Your 5 Favourite Books

[Inderjit S]

What are your 5 favourite books? (ficiton only, and you can include Tolkien.) List your 5 favourite books, mine are:

1. The Lord of The Rings: J.R.R Tolkien
2. Catch-22: Joseph Heller
3. 1984: George Orwell
4. The Cossacks: Leo Tolstoy
5. The Godfather: Mario Puzo

[Ithrynluin]

1. The LoTR (and the rest of it...is that considered cheating? :D)
2. "It" by Stephen King
3. "Winter Moon" by Dean Koontz
4. "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende
5. "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

[Lantarion]

Wow what a radical question. :D
This list isn't complete at all, and this is just off the top of my head.. And this is taking into account that I haven't read 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' or 'Catcher in the Rye', or 'Slaughterhouse Five', or many other classics.

1. The Silmarillion (JRRT)
2. The Lord of the Rings (JRRT)
3. Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
4. Animal Farm (George Orwell)
5. Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (Douglas Adams)

I also adore the works of Shakespeare, or the ones I've read (R&J, Macbeth, Hamlet, and soon Merchant of Venice), the Kalevala, and others, but this list is approximately my faves. :)

EDIT: Hope you don't mind Inder, I changed the name of this thread a bit. :)

[Tinuvien21]

1.The Hobbit
2.The Lord of the Rings
3.The Silmarillion
4.Beowulf
5.Can't think of another one right now.

[Talierin]

1. Lord of the Rings and various other Tolkien books ;)
2. Dark is Rising sequence
3. The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
4. Winter Rose - Patricia McKillip
5. Chronicles of Narnia

[LegolasLuver]

1. Lord of the Rings-JRRT
2. The Silmarillion-JRRT
3. The Hobbit-JRRT
4. Chronicles of Narnia
5. Can't think of anymore

[33Peregrin]

Oh Geez! Every book I read through is my favorite while I am reading it and after. Some of these books are kind of childish, but I'm only 15, and I have a lot to read. This might be a 'rough draft' list, because this question will have me thinking about it for days.

1.) The Lord of the Rings, by JRR. Tolkien (other JRRT books too)
2.) Matilda, by Roald Dahl.
3.) Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech.
4.) Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine
5.) The Princess Bride, Morgenstern, and William Goldman.

And Harry Potter goes in there too. I love Shiloh. I love The Yearling. But this could go on.
Can I tell a book story? One that no one will care about?
My third grade teacher changed my life. But that's not the story. I talked to her for 15 minutes everyday after school. She made me read, she gave me the book 'Matilda'. I read it 15 times, and it was my favorite. I read it a while ago, and I realized that Tolkien was mentioned in it! It made me jump with joy! I love things like that. And I am sorry about this too. :D

[Aragorn21]

1. LOTR Trillogy and the Hobbit by...guess who ;)
2. The Count of Monte Cristo ~ Alexandre Dumas (very very good book)
3. The chronicles of Narnia ~ C.S. Lewis
4. Tom Sawyer ~ Mark Twain
5. Huckleberry Finn ~ Mark Twain

[Aiwendil2]

1. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien (in which I include all the various UT and HoMe Silmarillion manuscripts)
3. Second Foundation - Isaac Asimov
4. Foundation and Empire - Isaac Asimov
5. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

Pretty homogeneous, I suppose. But if I extended the list further, we'd run into Arthur C. Clarke and Douglas Adams before long.

[Talierin]

Oooo, a Foundation reader... love that series! I can't wait for the I, Robot movie to come out in July!

[Aulë]

1. Tolkien's Middle Earth Books (17 books) ~ JRR Tolkien
2. Tomorrow When the War Began Series (7 books) ~ John Marsden
3. Cricket Tour Diaries (9 books) ~ Steve Waugh
4. Black and Blue ~ Ian Rankin
5. To Kill a Mockingbird ~ Harper Lee

[Ol'gaffer]

1) The Fellowship of the Ring (JRRT)
2) Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)
3) Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
4) High Fidelity (Nick Hornby)
5) The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Quintology (Douglas Adams)

[Narya]

Holy Bible
Red Dwarf
Gridlock
Patterns Plus
Lotr - trilogy includiing the hobbit

[Thorin]

Not in any order of importance (other than the first one)

1. LoTR - Peter Jac-OOPS! I mean J.R.R Tolkien. Yeah, that's the guy!:eek:
2. It - Stephen King
3. The Relic - Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child
4. Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy
5. The Stand - Stephen King

[Nóm]

1 - The Silmarillion
2 - The Hobbit
3 - LotR
4 - The Talisman, Stephen King & Peter Straub
5 - The Stand, Stephen King

[Ithrynluin]

2. It - Stephen KingBeep beep, Thorin! ;)

[Éomond]

1. Lord of the Rings
2. Redwall (seris)
3. Land of Empty Houses
4. Silmarillion (reading)
5. Animal Farm

(Can we do a non-fiction thread to?)

[Melko Belcha]

1. Anything Tolkien, but HoME 10: Morgoth's Ring on top
2. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
3. A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin
4. The Odyssey by Homer
5. Legends by various authors (Stephen King, Tad Williams, George RR Martin, Terry Pratchett, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, and more)

[Beleg]

In no set order.

1. The Lord of the Rings. ----Tolkien.
2. Rilla of Ingleside.---Lucy Maud Montgomery.
3. Second Foundation.----Asimov.
4. Wheel of Time series.---Robert Jordan.
5. Tom Jones. --Henry Fielding.

Next five would include,

6. The Godfather.----Mario Puzo.
7. Animal Farm. ----George Orwell.
8. Vanity Fair. ---- William Makepeace Thackery.
9. Huck Finn. ---- Mark Twain.
X. To Kill a Mockingbird. --- Harper Lee.

The next 10 would approximately include works by John Grisham, Jeffery Archer, Lucy Maud Mongtomery, Ray Bradburry, Aldous Huxley [Brave New World.], Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton, Mark Twain.

[Aiwendil2]

Aha, two other Asimov fans. And I see that Beleg and I share the same favorite Foundation book.

I've got to ask: is anyone here also a fan of his late books (the ones from the 1980s)? I ask because it's been my experience that even among big fans of his earlier works, there is not much excitement over his later ones - which surprises me a little, as I like the later ones just about as much.

I'm looking forward to the I, Robot movie with more trepidation than excitement. From what little I've heard, I'm not even sure whether it's actually based on one of the short stories or just on the general idea of robots . . .

[ely]

1. "The Lord of the Rings"
2. "The Silmarillion"
3. "Harry Potter" series
4. "Katherine" by Anya Seton
5. Everything by Terry Pratchett

[Beleg]

Aiwendil2 posted,

I've got to ask: is anyone here also a fan of his late books (the ones from the 1980s)?

I have only read the original Foundation Triology. I started on Foundation and the earth a while ago but abandoned it due to lack of intrest.

The original Foundation series is brilliant though, no wonder it won the 1966 Hugo awarded by World Science Fiction Convention for the Best series ahead of The Lord of the Rings..

Aside from that I have only read a few works of Asimov.
I started on a book called something like The Gods Themselves but it didn't catch my attention much eventhough I love his short stories, specially Nightfall.

Have they ever tried filming the Foundation Triology? Even an animation movie.

On a side note, I am surprised to find no one else here who is a fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series; a series which is as brilliant as the Chronicles of Arda [If not more] in it's conception and grandeur.

[Talierin]

I can't stand WoT. If Jordan trimmed the characters down to about a third as many, and cut out a few books it might be good, but as it is I find it overweight and dragging.

The whole Foundation series is awesome, but you kinda have to read it all at once to have it make sense. Have you ever read the Empire series? It's really good, I almost like it better than Foundation. The books in it are The Caves of Steel, the Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire, Pebble in the Sky, and The Stars like Dust. The first three are basically "sci-fi mysteries" - unusual and quite cool.

[The-Elf-Herself]

1.) Cold Comfort Farm-Stella Gibbons
2.) The Silmarillion-Tolkien
3.) Morgoth's Ring-Tolkien
4.) Fathers and Sons-Turgenev
5.) The Lord of the Rings-Tolkien

[Isthir]

1) The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
2)Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind
3) Without Remorse - Tom Clancy
4) The Silmarillion - Tolkien
5) Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy

[Saucy]

1.) Lord of the rings (all three wich s really one book so..)
2.) green eggs and ham (dr.suess, and if they make at movie i may have to kill somebody)
3.) practical magic (mary higgins...i think)
4.) Jog frog Jog (the first book i ever read)*tear* want me to recite it???? cause i can.
5.) White Oleander *note to self:memorize authors name*

[Aiwendil2]

Beleg wrote:
Aside from that I have only read a few works of Asimov.
I started on a book called something like The Gods Themselves but it didn't catch my attention much eventhough I love his short stories, specially Nightfall.

The Gods Themselves wasn't his best book. Thr first of its three parts was rather promising, I thought, but the second part was not as good, and the third part was very disappointing.

As far as I know, no one has ever attempted to film the Foundation series. It would be a tricky business, since the series covers hundreds of years and pretty much each section has different characters from the previous one. It's sort of the same problem as there would be with a Silmarillion movie. But I imagine that parts of it would work very well.

Talierin wrote:
Have you ever read the Empire series? It's really good, I almost like it better than Foundation. The books in it are The Caves of Steel, the Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire, Pebble in the Sky, and The Stars like Dust.

I think that the first four you mentioned (The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, and Robots and Empire) are generally called the "Robot Series" and Pebble in the Sky, The Stars Like Dust, and The Currents of Space are called the "Empire series".

I've read the Robot series and I love it. Actually, the books he wrote in the 1980s tie the Robot series and the Foundation series together, sort of turning them into one continuous (though very twisty) story. The three murder mysteries are great, but I really love Robots and Empire, which I consider almost on part with the Mule/Second-Foundation related parts of the original Foundation series.

Out of the "Empire" books I've only read Pebble in the Sky, and that was very long ago - I hardly remember it at all. I've heard that they're not quite as good as the Robot or Foundation novels, but I'll probably eventually give them a try.

[Talierin]

You're right on the series thing, I just quickly looked them up on a website and didn't separate them. The Stars Like Dust is quite good. I can't remember if I've read Pebble in the Sky or not, hehehe.

My favorite book out of Foundation is either Forward the Foundation (if that's the one when Hari (I think) goes and hides on Trantor) or the one when they actually find earth and there's a robot on it.

Which books are the ones from the 80s?

...It's been awhile since I've read anything Asimov... should read again...

[Kementari]

1)The Silmarillion
2) The Lotr + The Hobbit
3) Jane Eyre
4) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
5) The Bhagavad Gita

I also really like the Iliad, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Source and like 50 other books too...

[Aiwendil2]

Talierin wrote:
Which books are the ones from the 80s?

You've read them, then. The 1980s Robot/Foundation books are:

The Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth

I'm glad to see that you enjoyed these later ones as much as I have. I've found that a lot of people compare them very unfavorably to the older ones.

I see we have a few Hitchhiker's Guide fans here as well - certainly not surprising, but always nice to see. What are your favorite books from the series? I think my favorites are the first one and Mostly Harmless.

And if I may be forgiven for chattering on, has anyone read Douglas Adams's two Dirk Gently books? I think that the second one, The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul is brilliant, maybe even better than the Guide.

[Rhiannon]

Oh Good Lord--I hate questions like this. Oh, the agony...

1. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis
4. Rose Daughter and by Robin McKinley--no wait, Spindle's End--no, I couldn't survive without The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown--aaaaargh!
5. The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon

And tumbling around under that list, waiting to shove their way up, Dandilion Wine and From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury, the rest of McKinley's books, Everything by Patricia McKillip, especially The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, The Three Damosels trilogy by Vera Chapman, Little Women, Antigone and Becket: Or the Honor of God by Jean Anouilh, the Sevenwaters Trilogy by Juliet Marrillier, Red as Blood or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer by Tanith Lee, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce, Baby by Patricia MacLachlan, The Dark is Rising Sequence, The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson (the original Anderson story, as translated, not the souped up retellings), and a lot of other books. But if I were carted off to a desert island right now, those are the five books I would grab.

My favorite Hitchhiker book is probably Mostly Harmless, because I listened to a really good audio book of it once and just about died. I think I love Long Dark Teatime of the Soul slightly more, though.

[Ireth Telrúnya]

Suddenly I realize I really haven't read so much as I thought I have...
But my top five would probably be:

1. LotR the three novels
2. Frank Herbert's Dune
3. Isaac Asimov's novels: the Foundation series
4. Arthur C. Clarke's novels. Rama series that he wrote with Gentry Lee and other books by him
5. Michael Chrichton's novels

I have also read such as Jane Austen and many novels by author's I don't remember, like the Helliconia series...of Brian Aldiss and Jack Vance had some great tales...as well as Carl Sagan..I'm mostly scifi fan, though for a long time I've tried to make me read also some other type of literature like Shakespeare and Chaucer. Shakespreare is not so far from scifi in some of his plays I think. :)

[Talierin]

Talierin wrote:


You've read them, then. The 1980s Robot/Foundation books are:

The Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth

I'm glad to see that you enjoyed these later ones as much as I have. I've found that a lot of people compare them very unfavorably to the older ones.

Yeah, I would have to say the later ones are even my favorites, then...

I can't say which is my fave HG2G, I have the big omnibus edition and they all tend to run together... but prolly the first one and mostly harmless, like you.

I haven't read the Dirk Gently books

[Rhiannon]

I haven't read the Dirk Gently books
They're great!. I've read them more recently than any of the Hitchiker books.

[Beleg]

A friend of mine is reading Pebbles In the sky right now and I might get to read it in a few days.

This might be a tad bit offtopic, but Aiwendil, Talirien and Ireth which is your favorite single story among the Foundation books?

I have read many Gothic authors but I can't say I like a lot of them.
Offcourse Wuthering Height is one of the most emotional books I ever read, got me cursing that Heathecliff guy but other then that I don't really like the works of Bronte sisters other then The Tenant of Wildfell hall by Anne and Shirley by the eldest.
I have also read a few stories by Elizbeth Gaskell which have failed to fascinate me.
I love Frankenstien and Gulivers Travel though.
I love all works of Dickens and Stevenson. [Those few I have read.]
I also like Wilkie Collins, Chesterton and Edgar Allan Poe. [The Best short story writer IMO.]
F. Scott Fitzgerald is another author I am looking forward to reading alongside Nathaniel Hawthron [Sp?]
After Twain my favorite American author has to be Crane. [Any other fans here?]
Maggie: a girl of streets is one of the most moving books I have read.
I don't really like Stephen King and C.S.Lewis even though I think the Chronicles of Narnia [Some] are good.
Ray Bradburry is another author I am looking forward to read and so is Arthur Clark.

[Rhiannon]

I have read many Gothic authors but I can't say I like a lot of them.
Offcourse Wuthering Height is one of the most emotional books I ever read, got me cursing that Heathecliff guy but other then that I don't really like the works of Bronte sisters other then The Tenant of Wildfell hall by Anne and Shirley by the eldest. Wuthering Heights is one of those books that I hate...All those annoying, screechy people. I liked Jane Eyre much better.
I love Narnia, but there's a lot of nostolgia there. Till We Have Faces is easily one of the most beautiful books I've ever read, though. I adore it.

[Talierin]

I think it would have to be Foundation and Earth, if that's the one when they actually find earth

[Ireth Telrúnya]

As I now think about this Foundation series, I notice I seem to have forgotten quite a bit of it. I remember there was this planet called Trantor, which was the center of the known universe where this ruler called "Mule" governed the known solar systems. And he had to be eliminated in order to everything get into balance again. And I don't remember the name of the guy who invented this future prediction system about human societies, which proved to be wrong, since one single human being can change the course of history. There was a lot of politics and some social science in those books.
In fact there was something similar with the Dune books...though I think Dune is better.

[Aiwendil2]

This might be a tad bit offtopic, but Aiwendil, Talirien and Ireth which is your favorite single story among the Foundation books?

I'd have to say part 2 of Foundation and Empire, "The Mule". It has a great plot, with all the usual Asimovian twists, and it is especially effective as a change of pace after all the Seldon crisis stories. Also, the characters are more closely drawn and better developed than in most of the Foundation trilogy stories. Part 1 of Second Foundation is also incredible, mostly for the rapid succession of plot twists. It's quite amazing that Asimov manages to keep the excitement and suspense so well sustained in a story that consists almost entirely of people just sitting and talking with each other.

I love all works of Dickens

I've actually only read one Dickens novel, but it's one of my favorite books - A Tale of Two Cities. What others would you recommend?

[Beleg]

Aiwendil posted,

I've actually only read one Dickens novel, but it's one of my favorite books - A Tale of Two Cities. What others would you recommend?

I would recommend Hard Times and David Copperfield.

Here is a link to an online text of http://www.ellopos.net/dickens/copperfield_text.htm (David Copperfield).
Another good http://www.ellopos.net/dickens/copper_daiches.html (Dickens) link.

[Tarlanc]

1. The Lays of Beleriand, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice
4. Tales of the Unexpected, Roald Dahl
5. Das Herz von Jade, Salvador de Madriaga

Of course there are many mor books I cherish, but these five are my favourite ones. And the ones that influenced me the most.

[(MiThRaNdIr)]

#1 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien
#2 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (just to mention a few: The Tell Tale Heart, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The Premature Burial) - Edgar Allan Poe
#3 Dracula - Bram Stroker
#4 Frankenstain - Mary Shelley
#5 Left Behind Series (a set of 12 books) - Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

And I would like to read some works of: H.P. Lovecraft, Anne Rice, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie , Its a shame that in Mexico doesn't exist a reading culture, also how can people would like to read if the books are really expensive.

[e.Blackstar]

Oh, thats a hard one. Can I do serieses?

Not in much of an order:

Bible, LOTR, the Bean series, the Ender series, Hogfather

[Maeglin]

The Bible is at the top of my list, but I won't put it on their because it has several authors. Just pretend my list is like the New York Times, where the Bible isn't listed because it is always at the top of the list. Anyway, I hope plays can count as books, because I might have one or 2.

1.) Lord of the Rings (I don't need to list the author for that)
2.) The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
3.) Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare
4.) Billy Budd, Sailor - Herman Melville
5.) The Brothers Kharamazov

[Kementari]

1) Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit
2) the Silmarillion
3) Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
4) A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
5) Anything by Shakespeare

Whoa just realised i posted on this a while ago, read lot of books since then

[My_Precious]

Hm... Tough, especially since I am sure I'll forget some really good ones.
1. LoTR (no surprises here)
2. Belgariad by David Eddings (very surprised no one mentioned those)
3. Malloreon by David Eddings (continuation)
4. The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams(Still reading, so only mentioning the first one)
5. The Garrett P.I. series by Glen Cook

I am beginning to read the Da Vinci Code, I've heard a lot of good things about it, so we'll see.

[Hobbit-queen]

Okay, lets see........

1) The Hobbit\Lord of the Rings :D (best books ever!)
2) The Harry Potter series
3) The Chronicles of Narnia
4) Artemis Fowl series
5) The Heritage of Shannara series

I'm pretty young and have a different choice in books than a lot of people on the Forum. (besides the obvious....LoTR):p I seem to take a liking in series of books and not just single ones. It's just fun to keep reading the next book after the next.

Always,
Hobbit-queen

[Aglarthalion]

1. The Lord of the Rings
2. The Myst trilogy
3. The Hobbit
4. The Dark Tower series
5. The Earthsea Quartet