I know. I'm very impressed. I'm crap.

Wewll, if it's about books you've read and re-read, or that left a devastating impression on you, or that you just love, mine'd be:

Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
Rachel Rosing, Howard Spring
My Secret Dream of You, Nuala O'Faolain
Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe
The Passion, Jeanette Winterson

I think.

My Amazon wish list is now growing at an alarming rate...

My God, what have I done?

Never realised it would be so hard until I took my own medicine. A website where we can vote could be great, maybe we could extend our lists. Anyway, here's my offering...

The Bridge - Iain Banks
Never Let Me Go - Kazou Ishiguro
Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C Clarke
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

and...

The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown (sorry - terrible writing in places, but I read it before the hype and it knocked me for six).

Colin M

I thought DVC was a good pulp read. I expected to hate it after all I'd heard, but it just suffered from too much hype. It wasn't any worse than your average Grisham.

How could I forget The Wasp Factory? I based my whole method of dealing with irritating people on that!

JB

Lord this is hard.
Secret History - Donna Tartt
Trainspotting - Irvin Welsh
We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver
Pig Island - Mo Hayder
Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain...

But, but but...what about Clive Barker's Books of Blood, and Crime and Punishment, and Possession, and The Lion the Wicht and the Wardrobe...and everything by Minette Walters.

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And The BellJar...

Oh yes, My Secret Dream of You - that was a lovely book. I loved The Woman's Room too when I read it - and I'm glad there's another Carson McCullers fan here! Also love both Donna Tartt books and Diary of a Nobody. Heard "Prayer for Owen Meaning" as a radio play but tnot that impressed, though absolutely loved "The World According to Garp". Much preferred "A Child In Time" to "atonement" , loved "mocking Bird" - my kids are doing it for GCSE; would have included Jane Eyre, Frost in May and Great Expectations and loads of Graham Green and Madame Bovary but had run out of numbers. The Secret Garden will go on my best children's alongside The Silver Sword (sniff) and The Swish of the Curtain. AM I cheating?

AM I cheating

?

No. It HAS to be a separate list for kids books, otherwise it is just too difficult to stick to 5.

Good thread.

Here's mine:

White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Misery - Stephen King
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby

(Could have put anything by Chuck Palahniuk and Nick Hornby in but plumped for those).

I think White Teeth is just amazing.

Jase

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Just had a thought - is this a novel only list because if so I'll have to remove Fever Pitch and put in How to be Good by Nick Hornby!

Jem - The Silver Sword! That is my all time favourite children's novel. I'm willing my kids to grow old enough for me to read it to them. And Blackhearts in Battersea and Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

Anna's reminded me of Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.

Yes, Of Mice And Men - a tiny book with so much in it.

Ah, so many gorgeous books I've been reminded of... And yes, thinking of enjoyed the most (though even that's not a straightforward criterion, really, is it?). If we're using JB's knocked-me-for-six criterion, or my desert-island-re-reading criterion,

Adult:

Robert Nye/The Voyage of the Destiny
Hilary Mantel/A Place of Greater Safety
E H Young/Miss Mole
Jane Austen/Emma
Dodie Smith/I Capture the Castle

and I'd put money on there not being a single other WW'er who's read the Young, and possible not the Nye - a brilliant and terribly underrated novel. Except it's dreadfully sad, so I might have to substitute Gaudy Night.

Child:

Antonia Forest/The Players and the Rebels
Penelope Farmer/Charlotte Sometimes
Frances Hodgson Burnett/A Little Princess
Rosemary Sutcliffe/The Armourer's House
Barbara Willard/The Sprig of Broom quartet

again, the Willard's dreadfully sad, so maybe A Hundred and One Dalmations...

Emma

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Of course, the alternative would be the complete works of Georgette Heyer, but a) that would be too many and b) I know most of them almost by heart.

what about Clive Barker's Books of Blood?

I love you for that Helen. It's official.

Also, Wolves of Willoughby Chase, excellent.

JB

Ooo, Fever Pitch - I forgot Fever Pitch!

This is impossible.

R x

Ah, JB, I'm old enough to be your Mother. And am currently sporting a ludicrous 70s mullet that George Best would be proud of. But ta.
I was first given a copy of Books of Blood by a rather charming, though starnge, young man. Not a romantic gesture I'll give you, but it was one of the most fabulous books I'd ever read.
I like all his stuff actually. Weaveworld is very good.
I met him once, before he went to America, and asked him out...
HB x