After reading Unsimes thread it is clear many of us are avid readers. This has probably been done before but it is Sunday afternoon the "cup final" has not kicked off yet and I daren't spend anymore time on my Ladbrokes account.

So is it possible to list, in no particular order, your favourite five books? I have given this some thought in previous quieter moments and it is not as simple as it sounds. My top five alters daily. but here goes...

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
A real love it or hate it one. It has been on the pile in the bog for as long as I can remember. One of those books you can read an endless number of times and still thoroughly enjoy. Also a book you can dip into at any page and laugh yourself stupid.

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
For a debut novel this was a stormer. I love the dark humour and think Wasp Factory just edges it over Complicity and The Bridge. He is also one of the few sci fi writers I can actually bring myself to read.

The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
No explanation required. I didn't discover this book until 1990 when I was in my late teens and really wish I had read it as a kid.

Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord - Louis de Bernieres
This guy has the most beautiful writing style. This is difficult favourite to choose as all his stuff is in my opinion both wonderfully written and researched and in parts hillarious. If you have only ever read Captain Corelli or Birds Without Wings you really should try the other less sloppy stuff.

The Dark Tower - Stephen King
This is an author for some reason I never fancied reading. However, his stuff is generally all you can find in the smaller airports and over the last few years I must have gone through the majority of King's works. I found most of it very hit and miss. That was until I read The Gunslinger. The Dark Tower series is fantastic. Seven books each better than the last and all interlinking characters from most of King's other novels. The final book makes my list as it is the last one I read. Tomorrow I may change my mind.

Sorry for the long post but it did kill some time.

Any one else care to make an attempt at listing their current top five?

Ive read loads of classics over the years but never been able to get into Catch 22. I'll give it another crack

TTT,

You were doing so well! Those first 4 are all great calls and are high up my list but then you went for Stephen King....

I'll especially echo the LdB call. That pre Corelli series (trilogy) is excellent, he really evokes a magical place.

I'd hate to name just 5 but I'll give you 2 to start with:

Fiction - John Irving - A Prayer For Owen Meany. My favourite book by my favourite author.

Non-Fiction - Gerald Donaldson's brilliant biography of Gilles Villeneuve, one of my boyhood heroes (back in the days when I loved motor racing as much as footie)

Also some shouts for Bernard Cornwell (King Arthur trilogy), Christopher Brookmyre (especially early ones), anything else by John Irving, Nick Cave (And The Ass Saw The Angel), Paul Theroux, Robertson Davies, Robert Rankin (light relief) and loads more

My top 5 would probably come under light relief for a serious reader but here goes without much thought...

1. LOTR - Tolkein

2. A short History of nearly Everything - Bill Bryson (The way he explains things, he could convince me that plane would take off in one paragraph!!!)

3. The Firm - John Grisham (a million mile better than the film)

4. Robert Goddard - Caught in the Light

5. Dan Brown - Deception Point


I go through spurts of reading and have not for a while. If I was to write this again in 2 years it would probably be different except for LOTR...

Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
McCarthy's Bar - Pete McCarthy
Back Spin - Harlan Cobin
Foundation - Issac Asimov
Animal Farm - George Orwell (the only 'school' book i enjoyed)

selecting five from the likes of king, welsh, bainks, wilde, hardy - (some of my favourites) - is a tough call

I have not even decided who my 5 are going to be so here goes:

1. Child in Time - Ian Mackewen

2. Reconstruction - Pat Barker

3. Coming up for Air - George Orwell

4. Dangerous Parking - ?

5. Morven Caller - ?

Pissed so cant rememebr last 2 authors!

Murf

I know where you are coming from as I said I had no desire to read King for ages but the Dark Tower series really is different from the other stuff.

Brookmyre is another of those laugh out loud authors. I generally save his books for holiday reading and haven't yet read em all. Last one I bought but still haven't opened was A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away.

By the way I am pleased to get some replies. I made the original post and immediately thought this one is dead in the water.

Mike

Once you get over the fact it (Catch 22) is in no particular order it is a fantastic read.

The classic I have a problem with is Catcher In the Rye. I have attempted to read this a few times now and just do not get it.

That was the first I read and it was that good it got me hooked. I then read his first book and went forward in chronological order (as I often do being sad like that). Havent enjoyed the last one or two as much, I think they aren't as good as his earlier works or maybe I am just tiring of his style (there are many similarities in his stories once you've read a few).

Someone said he is like Carl Hiaasen (but switch Scotland/Miami) so I've read a couple of his and loved them too. I'm no expert as I've only read a couple but try Sick Puppy.

Alan Warner wrote it and have to agree it is a fantastic book.

Need a bit more thought on this. Pretty hard, as it's going to be skewed by books read recently.

Early thoughts would be:

1984 - Orwell (possibly one of the greatest ever and almost a cop out naming it really)
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut (OK - silly in places but a truly great anti war novel. So it goes)
Cider House Rules - Irving (All of Irvings come pretty close but this is the one that struck a chord with me the most)
Secret History - Donna Tartt (Not sure really - only read once and loved it, but don't know yet whether it will stand the test of time with me. I like Dostoyevski, and this was really an updated version of Crime and Punishment)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig (bit of a hippyish choice, but I just love it and the theories of what 'quality' is made me really think about my work in my engineering days).

But that misses out LOTR, which I loved when I was young, Ullyses, Catch 22, All quiet on the Western Front, Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, Lolita, The Trial, etc etc...

Have to have a look through my book collection one evening and have a proper think!

I'm only on my 4th book, currently reading Robbie Fowlers Autobiography
the other 3 i have read are:

Cat In The Bed by Claude Boules

Fly Fishing by J.R.Hartley

Spunk On The Pillow by Mr Completely.

I read about a book a week on the train so I dont really have a top 5. Just best in category

Best recent bestseller: Life of Pi
Most memorable book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance
Sci-Fi: Peter Hamiltons Naked God trilogy
Historic Fiction: Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels
Autobiography: Kenneth Williams
Kids books (for adults:) ): Dark Materials
Best male character: Jack Reacher (Lee Childs)
Best female character: Rebbeca (D. Du maurier)
Book I cant get out of my head: Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson)

American psycho - not best of anything but definitely the most disturbing!

worst books I ever read to the end - deception point and digital fortress both by u know who.

that'll do for categories or I'll go on forever.

I can barely recall more than a handful of about 200 modern books I must have read I the last 10 years. Just goes to show how bland the writing is recently! This thread is telling me its time to hit some classics again!

I loved life of Pi as well, although it seems to divide people and many don't get past the initial section of the book before the boat sinks (and no that's not giving anything away - you know from the outset that this happens and the main character survives!). First section is rather 'gentle', but I liked that as well and it is to an extent necessary to understand the second half.

Forgot about American Psycho. Great book, but yeah, pretty disturbing. I need to read it again really. 2nd time I read it I did start to question whether Bateman actually did any of the sick stuff at all, or whether it was just in his imagination. Need to read it again to see what it was that made me think that.

Thats the problem with books - to become a true favourite, a book needs to have been read several times (IMO) and that takes up valuable time which could be spent reading something else!!

Favourite record is hard enough, and it's easy to listen to tracks over and over again. Books just take so much more effort (and are all the more rewarding for it, except when you spend a week reading something rubbish!!).

I like many different types of books so its difficult to pick a top 5. My favourite of all time has to be Lord of the Rings. Then it varies - I too loved Catch 22 but has anyone read the follow-up? I think it was called Closing Time... but anyway I thought that was awful, nothing like Catch 22. I also liked American Psycho (disturbing as it is it is also very funny), 1984 and Brave New World. More recent books I liked are Vernon God Little and A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Closing Time was set and written at least 20 years after Catch 22 and so had a totally different vibe. Worth reading but not a Catch 22 level classic.

PS While I'm on, another 'classic' worthy of the name is The Dice Man

Yes I realise that it was written later - I still finished it and had I not been comparing it to Catch 22 I may have thought it was OK.

Yes - Murf the Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart is definately worth reading. Leant my copy out years ago and never saw it again.

Anything by Stephen Laws ("Gideon" for example)

AutoBiography - Chris Eubank.

Fahrenheit 351 - Ray Bradbury

Anything by Graham Masterton (in particular the one about the religious cult who believe in eating themselves)

For good old pulp fiction Richard Laymon ("Island" and "Quake" are a little bit different to the formula used on most of the others)

I couldn't get into Catch 22 when I tried reading it some 30+ years ago.

Garp - John Irving
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Complicity - Iain Banks
A Good Man in Africa - William Boyd
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig

I've read Zen twice but on neither occasion managed to finish it. This is becauses the final quarter of the book disappears up its own philosophical backside. But the first two-thirds of it is so good it gets into my Top Five anyway. It's as much a way of life - or thinking about life - as a book.

Ahh, Thomas Hardy. Showing your dark side Billy W by picking Jude though! Used to love Hardy. Under the Greenwood tree prob my favourite, albeit slightly less well known/rated than some of the others. Also like the Mayor of Casterbridge - just how much bad luck (or Fate) can one guy stand!! Not read any Hardy for ages though.

Think Owen Meaney references Hardy quite a bit, which fits in fantastically with the Meaney story, being all about Fate, which is what Hardy does best.

How about Anna Karenina as well. Not only is it a great book, but its also the book of choice for many other authors to use - i.e. being carried under a characters arm to indicate that they are literary and tragic!! Milan Kundera and Ian McKewan are 2 that I can think of who have used this!

The Dice Man. That is another one that has been in a pile in the spare room for years and I have still not got around to reading it. Must make more of an effort!

Pick up a di(c)e and if you shake a six start reading it tonight.

WARNING! Get your significant other, or someone else you to trust, to hide all dice in the house before you start to read this book! You must also make them promise not to tell you where the dice are hidden until you have finished the book.

It is indeed a quality book.

If your significant other has read the book she will hide all your dice for ever if you pick th ebook up! (from my hazy memory of the book's details)

I'm intrigued about this book now (The Dice Man). I'm currently reading a book called The Magician (its very much like Lord of the Rings). When I've finished that I think I'll give The Dice Man a go.

Be warned it's a love it or loathe it sort of book. It's either 'a passionate indictment of psycho-analysis' or 'philosophical drivel'. You pays your money...

The Dice Man is one the most over rated books in the history of over rated books.

Worth a holiday read but apart from that you aint missing a thing! Most people who talk about it probably have not even read it!

Shake a dice:

1. Lie and pretend I've never actually read it
2. Tell Groomyd he is an ignoramous who obviously didn't get it
3. Pretend to be Luke Rhenhart and challenge Groomyd to a fight
4. Just resort to slagging off Arsenal's season
5. Ignore it
6. Try and shag the next woman I see