I don’t think this is a duplication.
Let’s keep this to only books you consider in your “top five”
I’ll start with James Michener’s Chesapeake
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Grapes of Wrath
The Stand
The Backslider
My top three are etched in stone. There are dozens of books that could be my 4th or 5th choice on any given day.
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Basically anything that was assigned in High School English class. It’s amazing how much better all those books got when I was (1) forced to read them and (2) mature enough to appreciate them.
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Yes! This was my experience with the Grapes of Wrath. Did not enjoy or appreciate it in Highschool. Absolutely loved it when I read it as an adult. Being a husband, father, and bread winner caused that book to take on a whole new meaning.
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Là-bas - J. K. Huysmans
Hunger - Knut Hamsun
Germinal - Émile Zola
The Thief’s Journal - Jean Genet
If on a winter’s night a traveler - Italo Calvino
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Owen Meany is amazing. I love the way John Irving writes. I believe he was in a writing workshop with Kurt Vonnegut his early years.
I can’t verify that that/ might be bullpoo…
I love Vonnegut too.
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“The Jungle” Upton Sinclair.
“1984” George Orwell.
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This is first on my list as well, although its somewhat terrifying to read right now.
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How do you flag posts?
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In all seriousness, I had a pretty intelligent person try to defend the literary merits of Harry Potter, including that they were the greatest novels ever written. I think they are fun page turners that got children to read, but not much more than that.
As far as my favorite books go, I think I might have to include TKAMB in there, and The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. I really enjoyed Grapes if Wrath by Steinbeck and On the Road by Kerouac. Also, The Great Gatsby.
There are many on my list.
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Three are always at the top of my list:
The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevesky
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
The Plague, Albert Camus
(get the sense I’m a happy-go-lucky guy)
After that it could be The Grapes of Wrath, and maybe Zorba, by Nikos Kazantzakas. I’m sure I’m forgetting others that could be #5. Maybe To Kill a Mockingbird.
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This is my dad’s favorite book. I haven’t read it yet but am looking forward to it.
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The Jungle is so great and relevant all these years later.
1984 and Brave New World are among my favorites too.
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My top 3:
Catch-22
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Confederacy of Dunces
Pick any 2 of these to fill my top 5:
Don Quixote
On the Road
Lord of the Flies
Tom Jones
Call of the Wild
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Always loved this
Just finished Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash. I’ve now read all of his novels. I love his writing and depictions of Appalachia.
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Holy cow, I’m impressed with the literary depth here. In July of 2017, I read Duma Key by Stephen King and decided to read more of his stuff.
Come today and I’m halfway through The Institute and other than a couple short stories I will have read all his works.
Lol.
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Steve McQueen and a young Murphy Brown. Didn’t realize it was a novel.
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The greatest novel ever written, in my opinion.
I read To Kill A Mockingbird when I was 14 and it changed my life, including my choice of career.
I also decided in my 40s to start reading all the high school novel assignments that I skipped through using Cliff’s Notes. It was amazing how books I found boring when I was 16 and 17 were suddenly meaningful to me after some life experience.
“A Tale of Two Cities,“ for example. It’s a great story and a wonderful novel. It got me into Dickens, and I have read almost every novel he wrote. I plan to finish them all, and I’m already thinking of re-reading some because I read so many of them so close together that they kind of get mixed up in my mind.
“Animal Farm” showed me why it is a classic.
“1984” fascinates me even now, because those on the left see it as a depiction of the right, and vice versa. As I said, fascinating.
“Moby Dick.” I want to share determination to get all the way through. Wonderful novel, with lots of terrible, boring digressions by Melville.
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