What are your top five favorite books?

[protozoa]

What can I say, I'm sort of a nut for top five lists.

1) Ted Simon's Jupiter's Travels

2) Stephen Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers

3) Jean Paul Pallud's Then and Now series about World War II

4) Joe Trippi's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised : Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything

5) Most anything by the late Scott Cunningham. I don't follow his teachings, per say, but I do enjoy the sort of alternative viewpoint his work promotes.

honorable mentions:

Anything by Clive Cussler.

Shelby Foote's Civil War (3-volume set).

I'm currently reading Hard Drive, and it may work its way into the top five. It is definitely on pace. I also have a couple books about Apple that I'll read next. I'm hoping they turn out to be good as well.

 

[Hello.there]

1 The True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey

2 The Great Shame - Thomas Keneally

3 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

4 Back from the Brink - Paul McGrath (with Vincent Hogan)

5 Pity the Nation - Robert Fisk

 

[twoodcc]

i don't read all that much, so i don't have a top 5. but i'll name a few:

Eragon and Eldest
Redwall
both Lance Armstrong books

 

[bluesjam]

1. On the Road - Jack Kerouac

2. The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley

3. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

4. 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne

5. 1984 - George Orwell

 

[Hello.there]

both Lance Armstrong books

Did you find them in the performance-enhancing section?

 

[Kamera RAWr]

Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Time Quake - Kurt Vonnegut
Egil's Saga - Unknown
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat - John Gribbon

 

[iSaint]

Lamb by Christopher Moore
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Native Son by Richard Wright
The Book of Bebb by Frederick Beuchner
Fay by Larry Brown

 

[Hello.there]

Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Time Quake - Kurt Vonnegut
Egil's Saga - Unknown
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat - John Gribbon

Great choices! If I'd remembered Jon Krakauer I would have included 'Into Thin Air', the most astounding book I've ever read.

And there are far too many Kurt Vonnegut books to choose from. The two you mentioned are wonderful, as are the old favourites: Slaughterhouse 5 and Breakfast of Champions.

 

[nbs2]

Just to make sure that I cover the spectrum (in no particular order since my bookshelves aren't in any particular order) while keeping this thread in this forum...

• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• Imperial Hubris by Anonymous
• Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My! by Stephan Pastis
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• The Animals of Farmer Jones by Richard Scarry

I can still remember the first time I read each of those.

 

[protozoa]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the GUI C++ programmer's guide yet.

 

[notwist]

in no particular order

kafka on the shore
confederacy of dunces
lamb
brave new world
slaughterhouse five

 

[ArmyKnight12]

Did you find them in the performance-enhancing section?

They should be in the sports section. Everyone should definitely read "It's not about the Bike, My Journey back to Life" by Lance. It's such a great book.

 

[Stampyhead]

• The Animals of Farmer Jones by Richard Scarry

Ha ha, yes! I love Richard Scarry! What kid didn't grow up reading his books?

My list, also in no particular order:

• Victor Hugo - Les Misérables (in the original French. The English translation doesn't do it justice.)
• Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace
• Phillipa Gregory - The Other Boleyn Girl
• Nancy Moser - Mozart's Sister
• Any of the Harry Potter books

 

[twoodcc]

Did you find them in the performance-enhancing section?

come on, why even start?

even though with his running performance as of late, i'm starting to question him

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

1. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
3. The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
4. Blue Like Jazz, Don Miller
5. Where In the World Is the Church, Michael Horton
6. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

 

[BoyBach]

• The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
• The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
• Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
• The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

-Ender's Game: Orson Scott Card
-The Shadow Saga (story of Bean): Orson Scott Card
-The Worthing Saga: Orson Scott Card
-Eragon and Eldest
-Harry Potter, of course.
-iRobot: Forget the movie, this is the real deal
-State of Fear: Crichton
-Digital Fortress: Dan Brown I think?

About to start the Foundation series. I know, I know, that was about 20 books, I couldn't help myself.

 

[Addy1975]

My favourite books...

- Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
- You Were Born Rich - Bob Proctor
- As a Man Thinketh - James Allen
- The Master Key System - Charles F Haanel
- Conversationw with God - Neale Donald Walsch

 

[satty]

There are a couple of good ones mentioned already, I want to add following...

Confederacy of dunces - John Kennedy Toole (all time favourite )
Serve the people - Yan Lianke
A power governments cannot suppress - Howard Zinn
Wild Swans - Jung Chang (Mao the untold story)
Why we buy - Paco Underhill
Tipping point - Malcolm Gladwell
Battle Royale - Koushun Takami

 

[Greencardman]

I'm going to second all the Orson Scott Card books, that man knows how to write! "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "War and Peace" are excellent as well.

I'll add "Assassination Vacation" by Sarah Vowell. You have to be a big history nerd to read it, but if you are its one of the funniest, wittiest, nerdiest books out there. If you are a nerd, you'll totally recognize some of the things she does as some of the things you do as well. The author has some other stuff I'm in line to read, and does a lot of stuff for NPR and was the voice of Violet in "the Incredibles."

 

[Abstract]

Microserfs, and all other books by Doug Coupland. He's also Canadian, which makes him cooler.

 

[question fear]

-Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
-Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
-Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
-Ultramarathon Man, Dean Karnazes

 

[twoodcc]

-Ender's Game: Orson Scott Card
-The Shadow Saga (story of Bean): Orson Scott Card
-The Worthing Saga: Orson Scott Card
-Eragon and Eldest
-Harry Potter, of course.
-iRobot: Forget the movie, this is the real deal
-State of Fear: Crichton
-Digital Fortress: Dan Brown I think?

About to start the Foundation series. I know, I know, that was about 20 books, I couldn't help myself.

alright! another Eragon fan. looking forward to the next one this year.

 

[Greencardman]

For thrillers, "The Relic" and its sequal "Reliquary" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are definitely the best I've read in the genre. Their other books are so so, but those two are very good.

 

[Hello.there]

come on, why even start?

even though with his running performance as of late, i'm starting to question him

Okay, you're right, what's the point? It just kills me that he got away with it, though - perhaps the greatest fraud in sporting history?