Topic: Your 10 favourite books

[Nitramdorf]

An almost impossible task when you actually sit down and try to narrow it down to 10.

Swansong by Robert R Mccammon
The Stand by Stephen King
The Source by James Michener
PIllars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Evolution by Stephen Baxter
First Men in Rome by Colleen McCullough
The Charm School by Nelson DeMille
Speaks the Nightbird by Robert R Mccammon
Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
London by Edward Rutherfurd

[Yorkykopite]

It's great re-reading this thread.

Since I wrote my list I've read a pile more of enjoyable books. But possibly only one that might barge its way into the top ten novels. 'A Month in the Country' by JL Carr. Beautiful, evocative, deeply moving - it made me nostalgic for a time and place I've never known. Such a weird thing. I don't know a soul who's read this book and hasn't loved it.

Carr also wrote another cracking novel called 'When Steeple Sinderby Wanderers won the FA Cup'. Also great, but not in the sublime category that contains 'A Month in the Country'.

[newrosswaterford]

Lotita Nabokov
The Magus John Fowles
100 Years of Solitude Garcia
Metamorphosis Kafka
The Human Stain Roth
The Left Hand of Darkness Le Guin
A Scanner Darkly K Dick
An Infinite Summer Christopher Priest
Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges
The Rediscovery of Man Cordwainer Smith.
The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann

This will be all different tomorrow morning of course. These are probably the books that left a large impression on me as I read them. I cannot count.

Slaughterhouse 5 and Catch 22--- I just couldn't decide. After finishing Catch I though it was such a great war book, yet when I read 5,which shows a more Brutal side to war I wondered if Catch-22 was all that. The delivery was so different in both. Both excellent books.

[newrosswaterford]

Hmmm.

Peace  Gene Wolfe.
100 years of Solitude  Gabriel García Márquez.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being  Milan Kundera. (Tomorrow this will be The book of Laughter and Forgetting).
A Canticle for Leibowitz  Walter M  Miller.
Anathem  Neal Stephenson.
The Island of Doctor Moreau  H.G. Wells.
The Bloody Chamber  Angela Carter.
The Left Hand of Darkness  Ursula Le Guin.
Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell.
The Colossus of Marsoussi  Henry Miller.
The Magus  John Fowles.

Discworld.

What a difference a couple of years make.

[jillcwhomever]

It's great re-reading this thread.

Since I wrote my list I've read a pile more of enjoyable books. But possibly only one that might barge its way into the top ten novels. 'A Month in the Country' by JL Carr. Beautiful, evocative, deeply moving - it made me nostalgic for a time and place I've never known. Such a weird thing. I don't know a soul who's read this book and hasn't loved it.

Carr also wrote another cracking novel called 'When Steeple Sinderby Wanderers won the FA Cup'. Also great, but not in the sublime category that contains 'A Month in the Country'.

I've just looked up A Month in the Country as I'd heard of it before but I think it was the film rather than the book. I will add it to my list to read. I left Regeneration off my original list which is another story about the first world war. Its actually involves the war poets Siegfried Sassoon and his declaration about the war and its set in a hospital where they have to "cure" the soldiers who are suffering from shell-shock. It's an amazingly well written book and had me in bits in a number of places. I recommend that if you haven't read it, its a trilogy along with The Eye in the Door and Ghost Road written by Pat Barker.

[Yorkykopite]

I've just looked up A Month in the Country as I'd heard of it before but I think it was the film rather than the book. I will add it to my list to read. I left Regeneration off my original list which is another story about the first world war. Its actually involves the war poets Siegfried Sassoon and his declaration about the war and its set in a hospital where they have to "cure" the soldiers who are suffering from shell-shock. It's an amazingly well written book and had me in bits in a number of places. I recommend that if you haven't read it, its a trilogy along with The Eye in the Door and Ghost Road written by Pat Barker.

I have read the trilogy and, of course, anyone who has read any trilogy must have enjoyed at least two thirds. I did. A few have had 'Birdsong' on their lists too - a wonderful book. If there was a special memoir/autobiography top ten I'd have Robert Graves, 'Goodbye to All That' on the list. But all these books must defer, in my view, to 'A Month in the Country'. Hope you enjoy!

[StevoHimself]

Off the top of my head:

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
The Collector by John Fowles
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Threshold by Rob Doyle

[StevoHimself]

It's great re-reading this thread.

Since I wrote my list I've read a pile more of enjoyable books. But possibly only one that might barge its way into the top ten novels. 'A Month in the Country' by JL Carr. Beautiful, evocative, deeply moving - it made me nostalgic for a time and place I've never known. Such a weird thing. I don't know a soul who's read this book and hasn't loved it.

Carr also wrote another cracking novel called 'When Steeple Sinderby Wanderers won the FA Cup'. Also great, but not in the sublime category that contains 'A Month in the Country'.

Very nicely put. Sounds like the type of thing I'd enjoy. Will add to the list

[Sangria]

I've just looked up A Month in the Country as I'd heard of it before but I think it was the film rather than the book. I will add it to my list to read. I left Regeneration off my original list which is another story about the first world war. Its actually involves the war poets Siegfried Sassoon and his declaration about the war and its set in a hospital where they have to "cure" the soldiers who are suffering from shell-shock. It's an amazingly well written book and had me in bits in a number of places. I recommend that if you haven't read it, its a trilogy along with The Eye in the Door and Ghost Road written by Pat Barker.

Have you seen the film?

[Tobelius]

I'll give this a try,and the list changes over time but..

Lord Of The Rings : Tolkien
Filth : Welsh
The Invincible : Lem
Musashi : Yoshikawa
The Player Of Games : Banks
Neuromancer : Gibson
Manchild In The Promised Land : Brown
The Unknown Soldier : Linna
The Prefect : Reynolds
Good Omens : Gaiman&Pratchett

It'd be easier to make a top 100 to be honest,too many great ones to list.

[jillcwhomever]

Have you seen the film?

Sorry, I missed this post. Yes, I did I thought it was really well made it had me in bits.