I need everyone's help again with a book list. This one is Top 5 books you've read.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

Last December/January I ended up compiling a pretty good list of "top books" to recommend to a teenager. After that, it spurred me to do a fair amount of research on the subject and ended up with a good list to offer to my teenage daughter. She's really been reading a lot this past year which is great.

So now....

What are the top 5 books you've personally read that moved you and stuck with you the most and you would easily recommend to other adults to read? I will compile everyone's results again this year. This one is much more wide open. Doesn't have to be geared toward a specific audience. Doesn't have to be fiction or nonfiction.

I will list mine in there at some point as well, but I don't want to steer the discussion in any particular direction.

[murielm99]

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman. n/t

[WCGreen]

18. thats a really good book...

[Hekate]

85. That's an amazing book. nt

[B2G]

2. Too many to recall :-)

But here's a stab:

Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
The Talisman, by Stephen King
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See
Let's Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson (I've never laughed so hard in my life)

[el_bryanto]

3. Interesting question

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
The Godless Constitution by R. Moore and Isaac Kramnick
Fell Vol 1 (The Feral City) by Warren Ellis (Author) and Ben Templesmith (Illustrator)
Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein

Bryant

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. A People's History, The Handmaid's Tale, The Chalice and the Blade, The Evolution of Conscience, and

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

With only five to list, the weed-out was tough.

http://www.alibris.com/A-People-s-History-of-the-United-States-1492-Present-Howard-Zinn-Ph-D/book/5052321?
http://www.alibris.com/The-Handmaid-s-Tale-Margaret-Atwood/book/2803054?
http://www.alibris.com/Chalice-and-the-Blade-Riane-Tennenhaus-Eisler/book/1004327?
http://www.alibris.com/Evolution-of-Consciousness-The-Origins-of-the-Way-We-Think-Robert-E-Ornstein/book/2180608?
http://www.alibris.com/An-Inquiry-Into-the-Nature-and-Causes-of-the-Wealth-of-Nations-Adam-Smith/book/3240579?

[Locrian]

104. nice list - "Chalice and The Blade" is mind blowing awesome - n/t

[Egalitarian Thug]

107. By instigating my own reexamination of things I know, her book literally changed my life.

Shredding some of the most cherished beliefs imposed on anthropology by Victorian assholes over a century ago, began what I believe will be another revolution in the sciences, cross-field discovery has already caused fundamental shifts in several scientific areas.

[Journeyman]

5. Among the books I've enjoyed the most or learned the most from are . . .

Points for a Compass Rose, by Evan S. Connell
The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt
Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

[dem in texas]

128. Yes! Slaughterhouse Five

Read all Kurt Vonnegut books. I remember when my grandson read Slaughterhouse Five, he was 16 or 17, it made a huge impression on him.

I am not a big fiction reader, but one fiction book that is a good read is Gone with the Wind. Scarlet O'Hara is about the best character ever developed in fiction. You don't like her, she is scheming, bull-headed and devious, but you can't help but admire her courage and tenacity. Over the years, I have read this book three times. Only read To Kill a Mockingbird twice.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. lurkers and trolls are also welcome to contribute to this list as well

[hueymahl]

80. Ok . . .

The Bible
Atlas shrugged
Anything by Sean Hannity
My Pet Goat
Penthouse Forum Volume 11

[Scuba]

93. DUzy!!!

[Jesus Malverde]

122. lol and welcome to DU!

[lame54]

102. What if they haven't read 5 books?

[Pretzel_Warrior]

103. Then they can count cereal boxes in their list

That General Mills guy is a prolific author.

[Jackpine Radical]

126. Thanks for the permission.

Going Rouge by Sarah Palin

Atlas Pooped-Ayn Rand

Conscience of a Crackpot-Barry Goldwater

Unindicted - Scott Walker

Duh- GW Bush

Don't Cry for Me-John Boehner

Yertle and Me-Mitch McConnell

[X_Digger]

7. Way too broad for prolific readers..

Five top fiction/fantasy books that you read as a kid?
-Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
-The Hobbit by Tolkein
-Watership Down by Richard Adams (Also Plague Dogs)
-Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
-Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Five top 'historical' books that you read as a kid?
-Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
-Oliver Twist by Dickens
-To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
-Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
-Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut
-A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
(Couldn't decide between the last two)

Five top new (to me) books I've read in the last ten years?
-The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
-The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
-The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
-Freakanomics by Dubner and Levitt
-And on a lighter note, the City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau

The books I keep re-reading every couple of years?
-The Dune series by Frank Herbert (Forget the newer ones, though, they're crap.)
-The Golden Torc series by Julian May
-The Stand by Stephen King
-The Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
-The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis

Right now, I'm reading a lot of YA and 'Urban Fantasy' (Charles deLint, etc).

[LWolf]

92. GREAT list!

There is no way to narrow the thousands of great books I've read down to five, but some of yours are favorites.

Reading a lot of YA? Don't skip John Green.

[pscot]

8. 2 lists; fiction and non

FICTION

Huckleberry Finn
1984
War and Peace
The Trial
To Kill a Mockingbird

NONFICTION

The Diary of a Young Girl
Silent Spring
The Golden Bough
The Selfish Gene
Samuel Pepys Diary (abridged

[Cleita]

9. I would recommend that everyone and older teens who are studying

Twentieth Century history read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer. It's long and detailed, but everyone needs to know how one crazy person could take over a whole nation and change the face of Europe aided and abetted by the rich and powerful and those who followed blindly because he essentially race baited them like Fox News does today.

Also, anything by James Michner. He tells a good story and there is always a good history lesson in his books told in an entertaining way.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. I would suggest "I Will Bear Witness" by Victor Klemperer

He was a non-observant Jewish professor of French Literature and kept (at great risk) a diary of his daily life in Dresden from the rise of Hitler to the end of the war. He avoided the death camps (barely) because he was married to an Aryan. It is almost impossible to put down once started. No heroics or hair-breadth escapes but a great insight into what life was really like for Jews and everyone else under the 3rd Reich and fascism.

He was politically a Moderate and first thought that Hitler was a flash in the pan, loud mouth, politician, who would crumble under the reality of governing.

It is a great picture of how people gave up their freedoms little by little until it was too late.

He was a cousin of Otto Klemperer the conductor and could have gotten out. But, being an intellectual, and a WWI veteran, he was convinced that the German people would overthrow Hitler and then it was too late.

[Cleita]

27. I will have to read that. It's amazing how many German intellectuals

dismissed Hitler in his early days as a fringe wacko who would spend his life in the dark corners of society with no influence. They thought that any chance he had in government were little or none, sort of what we thought of George W. Bush when he first ran for Governor of Texas. I was living in Texas at the time and he was mostly a laughing stock.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

29. Do so. It's the story of how average Germans lived and how they (sort of) bought in to it.

I like well-written personal histories and diaries that give the reader the feel for how life really was. Another good "Diary from Dixie" by Mary Chesnut. Who also kept a daily diary during the civil war. She was the wife of a big shot in the Confederate government, a fine writer, well educated, and she knew almost all the "somebodys" of the day. And, was a friend to most. But, a lot of it is about her personal life as she interacts with the "ordinary" (think planter class, generals, politicians) and gives her views on them and on what we would call feminism today and slavery (she hated it) etc.

Again, fascinating to read.

[justabob]

41. great book(s)

I enjoyed reading both volumes, very interesting. Another one from the same period is The Last Train from Berlin by Howard K Smith, a CBS reporter in Berlin. It is not as well known as Shirer's Berlin Diary, but I think it is better and more insightful man on the street reporting and impressions of what he was seeing.

[steve2470]

123. I will have to read this, thanks for the recommendation ! nt

[pipi_k]

65. Fellow

James Michener fan...

I think there are only a very small handful of his books I haven't read

There are a few I keep rereading every few years..."Hawaii", "Centennial", and "Chesapeake".

Reading his books is often like being a time traveler, and I'm always sad to get to the end

[Cleita]

66. My favorites are Caravans, Hawaii, The Source, Centennial

and Space.

[Scuba]

94. Space, Carribbean and The Covenant.

[loli phabay]

10. here goes

prester john
herodutus histories
seven pillars of wisdom
punic wars
red storm rising

[Lochloosa]

11. The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes - The Epic of Australia's Founding

Fascinating and disturbing book on the colonization of Australia by England.

For 80 years between 1788 and 1868 England transported its convicts to Australia. This punishment provided the first immigrants and the work force to build the colony. Using diaries, letters, and original sources, Hughes meticulously documents this history. All sides of the story are told: the political and social reasoning behind the Transportation System, the viewpoint of the captains who had the difficult job of governing and developing the colonies, and of course the dilemma of the prisoners. This is a very thorough and accurate history of Australian colonization written by the author of the book and BBC/Time-Life TV series The Shock of the New . A definitive work that is an essential purchase for both public and academic libraries. BOMC and History Book Club main selections. Judith Nixon, Purdue Univ. Libs., W. Lafayette, Ind.

[TlalocW]

12. The five books of the...

"Increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy."
Recently read the 4 books of the Wicked series and enjoyed them. They delved into some good issues in the retelling of the story of Oz.
The history might be a little bit dated, and they're becoming rarer, but "The Faith Healers," by James Randi is a shocking expose into religious con-men using people's faith to make themselves rich.
"Hobbit" and the Lord of the Rings books of course.
"We're Right, and They're Wrong!" by James Carville is a good read to help you learn to summarize your arguments against conservatives in concise, powerful ways.

TlalocW

[2naSalit]

13. Hmmm...

Like many here, there are far more than five but off the top of my head with a little reflection:

Wolfer; A Memoir.... Carter Niemeyer (A personal recollection of the reintroduction of the grey wolf to the northern Rockies by one of the few guys who gathered up and released the wolves in the mid 1990s)

The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain... Charles Neider

When We Were Wolves... Jon Billman (a collection of short stories based in the Wyoming/Idaho area)

The Clam Lake Papers... Edward Lueders

The Shock Doctrine; The Rise of Disaster Capitalism... Naomi Klein

These all had an impact on me in differing ways but all worth reading for a variety of reasons.

[hfojvt]

14. Five books, eh?

The Good Life - Scott + Helen Nearing
Small is beautiful - EF Schumacher
In his steps - Charles Sheldon
Herland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Watchers - Dean Koontz

[FarCenter]

15. Project Gutenberg currently has 44,349 books for free download.

The most downloaded books are available at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/%3Fsort_order%3Ddownloads

[Hekate]

88. I love Project Gutenberg. Nearly everything on my Kindle is from there. nt

[Iggo]

124. + 44349

[spin]

16. Impossible to list just five but I'll pick five of my favorites. ...

Ender's Game ... Orson Scott Card

Lord of the Rings .. J.R.R. Tolkein

Catch 22 ... Joseph Heller

Under the Dome ... Stephen King

Ghost Story ... Peter Straub

But I should also add:

The Journeyor ... Gary Jennings

Aztec ... Gary Jennings

Spangle ... Gary Jennings

Stand on Zanzibar ... John Brunner

Gravity's Rainbow ... Thomas Phnchon

[WCGreen]

17. Fear and Loathing on the Campagn Trail by Hunter S. Thompson....

The World According to Garp by John Irving

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Zen and the Art of Motorcycling by Robert M. Pirsig

Any of the Best Short Stories of the Year....

Have fun.

[OriginalGeek]

19. I'll try but reserve the right to add/delete/change/and re-remember

First off, Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and in that same vein, Silas Marner, Great Expections, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is still the best Vampire book (although there are many more modern ones I also love - Yes, Anne Rice and also Poppy Z. Brite)

2 different Frankensteins - Mary Shelley's of course but also Dean Koontz did a series of Frankenstein novels in the present day (although the main monster and doctor are the ones from Mary's day. His best work if you don't count the Odd Thomas series.)

The original Frank Herbert Dune series. I haven't read any of the ones his son and others wrote after he died.

Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories - they are mostly short stories but conveniently arranged in novel form across several books.

Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (and most of his other books too but this is my favorite).

Neuromancer by William Gibson. His other books are pretty great too but this is the one that turned me into a full-fledged geek.

Everything by Philip K. Dick.

Brian Lumley's Necroscope universe is huge and wonderful. It's hard to keep track of all the series/sequels/prequels/side stories with some of the same characters and whatnot but it's worth getting lost in the world.

Robert McCammon's Swan Song and Boy's Life are two great horror novels.

IT by Stephen King. (The Dark Tower series and the Green Mile series as well)

And A Game Of Thrones. I started reading it long before there was a TV show.

[stage left]

35. Phillip K. Dick is the man.

Right now I'm halfway through The Man in the High Castle.

[OriginalGeek]

46. Yes he is!

I do wish Hollywood would stop screwing up movies from his books though. I love Blade Runner but the rest range from "Hmmm, OK" to "WTFingF?"

[flying rabbit]

68. I thought "A Scanner Darkly"

was a good effort, and Blade Runner is one of my favorite Sci Fi films. He is a hard writer to translate to film.

[stage left]

109. Adore Blade Runner.

I've watched it several times. Just read A Scanner Darkly.

[FSogol]

101. FYI on PKD, His Novel "Ubik" (his best work imo) is being adapted

for the screen by Michael Gondry. He's owned the rights since 2011, so no telling when it starts shooting.

[XemaSab]

44. "Boy's Life" is in my top 10

[OriginalGeek]

48. I haven't read everything he's done

yet...but I don't recall ever being disappointed by the ones I have read. But yeah, Boy's Life is one great book. Gone South was another good one.

[Zorra]

20. 1. The Grapes of Wrath 2. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest 3. To Kill A Mockingbird

4. The Handmaid's Tale
5. Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
6. The Stand
Tie for #7. The Prince of Tides and/or A Prayer For Owen Meany
8. The Lord of The Rings
9. The Poisonwood Bible
10. Slaughterhouse 5

Honorable Mentions: Catch 22, and Another Roadside Attraction

There is a lifetime's worth of contemplation of existence and the meaning of life in the combination of those works of fiction, IMO.

[grahamhgreen]

21. Models by Mark Manson.

A Peoples History of the US.
The power of now.
The Darmapadda.
Sometimes a great notion or Skinny legs and all.

[Aristus]

22. Mine:

The Seed And The Sower by Sir Laurence Van Der Post.
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.
Strange Wine by Harlan Ellison.
At Home by Bill Bryson.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

[FSogol]

23. "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller and "Galapagos" by Kurt Vonnegut. n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. War and Peace, A Fine Balance, Catch-22, Anna Karenina, Tao Te Ching.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

26. great lists so far! as with last year, it will take some time to compile

after I've allowed some time for people to submit their thoughts. I will update on progress until we get to a final list that I can publish as a baseline for discussing "GREAT BOOKS"!

[Liberal_in_LA]

63. Lord of the Rings, The Mists of Avalon are among my favorites.

[jazzimov]

133. LOVED The Jesus Incident - I thought I was the only one

who read it.

[LittleBlue]

30. If you want to understand the nature of wealth and trade

The nature of trade and how we deal with those left behind by globalization. A must read.

A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World

http://www.amazon.com/Splendid-Exchange-Trade-Shaped-World/dp/0802144160

The nature of wealth and the history of how it was created

The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created

http://www.amazon.com/The-Birth-Plenty-Prosperity-Created/dp/0071747044

Why Eurasian societies dominate the world

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552

The top 3 are probably a bit dry for a teenager but are an absolute must if you want to understand the world, why it exists the way it does, what is wealth, why we are wealthy, and why Eurasians dominate the world.

Fiction is probably better for teenagers. Something like Game of Thrones is more appropriate. I've been recommending that series since high school and everyone is addicted to it, never got a bad review from anyone I know. Dune is a masterpiece. Historical fiction isn't bad either, something by James Clavell like Shogun or Tai Pan. Ender's Game was really good when I read it in high school. I love reading anything by Mark Twain or Jane Austen, but most already know whether that's their cup of tea or not. Ugh, so many books and I've gone well over 5. I'll stop here.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

33. THose all sound interesting. I actually met the author and have a signed copy of his book

I was in a professional development class that surveyed his book, and at the last class he came in and answered questions/signed books. Very fun guy to meet and talk to.

[LittleBlue]

37. Which author?

Out of curiosity.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

70. William Bernstein author of Birth of Plenty

he lives on the Oregon coast and drove in to hang out with us in a class. Very fun.

[LittleBlue]

81. Ah yes, he's brilliant

Perhaps not a PhD expert in the fields he writes about, but he more than makes up for it with curiosity and raw brain power. That makes his books far more readable anyway.

I'm envious that he was in your class.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

105. Yep. Similar to James Burke who wrote "Connctions"

And made a 10 episode TV series. Quite a walk through human history of science and technology. He also doesn't hold a PhD in the field but is brilliant and makes the information accessible.

[OriginalGeek]

50. "...so many books and I've gone well over 5...."

You'll never hear me complain of too many book recs. Thanks for those!

[11 Bravo]

31. Sorry, couldn't winnow it down to five. Eight was as close to the bone as I could cut.

Here they are, in no particular order:

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee (Sure, it's a facile pick, but that doesn't mean it's not one amazing piece of literature.)

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

The Abortion: An Historical Romance - Richard Brautigan

Fear And Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 - Hunter S. Thompson

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Fields of Fire - Jim Webb (I get to call him "Jim" because I've known him for almost 30 years.)

[Xyzse]

32. Top 5

1 - Genji Monogatori - Murasaki Shikibu
2 - Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa
3 - Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay (Stuck with me)
4 - Replay - Ken Grimwood
5 - Dresden Files - Series by Jim Butcher... Not any particular book, but elements from each. When you hear about someone dying due to getting hit by a frozen turkey, now that is awesome.

[Demo_Chris]

40. Replay was damn good wasn't it. nt

[Xyzse]

82. Absolutely.

[stage left]

34. Five Books that moved me.

Number one is definitely The Grapes of Wrath. I've read that one quite a few times. It's probably part of the reason I'm a liberal. Then, in no particular order, Huckleberry Finn, Oliver Twist, Bleak House, and The Idiot. I'll admit to reading Atlas Shrugged when a teenager, but you have to remember my brain was still immature then. And it had nothing like the effect The Grapes of Wrath had on me.

[davekriss]

36. Ok

Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent

Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital

Malraux, The Voices of Silence

Norman O Brown, Life Against Death

Henry Miller, The Oranges of
Hieronymus Bosch.

[justabob]

38. They Thought They Were Free by Milton Mayer

is the first book to come to mind. It is super easy to read and very interesting about how various "ordinary Germans" experienced the Third Reich.

[Demo_Chris]

39. Here's a start...

By genre...

The Harry Potter series. Don't sniff or snort, they are brilliant. Fantasy

The Chronicles of Prydain series. Fantasy

It. Horror

The Girl Next Door. Horror.

Time Enough for Love. Sci Fi

Starship Troopers. Sci Fi

1984 Sci Fi

The Wind in the Willows

Watership Down.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Huck Finn

Great Expectations (or any Dickens really)

Lord of the Flies

Ivanhoe

Don Quixote

[etherealtruth]

111. I love when I see Watership Down on someone else's list!

[Demo_Chris]

112. I consider a book young people should definately read. nt

[XemaSab]

43. I dunno about top 5

Deep Survival and Pelican Blood were both amazing.

Top 2 for sure.

[Punkingal]

45. Here you go...

These three changed me forever:

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Man's Search for Meaning by Dr. Viktor Frankl

Many Lives Many Masters by Brian Weiss, MD


Just for pleasure, and very well written:

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

The Stand, uncut version, by Stephen King

[ananda]

47. The Grapes of Wrath.. To Kill a Mockingbird ...

Well, anything by Steinbeck really.

That will open up the conscience and the heart in a big way.

[The Second Stone]

49. A lot of great choices in this thread

I'll suggest:

Thucydides history of the war between Athens and Sparta. One of the most important books ever written.

Huckleberry Finn

The Lord of the Rings

C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse

[roody]

51. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

[hopemountain]

53. on my list, as well! nt

[Zorra]

56. +1 nt

[hopemountain]

52. books close to my heart and soul include

house made of dawn - n. scott momaday

la lacuna - barbara kingsolver

the cold moons - aeon clement (the watership down for badgers who were targeted for extermination by the brits)

thirteen moons - charles frazier

east of eden - john steinbeck

the dovekeepers - alice hoffman

gardens in the dunes - leslie marmon silko

[TeeYiYi]

54. A few of my favorites...

...though, by no means a complete list.

From my early/mid teens:
Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown

Mandatory early childhood reading:
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I also enjoyed as a young child:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Two escapist favorites:
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

Excellent wildcards:
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Imajica by Clive Barker

TYY

[Richardo]

55. Catch-22; Grapes of Wrath; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Moby Dick; Roughing It

[Pyrzqxgl]

57. I've read a lot of books in 74 years

any of the OZ books by L. Frank Baum

A World To Win - by Jack Conroy

The Hobo's Hornbook - by George Milburn

Look Homeward Angel - by Thomas Wolfe

Treasury Of American Folklore - by B.A. Botkin

extras

poetry of Robert Service

anything by Mark Twain,

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

58. my list looks something like this

1. 1984 (#1 on my list. I consider it non-fiction, too.)

in no particular order
2. Angels & Demons, Dan Brown (never read a book that quickly; lots of fun but the ending was silly)
3. Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem
4. Dubliners, James Joyce
5. Native Son, Richard Wright (first book from the other perspective of life in America)

[Liberal_in_LA]

62. I HATE when books are a great read then end with a thud! (regarding #2 on your list)

[riverwalker]

59. my 5

"Lost Horizon" by James Hilton
"Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker
"Longtime Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation" by Myra MacPherson
"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
"The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels

[BlueToTheBone]

60. Some great fiction geared toward empowering

young women is by Tamora Pierce. She's written a number of books - loosely titled Circle of Magic. While it's geared to teens, I look forward to each new book that comes out. There are probably 15 - 20 books in the series. Easy reads and inspiring in what these young women were able to do; not just magically, but through themselves.

Pema Chodron has a large space in my books and Starting Where You Are, The Places that Scare You, Taking the Leap; all these are very great for grounding and teaching awareness and compassion for oneself and others.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes is one of my heroines and favorite authors. I would suggest Women Who Run With The Wolves. She has a number of audio series; Theatre of the Imagination is deep and inspiring. It's like going to your favorite therapist and having your deepest questions answered.

Amy Tan's books offer a look at Chinese culture and women's roles there. Everything from Joy Luck Club, Kitchen God's Wife to one of my favorites, One Hundred Secret Senses, also very uplifting in the strength these women displayed in their lives in the midst of great adversity.

Who could leave out Alice Walker. I think her must read is The Temple of My Familiar. It is incredibly powerful.

I think these fiction authors are very influential in giving women courage and acknowledging our incredible strengths while offering glimpses into other cultures and ways to live and think.

These 2 books are on my must read list for every woman. You will never look at the world in the same way again.

Monica Sjoo and Barbara Walker The Great Cosmic Mother
Merlin Stone When God Was A Woman

[RagAss]

61. The complete works of Wei Wu Wei

Here is a free link to excerpts of his published books....

http://www.weiwuwei.8k.com/books.html

[Fastcars]

64. Only five?

James Webb makes my list twice.
Fields of Fire
A Sense of Honor

Confederacy of Dunces
Dark Tower series
Pillars of the Earth

[dembotoz]

67. assume she has already plowed thru Harry Potter

Purpose of the Potter books in my family was to reinforce the concept of reading as entertainment

[Pretzel_Warrior]

73. yep! there's a whole backstory I could write an essay abour re: her love of Harry Potter

she came to it late and then read through them voraciously starting when she was 12.

[kentauros]

69. Y'all probably won't like most of mine, but here they are anyway

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
Stinz by Donna Barr
Journeys Out of Body by Robert Monroe
Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani

[Pretzel_Warrior]

71. Believe me, last time around the list was quite eclectic. I take all offers

So thank you for your contributions. They will be added to my compilation!

[kentauros]

72. Fair enough :)

I just didn't offer anything that was on the same intellectual scale as everyone else. Some may also not like the last two as they are spiritual in nature. Still, they did have profound influences on my life

[Pretzel_Warrior]

74. well, for that matter, The Book of Job in the Bible makes many international top 20 lists.

so spiritual reads can be some of the best and most moving.

[kentauros]

75. I didn't know that.

I've tried reading texts like that and just didn't get anywhere, kind of like trying to read Shakespeare to my brain

I do like reading some of Rumi's poetry, though, yet it does take me some effort to figure things out.

[demigoddess]

76. My favorites as a teen were

Hawaii by James Michener
Count of Monte Cristo by alexandre Dumas

[rudolph the red]

77. Desert Solitude and A Fool's Progress, both by Edward Abbey,

had the biggest impact on my life.

[Heidi]

78. "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves" by Karen Joy Fowler

was the best literary fiction I read in 2013.

[SeattleVet]

79. Keeping it just to five...

A Confederacy of Dunces
Catch-22
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash
Fahrenheit 451

[betsuni]

83. A few more than five

Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
Leaving Home, Garrison Keillor
Moo, Jane Smiley
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Anita Loos
The Diary of Anais Nin, volume one
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Bill Bryson's travel comedies (like The Lost Continent)
Notes From the Underground, Dostoyevsky
Nausea, Sartre
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin
Possessed, A.S. Byatt
A Christmas Carol, Dickens

[betsuni]

90. Forgot

A Moveable Feast, Hemingway, and also by Eco, Foucault's Pendulum.

[betsuni]

134. More forgot

Everybody should read Garrison Keillor's "Homegrown Democrat."
More I forgot:
Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel and How Proust Can Change Your Life
Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book
Natsume Soseki, Botchan and I Am a Cat
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
When I was a teenager I was obsessed The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, also with the Sherlock Holmes stories.
When will we see the OP's picks? I love book lists.

[Jasana]

84. 5 books that left a lasting impression, huh? That's tough...

(F for Fiction and NF for Non-Fiction.) My five would be:

1) Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (F)
2) War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (F)
3) Xenogenesis - Octavia E. Butler (F)
4) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women - Susan Faludi (NF)
5) EarthClan - David Brin (Includes Startide Rising and The Uplift War) (F)

Honorable Mention (Didn't change my life but was incredible none the less
6) The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy (F)
7) The Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice (F)
8) The Dark Tower Series - Stephan King (F)
9) Lean In - Sheryl Sandberg (NF)
10) Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell (NF)

[Recursion]

86. Freddy's Book by John Gardner

That's my number 1.

2. A Medicine for Melancholy by Ray Bradbury

3. Human, All Too Human

4. The Brothers Karamazov

5. On Lisp, by Paul Graham

[Hekate]

87. Always Coming Home, by Ursula Le Guin.The entire Earthsea series. All of Terry Pratchett's Discworld

So many books, so little time.

Ursula Le Guin and Terry Pratchett are two very different authors, yet each has a powerful take on the human condition.

Le Guin's work crosses many genres, but she gets listed under fantasy, which is much too small a category for her. She grew up as the daughter of anthropologists at UC Berkeley, and has that eye. She's written some of the best political science analysis going, among other things, and has continuously explored gender/culture roles, especially in Left Hand of Darkness.

Always Coming Home has a young woman as its central character, but embodies an entire culture in this sprawling book. Of all her brilliant books, somehow this is the one that struck me as her masterwork.

(Stay away from anything on film about Earthsea until and unless Peter Jackson decides to have a go at it: Le Guin, from what I have read, has been bitterly disappointed at the efforts so far, and after seeing Miyazaki junior's animation in which he apparently was working out some Oedipal rage of his own, I can see why.)

Pratchett is a phenomenon all his own. In his best novels, set on Discworld, I generally find at least one good belly-laugh and one spate of tears that takes me utterly by surprise. Not bad for a world that rests on the back of four gigantic elephants who stand on the back of a gigantic turtle, where witches are respected but the wizards of the Unseen University are faintly ridiculous. Where Death, who knows he's an anthropomorphic personification, speaks in CAPITAL LETTERS and can still have an identity crisis.

Want to reconsider the origins of Santa Claus and whether we really need to have him after all? That would be Hogfather. (short answer: we do, and not for the reasons you think)

How nations decide to go to war for made-up reasons: Jingo. I swear I thought he was writing about the US in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, but when I checked the pub date, I found that as usual Pratchett had simply anticipated events.

In the middle of Witches Abroad there's a send-up of Hemingway that is worth the entire price of admission as three countrified women resting their broomsticks refuse to move when the young men and bulls come charging down the street... But mostly it's about how a happy ending can't be forced to happen.

What the heck --start anywhere, but since it's almost Solstice, you could give Hogfather a go.

[LadyHawkAZ]

115. Hogfather is the one I always recommend people start with

if they're planning to start the series.

Discworld was a masterpiece.

[Hekate]

116. De Chelonian Mobile

[LadyHawkAZ]

117. The Turtle Moves!

[GreenEyedLefty]

89. Books that changed me....

-Roots by Alex Haley (I read it as a teenager)
-Alice in Wonderland
-Night by Elie Wiesel
-Beloved by Toni Morrison
-The Stand by Stephen King

Others (near the top 5)
-Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl (the first half... the rest was about logotherapy which wasn't nearly as gripping as his story of survival)
-To Kill a Mockingbird (read as an adult)
-Jacob and His Brothers by Thomas Mann
-Shogun by James Clavell
-The Talisman by S. King and P. Straub

[LWolf]

91. I am overwhelmed by the idea

that there could possibly be a "top five." It's a principle of mine NOT to rank good things; they don't have to be in competition with each other to be worthy. Especially books. Having read more thousands of books than I can count over a lifetime, I can't pick a "top five." I can give you some that I've really appreciated over time.

Maybe it would be easier for me to list 5 (or so) worthy authors, and let you sort through their books.

In very random order:

Mark Twain
Barbara Kingsolver
Tom Robbins
Alfie Kohn
Margaret Atwood
Ursula Le Guin
Madeline L'Engle
John Keats
Mike McGrath
Charles de Lint
Kurt Vonnegut

There are many, many more. Those are the names that popped into my head this early morning.

[Scuba]

95. "Slaughterhouse Five" (Vonnegutt), "The Covenant" (Michener) ...

"To Kill a Mockingbird" (Lee), "Heart of Darkness" (Conrad) and "Pillars of the Earth" (Follett).

[Scuba]

96. Great thread, bookmarking for future library visits.

[Nay]

97. Many books mentioned above are favorites, but here are 5 more.

The Glass Bead Game -- Herman Hesse

Island -- Aldous Huxley (an island that has found a great way to live, but it doesn't last long)

Ecotopia -- E. Callenbach (the kind of eco-based society we could have had if we had tried even a little bit)

True Believer -- Eric Hoffer (wonder why so many people are so rigid and weird? Here's the answer)

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man -- John Perkins (probably too much for a kid, but still a good book)

[econoclast]

98. A few more than five...

Dune - Herbert
The attractions and dangers of the messianic urge

Silent Coup - Colodny & Gettlin
Maybe its true ... Maybe its BS. But you'll never think about Nixon, John Dean and Watergate in the same way again

Protector - Niven
Not your typical alien invasion sci fi. I love Niven's aliens. How can you not like a book whose central character is named "Phssthpok"?

Chaos - Gleick
How grad students invent a new branch of mathematics. Makes you rethink "random"

Eiger Dreams - Krakauer
By turns awe inspiring and hilarious

The Country of the Blind - Flynn
Best 'secret society runs the world' sci fi. The premise is so you obvious it makes you wonder why it isn't true.

A Time for Trumpets - MacDonald
WW2 history. Battle of the Bulge. All the things my father wouldn't tell me about his experience in WW2. For a more personal treatment "Company Commander" also by MacDonald

Holy Blood Holy Grail - Baiget, Leigh & Lincoln
Second best 'secret society runs the world' fiction that purports to be history

Born to Run - McDougall
Distance Running, sneakers, physical anthropology, Caballo Blanco and Mas Locos. This book inspired Flea ( Red Hot Chili Peppers ) to run a marathon.

The Reckoning - Halberstam
Everything wrong and right about American industry as told through the prism of Ford vs Datsun/Nissan

A Tour of the Calculus - Berkinski
Yes ... An actual calculus book! ( no equations ) I have several years of higher math under my belt, but I never really "got it" in a visceral way until I read this. What calculus really is, and why it is important.

[bhikkhu]

99. "Candide" by Voltaire (Butts' translation), "Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan

"The Proud Tower" by Barbara Tuchman, "Better Angels of Our Nature" by Steven Pinker, and "On the Shoulders of Giants", ed. by Steven Hawking.

Of course there are many more, but these are 5 books that have changed and improved the way I think of things, recently or in the past.

[meaculpa2011]

100. 1- Moby Dick, Herman Melville...

2- Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl
3- Pathmarks, Martin Heidegger
4- Wise Guys, Nicholas Pileggi
5- Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

[factsarenotfair]

106. Many of my favorites have already been listed.

A couple of my favorite authors not listed are:
Jonathan Kozol (Death at an Early Age, etc.)
Larry McMurtry (Terms of Endearment, etc.)
G.K. Chesterton (Father Brown mysteries, etc.)

[SidDithers]

108. Here's my 5 essentials...

In no particular order

The Shining - King
Smila's Sense of Snow - Hoag
The Blind Watchmaker - Dawkins
Demon Haunted World - Sagan
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Bradbury

Sid

[TeeYiYi]

110. kick ..nt

TYY

[Katashi_itto]

113. Disaster at the Pole: The Tragedy of the Airship Italia and the 1928 Nobile Expedition to the North

http://www.amazon.com/Disaster-Pole-Tragedy-Airship-Expedition/dp/1585740497/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387499896&sr=8-1&keywords=disaster+at+the+pole

[KittyWampus]

118. Mists of Avalon. Fun reading.

[diabeticman]

119. Since this is for your daughter I asked my wife for her top 5 recommendations

Pride and Predjudice Jane Austin. My wife has read this book ever 5 years since she was 15 and finds her view points and feeling about the Characters.

http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Jane-Austen-ebook/dp/B00CKYIENY/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387519540&sr=1-7&keywords=jane+austen


The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin
My wife said this book was a simple treat that made her laugh and just stays with you.

http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-My-Company-Novel-ebook/dp/B000FBJDDO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387519620&sr=1-1&keywords=the+pleasure+of+my+company


Wicked: The life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Granted she would not let a younger teenager but an older teen she would. Either way you never look at the movie and book series of Wizard of Oz in the same light again.

http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Life-Times-Witch-Years-ebook/dp/B000FC14JY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387520253&sr=1-1&keywords=Wicked

The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan
An interesting blend of Historical people in a novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Twentieth-Wife-Indu-Sundaresan-ebook/dp/B000FC0VXE/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387520005&sr=1-2&keywords=the+twentieth+wife


Anna To the Infinite Power by Mildred Ames

IF you can find this book. My wife was "forced" to read this book by a friend and all these years later she can't get the story out of her mind.

http://www.amazon.com/Anna-Infinite-Power-Mildred-Ames/dp/0590337327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387520354&sr=1-1&keywords=anna+to+the+infinite+power

[HarveyDarkey]

120. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned "The Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan

"The Foundation Trilogy" by Isaac Asimov
"The Once and Future King" - T.H. White
Many of my other favorites have already been listed.

[Jesus Malverde]

121. The easy way to stop smoking by Alan Carr

Changed my life and many others.

[distantearlywarning]

125. I am an eclectic reader, so it's hard to do a "Top Five Overall" list

But here is a list of some of my favorites by genre.

1) Children's Literature: Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (Runner Up: the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace)
2) Modern Fiction: The Secret History by Donna Tartt
3) Sci Fi: Dune by Frank Herbert
4) Fantasy: Song of Ice and Fire series (aka "Game of Thrones&quot by George R. R. Martin (Runner Up: The Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch)
5) Horror: The Stand by Steven King
6) Classic Fiction: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (Runner Up: the Sherlock Holmes stories/novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
7) Non-fiction: Brightsided by Barbara Ehrenreich
8) Travel Writing: Batfishing in the Rain Forest by Randy Wayne White

I love these threads. They give me good ideas about what to read next!

[PowerToThePeople]

127. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. n/t

[jmowreader]

129. I have two losts

First is the somber stuff

A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan. If you want to understand the debacle that was Vietnam, read this.

Slow Burn by Orrin DeForest. If you want to understand the debacles that were Iraq and Afghanistan, read this book about Vietnam.

It Can't Happen Here.

The Jungle.

Brave New World

Now for some fun:

I really liked Tales of the Jazz Age by Fitzgerald. It's a collection of short stories, one of which is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Wind in the Willows is a cute book. You've got to disregard the thought "how are unemployed animals paying for all this?" because you start to imagine mole porn and water rat drug rings...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a gripping tale of survival against insurmountable odds, namely the need to do $300 worth of drugs (in a time when drugs were reasonably priced) in one weekend and live to tell the tale. "Your Honor, I would like to direct the court's attention to Prosecution Exhibits A thru N, an incredible collection of narcotics the state lab testifies are sufficient to kill an entire platoon of United States Marines." His tale of the District Attorney's collection was better: he was in a room with three hundred narcs none of whom could tell he was stoned.

The Road to Wellville by Coraghessian Boyle serves two functions: it's both a fictionalized account of the Battle Creek Sanitarium (if you go to Battle Creek, which I have about six times, you can see the building John Harvey Kellogg built, as he chose the top of a low hill as his location.) and a story of struggle against authority. People paid huge money to go for a cure in a place that required giving up meat, coffee, food with flavor, sex, tobacco and alcohol then spent all their spare time trying to do all the shit Kellogg didn't want you doing anyway. Also discussed some of the more entertaining crackpot theories of the day, such as therapeutic female masturbation...which, incidentally, does work: three to six orgasms a day will keep the doctor wondering why your health is getting so much better.

And because we need five...The Untouchables by Eliot Ness is a great true crime book. Kevin Costner should be beaten severely for the movie he made, which was good but was nothing like the real story.

[Pharaoh]

130. The Dark Tower / gunslinger series by

Stephen King

There they stood, ranged along the hill-sides, met
To view the last of me, a living frame
For one more picture! in a sheet of flame
I saw them and I knew them all. And yet
Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set,
And blew “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came.”

[wilsonbooks]

131. Wow. I couldn't beginto narrow it down to 5 books or even

5 authors. The Autobiography of Malcolm X would be one of my all time favorites. Faulkner, Joyce, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Phillip K. Dick, Pynchon, James Lee Burke, Conrad, Dickens,Twain, Ian Rankin, Tolkin. Dashiell Hammet, A.C. Doyle, Elmore Leonard, Patrick O'Brian.
Raymond Chandler, John D. McDonnald. A little known favorite of mine is Islandia by Austin T. Wright

[Nay]

138. Oh, Islandia. I own it and have read it many times. You are the first person

to ever mention it anywhere. I could live there....that book and the book "Ecotopia" are two of the reasons I find living in the U.S. so tough. It could be so much better if we just had paid attention way back when.

[jazzimov]

132. I'm into series, so I can't narrow it down

to individual books except in a few cases. Oh, I'm also into Sci-Fi/Fantasy (although these are usually just excuses to make comparisons to "real" life).

1. The Foundation Trilogy (original) by Isaac Asimov
2. The Sword of Truth series (10+ books) by Terry Goodkind
3. Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkein
4. Time Enough for Love (individual novel) by Robert Heinlein
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (individual novel, actually makes you understand the movie) by Arthur C. Clarke

[Z_I_Peevey]

135. I made my list quickly, without looking at the other replies.

I'm curious to see how my choices overlap with those of others.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

[vaberella]

136. All of Dickens' Novels---he was a social activist of his time.

Others were

Silas Marner
Ordinary People
A Separate Piece
American Born Chinese (Graphic Novel)


That's about it.

[ucrdem]

137. Awesome thread ... here are the others (I had to look 'em up):

What top 5 books would you list when directing a teenager?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022137933

Results of my very very long "Top 5 Books for Teens" thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022144690

To the many fantastic choices so far I'll add a quick miscellany of old faves:

Dubliners, by James Joyce;
JFK and the Unspeakable, by James Douglass;
Middlemarch, by George Eliot;
4 Quartets, by TS Eliot;
Madame D, by Louise de Vilmorin.

... and for good measure a few runners up:

A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt;
Ulysses, Joyce again;
Les Jeux Sont Fait, by Jean Paul Sartre;
The Strategy of Peace, by John F. Kennedy;
Civilization and Its Discontents, by Sigmund Freud.

Anyway thanks and have a great holiday shopping season Prezel! and Happy Christmas to all at DU!

[ancianita]

139. You've made us all better readers for this. Thank you, PW! Now I've got a whole new reading list.

ALL reading changed my life as a teen, so I have to go with what has changed my actions in my life, then and since.

Non-fiction

The Book of Macrobiotics — Michio Kushi
The Road Less Traveled — M. Scott Peck
Stamped From the Beginning — Ibram X. Kendi
The Code Breaker — Walter Isaacson
Regeneration - Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation — Paul Hawken


Fiction

Siddhartha — Herman Hesse
Cryptonomicon, and SevenEves — Neal Stephenson
Song of Solomon — Toni Morrison
Any Sigma Force Series book, starting with Amazonia — James Rollins
Ministry for The Future — Kim Stanley Robinson


This thread should be on The Greatest Page!