If we're going with novels rather than books, I'll go with the following, although this is very much subject to change! It's a combination of things I've always loved and things I've recently been enamoured by.

Oh yeah, and it's become 'ten' rather than 'five' I'm afraid!

Richard Adams - Watership Down
William Thackeray - Vanity Fair
Audrey Niffenegger - Time Traveler's Wife
Stephen Fry - Making History
Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
Douglas Adams - So Long And Thanks For All The Fish
Donna Tartt - The Secret History
Graham Greene - Power and the Glory
Audrey Niffenegger - Her Fearful Symmetry
Victoria Hislop - The Island

Honourable mentions for a bit of Arthur C. Clarke too, Fred - namely Light of Other Days and 3001. Saw, I was also a fan of the Dr. Who Target books when younger. In a time before stuff was repeated or videos were affordable, it was my only way of experiencing old adventures! As for my favourite of them...I'm going to go with 'Terminus' today. An epic, sweeping space opera on page...too brightly lit, with bad sets, and badly designed monster on screen!

My favourite short story collection is a toss up between the complete Roald Dahl collection or Everything's Eventual by Stephen King.

Fred, some of my favourite books are factual, unfortunately. Just finished a cracking one on Disraeli and Gladstone called the Lion and the Unicorn. I'm a big fan of turn of the (last) century politics.

Re: Dickens I quite like Great Expectations, but it is frightfully slow and I imagine it was much more interesting to read in the installments in which it was originally intended. I think this argument also applies to six episode Dr. Who stories.

Stephen Fry stopping writing? Maybe he ran out of things to write! Whilst "The Stars' Tennis Balls" was excellent, it was also an excellent exercise in plagirism! Maybe there wasn't anything else he felt inspired to deal with?

I don't think the Liar is Fry at his best, really. Hippopotamus is pretty good fun, though.

And Time Traveller's Wife is pretty phenomenal.

I think you're thinking of 2061 or maybe (at a pinch) 3001. Most of what appeals about that one though is Frank Poole adapting to life in 3001.

Knock yourself out.

I'd want to include the first half of Down and Out in Paris and London in such a list.

The London part was written before Paris then tacked on to the end of Paris and it's just... the most contrived piece of writing ever.

I must admit, I don't think I've read a book* since I was at college 11 years ago! Time to hang my head in shame.

* Just realised that "Truth and Beauty" came out in 2003, so that's one!

Ooh, I forgot Catcher In The Rye. That book was a very important read to me when I was a young teenager, not sure I could read it again now though.

How do you read A Clockwork Orange? That seems an odd question, but... It's like a foreign language. How do you follow it?

Stephen, I totally agree that Dracula falls apart in the last 1/3rd.

I never had a problem reading A Clockwork Orange and really enjoy books with made up languages. Must admit I was already intimately familiar with the film before I picked up the novel, so I'm sure that helped.

I also love Watership Down.


I used to try to read posh literature but came to the realisation that I am an escapist fantasy and speculative fiction guy at heart.

I've been glancing at this thread meaning to make a list this past week, but have realised that would require an amount of effort and thought beyond that I'd usually put into a forum post.

But....
Stephen - Props on So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, absolutely my favourite of his too.
Saw - Catcher works well if you're a teenager (identifying with Holden) and equally well as a 30-something (realising he's the villain of the piece).
Fred - A Clockwork Orange is written with this in mind - you don't really miss anything. Also there's a dictionary which was included with the first few editions, not sure why they cut it out, but you can still download it. It's basically cockney with Russian loanwords.
Fuss Free - Dunno about the final third of Dracula, the book loses me when the protagonists start going on about how much they admire each-other.

Anyone ad any extreme reactions to a book? Has a book changed your life? It didn't change my life but when I finished Gerald's Game I had a feeling approaching euphoria. I was in the middle of a train holiday across Europe. I read the whole book in a week (which is very quick for me) and its a gruesome book in parts, I was squirming and clutching my neck as I read, can't imagine what other passengers thought. Then read the last fifty odd pages late at night in a hotel room then couldn't sleep because I was too pumped up. Good times.

1. 1984 - George Orwell
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K Rowling
3. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
4. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
5. Doctor Who: Feast of the Drowned (can't remember the author's name!)