What are your Top 5 Favorite Books of all time?

I try and read as much as I can when I'm not busy with work and life in general. I am curious as to what your Top 5 Favorite Books of all time are, and why if there is a reason. Here are mine...
1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
2. Europe, A History by Norman Davies
3. Children of the Holocoust
4. Elizabeth and Mary, Cousins, Rivals, Queens by Jane Dunn
5. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

As you can see I am a bit of a history geek...

My top 5 would have to be:
1. The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini
2. We Are All The Same-Jim Wooten
3. Yes. The 6 Harry Potter Books-J.K. Rowling
4. The Power of One- Bryce Courtenay
5. She's Come Undone-Wally Lamb

In no particular order...

Gosh, naming just a few is hard!

The Awakening- Kate Chopin
The Things they Carried- Tim O'Brien
Love in the Time of Cholera- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
And They Shall Know our Velocity- David Eggers
Look at Me- Jennifer Egan

It's almost impossible to narrow it down to 5. But if I have to ...

Ivo Andric - The Bridge on the Drina
Clive Barker - Cabal
Nick Cave - And the Ass saw the Angel
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Patrick Süsskind - Perfume

Dee007- You had 2 of the same as me!

1. The Power of One - Bryce Courteny
3. The 6 Harry Potter series -J.K. Rowling
2. The Egypt Game - Zilpha Keatley Snyder
4. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
5. Obey the Giant - Rick Poyner

Michelle- I don't know if you've read it or not but check out Tandia by Bryce Courtenay its like a continuation of The Power of One..also an excellent read! It seems to me we may have the same taste in books..I'm going to check out a couple of them on your list..I'll let you know how it goes

Aweseome question.

I guess my top five, life changing books would be:

1. Ghost Written - David Mitchell
2. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
3. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
4. Kim - Kipling
5. The Koran.

But I read soooooooooooooooooo much that this list changes daily.

Philip

Dostojewski - Notes from below or/and The brother Karamasov
Goethe - Willhelm Meisters Wanderjahre
Eco - Faucault's Pendulum
Hesse - Below the wheel
Rushdie - The Moor's Last Sigh
Mystry - A Fine Balance

That's just the beginning.

Adrian

Dee007 -

Just as a warning.. The Egypt game is a children's book, but still one of my favorites. You could probably finish it in a few hours. And Obey the Giant is a book of essays aabout design and pop culture. Pure non-fiction, but really interesting if you're into that kind of thing.

I will definately be checking out Tandia! Thanks for the advice!

In no particular order:

The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
The House of the Spirits, Isabelle Allende
His Dark Materials trilogy, Phillip Pullman
Red Branch, Morgan Llwellyn
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Phew, it was v difficult to narrow the list to 5!

BTW, I loved The Power of One, but I was a bit disappointed by Tandia. it wasn't a bad book, just not as good as its predecessor IMHO.

Grapes of Wrath-John Steinbeck
Of Human Bondage-Somerset Muaghm
Jesus Son-Dennis Johnson
Wonder Boys-Michael Chabon
Go Tell it on the Mountain-James Baldwin

Not a final list, just what sounds good at 2am

My favorite books of all time...

!1) Papillon- Henry Charriere

2)Lord of the Flies- William Golding
3)Memoirs of A Geisha- Arthur Golden
4)Girl in the Sea of Cortez- Peter Benchley
5)The Dove- Robin L. Graham

There you have it!

this week:

1)Ghostwritten - David Mitchell (i simply can't hype this enough)
2)A ring of endless light - Madeleine L'Engle (or maybe Many Waters, or maybe A swiftly Tilting Planet. Or maybe all her books - is that cheating?!!!)
3)Chocky - John Wyndham (again, I could have chosen any of his work!)
4)Therapy- David Lodge (ditto his other books)
5)FOundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov

Actually i think it would be best just to list my five favourite authors as of today!
1)david mitchell (coz cloud atlas is almost as good!)
2)Madeleine L'Engle (her kids books got me though being a teenager and her adult books are just as good)
3)John Wyndham (i can't imagine someone with a more elegantly simple yet extreme imagination)
4)David Lodge (he encompasses British humour)
5)Isaac Asimov (such a wonderful mix of science and thought in a galactic epic!)

C.S. Lewis--The Chronicles Of Narnia

(he and Tolkien were good friends, and if anyone ever swings thru Oxford in the U.K., you can sit in the bar--"Eagle and Child" where they hung out. Would love to have been a fly on the wall when they were brainstorming on their books....)

Changing weekly... but:

1) Of Human Bondage - Somerset Maughaum
2) The World According to Garp - John Irving -- recently added
3) The Contortionist's Handbook - Craig Clevenger
4) Wonder Boys - Chabon
5) Razor's Edge - Maughaum, again