The five greatest books

Tess of the d'urbervilles definitely, i will always be in love with Tess. The History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters - Julian Barnes, Hundred years of solitude, probably wuthering heights as well and any book of William Hazlitt's essays. God, what boring choices...

wuthering heights? i hated that book....

Why did you hate it Liana?

Wolfgirl, I agree and identify with your comments on Stephen Kings 'On Writing' I borrowed it from a friend I have to say with a good deal of sceptism, but was surprised to find there were some gems of advice on the craft of fiction embodied in it. M

If On a Winter's Night A Traveller.. bloody marvellous! Well done jonsmalldon!! If you like that I'm hoping you've read The Winners or Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar.. just as good. Dvorak in Love by Josef Skvorecky??.. forget the greatest books ever tho.. it changes every day, doesn't it??

Interesting choice..agree on one..titus groan..my other foour would have to be..... Howards End (Forster), 1984, To The Lighthouse and last but by no means least Siberia by Colin Thubron.

Wuthering Heights - complex, cruel, ahead of its' time and strangely containing many relevant points about our lives today ie than every man will turn against his neighbour etc The Siege by Helen Dunmore - this affected me emotionally more than every other book I have ever read. Agree fully on Titus Groan - what an astonishing book, that grows in richness upon each new reading. On Writing by Stephen King - this might be a contentious one but as flawed as King is, this book speaks to me. Island - Aldous Huxley - more a treatise on an alternative way of life than a novel but rich, intelligent and intriguing nevertheless. You know...I cannot pick just five because I love so many books for so many reasons, at different times in my life. What about Tess Of The D'urbervilles, The Shipping News etc not to mention all those amazing children's books like The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, Elidor, I Am David. I love Gogol and some Tolstoy, but I also love Reginald Hill. What of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula. The Ghost Road.......ah dammit What makes a book great? Lyricism, clever use of vocabulary, metaphor, emotional impact? I used to love Martin Amis but I cannot connect with him now (can he truly connect himself?). I love the gangly Will Self but he is so smug and ridiculous at times. Sigh.

hmm ... jazz/james ... it is very silly to talk to yourself ... but anyway, here are my selections: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - Osama Bin Laden (Random House) Lord of the Rings - Michael Barrymore (Rough Guides Ltd) Dr. Strangelove - Edwina Currie (Harpy C'rringe) A Passage to India - John Major (Bantam) War and Pi.ss - Dubbya (Pandora) The Invisible Man - Ian Duncan Smith (Chancery House) The Fisher King - Charles Windsor Battenburg Cake (Corgi) A Tale of Two Titties - Archer and Aitkin (Fable and Fable) The Blair Witch Project - Tone (Puffin) Jane's Eurofighter Manual - Billybob (Sterling) Lord of the Noflies - Saddam Hussein (no Deals and BOOM) Gullible's Travels - Name Your favorite (sic) American Here (Woodhead Publishing Ltd) Tiger, My Part in his Downfall - Monty (Penguin) Thank you for your time, the pleasure was all mine Ryder Hazard (any similarity between this spoof post and real people is purely intentional)

Not following on from the post above ... The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster - I just didn't realise you could write like that. In Siberia by Colin Thubron - A brilliant, compelling travel book in which the character of the author comes through without blocking the area through which he's travelling. If On A Winter's Night A Travller by Italo Calvino - Bizarre, brilliant, unique. Under the Skin by Michel Faber - The indescribable debut novel from the now famous scribbler. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood - How to take historical fact and weave intelligent fiction from it.