potok. I'm not Jewish, but I found this fascinating.

 

[Walt's Dream]

All of James Herriot's books
Band of Brothers
Charlotte's Web
A Christmas Carol
Years - a romance by LaVryle Spencer that I love for some reason!

 

[Colleen27]

-Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
-Paradise Alley, Kevin Baker (NOT to be confused with something I found by Sylvester Stallone)
-Harry Potter series (my daughter is now reading and tempted to re-read), J.K. Rowling
-1776, David McCullough
-The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis

*If you are interested in Irish-American history/immigration or saw Gangs of NY, then Paradise Alley would be very enjoyable. First book that brought me to tears and I was in college!

That sounds fascinating, and I've already requested it from the library. My daughter and I saw Paradise Square on Broadway last year, which is set in the same neighborhood/time period with a somewhat similar concept (the draft riots from the perspective of the women of Five Points), and we were both impressed by the history as much as by the show.

p.s. Did anyone else read those "choose your own adventure" stories where you could pick different endings? I LOVED them as a kid.

Not just as a kid... I picked up a Doctor Who one written for adults, and one of my kids got me a Jane Austen-style one for Christmas. I also spent an embarrassing amount of time playing with the choose-your-path Black Mirror episode on Netflix to get every possible ending.

 

[bcla]

1984 - George Orwell
The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
Jane Eyre - Emily Bronte
Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis
Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

Not that I've read through it completely, but I'm surprised that there were no mentions of The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

 

[amcnj]

The books/series/authors I have read multiple times already and see myself returning to again in the future include:

Dune series by Herbert
A Song of Fire and Ice by Martin
The Pillars of the Earth by Follet
The Stand by King
Cannery Row/Grapes of Wrath/Of
Mice and Men by Steinbeck.

And many other books and authors are right alongside them: Cormac McCarthy, Lonesome Dove, The Foundation Series …. And I see that Doerr might eventually join my list too!

 

[TLSnell1981]

Outlander Series/Diana Gabaldon
The Plantagenet and Tudor Series 15) /Philippa Gregory
Narnia/C.S. Lewis
Angel Unaware: A Touching Story of Love and Loss/Dale Evans Rogers
anything by Edgar Allen Poe

 

[gardenrooms]

Thank you for this great thread. I love so many books this will require some thought except for my first place, which is To Kill a Mockingbird, which I was lucky enough to read before it became required reading in schools. A lot of great suggestions here.

 

[nw6675]

Yes - loved those, and the hardest time finding them for DS when he was young! I did eventually collect several, which I saved, and now my friend's little ones are enjoying them too.

I can still remember when I chose to be a Mayan sacrifice!

As a child:
Beverly Cleary books

Anything and everything Judy Blume (Reading Blubber with DD11 right now). If looking to buy the set of teen books - got brand new on eBay for $22.

Anything YA. Always had stacks from the library or rhe Scholastic book fair.

Adult:
Always had the book subscription *8 for a dollar or something, so:

Memories of a Geisha

The Kiterunner

Lord of the Flies

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

An Ava Gardner biography, but don't know which one. Very interesting life!!

 

[jen7233]

I haven't been reading books for some time due to being too busy with work, life, and after work, just not in a reading books phase at this time of life. Here's what comes to mind from over my reading years:
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Pat Conroy books
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret. by Judy Blume
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
Taffy Sinclair series by Betsey Haynes

 

[gmi3804]

In consideration of this thread’s literary aspirations, I vote that its title be changed from “most favorite” to simply “favorite.” Thank you.

 

[Skywalker3]

Almost too many to name, and too hard to narrow down, but will try, and also it's easier to just add my favorite authors
As a kid, Hardy Boys books
The Grapes of Wrath-always at the top of my list
The Awakening
Jane Eyre
The Sue Grafton series
Janet Evanovich Stepahnie Plum series (complete silliness, but they make me smile and lol.)
Their Eyes were Watching God
The Literary South-my textbook from my Southern lit class, full of the most well written short stories ever. Love shorts stories by Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, William Faulkner, Tim Gautreaux, Ernest Gaines, and many, many more.
The Ballad series novels by Sharyn McCrumb
Shakespeare-especially Tempest and Twelfth Night, but all of the tragedies
Canterbury Tales-Chaucer
Tender is the Night and Great Gatsby-F Scott Fitzgerald
Several by Lee Smith, Fannie Flagg
The Color Purple-Alice walker
I have lots more books I appreciate, maybe they're not my favorite, but they were well written, like Song of Solomon, and others that I appreciated more at various times of my life, like Cold Sassy Tree
Haven't read a book in a couple years now, just spending leisure time on other activities (DIS boards. haha.) but want to get back to it. Lots I'd like to read

 

[jen7233]

In consideration of this thread’s literary aspirations, I vote that its title be changed from “most favorite” to simply “favorite.” Thank you.

What do you mean by "in consideration of this thread's literary aspirations"?

 

[gardenrooms]

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Human Comedy (required in my high school in 1960's but I loved it)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (I was in the hospital and had to lie perfectly still for 2
hours and these characters became my friends)
The Drowning People (I don't remember why I loved it, I just know I did)
The All Creatures Great and Small series (I was glad to see those on others' lists - I loved them - a
British lady where I worked and I could hardly wait for the next one to come out in PB
almost 50 years ago)

I know I've hit 5 but I have a few other stand-outs that immediately come to mind

The Day Lincoln Was Shot
Lincoln: A Photobiography
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Andromeda Strain (I couldn't put it down, read it in one night)
Bid Time Return (Somewhere in Time) - so fun to read if you stay at the Hotel Del Coronado
Time and Again (I do enjoy time travel)
Apollo 13 (if you were alive when this happened, I highly recommend - gripping)
Ramses the Damned (my first and favorite Ann Rice book - given to me by someone who hardly knew
me, and it seemed like a very odd choice to give to a near stranger)
Jane Eyre
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes books

Favorite picture books to read to my 2nd Graders -

Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco (takes place near where I grew up) followed closely by
Thank You Mr. Falker, which encourages struggling readers - I love so many of Ms. Polacco's books
Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla

Favorite books as a child -
Bambi by Felix Salten
a good translation of the original Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, and
the 3 main Mary Poppins books - I cried when Mary left through the other door of the nursery as I knew
she wasn't coming back
(as much as I love all things Disney, these books were much better than the Disney versions, which are
special in their own way)
The Little Princess and The Secret Garden (though the latter seemed less wonderful when I skimmed the
book before I gave a copy to a student recently)

What fun to think about all these wonderful reads. I know I have left out so many. And so many new books from everyone's suggestions to look forward to reading.

Thank you again!

 

[gardenrooms]

The Eyes of the Dragon (Stephen King's under appreciated best work IMO)
The Count of Monte Cristo (this one seems to be popular!)
Jane Eyre
The Phantom of the Opera (the musical is great, but the book it was based on is just so amazing!)
The Night Circus

It's so hard to limit to just 5 as there are others that I would also name as my favorites.

Listened to Phantom on tape with my son as we drove to batting practice. We were going to see the musical and he asked me what it was about, so I said let's find out. (All I knew was those awful horror movies.) But when I tried to read the book to him we would both fall asleep. I was impressed at how well the musical followed the original story and was true to the spirit.

Books on tape (and their successors) are a great way to enjoy books if you have a commute - makes you actually look forward to traffic jams lol. Although I'm not a big HP fan (but DDIL is, so in prep for Universal I had to know all the stories) the fellow who read those books is phenomenal - a different voice for EVERY character! He has won Grammys for his work!

But nothing beats the smell and feel of a physical book!

 

[sdk1231]

Almost too many to name, and too hard to narrow down, but will try, and also it's easier to just add my favorite authors
As a kid, Hardy Boys books
The Grapes of Wrath-always at the top of my list
The Awakening
Jane Eyre
The Sue Grafton series
Janet Evanovich Stepahnie Plum series (complete silliness, but they make me smile and lol.)
Their Eyes were Watching God
The Literary South-my textbook from my Southern lit class, full of the most well written short stories ever. Love shorts stories by Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, William Faulkner, Tim Gautreaux, Ernest Gaines, and many, many more.
The Ballad series novels by Sharyn McCrumb
Shakespeare-especially Tempest and Twelfth Night, but all of the tragedies
Canterbury Tales-Chaucer
Tender is the Night and Great Gatsby-F Scott Fitzgerald
Several by Lee Smith, Fannie Flagg
The Color Purple-Alice walker
I have lots more books I appreciate, maybe they're not my favorite, but they were well written, like Song of Solomon, and others that I appreciated more at various times of my life, like Cold Sassy Tree
Haven't read a book in a couple years now, just spending leisure time on other activities (DIS boards. haha.) but want to get back to it. Lots I'd like to read

I just read Their Eyes Were Watching God this year - assigned reading for my daughter's high school class and I did a read-along. Excellent book.

The Ballad Series by Sharyn McCrumb - I've read the full series. Sharyn McCrumb held a talk and book signing at my local library here in the suburbs of Chicago some years back. My mother, sister and I attended. I really enjoyed meeting her and hearing her discuss her Ballad series.

 

[sdk1231]

1984 - George Orwell
The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
Jane Eyre - Emily Bronte
Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis
Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

Not that I've read through it completely, but I'm surprised that there were no mentions of The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

I love all of your book picks, but have never heard of Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis. I'll have to check that one out!