Topic: Your 10 favourite books

[Finn Solomon]

Exactly what it says. Post the ten books that you loved reading the most. Doesn't have to be in order, and doesn't matter what they are.

1. The Stand - Stephen King

I actually like the Dark Tower series more, but they consist of seven books of varying quality and I can't quite pick a specific one I like best. So the Stand. I'm a huge fan of Mr. King and I've read pretty much everything he's ever written, and this remains my favourite. The second part gets a little draggy, but the first half where Reagan's America slowly sinks into chaos and hell as people keep dying everywhere sets the standard for the post-apocalyptic scenario. Every book written since with that theme owes a debt to the Stand.

2. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

I've read a hell of a lot of fantasy. High fantasy, low fantasy, magical fantasy, kiddie fantasy, you name it. I've read it. I've read about knights and castles and elves and dwarves until my eyes bled. I've spent years looking for a cupboard into Narnia. And throughout all that time, there is none better than Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, starting with Game of Thrones. In the real world, the stableboy doesn't become a knight if he talks back to the princess. He gets his tongue torn out. In the real world, acting honourably in a high-stakes political situation doesn't end well for all concerned. That's the genius of Game of Thrones. Blood, political intrigue, civil war, harsh winters, backstabbing, sex and an incredibly detailed world with a wonderful history and beautifully crafted geography. Martin's not just America's Tolkien, he's better than J double R.

3. Night Watch - Terry Pratchett

Call it a love letter to the entire Discworld series. One of the most tragic things about the world is that this brilliant man has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers. Discworld is a brilliant parody of everything, and manages to make some astute social commentary while still being hilarious. Night Watch is one of the least funny books in the series, yet it's ten times better than most of the other comedy books floating around nowadays. Basically Les Miserables in Ankh-Morpork, it is a very dark look at the nature of political revolutions that rarely do anything for the people caught up in it. But it ends on a hopeful note, and is one of the most action-packed books in the series. Love it.

4. American Gods - Neil Gaiman

I love Neil Gaiman as much as it is physically possible for one heterosexual man to love another. I camped for hours to get tickets and wait in line the time he came to Singapore. While I am primarily a fan of his Sandman comic book series, I've gone for American Gods here. Gaiman is a master of mythology, not only the basic Greek and Norse and Egyptian, but also Babylonian, Hungarian, Indian, Kenyan, Japanese and every other culture you can think of. It all comes together in American Gods, a tale of a man meeting gods who are stuck in a land notably not known for possessing any myths, and are struggling to survive in a society that worships the new gods of Science, Media and Technology. At its heart is also a great love story, and one that manages to avoid being cliched at that. And the ending is superb. The book I recommend to friends who want to try a bit of Neil Gaiman.

5. Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin

Moving away from fiction, this book was promoted as being personally read and liked by Barack Obama (before he became famous) and cited as the one book he'd take with him to the White House. A biography of President Lincoln and the Civil War, it covers so much more than that. Most Civil War biographies mostly deal with the battles and the generals, and the Gettysburg Address. Ms. Goodwin not only covers every single aspect of Lincoln's life, from his birth on a small Kentucky farm right up to Ford's theatre, but she does the same for each of the members of his cabinet, a fantastically diverse bunch of bastards. She uses the lives of Henry Seward, Salmon Chase, Edwin Stanton and the rest to paint a complete picture of the Civil War era government, and is a natural storyteller. The book is funny, with countless anecdotes about Lincoln and how he manages to outwit his many rivals and succeed in the face of the most dire crisis the United States has ever known.

6. Runaway Jury - John Grisham

I make no apologies for liking John Grisham (aside from The Appeal, which I literally flung out of a window after reading), and the Runaway Jury is my favourite. Forget the movie with John Cusack, the book is so much better. Tobacco companies are worried about the latest lawsuit filed by the widow of a dead smoker, and they will do anything and everything to ensure victory at the trial. Corruption in the American legal system at its finest, and it has a brilliant ending. To this day I can pick it up and read it with the same enjoyment as the first time.

7. The Godfather - Mario Puzo

There are some things every man has to do, and one of them is memorizing every line from the Godfather Parts 1 and 2. But the book isn't bad as well. Sure it has some rambling side plots that were mercifully cut away by Coppola, but it is a great read on one of the finest traditions of American culture, the Mafia. Everything mob related since then can trace its roots back to Puzo's masterpiece.

8. Watchmen - Alan Moore

Alan Moore may be a magnificently bearded crazy Roman-god worshipping warlock from Northampton, but the man can write a brilliant book. The best of his graphic novels is Watchmen, which had a pretty good movie made about it. There's little I can add to what has already been said about Watchmen, so I'll just say that it has no clear heroes or villains, tons of meaning and symbolism packed into every single panel, and it has a conclusion that is still being argued over to this day. The most influential book of the comic industry bar none.

9. Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks - Mick Foley

People think professional wrestlers are a bunch of roided up illiterate brutes who get paid for being beaten senseless. They're largely right, which is why this book comes as a pleasant surprise. A handwritten autobiography of one of the most intriguing careers in the business, Mick wrote the entire thing himself without the aid of a ghostwriter. And what he has to write about is extremely entertaining, having shed blood on six continents and recounting great tales of some of the most famous personalities in the business. Mick is an intelligent, sensitive and humorous writer, and his first book deserved to make the top of the New York Times bestselling list.

10. World War Z - Max Brooks

A recent addition, written in 2006. Brooks takes a simple premise - the zombie apocalypse - and makes it utterly terrifying by logically and rationally extrapolating what would actually happen to modern society as a result. The answer is chilling, as the world is simply not prepared for it and descends into hell, before picking itself up and taking back the planet from those damn ghouls. Amazing geopolitical and social commentary, the book is done in series of short interviews, ranging from the Vice President of the United States to an Australian Astronaut to an ancient army chaplain in Russia. Convincing, haunting read.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Hmmm.  Tricky

In no particular order:

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M Pirsig
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
1984 - George Orwell
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Trainspotting - Irving Welsh

Ask me tomorrow and it will be a different ten

[Corkboy]

Ask me tomorrow and it will be a different ten

Me too. Here's today's ten.

All The Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy
The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles
Generation X - Douglas Coupland
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter - Mario Vargas Llosa
A Walk In The Woods - Bill Bryson
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving
Beloved - Toni Morrison
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

[Dublin Red]

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

That's a horrorshow book droog

Also love The Stand as above.  Will come back again with another few I like.

[hooded claw]

Here's today's ten.

Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte
Diary of a Nobody- George and Weedon Grossmith
London Fields- Martin Amis
The Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka
1984- George Orwell
Animal Farm- George Orwell
In The Kitchens of Castile- Gijs van Hensbergen
The Wind In The Willows- Kenneth Grahame
The Picture of Dorian Grey- Oscar Wilde
The Bible
Le Morte d'Arthur- Thomas Malory
 

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

That's a horrorshow book droog

Also love The Stand as above.  Will come back again with another few I like.

That's one of the things that is bolshy about that book.  It gets in your gulliver and very soon you are thinking in Nadsat.

Slovo!  My dorogoy chelloveck

[Dublin Red]

That's one of the things that is bolshy about that book.  It gets in your gulliver and very soon you are thinking in Nadsat.

Slovo!  My dorogoy chelloveck

What a load of old yarbles I slooshy

Pity I'm sat here rabbiting, I could have fun all day in this thread!

[matchyg]

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
The Art of War Sun Tze
Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu
Secret of the Golden Flower
Upanishads
The Secret Teachings of all Ages Manly P. Hall
The Tree of Life

[pascoli]

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

From the corner of his eye - Dean Koontz

The Plantation =- Chris Kuzneski

Dragon Tears - Dean Koontz

A Short History of Almost Everytinh - Bill Bryson

Step on a Crack - James Patterson

Wilt on High - Tom Sharpe

Wonderland Avenue  - Danny Sugerman

The Green Mile - Stephen King

The 17th Round - Rubin Carter

[Finn Solomon]

From the corner of his eye - Dean Koontz

Damn I loved that book. What I like about Koontz is that he believes strongly in family, which few writers do nowadays.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Wonderland Avenue  - Danny Sugerman

Absolutely awesome book that mate, loved it. I have read about 10 times, its one that i can always go back to

[pascoli]

Yeah would probably have been in the top 3 if i had completed it in a specific order.

Might have to see about pickin another copty of this up meself....

[royhendo]

I'd echo VDM - it'd be different tomorrow. But for today:

The Iron Cow of Zen - Albert Low
Fight Club - Chuck Palahaniuk
Moneyball - Michael Lewis
Jousting With Giants - Jim McLean
Against The Odds - James Dyson
Rule Makers, Rule Breakers - David and Tom Gardner
Use Your Head - Tony Buzan
Way Of The Peaceful Warrior - Dan Millman
Shanks - Dave Bowler
Angry White Pajamas - Robert Twigger

[Not funny reecehenebry]

The Seer King Trilogy...chris bunch.(A vietnam vet and you can feel it when you read his stuff.Some is shite but the first two books of this are top notch)
Ice and fire...rr martin
foundation series ...asimov
A song of stone...iain banks
Fahrenheit 451  ... ray bradbury(*or any of his short stories.I just love the 50's60's sci-fi.One of his shorts has a guy stranded on Mars when everyone left for some reason or other.the tale is set in his late years.he starts getting telephone calls all over the planet from his past self tormenting him.his past self thought it would be a good joke.Surreal and brilliant.)
Making money ...t pratchett(or any vimes stuff)
A Magus...john Folwes...An age thing.
Replay...ken grimwood
Dancers at the end of time...m moorcock.
The Antichrist....Friedrich Nietzsche


Christ i forget Post Office...Charles Bukowski ...stand alone from the list.

[J-Mc-]

Don't read much but when I do I enjoy a bit of fantasy and adventure, also love (auto)biographys aswell, top 10 are definately:

Lord Brocktree - a Redwall book that is unbelivably well written and is still one of my favourite books after 10 years reading it.
The Dragonlance Chronicles (1,2,3) - only read it last year but is an amazing fantasy adventure.
Shankly - Auto-Biography about shanks life up until his death
Carra - obvious.
Fowler - obvious.
Peter Kay's The sound of laughter - His first biography which gave me a great laugh on first reading and is much better that Saturday Night Peter
Gerrard - obvious.

[Not funny reecehenebry]

Don't read much but when I do I enjoy a bit of fantasy and adventure, also love (auto)biographys aswell, top 10 are definately:

Lord Brocktree - a Redwall book that is unbelivably well written and is still one of my favourite books after 10 years reading it.
The Dragonlance Chronicles (1,2,3) - only read it last year but is an amazing fantasy adventure.
Shankly - Auto-Biography about shanks life up until his death
Carra - obvious.
Fowler - obvious.
Peter Kay's The sound of laughter - His first biography which gave me a great laugh on first reading and is much better that Saturday Night Peter
Gerrard - obvious.

My Wife kills me because of the time i spend with my books.If I died and ended up in the great bookshop in the sky i would be happy.(can't imagine the antichrist would read well in heaven though)

[conman]

in no particular order either..

Shantaram - David Gregory Roberts
A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson
Down under - Bill Bryson
The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo
The hitch hikers guide to the galaxy - Douglas Adams
A season on the brink - Guillime Ballague
Rush, The Autobiography - Ian Rush
The long way around - Charlie Boorman & Ewan McGregor
By any means - Charlie Boorman
Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry


I tend not to read many fictional books, so I have a lot of autobiographies, travel stories and factual stuff on my shelves. Not worth mentioning the sciency stuff

[Not funny reecehenebry]

in no particular order either..

Shantaram - David Gregory Roberts
A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson
Down under - Bill Bryson
The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo
The hitch hikers guide to the galaxy - Douglas Adams
A season on the brink - Guillime Ballague
Rush, The Autobiography - Ian Rush
The long way around - Charlie Boorman & Ewan McGregor
By any means - Charlie Boorman
Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry


I tend not to read many fictional books, so I have a lot of autobiographies, travel stories and factual stuff on my shelves. Not worth mentioning the sciency stuff

I read to many fictions mainly because i find it hard to find decent auto's ect.I am a freak when it comes to buying books.i spend hours flicking and deciding what i want and often walk out of the bookshop after an hour without buying anything.
Of course any good suggestions would be really welcome conman if you could.(for starters.)

[conman]

I read to many fictions mainly because i find it hard to find decent auto's ect.I am a freak when it comes to buying books.i spend hours flicking and deciding what i want and often walk out of the bookshop after an hour without buying anything.
Of course any good suggestions would be really welcome conman if you could.(for starters.)

start with this...

A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson

its brilliant.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Going to have to do it as series', I'm afraid - just a single book out of the series doesn't make any sense so..


1. Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen Donaldson
2. Riftwar/Magician Series - Raymond E. Feist
3. Neuromancer Series - William Gibson
4. I Robot Series - Isaac Asimov
5. Hitchhikers Guide Series - Douglas Adams
6. 1984 - George Orwell
7. Sherlock Holmes Series - Arthur Conan Doyle
8. Jeeves and Wooster books (And all his other stuff if I'm honest!) P.G. Wodehouse
9. Hyperspace - Michio Kaku
10. The Wilt Alternative - Tom Sharpe


Though I could easily add around 5-10,000 books to that list with very little effort whatsoever.

You'd be better off asking people to choose their favourite 500. For instance, I've read pretty much every other book listed so far and would happily add most of them to my top 500

[afc tukrish]

Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte
Diary of a Nobody- George and Weedon Grossmith
London Fields- Martin Amis
The Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka
1984- George Orwell
Animal Farm- George Orwell
In The Kitchens of Castile- Gijs van Hensbergen
The Wind In The Willows- Kenneth Grahame
The Picture of Dorian Grey- Oscar Wilde
The Bible
Le Morte d'Arthur- Thomas Malory
 

nary an Ami- author in that list, Yankist...

let's do ten only from the ones i can see as i type...

The Courting of Marcus Dupree- Willie Morris- As with other lists, titles might change on a daily basis; this book will always head any 10 favo(u)rite list of mine.  The story of a phenomenal gridiron talent recruited from a small Mississippi town which was the infamous site of three murders of civil rights workers in the 1960s.

Moneyball- Michael Lewis
A World Lit Only By Fire- William Manchester
Caesar's Commentaries- Gaius Julius
Caesar- Adrian Goldsworthy
Brilliant Orange- David Winner
Heaven is a Playground- Rick Telander

and a little fiction as well...

On the Road- Jack Kerouac- loosely fiction, anyway...
A Clockwork Orange- Johan Cruyff Anthony Burgess
Lords of Discipline- Pat Conroy
 

[Andy @ Allerton!]

I read to many fictions mainly because i find it hard to find decent auto's ect.I am a freak when it comes to buying books.i spend hours flicking and deciding what i want and often walk out of the bookshop after an hour without buying anything.
Of course any good suggestions would be really welcome conman if you could.(for starters.)

The Bill Bryson one is excellent (Short History..) as is Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. Other ones to look for are 'How the Mind Works' By Stephen Pinker, The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose, The Code book by Simon Singh, Parallell Worlds buy Michio Kaku, A brief history of time - Stephen Hawking, The discovery of subatomic particles, by Weinberg, The New Quantum Universe, by Hey and Walters, The Penguin History of the World - I can think of hundreds of others - but they are decent to start with

[Not funny reecehenebry]

The Bill Bryson one is excellent (Short History..) as is Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. Other ones to look for are 'How the Mind Works' By Stephen Pinker, The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose, The Code book by Simon Singh, Parallell Worlds buy Michio Kaku, A brief history of time - Stephen Hawking, The discovery of subatomic particles, by Weinberg, The New Quantum Universe, by Hey and Walters, The Penguin History of the World - I can think of hundreds of others - but they are decent to start with

You can never have enough books advised.This group alone(from my last post) will keep me going for a few months.
Good reading is getting lost though.

[sheff-jim]

Here's some of mine off the top of my head (i'm sure I'll miss some)

Addicted - Tony Adams
Full Time - Tony Cascarino
Rough Ride - Paul Kimmage
It's  not about the bike - Lance Armstrong
Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby
Time Trouble & Money - Mark 'Brad' Brough
Hillsborough The Truth - Phil Scraton
Roger's Profanisaurus - Roger Mellie
Poker Nation - Andy Bellin
Newtonian Casino - Thomas Bass
A Lot of Hard Yakka - Simon Hughes

[Aristotle]

Stand alone books:
The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Kesey Keller
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

Then I like most of what Dean Koontz & James Patterson write

And love a good series, like Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, LOTR (although technically a trilogoy there's The Hobbit and the extra stuff) and my favourite series Useless trivia

[Mouth]

Books I would class as fav's are ones that I can and have read more than once. Personally I go through times of not reading for months to reading a few a week, sometimes one a day, I read three in the last week. These days I tend to read a lot of Warhammer & WH 40K, because its good pulp and a great setting to get lost in. I couldnt limit it to 10, I cant even think of them all, moved recently and loads are still boxed up. But in no particular order -

General fiction -

Imajica - Clive Barker. Actually would have to say this is my favourite book, if you havent read it, its like Tolkien for adults.
Weaveworld - Clive Barker.
The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman - Bruce 'Withnail & I' Robinson
The Vampire Genevieve - Jack Yeovil (Kim Newman)
Brer Rabbit - Enid Blyton
I, Lucifer - Glen Duncan (the Devil is given a month off on earth in a human body and decides to write his version of events, creation, the war in heaven, Adam & Eve "Eve really was a hot piece of ass")
The Burglar Diaries - Danny King
Cosmic Banditos - A. C. Weisbecker
The Great Trouser Mystery - Graham Parker

Autobiographies -

Wiseguy - Nicholas Pileggi - The book Goodfellas was adapted from
In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road - A.C. Weisbecker- Mostly about his search for his best friend, with whom he used to smuggle drugs, who has vanished in South America, also about his quite mental exploits as a drug smuggler, oh & surfing
Can't You Get Along with Anyone?: A Writer's Memoir and a Tale of a Lost Surfer's Paradise - A.C. Weisbecker - Chronicles Weisbeckers life after being commisioned to write a screen play based on his previous book, even tho he states clearly that there is no movie in it, his reportage on the squatter wars in Costa Rica, his relationship with his girlfriend and slagging off Sean Penn & surfing.
Smoking in Bed: Conversations with Bruce Robinson - Alistair Owen. Absolute must if you love Withnail & I. Also has some incredibly fascinating stuff about the Manhattan Project, because Robinson did the screen play for Fat Man & Little Boy, did an immense amount of research, but it was shredded and was nothing like what he wrote, would of been a fucking dynamite film if they hadnt of gutted it.

Series & trilogies -

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams.
Eisenhorn trilogy - Dan Abnett
Gaunts Ghosts series - Dan Abnett
Flashman series - George MacDonald Fraser - if you like Black Adder you will like Flashman, total bastard, fucks anything that moves is an abject coward who always comes up smelling of roses.
Ciaphas Cain series - Sandy Mitchell - like Flashman but in space
Gotrek & Felix series - Bil King & Nathan Long
The Fletch series - Gregory McDonald
The Horus Heresy series - various authors

Comics or graphic novels -

Asterix -  René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo
Elf Quest - Wendy & Richard Pini
Preacher - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon
Marshal Law: Fear & Loathing - Pat Mills & Kev O'Neill
Nemesis the Warlock - Pat Mills & Kev O'Neill
Lobo: The Last Czarnian - Alan Grant & Simon Bisley
Slaine: The Horned God - Pat Mills & Simon Bisley
Dicks - Garth Ennis & John McCrea
Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth - Grant Morrison & Dave McKean.
Batman: Killing Joke - Alan Moore & Brian Bolland
Batman: Year One - Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller
Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Back - Frank Miller
The Ballad of Halo Jones - Alan Moore & Ian Gibson - for me the best thing Moore has written.
Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo - Jaw dropping epic, if you never read any other manga, read this one.
The New Statesmen - John Smith & Jim Balkie
Chopper Song of the Surfer -  John Wagner & Colin MacNeil
Judge Dredd: America - John Wagner & Colin MacNeil
Aliens book one - Mark Verheiden & Mark A. Nelson - I have the original, which is a continuation of Hicks & Newts story after Aliens. It was later reprinted & edited, changing the story and names to Wilks and Billie. Verheiden interestingly went on to write and produce on Battlestar Gallactica.
Aliens book 2 - Mark Verheiden, Denis Beauvais & Mark A. Nelson. Worth it for Beauvais artwork, totally captured the feel and look of Camerons Aliens.

I'm sure I can think of more

[jerseyhoya]

Patriot Games - Tom Clancy
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling
Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Godwin
The Charm School - Nelson DeMille
Black Cross - Greg Iles
The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy
Boomsday - Christopher Buckley
All the Kings Men - Robert Penn Warren
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

[James Mac]

In no particular order...

Milan Kundera - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita
Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls
Witold Gombrowicz - Kosmos
Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead
Jack Kerouac - On the Road
Jean-Paul Sartre - Nausea
George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia
Franz Kafka - Amerika

[Okkervil]

In no order, fiction only, with a few of series...

Joe Haldeman - The Forever Trilogy
J.R.R Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R Tolkien - The Silmarillion
Alistair Reynolds - The Revelation Space Sequence
Olaf Stapledon - Last and First Men
John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men
Peter F. Hamilton - The Void Trilogy
Philip K. Dick - Ubik
Frank Herbert - Dune
Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities

[arthur sarnoff]

Todays top 10:


The Master And Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
American Tabloid - James Ellroy
Moneyball - Michael Lewis
Use Of Weapons - Iain M. Banks
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The First Circle - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Sacred Art Of Stealing - Christopher Brookmyre
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes - Bill Watterson

[UntouchableLuis]

From What I've read so far in my 19 years, in no particular order:

The Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Possibility of an Island - Michel Houellebecq
Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Franny and Zooey - J.D. Salinger
Hangover Square - Patrick Hamilton
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
First Love - Ivan Turgenev
All My Sons - Arthur Miller
The Kreutzer Sonata - Leo Tolstoy

I know 2 of them are plays like 

[John C]

10. The Wilt Alternative - Tom Sharpe

It very rare for someone to quote Tom Sharpe nowadays although he is an excellent, intelligent and witty writer. Try The Throwback Andy.
I'd really struggle, its like being ask to name your top 10 footballers, however it would include Tom Sharpe, Stephen King and definitely this

A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson

[John C]

Hmmm.  Tricky

In no particular order:

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M Pirsig
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
1984 - George Orwell
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Trainspotting - Irving Welsh

Ask me tomorrow and it will be a different ten

What about Fup VdM?

[Mirra]

My Bloody Life - The making of a Latin King by Raymundo Sanchez I think it was
Donny Brasco- Couldnt put that one down
The Face by Gary Bushell was quality as well
The Guvnor- Lenny McClean
The Ice Man - Richard Kulinski (Disturbing as fuck but couldnt put it down)
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
King of the Gypsys - Bartley Gorman (Probally my favourite out of them all, being a Romany Gypsy myself Bartley is a legend among us lot, tells the story of his life brilliantly and from what most people say, very honestly which is rare with these "hardman" books)
Once a King always a King - Reymundo Sanchez (follow up to my bloody life)

[pascoli]

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Green Mile - Stephen King
From the Corner Of His Eye - Dean Koontz
Acid House - Irvine Welsh
Wilt on High - Tom Sharpe  (Only just realised that someone else got kudos for naming a Sharpe book, i'd already picked this, wasnt trying to appear cool.) - Deserves a read if only for the bit where he comes in late at night, and drinks all the spiked drinks his wife left in tyhe fridge. if i remember right (im talkin 18 yrs ago since i read it) he ends up puttin his cock in a sink cos it seems to be burning off)
The Plantation - Chris Kuzneski
The King Of The Copper Mountains (cant remember author)
A Time to Kill (Cant remember again, possibly Grisham??)
Bronson (Cant fuckin remember again)
Freaky Dancin - Bez (Yeah ok, he never really wrote it. And he's a manc. His parents were scouse though, and he's  a fuckin legend in my eyes!!




Mirra, gonna try pick up that King Of The Gypsies book meself, heard loads about him when livin in Dublin, didnt realise there was a book. Nice one for that!!

[Mirra]

You wont be able to put it down mate, brilliant book by a brilliant bloke!

[Andy @ Allerton!]

It very rare for someone to quote Tom Sharpe nowadays although he is an excellent, intelligent and witty writer. Try The Throwback Andy.
I'd really struggle, its like being ask to name your top 10 footballers, however it would include Tom Sharpe, Stephen King and definitely this

Read it mate. Got everything he's ever written. Reading Ancestoral Vices at the moment

[hassinator]

great thread!  have to do some work but will be back later today.  nice action big man

[John C]

Read it mate. Got everything he's ever written. Reading Ancestoral Vices at the moment

You've just prompted me to Wiki him in case he'd died and I'd missed it and found out this was out last year - The Gropes (2009) and also this - The Wilt Inheritance - out in September 2010. Can't wait for that.

[Degs]

Thought the Godfather was a terrible novel, the adaptation was much better.

Shoot me for saying it but the same is true for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest,

Catcher in the Rye is also one of the worst things I've ever read.

 I'll have a think about this but couldn't really nail a top 10.
World War Z is deffo near the top though