What are the 5 best books you've ever read? (dean koontz, purchase, novels)

[gemkeeper]

Karibear, the more I read others' choices, the more I think that you are correct!

How could I have left out Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee? But, what would I bump to include it.

[furyu]

Wow! Just read through the entire thread; some wonderful books listed here. Some that are definitely on my list, some I've yet to read (i.e., Pillars of Wisdom... sitting in my library and a must-read for this year).

Someone recently asked me, what is your favorite book? No way I can name one favorite! Can't even stick with five.

I'm going to list favorites that I didn't see listed here previously:

Fiction:

• Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (really surprised not to see that here)
  
• Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham (read as a teenager; never forgotten)
  
• Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte (a childhood favorite)
  
• Mount Analogue, Rene Daumal
  
• The White Bone, Barbara Gowdy
  
• Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse

Nonfiction/Memoir:

• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
  
• Teachings of Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda (maybe this should be in my nonfiction favorites?)
  
• The River Why, David James Duncan
  
• Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
  
• Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck
  
• The Bible According to Mark Twain, Mark Twain

[RDSLOTS]

. . . but I still haven't been able to do it! Come up with the 5 best I've ever read. I am SOOOOOOooooooooo f-r-u-s-t-r-a-t-e-d.



I'll be glad when this thread gets 'buried' in the back pages, and I stop seeing it.

[RH1]

Oooh this is really hard. It would be easier if I had a list of everything I've read and time to go through it, but my memory is useless. I've just written the 5 that sprung to mind as books that made me go "wow that was clever" or made me sad to have finished them:

Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
The hitch hiker’s guide to the galaxy (all 5 – am I allowed that?) – Douglas Adams
Complicity – Iain Banks
Gentlemen and Players – Joanne Harris
Something by John Banville but I can’t remember which one I liked best. They're all good.

I'm going to hit Post Reply now or I'll change my mind!

Oh can I add one more? An oddity? Robert Newman - Manners. It's not a classic or even very well known but I loved it.

[RjRobb2]

Originally Posted by furyu

Wow! Just read through the entire thread; some wonderful books listed here. Some that are definitely on my list, some I've yet to read (i.e., Pillars of Wisdom... sitting in my library and a must-read for this year).

Someone recently asked me, what is your favorite book? No way I can name one favorite! Can't even stick with five.

I'm going to list favorites that I didn't see listed here previously:

Fiction:

• Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (really surprised not to see that here)
• Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham (read as a teenager; never forgotten)
• Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte (a childhood favorite)
• Mount Analogue, Rene Daumal
• The White Bone, Barbara Gowdy
• Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse

Nonfiction/Memoir:

• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
• Teachings of Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda (maybe this should be in my nonfiction favorites?)
• The River Why, David James Duncan
• Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
• Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck
• The Bible According to Mark Twain, Mark Twain

Life of Pi is excellent, it would definately make my top 10.

[hutch5]

Eva Luna by Isabel Allende (and any other book by I.Allende)
Siddharta by Hermann Hesse (And many other titles by Him)
Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Man and Boy by Tony Parsons
Girl with a Pearl Hearing by Tracy Chevalier (and some other books by the same author


Ooops, they are more than 5!!!! Sorry. And my list would not end here. I might write a second list later on.

[Spinninsoup]

I don't consider myself well read, seeing as i'm 18 and didn't start reading "big kid" books till recently. But here's my 5... 6... 7

Night - Elie Wiesel
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
Slaughterhouse five - Kurt Vonnegut
Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

[lolagranola]

I don't consider myself well read, seeing as i'm 18 and didn't start reading "big kid" books till recently

Hey, best is best. Many readers remember the books they fell in love with as children (didn't we have a thread on this recently?), and many have children's or YA books as their "favorite" well after THEIR children are grown.

The Lorax and The Giving Tree are some of the best books I've ever read. They will ALWAYS be on my shelf. And just recently I found a copy of the first novel I read in elementary school (Just a Dog) dozens of times. I read it again, and it is still wonderful! My daughter (13) also loved it.

[hutch5]

You are so right Lola. Some of the books that have always travelled with me are the ones that made an impression on me when I was a child or a teenager. I remember in particular:
Le Grand Meaulues by Alain Fournier
And a couple of short novels by Cingiz Ajtmatov.

[Spinninsoup]

Well in that case i have to add Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar