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I like threads about books. Mainly because I like books. And reading them. I saw a thing on a Friend's Facebook and I thought it would work better here.

Think of 15 books you've read that you'll not forget, and write about them briefly here. If you need a reason, I can guarantee I'll try at least a few of the books that get written about here. Personally, I do not need any reason except insomnia.

I read Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, History and Science of all sorts, so my list is very mixed. So, in no particular order...

1. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller. Total cliche for a list like this, I know, but even though I found it heavy going, I genuinely loved it.
2. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - William L Shirer. What I know about Nazi Germany and what came before WWII, I know from this. Devoured it in no time.
3. The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins. Okay, so the guy is a dick. He is also very good at explaining science. And, in my opinion right most of the time. (And I regularly read Popular Science and pick holes the size of tanks in what I am reading.)
4. Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro. My favourite of his books. The book is even better than the excellent film. The Nazi sympathizer subplot is more fully explored in the book.
5. Lord of the Rings - Some guy. I read this for the first time aged 11. Now, aged 31, I estimate I have read it 12 times. I am in double figures, for sure.
6. The Black Company - Glen Cook. Modern fantasy writing, 20 years ago. Who needs heroes?
7. Chung Kuo - David Wingrove. Future history. 7 books of "Bloody hell, what next?"
8. The Wind up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami. I could include so many of this guy's books. How can I leave out Dance Dance Dance and Norweigan Wood? Because in this book, the main character spends half of the novel sitting at the bottom of a dry well.
9. Legend - David Gemmell. THIS is the template for heroic fantasy. Raw, unsophisticated writing for Gemmell's first outing, but the story is undeniably gripping and I really cared about each of the characters.
10. World War Z - Max Brooks. Written by Mel Brooks' son. An Oral History of the Zombie War. How can that not be all win?
11. Perdido Street Station - China Mieville. Now, THAT is an imagination. The city, the creatures, wow. Slight shame about the plot...
12. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks. Why do I love Iain Banks and hate Iain M Banks? They are the same person!!
13. Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond. This guy is clever. Closest thing to a modern polymath. He draws together many academic disciplines to paint a picture of why the world is how it is. If you want to create a world for a book, or a campaign, you NEED to read this. Collapse is also amazing.
14. Underground - Haruki Murakami. Manages to be the only guy on the list twice by virtue of having this non-fiction book alongside his fiction. Harrowing accounts from survivors, perpatrators and associates of the Tokyo Subway Sarin gas attack.
15. Malazan Books of the Fallen - Steven Erikson. There is no better Fantasy writing. Period.

So, if anyone reads that... repsonses?

Here goes, in no particular order:

1. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Possibly the single finest work of science fiction ever produced.
2. Catch 22. When Joseph Heller was criticized by an interviewer for his failure to ever write another book on par with it, Heller replied "Well who has?"
3. Harry potter. All of it. I'm so happy to see kids reading again.
4.The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain. He spent much of his life trying to write this one. It was worth the effort.
5. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut. freaking brilliant. One of my favorite books.
6. Our Dumb Century by The Onion. As a history geek, this book is like a drug to me.
7. Akira by Katsuhiro Ottomo. Every time I look at it, I feel slowed for the next two week whenever I draw.
8. The Great Dark by Mark Twain. It's unfinished, but fantastic.
9. Zhang Huan (artbook) This dude changed the way I see art.
10. Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. Notice a pattern here?
11. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. You are not a complete person until you've read this.
12. Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughn. Heavy.
13. We 3 by Grant Morrison. One of the most interesting exercises in empathy I've read.
14. Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger. A classic.
15. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. My favorite play write.

I like some of the books on your list. I read some science fiction and fantasy, but mostly history and philosophy.

1. LOTR - JRRT. What proper list would be complete if this wasn't here. Tolkien's style is unmatched.
2. Spirit of the Laws - Montesquieu. Brilliance wrapped between two covers. This book has helped more then anything to define my political perspective.
3. The Man Who Was Thursday - GK Chesterton. One of the few "detective" books I have ever read. More importantly one of the best page turners ever written.
4. The Civil Wars - Caesar. While I am not a devote of Julius Caesar, the man's brilliance cannot be understated. His account of the Roman Civil War is stunning.
5. The Twilight of the Idols - Friedrich Nietzsche. This man's half-mad writings are the work of genius. I am a firm believer that if Christianity is wrong, Nietzsche is definitely right.
6. On bs - Harry Frankfurt. This book is amazingly pretentious and insightful. A must read for any philosophers...
7. Knight's Cross - David Fraser. A wonderful biography on Erwin Rommel. This provided a brilliant insight to the Desert Fox's private life and his ultimate reality as the only member of German high command who wasn't a Nazi.
8. Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane. This chilling account of the horrors of apartheid and the disgusting racism among all the people's of Africa. This first opened my eyes to the unrealistic worship of democracy.
9. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift. I just love the satire in this book, nothing more needs to be said.
10. Mere Christianity - CS Lewis. One of the most profound influences on my life, no more need be said.
11. Are Women Human? - Dorothy Sayers. A brilliant examination of the feminist movement and the idiocies that it can entail.
12. JEB Stuart - Burke Davis. A phenomenal biography on one of the most brilliant tacticians of all time. My name should repeat how big an effect this book had on me.
13. Letters to a Diminished Church - Dorothy Sayers. Sayers makes it on my list twice. Her unique outlook and interpretation of religion have had the largest impact on me religiously, apart from the Bible of course.
14. History of the Kings of Britain - Geoffrey of Monmouth. Monmouth's beautiful depiction of Britain's history continues to inspire me, a must read for any history buffs. Even though this book is very fantasized, it is still very enjoyable.
15. A History of the English Speaking Peoples - Winston Churchill. Wonderful all the way around. Churchill's realization that myth and legend are just as important for some histories as fact is truly amazing.

That's 15 for me. I do hope that many of you read the one's that you haven't. They are all wonderful, and I treasure each of them greatly.

1) Hunger Games
2) David (A boy who flees Nazi-Germany alone)
3) Scout
4) Eragon (surprisingly good)
5) Redwall (all of them, I've read them at least 3 times each)
6) Guants Ghosts (I was young, okay?)
7) The Power of One
8) LotR (surprising depth, impossible for any movie to do it justice, though it came close)
9) The Messenger
10) Sun Tzu: The Art of War

Those are the MOST outstanding, the ones that clearly make the cut. (And also kind of the ones I have read most recently.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
BTW, I didn't really enjoy Harry Potter.

BloodofOrks wrote:Here goes, in no particular order:

1. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Possibly the single finest work of science fiction ever produced.

I've been meaning to read some Vonnegut for literally years. Maybe I will start with this one, though I already own The Sirens of Titan, which is also on your list. There is a series of SF classics that I own most of, including another truly awesome book - Gateway by Frederick Pohl.

7. Akira by Katsuhiro Ottomo. Every time I look at it, I feel slowed for the next two week whenever I draw.

Damnit, I meant to include that on my own list. Book 1, Yamagata's Death. OMFG. Book 2. 30 pages of buildings falling over with absolutely no text at all. And it is bloody awesome. How can 30 pages of buildings falling over be good?!I own all 6 books in both English and Japanese, plus 3 versions of the film, The Akira Collection, the comic colour adaptation of the film and several collector's edition comics from Dark Horse.

13. We 3 by Grant Morrison. One of the most interesting exercises in empathy I've read.

Looks interesting. I loved Zenith, but have read little else from Grant Morrison.

14. Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger. A classic.

I probably should read this.

15. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. My favorite play write.

Oh, hey, I did not think to include any plays on my list. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

JEB_Stuart wrote:I like some of the books on your list. I read some science fiction and fantasy, but mostly history and philosophy.

4. The Civil Wars - Caesar. While I am not a devote of Julius Caesar, the man's brilliance cannot be understated. His account of the Roman Civil War is stunning.

I'll have a look at this

5. The Twilight of the Idols - Friedrich Nietzsche. This man's half-mad writings are the work of genius. I am a firm believer that if Christianity is wrong, Nietzsche is definitely right.

I am a firm believer that Christianity is wrong. I wonder if Nietzsche is right?

8. Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane. This chilling account of the horrors of apartheid and the disgusting racism among all the people's of Africa. This first opened my eyes to the unrealistic worship of democracy.

I've long had my doubts about democracy. I think I would enjoy this.

9. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift. I just love the satire in this book, nothing more needs to be said.

As a child I read an bridged kiddie version of this. I reckon I should read the proper version!!

12. JEB Stuart - Burke Davis. A phenomenal biography on one of the most brilliant tacticians of all time. My name should repeat how big an effect this book had on me.

Who?!

14. History of the Kings of Britain - Geoffrey of Monmouth. Monmouth's beautiful depiction of Britain's history continues to inspire me, a must read for any history buffs. Even though this book is very fantasized, it is still very enjoyable.
15. A History of the English Speaking Peoples - Winston Churchill. Wonderful all the way around. Churchill's realization that myth and legend are just as important for some histories as fact is truly amazing.

I have not read any British history for a LONG time. Weird.

That's 15 for me. I do hope that many of you read the one's that you haven't. They are all wonderful, and I treasure each of them greatly.

1. Legend - David Gemmell
2. The Scar - China Mieville
3. Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
4. The Lord of the Rings - JRRT
5. The Many Coloured Land series - Julian May
6. The Player of Games - Iain M Banks
7. Vurt - Jeff Noon
8. The Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Count Zero) - William Gibson
9. Random Acts of Senseless Violence - Jack Womack
10. Drachenfels - Jack Yeovil
11. Crooked Little Vein - Warren Ellis
12. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
13. The Belgariad and The Malloreon - David Eddings
14. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
15. The Dragonlance Chronicles, the first trilogy (and the war of the twins was ok) - Tracey Hickman and Margaret Weis

1. Catch 22, Joseph Heller. I think everyone's put this on their list so far, probably because it's so stonkingly good. Swings wildly between the ludicrous and the macabre, and is very funny, and very sad.
2. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway. A really, really powerful ending, and the best example of Hemingway's 'man's man'.
3. Dune, Frank Herbert. People call it the greatest sci-fi novel of all time. I don't know if they're right because I haven't read that much science fiction, but the fact that people can seriously make the claim means something.
4. The Quiet American, Grahame Greene. This is hands down my favourite book. The concept is basically for two characters, one old Europe and one the US, to debate engagement with Vietnam, but while that approach often results in stilted, unrealistic characters here Greene has brought each to life with tremendous depth. The story takes on a momentum all of its own, while story exploring the politics of the region with tremendous foresight (it was written in 1955).
5. Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton. Published just before apartheid was introduced, the book looks at the breakdown of the tribal system among black South Africans, due to the greed of white South Africans for the tribal lands, and growing racism that covers the fear they have for the blacks they've treated so poorly.
6. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote. Chilling study of a small town murder. Created the true crime genre, and I've probably never read anything so beautifully written.
7. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee. The American classic, walks an interesting line between keeping to simple moral truths and embracing exactly how complicated life really is. 'Be the same man at home as you are in the street' is just about the best piece of advice for decent living that I've heard.
8. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This is just a short children's book, but contains the best explanation for the meaning of life I've ever read.
9. 1984, George Orwell. Often confused as a criticism of socialism (which would be odd given Orwell was a socialist) it is in fact a criticism of those who use socialist rhetoric as means of taking power for it's own sake. Inciteful book that condemned new political ploys before many of them had started happening.
10. Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger. Captures a time and a mood perfectly. If you've ever been a selfish but gifted kid, you'll know what this book means.
11. The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx & Freidreich Engels. Doesn't delve into the crazy of Marx' economics, instead focussing on his excellent work in economic history. Contains a remarkably inciteful summary of capitalism, and if nothing else it's really short and you get to claim afterwards you've read the Communist Manifesto.
12. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck. I won't deny this is heavy going, but it explains better than anything else I've read what happens to people when the system stops working.
13. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie. It's the funny and tragic story of India since independance, but more importantly is the only post-modern book I've been able to understand.
14. Watchmen, Alan Moore. The comic book that really is high literature, it pays tribute to the comics that came before, satirises them and tells the story of what really happens to the people who volunteer to stand on the wall guarding civilisation.
15. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams. Because it's absolutely hilarious.


I've probably forgotten a whole lot of my favourites in there, but that was off the top of my head. I'll get home and look at the bookcase and start counting all the books that should have made the list. Watch for edits to the above in about three hours . I'm already thinking Ian McKewan's Saturday should be in there instead of A Farewell to Arms. Or Hubert Selby's Last Exit to Brooklyn.

Don't edit!! Don't edit! Add!

There are several Dutch books that made an impression on, though I doubt many of them have been translated into other languages.

De Aanslag / the Hit by Harry Mulisch - while it was required reading for everyone in my class I found it a touching story and for some reason it still sticks with me

De Kleine Blonde Dood / the Little Blonde Dead by Boudewijn Büch - same as above really

Oeroeg by Hella Haasse - a small booklet and a short story, but one that made an impact on me for reasons unknown

Animal Farm by George Orwell - a sad, sad tale really that really needs to be read more

Lord of the Flies by William Golding - a great store that really shows some deep stuff for such a simple premises

The Killers by Ernest Hemingway - I like pulp and this is for me the best one in the bunch

Ravenor by Dan Abnett - sci-fi pulp can be cool as well

The Watchmen by that scary git - I feel kinda bad for listing this one

The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox - a book to my heart

I, Claudius by Robert Graves - it shows its age but still a great read every now and then

In no particular order

1. Harry Potter
2. The needle - Ken Follet
3. The third twin - also Ken Follet
4. Schindlers List
5. LotR
6. Dan Brown Books (Digital Fortress, Angels and Demons, Deception Point, The Da Vinci Code) Hate me, I dont care, I kinda liked em all

Im not gonna add any BL books. There are some good ones in there, but its not really top literature.

Reaperman by Terry Pratchett - great story, funny and intelligent, about Death being forced to retire against his will
G.A.S. by Matt Ruff - the most bizarre book I´ve ever read, featuring a mutated shark, black robot-servants, Walt Disney, a disturbed war-veteran hiding porn books in public libraries and a
submarine named Yabbadabbadoo
Nathan the Wise( ? Just knowing the german title ) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing - This piece of literature is great; it has so many good thoughts in it and a good message about tolerance
Gotrek and Felix/Ragnar by William/Bill King - great fantasy/sci-fi, with everything in it you want to read about
Gaunt´s Ghosts - Traitor General by Dan Abnett - I think this is the most cinematic novel of the series and it features one of the best character studies I´ve read ( the traitor, his chasers, and
guard )
Lord of the Rings- I´ve just started reading it, and I must say i´s great. The depth and way of the storytelling are very good; it´s a bit like an old ( 18th century ? ) english gothic novel IMO
( the fog scene )
everything else Terry Prattchett has written - he´s a genius. But I have to say that I disliked Nightwatch and Interesting Times because of the often featured cruelty that doesn´t fit the storys.

The Dirk Gently novels by Douglas Adams - Great! A private investigator with a new method of investigating. Random search. Everything is linked, so it doesn´t matter where you start searching, you
find what you´re looking for. Dirk Gently is quite funny, very egozentric and always having trouble, and there are aliens, electric monks and aggressive
eagles
Ciaphas Cain by Sandy Mitchell - absolutely intelligent and funny written novels about a laconic commissar trying to stay alive in the imperial guard.

And a lot of really good youth-books I´ve read as I was a teenager.

Flachzange wrote:Im not gonna add any BL books. There are some good ones in there, but its not really top literature.

Dunno if this is about highbrow, I put the Dragonlance books in there and I refer to them as 'a book at bogtime', they aren't heavyweight in the slightest, just a simply written and easy to read tale constructed from a group's DnD experiences. Really loved reading them and have reread them twice, don't think the thread was about the booker prize winners...

So which BL books did you enjoy? I'm reading the first Guant's Ghosts omnibus atm and enjoying it, I'd like to know which books you thought were good.

I´ve forgotten about a few.

Dracula by Bram Stoker - It´s been a while since I´ve read it, and I must say, it´s very good. But I didn´t manage to read it to the end, because the speed of telling is too slow. They need 300 pages to impale the first vampire, and then they start chasing the other one. But the style is great and it´s interesting to read the original vampire story.

Evil by Jan Guillou - it´s more of a teenager-book, but it is interesting for everyone, I think. It´s about a boy being victim of domestic violence and by thus getting sadistic, until he learns about the goods of non-violent behaviour. It`s not over-moralic in style, but in a way very intimidating because of the details described and the way of cruel thinking the author describes. ( planning days in advance where to strike the next blows; the boy´s father letting his bulldog kill a small dog and stating it was an accident ) You can write books about heavy themes well or bad; this one is well.

Dracula by Ralf Peter Märtin - an easily comprehensible history book about the war in eastern europe against the ottomans and the ,,true" history of Vlad Tepec ( there are many good books about horror/real life )

Bollocks, I forgot the Gormenghast books and Dune (only the first one though, the second climbed up it's own arse and the series got worse after that).

So many good reads...

1. The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
2. Every single book ever written by David Gemmell
3. The Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
4. The Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
5. The Heritage of Shannara - Terry Brooks
6. Vietnam, A History - Stanley Karnow
7. Persuasion - Jane Austen
8. Hamlet - Shakespeare
9. X-Wing, Wraith Squadron - Aaron Allston
10. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Edward Albee
11. Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
12. Long Day's Journey Into Night - Eugene O'Neill
13. Endgame - Harold Pinter
14. The World According to Jeremy Clarkson
15. An Ice-Cream War - William Boyd

I wouldn't want this to turn into a thread about what book is "best". After all, I have Legend on my own list, and it sure ain't literature.

Which reminds me. The first three books of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, also IT and The Stand.

I'll bite. No particular order:

1. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain. My favorite book of all time. Interesting idea of a modern man (modern meaning 1800's) getting magically transported to the Medieval Times and trying to bring "civility" to an older culture.

2. The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien. Can't NOT have this in the list. It's the gran-daddy of all modern fiction.

3. Battle Royale - Koushun Takami. The novel is a lot deeper than the movie, for sure. While not as deep into the minds of the characters as it could have gotten, it's an interesting look into the minds of teenagers who suddenly find themselves forced to kill their class-mates.

4. Dune - Frank Herbert. Definitely one of the best pieces of sci-fi around. Also arguably a source of inspiration for Star Wars.

5. Berserk - Kentaro Miura. My favorite graphic novel series of all time. Dark fantasy mixed with horror with heavy themes of friendship/comraderie and revenge.

6. Grendel - John Gardner. Interesting look at the Beowulf saga from the point of the monster, Grendel.

7. Old Man's War - John Scalzi. Relatively new Sci-Fi writer. Reminiscent of Starship Troopers but without the heavy political messages and with a hell of a lot more humor.

8. Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams. Simply hilarious.

9. Redwall - Brian Jacques. While the series as a whole was great, this was really the start of it all and really best set up the Redwall world (and let's be honest, a lot of the sequels seemed rather derivative). Also, this book always made me freakin' hungry.

10. The Great Brain Series - John D. Fitzgerald. Fantastic kid's book series about a group of siblings in Utah around the late 1890's. I should try to re-read these, actually.

11. Reaperman/Mort - Terry Pratchett. Pratchett is always at his best when he writes for the character of Death, who we must remember ALWAYS SPEAKS IN ALL CAPS.

12. Ender's Game/Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card. Fantastic sci-fi and another book that looks into the mind of a child put into a very adult situation. The sequel (Speaker for the Dead) is arguably the best book in the series.

13. Schindler's List - Thomas Keneally. An account of Oskar Schindler's life and his motivations as an entrepeneur who found himself saving the lives of Polish Jews during WWII.

14. The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara. Fantastic account of the Battle of Gettysburg from the American Civil War.

15. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens. While I bemoan the wordiness of most Dickens novels, I loved this book.

The GOR series.

Kidding! Kidding!

I know I'll never forget "Image of the Beast" by Phillip Jose Farmer, even if I took a hot poker to that part of my brain.

In no particule order:

1.Eragon
2.Angels and Demons
3.Hannibal
4.Misery
5.48
6.Ghost of Sleath (sp?)
7.Cirque de freak
8.Elder
9.Brysingar(sp?) Havn't read Eragon, Elder or Brysingar in ages so not sure about spelling.
10.Da Vinci Code
11.Lord Loss
12.Fulgrim (Just finished reading and its pretty darn disturbing, i dont think il ever forget that)
13.Shining
14.Assasin Quest
15.Fools fate
16.Assasins Apprentice
17.Harry potter and the Deathly hollows
18.Harry potter and the half blood prince

Couldnt fit them into 15 sorry.

1) The Bible: Yes, I know it's a collection of books/letters, and I also am a firm believer that Christianity is right, and Christians are often wrong.
2) Lord of the Rings: Nuff said
3) The Hobbit: Delightfull childrens book
4) 1984: Orwell's brilliant depiction of bad socialism gone awry
5) Misery: Not a big King fan, but this book was brilliant
6) The Normal Christian life: by Watchman Nee..excellent exposition of the book of Romans.
7) The Dragon Lance series: fond memories of when I was kid.
I got to get back to work....

GG

In no particular order:

1) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Pirsig
2) Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
3) Good Omens - Pratchett & Gaiman
4) Watchmen - Moore
5) Any of the Discworld books - Pratchett
6) Alice in Wonderland - Carroll
7) The Neuromancer Trilogy (Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa Overdrive) - Gibson
8) The Prince - Machiavelli
9) On War - Clausewitz
10) Strategy - Basil Liddell-Hart
11) The Cathedral and the Bazaar - Raymond
12) Guns Germs & Steel - Diamond
13) Inside Tube Amps - Torres
14) American Gods - Gaiman
15) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, first four books - DM Guide, Player Handbook, Monster Manual, Deities & Demigods - Gygax

In no particular order.

1. Fight Club - Chuck Palanuk really great book and kind of made me think at times about the pointlessness of the way some things are in society.


2. LotR - JRRT Just has to go on the list.

3. A brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking I love space and the ideas behind quantum theory... even if I can not begin to understand the math behind them.

4. The Harry Potter Series. As stated earlier, anything that gets children reading is good to me. I also really liked how these books matured in tone and kind of grew up in seriousness as you went along. It did not seem patronizing or like the author was holding anything back content wise.

5. Sandman - Neil Gaiman The other example of comics that can be held up and called literature next to watchmen.

6. The Wheel of time series - Robert Jordan and being finished by Brandon Sanderson. It has had its' ups and downs but I have constantly kept coming back to this series and will be very happy when it is finished.

7. Mistborn: The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson. I picked this up just to see who this kid was that they were handing off WoT to. This book was just too much fun and the last 100 pages or so I could not put down.

8. Dune - Frank Herbert. Purely great Sci fi. Can really stand on it's own without anything else added. I have read ALL the rest by both Herbert and his son. Non of it really comes as close to being as perfect as the first book.

9. Contact - Carl Saigen. Haven t really thought about this in a while but it just popped in here. Wish something like this really would happen so we could hurry up and get rid of this chip on our shoulders about being the best thing in the universe.

10. Neuromancer - William Gibson. The beginnings of cyberpunk... accept no substitutes

11. Mage: The Hero (discovered/Defined) - Matt Wagner Two series of comics written about 13 years apart from each other and a third is on it's way someday. Really cool telling of a hero's journey with reincarnations of previous heroes of history from around the world.

12. The Long Hard Road Out of Hell - Marilyn Manson. His autobiography covering his early years to mainstream success with Antichrist superstar. The guy is a really good storyteller... he will have you laughing one minute and asking yourself "what the feth is wrong with humanity" the next.

13. Warhammer 40.000 rulebooks 2nd Ed. Never has three small books inspired me so much, or cost me so much fething money. No matter how much I might grumble from time to time about the company... I can never see myself geting tired of the imagery or background.

14. Vampire: the Masquerade While I might have cu my gaming teeth on D&D, this was the one that really launched my for for the RPG genre. It really is a shame what they did to it. Some people like the new plot-less system and some don't... I don't.

15. The Mission Earth series - L Ron Hubbard. I had a summer in high school where I ready that, battlefield Earth and Final blackout. Can't really say any of them were all that great now, but I want some Recognition (or pity) for making it through all that.

1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Niffeneggar. Yes, the movie sucks, but I loved the book. It does in fact sit on my top three books.
   
2. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. I return to this book year after year. The poetry of it still startles me.
   
3. The Book Thief by by Zusak. Who knew that Death could have such empathy for the Holocaust without turning the book saccharine?
   
4. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I'm cheating by including all seven books. Yes the series breaks down towards the end, but even those books have their moments.
   
5. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. A book about cultural identity speaks volumes to a brown guy living in this country and realizing there are moments when I just don't fit in.
   
6. Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis. This graphic novel series is about a fantastic near future where America and the City have manufactured everything we could possibly want and it doesn't change a thing about how we behave.
   
7. The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. Ever changing art throughout, but somehow Gaiman and his collaborators make it all work.
   
8. Planetary by Warren Ellis. A series about a world filled with secrets and the organization dedicated to both uncovering them and preserving them.
   
9. The Invisibles by Grant Morrison. I still don't know what this series is about.
   
10. Different Seasons by Stephen King. This book has four novellas in it, three of which have been turned into movies and contain some of his best writing.
    
11. Dune by Frank Herbert. This book is big. It's because of this book that I can't read the prequel books about cyborg brains and psychic powers.
    
12. Salvatore's Dark Elf stuff. Fun to read all the fight scenes and phat lewts that Drizzt picks up along the way.
    
13. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn. A beautiful book that somehow includes ninjas without being hammy.
    
14. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. I'm not so much taken by the fighting scenes as the lectures and the indoctrination.
    
15. Mage Storms Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey. Mostly I like the character Karal and all the things he has to cope with in a world filled with magic.
    
16. Darian's Tale by Mercedes Lackey. This trilogy works for me (even despite all the over explaining her characters do) because of Darian.
    
    

If you take all the series and expand them into books, I'll have gone WAY OVER 15. Sorry!

I am quite disturbed nobody has mentioned George Orwell's animal farm... while very short its a classic

There are only a few I can think of, off hand.
In no particular order:

Friday - Robert Heinlin (or however you spell it).

Shogun - James Clavelle

Street Kid (don't know... Read it in 6th grade. Never forgot it)

Space Wolf - Yes... a 40K novel

I know why the caged bird sings - Maya Angelou

The Giving Tree - Silverstein

Not "The Best" per se but my favorite in no particular order...

Wolf's Hour - Robert R. McCammon
Dune - Frank Herbert
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
Let the Right One in - John Ajvide Lindqvist
Tuf Voyaging - George R. R. Martin
Voyage of the Space Beagle - A. E. van Vogt
Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa & Charles S. Terry
Godzilla Compendium - Marc Cerasini & J.D. Lees (Still own it!)
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
Inferno - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe
The Hyperion Omnibus - Dan Simmons
A Man Without a Country - Kurt Vonnegut

Certainly there are more 'important' and 'meaningful' books I've read, these are just my favorite.

1984 - Possibly the most important book ever written. It's unfortunately been hijacked by anyone wishing to take a cheap swipe at the Government but thats certainly no fault of the book.

Waylander -David Gemmell. May have said Legend but Waylander was the first Gemmell book I ever read and it's always stuck with me. It's was the first Fantasy novel (aside from Tolkien) I ever read that I didn't consider pretentious tosh.

Lion of Macedon - David Gemmell. Gemmells peak AFAIC. A truly brilliant story, even if it takes some liberty with history.

Robert Rankin - Web Site Story. Not his best but the first I ever read and therefore it has a special place in my heart. He's better than Pratchett, there I said it!

War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells. Simply astonishing. Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that this was written over 100 years ago!

Lee Child - One Shot. Against not the best but the first in the series I ever read. Possibly the best modern day thriller writer out there.

Sandy Mitchell - For the Emperor. Simply for convincing me that the Black Library books weren't all terrible!

Bernard Cornwell - The Aurthur Trilogy. Yes this is 3 books but they act as one long and powerful tale. I can't pick one. It's basically what I would call historical fantasy. The attention to detail and characters are all so realistic you can almost taste it. I love almost every Cornwell novel but these stand above the others.

Dan Brown - Angels and Demons. I realize that poor old Mr Brown has become an easy target for literary snobs and bandwagon jumpers wishing to appear superior by attacking something popular the world over, but he's very good at what he does. That is, writing fast paced, entertaining, page turning thrillers. I haven't picked up one of his books that I didn't demolish in under a day. I don't care one fig for the flaming. Angels and Demons was my favorite so far and I've pre-ordered his new one.

Simon Scarrow -Under the Eagle. Un-complex ripping yarns about soldiers and battles during the Roman conquest of Britain. The first in the series but they keep getting better and better. This is everything the Black Library novels should be yet aren't.

Band of Brothers - Stephen Ambrose. The most brilliant and personal account of men in combat I've ever read.

Black Hawk Down - Mark Bowman. The 2nd most brilliant and personal account of men in combat I've ever read.

LotR - Nothing I can say here that hasn't been said already.

Garth Ennis - Preacher. The funniest, most sickening, though provoking and downright enjoyable comic I've ever read. I rate it above Watchmen, but only just.

Watchmen - Again nothing I can say here that hasn't been said already.

Stalingrad - Anthony Bevor. The best account of a Major Battle I've ever read. Makes even the dry accounts of endlessly moving units seem fascinating.

Conn Iggulden - The Emperor Series. As long as your not fussed about historical accuracy in your fiction I can't recommend these enough.

I got beaten to the punch on most of these. Here goes:

1. Lotr - Tolkien
2. 1984 - Orwell
3. Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut
4. Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald
5. Farewell to arms - Hemmingway
6. Death of a Salesman - Miller
7. Fountainhead - Rand
8. Martian Chronicles - Bradbury
9. The Stranger - Camus
10. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Adams
11. The Time Machine - Wells
12. Transmetropolitan - Ellis
13. Jurassic Park - Chriton
14. Killer Angels - Shaara
15. Fables - Aesop

Polonius wrote:4. Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald

Disagree!!!!!!!! UGH what terrible tripe.

The little prince: Probably the most important book written by a man. Ever.

Lotr
Les miserables, Victor Hugo; The best french writer.
Fiction: Borges, Weird, unique... just amazing.
Froth on the Daydream, Mood Indigo (in french L'Ecume des jours ) Vian; once again, a amazing french book.
Perfume Just good.
Steppenwolf Hesse.