List your 5 favorite novels.

JCornelius

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1. Lolita - Nabokov
2. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
3. The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
4. Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
5. Bright Orange for the Shroud - John D. MacDonald
Welcome to the forum!
Glad to see The Long Goodbye in the list--probably the best novel of the 1950's :) Excellent opening:
ONE

The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers.

The parking lot attendant had brought the car out and he was still holding the door open because Terry Lennox’s left foot was still dangling outside, as if he had forgotten he had one. He had a young-looking face but his hair was bone white.

You could tell by his eyes that he was plastered to the hairline, but otherwise he looked like any other nice young guy in a dinner jacket who had been spending too much money in a joint that exists for that purpose and for no other.


There was a girl beside him. Her hair was a lovely shade of dark red and she had a distant smile on her lips and over her shoulders she had a blue mink that almost made the Rolls-Royce look like just another automobile. It didn’t quite. Nothing can.


The attendant was the usual half-tough character in a white coat with the name of the restaurant stitched across the front of it in red. He was getting fed up.
“Look, mister,” he said with an edge to his voice, “would you mind a whole lot pulling your leg into the car so I can kind of shut the door? Or should I open it all the way so you can fall out?”

The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.
 

braveboy

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Trustee From The Toolroom
I, Claudius
My First 2000 Years
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Name Of The Rose
 

sideshowdarb

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It's always hard to think of favorites, but I can think of books that have been very important to me at different points in my life.

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
The Stand, Stephen King
The Hours, Michael Cunningham
Eureka Street, Robert McLiam Wilson
A Wrinkle In Time, Madeline L'Engle
 

Ellis Clover

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In no particular order:

1. A Visit From the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan
2. Wonder Boys Michael Chabon
3. The Hundred Secret Senses Amy Tan
4. Endless Night Agatha Christie
5. The Pigman Paul Zindel
 
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DongerNeedFood

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1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2. The Beach by Alex Garland
3. Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
4. Game Of Thrones by George Martin
5. Red Rising by Pierce Brown

this isn't a particular order, and I may even be forgetting something.
 

Devil Ledbetter

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As of today (this could change tomorrow), and in no particular order:

English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
This One's Mine by Maria Semple
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
 

williemeikle

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Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock
The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
The Plague - Albert Camus
The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley JAckson
 

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!
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The Wings of a Falcon - Cynthia Voigt

Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny

Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe

Jane Eyre - Bronte


The History of Photogen and Nycteris - George MacDonald (Not a novel, just a fairytale, but still)
 

ABookAndAGuitar

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Shogun - James Clavell
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
Dune - Frank Herbert
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

There are of course many Honorable Mentions, but these five collectively have influenced me the most. So far.
 

ABookAndAGuitar

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Shogun - James Clavell
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Dune - Frank Herbert
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

There are of course many Honorable Mentions, but these five will stay with me forever.
 

WriterInTheDark

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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Name of the Wind (Kingskiller Chronicles) by Patrick Rothfus
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

- WITD
 

Jan74

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Wow, I loved reading through everyone's lists!!!!

Pet Semetary - Stephen King
Harry Potter- J.K Rowling
Morning Glory- LaVyrle Spencer
The valley of horses - Jean Auel
When the wind blows- James Patterson
 

Nerdilydone

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I'm more of a nonfiction person than a novel person, but...

The Napoleon of Notting Hill, GK Chesterton
Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
Out of the Silent Planet, CS Lewis
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Farmer in the Sky Robert Heinlein

These are the ones I can think of now. Later I'm going to think of one I should have put on this list. :D
 

kkbe

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Some great novels listed here. Mine (as of today :)):

Stone City by Mitchell Smith
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
 

Anna Spargo-Ryan

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​This is so hard! I think mine are:

The Eye of the Sheep
, Sofie Laguna
All the Birds, Singing, Evie Wyld
Aquarium, David Vann (I think? Or maybe his Legend of a Suicide. Everything he writes is good.)
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
 

indianroads

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Hard to pin i down to just 5

Old favorites that I just love:
War of the Worlds by HG Wells
Childhood's End b Arthur C. Clarke --- AND a short story by him call 'Superiority'... oh, and 'A walk in the dark' too.
Stranger in a Strange land by Heinlein.. oh and 'Time Enough for Love' as well.
IT by Stephen King
Slaughter House 5 & Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu & Inner writings by Chuang Tzu

New stuff:
the Expanse Series... Game of Thrones...

Too many to choose from. When I die, I hope the afterlife as a good library.
 

mongoose29

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The list changes. At the moment:

The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow -- Thea Astley
Rebecca -- Daphne du Maurier
The Owl Service -- Alan Garner
The Quiet American -- Graham Greene
Prodigal Summer -- Barbara Kingsolver

Oh lordy, Helix, I just finished Prodigal Summer a few days ago. I adore Barbara Kingsolver, but this one I just couldn't get into! Have you read Bean Trees or Animal Dreams? Definitely worth a try if you haven't. Happy reading.
 

JCornelius

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/.../
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley JAckson
I was very surprised at the amazing level of this book when I first read it. Better than almost anything.

/.../

Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny

/.../
Another strong book, an absolute favorite of a good friend of mine.

/.../
When the wind blows- James Patterson
You just made me find this book and read it :D

/.../
Out of the Silent Planet, CS Lewis
/.../
One of Iron Maiden's many terrific songs inspired by terrific books :e2headban (which also include Dune, Stranger in a Strange Land, Quest for Fire, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Brave New World, and others)

/.../
Slaughter House 5 & Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
/.../
Indeed!
 
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vicky271

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In no particular order:

- Graceling
- The Bone Season
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabahn
- Ink and Bone
-Dragonspell
 

Snowstorm

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An amazingly fun thread!

- The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
- The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy
- A Morbid Taste of Bones, Ellis Peters
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
 

vicky271

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In no particular order...
(1) The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
(2) Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
(3) Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson
(4) An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
(5) The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke
 

EmilyEmily

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My 5 favorite books today, at this moment, are:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Madame Bovary by Flaubert
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Darconville's Cat by Alexander Theroux

The list changes according to my mood, though.
 

yourgigishorrible

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1. Double/The double life of Cassiel Roadnight by Jenny Valentine
2. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
3. Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
4. By night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño
5. Brave new world by Aldous Huxley