What are your top five books?

Aaron · Subject: What are your top five books? Wed Dec 24, 2008 8:37 am

I thought this would be a fun topic in light of the posts about top 5 tobaccos and whatnot. So lets hear it. What are your top five favorite books currently?

Mine would be:

Sherlock Holmes volume 1
Sherlock Holmes volume 2 (yeah I know, I know)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Master and Margarita
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

_________________
Smoke your pipe and be silent, for there is only smoke and wind in the world." -Irish Proverb

"I have some friends, some honest friends, and honest friends are few: a pipe of briar, an open fire, and books that aren't too new" -Robert Service

"I am lost without my Boswell." - Sherlock Holmes

Puff Daddy · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Wed Dec 24, 2008 9:00 am

The Stranger - Albert Camus
Trout Bum - John Geirach
Travels with Charley - John Steinbeck
The Longest Silence - Thomas McGuane
Mere Christianity - CS Lewis

Currently reading The Hobbit by Tolkein, a very fun little book Cool

_________________
These are horrible times and all sorts of horrible people are prospering, but we must never let this disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to annoy and hinder them at every turn.

Aaron · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Wed Dec 24, 2008 9:08 am

Puff, The Stranger is a really good book. I enjoyed reading not too long ago. Cool

_________________
Smoke your pipe and be silent, for there is only smoke and wind in the world." -Irish Proverb

"I have some friends, some honest friends, and honest friends are few: a pipe of briar, an open fire, and books that aren't too new" -Robert Service

"I am lost without my Boswell." - Sherlock Holmes

Puff Daddy · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Wed Dec 24, 2008 9:23 am

I love Camus' writing style. Grab a copy of Resistance, Rebellion and Death, a fascinating read!

_________________
These are horrible times and all sorts of horrible people are prospering, but we must never let this disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to annoy and hinder them at every turn.

Professor_Briar · Subject: 5 Books Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:22 am

Richard Brautigan - The Hawkline Monster - A gothic Western
Neal Stephenson - The Big U, Cryptonomicon, (OK anything by him)
John Barth - Letters
Connie Willis - To Say Nothing of the Dog (ok everything she has written too)
Douglas Montgomery - Response Surface Methodology
study

It might actually be easier to list the top 50 or 100

Justpipes · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:38 am

Aaron wrote:

I thought this would be a fun topic in light of the posts about top 5 tobaccos and whatnot. So lets hear it. What are your top five favorite books currently?

Mine would be:

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

Aaron, that is an outstanding book!!!

_________________

Trout Bum · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:43 pm

Great thread, Aaron!

Loneseome Traveler -- Jack Kerouac
Trout Fishing in America -- Richard Brautigan (an often overlooked American CLASSIC, IMHO)
The Hobbit -- JRR Tolkien
The River Why -- David James Duncan
The Sea Wolf -- Jack London

(In no particular order)

beaupipe · Number of posts: 64 Registration date: 2009-02-21

The dreaded top 5. I reserve the right to change this list on a whim.

1. Hemingway--The Sun Also Rises
2. Denis Johnson--Already Dead: A California Gothic
3. Don DeLillo--The Names
4. Leonard Cohen--Beautiful Losers
5. Henry Miller--Tropic of Cancer

stan41 · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:31 am

Huckleberry Finn - It's a deeper social commentary than most people realize.

The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Lonesome Dove - McMurtry

Leaving Cheyenne - McMurtry

Careless Whispers - Carlton Stowers

Stan41

kilted1 · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Sun Mar 01, 2009 10:10 am

Fantastic thread Aaron!

1. The Lord of The Rings: J.R.R. Tolkien (I have read this every winter for the past 30 years, worn out about 5 paperback sets) For Tolkien enthusiasts The Encyclopedia of Arda
2. The Treasured Writing of Kahlil Gibran: Kahlil Gibran
3. The Road: Cormac McCarthy (any thing by him will do)
4. The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck
5. The Year of the French: Thomas Flanagan

Too many books for even 10 lifetimes! I hope there are well lit libraries in 'the next place'.

_________________
I'm a jaded old Iso-Con, get over it!

"Gather me balme and cooling violets,
And of our holy herb nicotian,
And bring withall pure honey from the hive,
To heale the wound of my unhappy hand." Henry Buttes

“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned this is the sum of good government.” – Thomas Jefferson

adauria · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:59 am

Wow, really tough question. I'll see if I can't pick 5 of my favorites without too much mental contortion. Of course, this is subject to change Smile

1. The Bible
2. The Elegant Universe, Brian Green
3. The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4. The Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis (yes, I'm counting them as a 1)
5. The Complete Sherlock Holmes (I know, cheating)

-Andrew

SmokeyTweed · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:12 pm

In no particular order:

1.The Lord of The Rings- J.R.R. Tolkein
2.No Great Mischeif- Alistar McLeod
3.Slaughterhouse Five- Kurt Vonnegut
4.Rant- Chuck Pahalniuk
5.Ham On Rye- Charles Bukowski

as for series
The Dark Tower, Chronicles of Narnia, The Drizzt stories by R.A. Salvatore and many more

_________________
Bad choices in life improve the chances that your autobiography will be made into a big budget film.

Myself(as far as i know)

Idlefellow · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:38 am

Five favorites of many:

Goodbye to a River - John Graves
John MacNab - John Buchan
A Hunter's Fireside Book - Gene Hill
Fishless Days, Angling Nights - Sparse Grey Hackle (Alfred Miller)
PrairyErth - William Least Heat Moon

_________________
There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do...Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen. - Jerome k. Jerome

HistoryMajor · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:11 pm

Good lists! Laughing

1. Stephen King - The Green Mile
2. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
3. Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
4. Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (pretty much anything by HST could easily make the list!)
5. Iain Gately - Tobacco

and so, so, so many more...

_________________
Events of the past, if not forgotten, are teachings about the future - Sima Qian

If liberty means anything at all, it is the freedom to say things that people do not want to hear
-George Orwell

wintermute · Subject: Re: What are your top five books? Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:52 am

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Pattern Recognition - William Gibson (well, anything by Gibson)
Le Morte D'Arthur - Thomas Mallory (tough to get through - it's a project of mine)
Moby Dick - Herman Melville (even tougher to get through - another project that's failed several times)
Iron Coffins - Herbert Werner