Name the top 10 books you've read

[frik51]

And i can't believe that i forgot to put any Dark Tower novel in there, especially 'Wizard & Glass' which was my personal favourite.

As it is mine!
So, just leave out one of Herbert's books and place W&G where it belongs!

sk

[Tito_Villa]

But Tom, The Hobbit is on your list, but not the much superior Lord of the Rings???

sk

Don't get me wrong, i love 'The Lord of the Rings', but there is something just magical about 'The Hobbit'. I read it a looooong time ago, when things were good, i guess it reminds me of those times.

And i can't believe that i forgot to put any Dark Tower novel in there, especially 'Wizard & Glass' which was my personal favourite.

[frik51]

But Tom, The Hobbit is on your list, but not the much superior Lord of the Rings???

sk

[Tito_Villa]

I've had a think about this and have decided that i can't number them but i can pick my top ten!

Stephen King
The Stand
Salem's Lot
Lisey's Story
Joe Hill
Horns
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Shadow of the Wind
The Angels Game
James Herbert
The Fog
The Dark
J R R Tolkein
The Hobbit
Justin Cronin
The Passage

[TerryE]

And how could I forget The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll?

[Randy D. Rubin]

Yeah, I forgot to mention The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe. This man was freakin' brilliant!

[divemaster]

Top 5, generally in order:

1. The Stand (S. King) -- best book I've ever read
2. Memoirs of a Geisha (A. Golden)
3. Wizard & Glass (S. King)
4. Starship Troopers (R. Heinlein)
5. Re-Birth--aka The Chrysalids--(J. Wyndham)

Next 5, no particular order
--The Magus (J. Fowles)
--some Koontz book (Phantoms, Strangers, Whispers, Watchers, Hideaway--take your pick; I enjoyed all of these immensely)
--Candide (Voltaire)
--Christine (S. King)
--Crime and Punishment (F. Dostoevsky)

I know I'm leaving one or two off the list that when I remember them I'll smack myself in the head.

[srboone]

My fortune cookie fortune before this last fortune cookie fortune when I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken. Ummm! that's good
fortune!

I felt that way about a fortune I got with a curried shrimp dish I got back in 1986. It read "The great fault in women is the desire to be like men." It has since has fallen off my top 10 list. It's currently floundering somewhere between 11 and 30.

[Randy D. Rubin]

Journey to the center of the Earth Jules Verne and Rick Wakeman of "Yes"
All the Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever Chronicles by Stephen R. Donaldson
All of the Spellsinger and Shannarah books by Terry Brooks (and Dunn?)
Almost all of King's body of work.
Three Older Playboy magazines (June of some year, October of another year and a Lingerie Special)
Some story by Peter Straub with Juniper in the title
My fortune cookie fortune before this last fortune cookie fortune when I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken. Ummm! that's good
fortune!

[MrRoland]

Off the top of my head and not in order. It's way too hard to choose if I think about it.

The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
Hunted Past Reason - Richard Matheson
Counter-Clock World - Philip K. Dick
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
It - Stephen King
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde

[srboone]

I know what you mean. I left a lot of books off my list that I really liked, also. For a long time, I would only list a top 5. After that, everything seemed equal. I still only list a top 5 movies when asked.

[TerryE]

I get confused by lists like this sometimes, since you ask for top 10. And the 10 best books I've read are not the same list as my 10 favorite books. There are overlaps of course. It's like buying an album considered to be the "Best of" a band it all it has is the popular singles, not the deep album tracks that made the band great. A "best of" and a "greatest hits" are not the same thing. But rambling aside, I've combined the requisites and came up with some of the books most important to me and/or I've read the most times.

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (without question the best book I've ever read)
The Stand - Stephen King
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (God, I love this book!)
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Something Wicked this Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
The Books of Blood - Clive Barker
And the Ass Saw the Angel - Nick Cave
Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Ghost Story - Peter Straub
The War of the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa

It was tough to leave off some stuff by Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen R. Donaldson, Peter Blatty, Kobo Abe, T.R. Pearson, Italo Calvino, Ayn Rand, and Steven Millhauser. Your lists have some stuff that would be added to my top 50.

[Tito_Villa]

I will have to give this some thought later i think

[frik51]

10.Mordant's Need - Stephen Donaldson
9. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - Stephen Donaldson
8. Wizard and Glass - Stephen King
7. Fevre Dream - George R.R.Martin
6. Boy's Life - Robert McCammon
5. Childhood's End - Arthur C.Clarke
4. Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons
3. It - Stephen King
2. The Stand - Stephen King
1. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R.Tolkien

sk

[C.W. LaSart]

10. When Rabbit Howls by Truvy Chase
9. Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
8. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
7. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
6. Dracula by Bram Stoker
5. It by Stephen King
4. Night by Elie Wiesel
3. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
2. The Stand by Stephen King
1. Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer

Although I've probably forgotten some-this is a difficult list to compile!