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Top 10


Mosi Mynn

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I'm sure this has been done before! Inspired by Goodreads, I'm curious as to what everyone's Top 10 books are, regardless of genre, length, respectability or reason.  I realise this is a nearly impossible ask.  I can immediately think of about fifty I want to list.  But, off the top of my head, my initial not-thinking-about-it 10 are:

 

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

Watership Down by Richard Adams

1984 by George Orwell

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Duncton Wood by William Horwood (I would like to put the first trilogy here, but, unlike The Lord of the Rings, they are separate books, so I've gone for the most beautifully written of the three)

The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien

Silver Brumbies of the South by Eleyne Mitchell

The Tales of Olga da Polga by Michael Bond

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You started off well. 

I couldn't begin to get it down, there are probably a top 4-5 and then about another 20-30 that could fill out the roster depending on my mood.

To Kill a Mocking bird, His Dark Materials (i'm treating them as one), LOTR, Watership Down, Trainspotting are probably always going to be up there whatever the mood. 

 

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I would have to cheat and include Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings as one single entry to make my list at all interesting (otherwise it would be Hobb Hobb and Hobb). Note these aren't necessarily based on some kind of objective criteria but my personal favourites or books which for one reason or another hold a special place for me. Not in order but a tough top 10:

The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien. My entry into the fantasy genre from which I have never looked back.

Realm of the Elderlings Robin Hobb. Utterly captivating with such beautiful characters and plot

Howards End E.M. Forster

Bleak House Charles Dickens

The Silmarillion JRR Tolkien/Christopher Tolkien

The Fifth Season N.K. Jemisin

Cloud Atlas David Mitchell

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen

Harry Potter series J.K Rowling

Lord of the Flies William Golding

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IT - Stephen King

Use of Weapons - Iain M. Banks

White Jazz - James Ellroy

Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 - Hunter S. Thompson

London Fields - Martin Amis

Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson

Espedair Street - Iain Banks

The Sound of Thunder - Wilbur Smith

The Music of Chance - Paul Auster

Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski

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Slightly cheating because somet of these are series (but that at least allows me to pick 10 different authors!):

Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adam
Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
The Stonor Eagles - William Horwood
Excession - Iain M Banks
A Song of Ice & Fire - George RR Martin
The Jacobite Trilogy - DK Broster 
The Brentwood Trilogy - Robert Rankin
Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven
Three Men and a Boat - Jerome K Jerome

And any one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels cos I really couldn't pick the best!
 

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1 hour ago, Essan said:

And any one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels cos I really couldn't pick the best!
 

As soon as I posted mine I realised I had forgotten Small Gods or Witches Abroad or Masquerade or Interesting Times or ... And I forgot Narnia!

I don’t think you can have the whole of A Song of Ice and Fire, sorry. I'm going to have to insist you pick one ;)

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This is not easy. In no particular order:

Lord of the Rings

 Anathem

The Wind in the Willows

The Hollywood Quartet of James Ellroy

Mother Night

Dangerous Visions

Again Dangerous Visions

Iain Banks  (insert any of his books here)

I, Claudius

The Black Echo

 

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Underworld, Delillo

The Judging Eye, Bakker

The Mauritius Command, O'Brian (pick any, really)

Code of the Woosters, Wodehouse

The Living, Dillard

Wings of a Falcon, Voight

Use of Weapons (any Banks works)

Blood Meridian, McCarthy

Suttree, McCarthy

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In no particular order:

  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  • A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
  • A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin
  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
  • The Scar by China Mieville
  • The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
  • The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
  • Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
  • Normal People by Sally Rooney*

*Recency bias alert!

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4 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

Underworld, Delillo

The Judging Eye, Bakker

The Mauritius Command, O'Brian (pick any, really)

Code of the Woosters, Wodehouse

The Living, Dillard

Wings of a Falcon, Voight

Use of Weapons (any Banks works)

Blood Meridian, McCarthy

Suttree, McCarthy

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn, I wish I had room for O'Brian also. And Flashman too. But then I would want Swallows and Amazons also. 

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34 minutes ago, maarsen said:

Damn, I wish I had room for O'Brian also. And Flashman too. But then I would want Swallows and Amazons also. 

I have never read any Flashman but have a couple maybe a year out int he TBR pile.  Is there any one in particular you'd recommend?   I keep a couple O'Brian books under the seat in my vehicle because it's so easy to just flip open any part and read a couple pages and it's always good.  

And goddamn just realized I left Shogun off my list so one of those others has to go!  

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2 hours ago, Paxter said:

In no particular order:

  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  • A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
  • A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin
  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
  • The Scar by China Mieville
  • The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
  • The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
  • Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
  • Normal People by Sally Rooney*

*Recency bias alert!

This is a great list, sorry for DP

Specifically, the Austen, Mieville, Chabon and Proulx, who all would have made my top 25

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43 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

I have never read any Flashman but have a couple maybe a year out int he TBR pile.  Is there any one in particular you'd recommend?   I keep a couple O'Brian books under the seat in my vehicle because it's so easy to just flip open any part and read a couple pages and it's always good.  

And goddamn just realized I left Shogun off my list so one of those others has to go!  

I would start with the first, Flashman. Royal Flash and Flashman at the Charge after that and then the ones set in the US such as Flash for Freedom, Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, and Flashman and the Redskins. 

Think of Flashman as if Iain Banks wrote thistorical novels. 

I know the feeling of having to take stuff of the list for other books you just remembered. Much as I like Phil Farmer, Roger Zelazny and Robert Silverberg..... DUNE! I forgot Dune. 

And Triton and Dalhgren by Samuel Delaney. Aaargggh.

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9 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

Underworld, Delillo

You are a cretin! Everyone knows White Noise is DeLillo’s best work. Where do you live? I’m coming over to fight you.

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The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North

World War Z - Max Brooks

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Foundation - Issac Asimov

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

The Pillars of the World - Ken Follett

A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin

1984 - George Orwell

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Magician - Raymond E. Feist

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17 hours ago, Mosi Mynn said:

I don’t think you can have the whole of A Song of Ice and Fire, sorry. I'm going to have to insist you pick one ;)

Okay, probably A Storm of Swords then :P  

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