In absolutely no order:

1. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. An amazing, hilarious, and (imo) heart breaking classic. Alonso Quixano and Sancho Panza are some of my most favorite characters in Literature, and also my most favorite duo, second only to Mephistopheles and Faust, and speaking of which...

2. Faust (Goethe). This is perhaps one of the greatest works of art I have ever read. I wish I could read it in the Original German, as the english translation I read was beautifully crafted as it is. I mean, here's one of my favorite quotes ever:

Glitter is coined to meet the moment's rage; The genuine lives on from age to age

This is play of truly epic proportions. heaven and hell, love, death, ambition, regret, damnation, salvation... It has everything.

3. The Castle by Franz Kafka. A lot of people don't seem to love the Castle, but it's perhaps my most favorite Kafka work, and I've read everything he's ever done except Amerika. Something about the castle is very subliminal. If you asked me why I specifically prefer it over The Trial or any other of his amazing works, I couldn't really tell you. I think, however, that the Castle is Kafka at his purest. All of the characters are all so erratic and (imo) rat-like (best way to characterize them), and yet they feel so human in a darkly comedic fashion. It's so sad that this novel was never finished, ending in such a disappointing manner and with no ending, aside from a speculation of how it was supposed to end.

4.Ulysses by James Joyce. I bought this book mostly because I heard it was a difficult novel, and I LOVE challenges, and since I paid 12 bucks for it, I figured that would be the safety that would force me to read it. Little did I know, James Joyce and I are like brothers! I loved the Stream of Consciousness style of writing, I love the hilarity that the novel is soaked in, and I love the fact that he can make using the bathroom read like a poetic triumph of the human spirit. Stephen Dedalus is one of my favorite characters and someone I can relate to on a level not like any other character. I read Ulysses once a year, starting on Bloomsday. I loved Ulysses so much, I read most of his other works and can vouch for them as well, The only works of his I haven't read yet are his plays and Finnegans Wake, which I plan to read some day.

5.Symposium by Plato. A dialogue on Love that is so filled to the brim with content that I've read the dialogue more than 5 times in different translations and I still keep on finding new insights. If you think Plato was just a philosopher, reading the Symposium will convince you that if he didn't go into Philosophy, we would be praising him for creating some of the best plays ever written. He masterfully chooses each character, all of their words and actions carefully calculated with meaning and purpose. What seems like an unfinished conversation point or interruption actually is part of a larger point (most of the time very ironic and contradicting what certain characters say on love)

It's also one of the most enjoyable dialogues to read because the subject matter is something that is always interesting to everyone. Aren't we all fascinated by love?

It's funny that most people other than the OP (and theadvancedapes) have posted only fiction. As will I, in no particular order.

1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. A behemoth of a book, but well worth it. One of the most memorable books I have ever read. Unfortunately I gave it to an ex-girlfriend, and don't know if I'll get it back.

2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Another large book. I was at times put off by how, well, amazing the main character basically is, but the book is fantastically gripping, and I love the sense of age I get off of it.

3. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. The first Murakami book I read, and the one that made me fall in love with his writing. He has a way of combining the everyday and the uncanny that I can't get enough of. Well, actually I can; 1Q84, his latest offering, was a disappointment.

4. 1984 by George Orwell. Along with Murakami, he's one of my favourite authors, and I've read many of his books. 1984 was also the first of his that I read (unless it was Animal Farm) and I thought it was brilliant. Besides, 1984 is almost obligatory in Top Books posts... Speaking of non-fiction, Down and Out in Paris and London is a great read, too.

5. A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov. It's difficult to put my finger on why I like this book so much.

I also like A Song of Ice and Fire, but it's not one of my favourites. When's the next book coming out?

1. The Singularity Is Near (Ray Kurzweil) - projects the next 40-50 years of technological evolution and its implications for humanity

2. Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond) - attempts to understand why there was disproportionate cultural and technological development over the past 10,000 years

3. What It Means to be 98% Chimpanzee (Jonathan Marks) - deconstructs biological and social science and creates a new model for understanding human evolution, variation and behaviour

4. The Better Angels of Our Nature (Stephen Pinker) - explores the history of human violence from the Paleolithic to modern times

5. The Ancestor's Tale (Richard Dawkins) - creates an accessible reverse narrative of the past 3.5 billion years of biological evolution

Ah, Sophie's World is a great choice, although I found it a bit of a tough read myself. My own favorites tend to have a strong element of humor in them, though they're not necessarily light and fluffy. In no particular order:

1. The Order of Odd-Fish by James Kennedy, a ridiculously funny and clever young adult novel. Nothing has so consistently delighted me for so long.

2. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. This is generally known for the movie adaptation, but the book is so much bigger and more thoughtful. Despite being a young adult novel, its themes are rich and complex -- I've needed to re-read it several times.

3. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, the tale of a bloated, supercilious juggernaut of a man who steamrollers his way through New Orleans disdaining everything he sees. This is such a funny novel it has reduced me to tears in public.

4. The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem, a collection of robot fairy tales with a deep, philosophical undercurrent. This one is for the cerebral funny bone.

5. This is a bit of a wildcard slot, so here goes: Tiny Tim by Harry Stein, a rare, intimate portrait of a very troubled man. Tiny Tim is known for his whimsical ukulele covers, but this biography reveals a wildly irresponsible man-child with alien ideas about sex. Easily the best work of biography I've ever read, though the book itself can be hard to track down.

in no order numbers to keep me on track. I made a rule one book per author and kept myself to fiction.

1. Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz 2. The Aleph and other stories - Joge Luis Borges 3. The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton 4. Candide - Voltaire 5. Cain - Jose Saramago 6. Nine Humorous Tales - Anton Chekov 7. The Patricide Club - Ambrose Bierce 8. The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem 9. The First and Last men - Olaf Stapledon 10. Midnights Children- Salman Rusdie

Honorable Mentions The Stranger - Camus, Narcissus , Goldmund - Hess Droll Stories- Balzac.

I just noticed you only asked for 5 so I apologize but do not correct.

I'm a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan, especially post-apocalyptic fiction.

1. Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling

2. Dune by Frank Herbert

3. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

5. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Damn, you people just made me realize I have to read way more. For me it would have to be: -Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I just fell in love with the idea, the characters and everything about it. It was the first book I read for pleasure and I still read it every year. -American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I love fantasy, and the way Gaiman brought these Gods to life is just fantastic. -Harry Potter (1-7) by J.K. Rowling. Yes it is mostly for kids, but it´s so enjoyble for anyone. The way Rowling made this whole new world of magic within our world is brilliant. -The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. It´s probably the best Batman story, and it is for a reason. Miller reinvented Batman and he did it in a great way. -Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Another graphic novel where Gaiman brings to life the personification of dreams. It´s another fantastic read, even if you´re not into comic books.

Honorable mentions: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell The Hobbit by Tolkien Watchmen by Alan Moore V for Vendetta by Alan Moore Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis

1. Guns of August - Barbara Tuchman 2. Godel Escher Bach - Douglas Hofstadter 3. Moby Dick - Herman Mellville 4. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess 5. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

It's tough to pick a Top Five, but those are books that I'll recommend without hesitation. Ok, five more:

6. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller 7. Franny and Zooey - J. D. Salinger 8. The Lord of the Rings (all 3) - J. R. R. Tolkein 9. Broca's Brain - Carl Sagan 10. The Private Life of Chairman Mao - Dr. Li Zhisui

Ah bloody hell, this is going to be difficult. I'll try. This is in no order

1) Stranger In A Strange Land - Robert Heinlein

2) Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

3) Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

4) Prey - Michael Crichton

5) House Of Suns - Alastair Reynolds

Yeah, sci-fi is my thing mostly.

Honourable mention to Orson Scott Card, "Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson, all of Heinlein's works, most of Hunter S. Thompson's works, Sphere and Jurassic Park by Crichton, Richard Dawkins, Stephen King, and also Harry Potter, cause that shit was great when I was a kid.

EDIT: Shit I forgot Philip K. Dick. Man there are too many people to list.

1. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller. A great war novel bordering on the absurd. 2. East of Eden - John Steinbeck. A great American novel, covering generations of a single family and their lives in California. 3. A Bright Shining Lie - Neil Sheehan. A view of the Vietnam war through the life of one man. 4. It - Stephen King. Great horror from a great horror writer. 5. Women - Bukowski. Dirty, funny and sad, classic Bukowski.

1. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

2. The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov

3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

4. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

5. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

This is the first time I've included Calvin and Hobbes as a book in a list like this, but it is well deserving. They capture so much, so perfectly.

I enjoy sci-fi anthems. They inspire me, and The End of Eternity does so far more than most because of its ending. Man is destined for the stars.

I also enjoy Dickensian stories of the lives of quirky characters. My last two picks both made me cry.

Edit: Also Animal Farm

Edit: Also Ender's Game

Have you read Michael Lewis's The Big Short? It's a fascinating read, and makes you feel way smarter by the end.

Here's my five (all fiction):

1. Dubliners by James Joyce; arguably the most masterful short story collection ever written

2. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway; his seminal war book

3. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey; a really beautiful and out-there novel about Oregon loggers which will always have a special place in my memory

4. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor; some of the funniest and darkest stories I've ever read

5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens; just a classic, page-turning book

My favorite books are ones that got me back into reading, all recommended by more literary friends. They're mostly simple, concise, and pretty mainstream. In no particular order: 1. Candide by Voltaire 2. The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. The first in the list that I'd read. A bit boring at first, especially for me as an inexperienced reader, probably typical of Hemingway. 3. Catch-22 by Heller 4. Infinite Jest or Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by Wallace 5. The Iliad by Homer

Both (1.) The Kite Runner and (2.) A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini are absolutely fabulous. These two books made the New York Times' Best Sellers list. They historical fiction and are written with so much raw emotion that the reader can't help but believe it's true. The setting of both is in Afganistan during the Russian occupation, Mujahideen take over, and Taliban take over. Watch as Afghan flowers begin to grow thorns.

3. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is a classic and well worth its fame. Read this book.

4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding is another classic and one of my favorite "stranded/ lost/survival" stories. It's about a group a young English boys whose airplane crashes on an uninhabited island. Eventually, conflict arrises about the roles of leadership and tribes emerge.

5. I have to put Eragon by Christopher Paolini on this list because of my falling in love with dragons and anything to do with them stage. If you have seen the movie, you most likely wanted your money back or labeled it "meh". However, this book is so much more complex than the movie which left out the climax of all things. From the wiki:

The book tells the story of a young farm boy named Eragon, who finds a mysterious stone in the mountains. A dragon he later names Saphira hatches from the stone, which was really an egg. When the evil King Galbatorix finds out about Eragon and his dragon, he sends his servants, the Ra'zac, after them in an effort to capture them. Eragon and Saphira are forced to flee from their hometown, and decide to search for the Varden, a group of rebels who want to see the downfall of Galbatorix.

5 of my favorites, in no particular order:

Vurt - by Jeff Noon A must read for cyberpunk enthusiasts, IMHO

Permanence - by Karl Schroeder Great space opera with a female protagonist

World War Z - by Max Brooks also looking forward to the movie...

Ender's Shadow - by Orson Scott Card this, for me, was the more interesting side of the Ender story

Programming the Universe - by Seth Lloyd quantum computing and how it relates to the universe at large

1. House of leaves because it taught me that you don't need to make a book like a book for it to be a good book

2. Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Which taught me that there can be Comedic Science Fiction

3. John Dies At the End It taught me that there can be unorthodox ways of telling a story and learning there are other takes on events

4. Snow Crash Which gave me a better way to look at the ability words have on a society as well as showing how two different worlds can be

5. Enders Game Taught me how to think like a kid who is able to understand adults but still have an imagination

1. The Instructions by Adam Levin 2. Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks 3. The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin 4. Dune by Frank Herbert 5. Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg

The Instructions is a mostly unknown volume. It details four adventurous, mystical and action- and dialogue-packed days in the life of the 10 year-old Gurion Maccabee, who believes he is a messiah (or potential messiah). At over a thousand pages, this is a hard read, but a very satisfying one.

Consider Phlebas is my quintessential action/space-opera. It's both smart and visceral, and introduces the reader to the Culture universe in a unique perspective: it's opponent's.

The Conquest of Bread details, to varying degrees of accuracy, my idea of anarchy-in-action. Obviously it is very dated, and there are many other, more recent, books and online collections that build on it and others, but it holds a certain sentimental value for me, as it introduced me to the concepts and rationale behind anarchism.

Dune for the world within. I feel that if you've read it, this should be fairly self explanatory.

Seems counter intuitive that a book about a man, well into his thirties/in his early forties, coming to terms with his competence leaving him would resonate so loudly with my 17 year old self (at the time). And yet this novel presents some of the best character-driven plot I've had the pleasure of reading. The phrase 'from bad to worse' comes to mind when thinking about this novel, and there isn't a single person I wouldn't recommend it to.

Off-the-cuff, and weighted towards what I've been reading lately:

1. Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Currently on book 5. 2. The Hyperion stories, Dan Simmons. 3. Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin. 4. Watchmen, graphic novel, Alan Moore. 5. American Gods, Gaiman.

(No order)

1. A Farewell to Arms 2. This Side of Paradise 3. Bill Graham Presents 4. Hitch-22 5. The House With a Clock in It's Walls (when I was young)

1. Fountainhead 2. Catcher in the Rye 3. Animal Farm & 1984 4. Selected Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorn 5. The Awakening 6. Crime and Punishment 7. Girl, Interrupted 8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 9. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 10. Lord of the Flies

I think in general I really enjoy reading Utopian ideals, even if they are expressed through insanity.

1 - City of Thieves by David Benioff: fictional, but based off his father's life during WWII. It is his adventures in trying to find eggs in Petersburg and German occupied territory for a general's daughter's wedding.

2 - Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: post-civil war Barcelona, which gives us a rich atmosphere for this beautiful tale. I can't give a decent synopsis. Both this and the former book are rather funny, but neither is near a comedy; the stories are both too grave.

3 - Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe: a good sci-fi/fantasy book. It's broken into a tetralogy. Extremely deep characters and vivid descriptions. A very eccentric storyline, and deep.

4 - any Calvin and Hobbes book by Bill Watterson: I grew up wanting to be Calvin, yet I grew up near opposite. Still envy the boy. If you don't count comics, I'll throw in Stephen Bietsy's Man-of-War here instead, a book that lasted me my childhood, but didn't stay with me as Calvin and Hobbes did.

5 - Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood: futuristic; we grow chicken meat on plants, harvest human organs from pigs, create diseases, etc. Real biology advancement heavy. Focuses on the friend of a genius and the life he lived up until the disaster and how he attempts to reconcile with his relation to it.

1. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien 2. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut 3. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini 4. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy - Eric Metaxas 5. The Plague - Albert Camus

1. The Foundation Series - by Isaac Asimov 2. The Dark Tower series - by Stephen King 3. Anna Karenina - by Leo Tolstoy 4. Stranger in a Strange Land - by Robert Heinlein 5. The Lost World - by Arthur Conan Doyle

1. Anything by Jasper Fforde 2. Anything by Lemony Snicket 3. Anything by JRR Tolkien 4. Anything by PG Wodehouse 5. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King

In no particular order

Angela's Ashes- its a story of an Irish immigrant family seen through the eyes of their oldest son. It's ridiculously sad, but at the same time the writing makes me crack up through my tears. Absolutely one of the best books I've ever read.

East of Eden- definitely my favorite Steinbeck book. I loved Steinbeck growing up, and I think that this was definitely his masterpiece.

The Old Man and the Sea- when I first read this book as a kid I thought, "well this is boring". Several years later, when I reread it for a paper I was writing, I understood Hemingway much more, his style was fantastic and I fell in love with the book immediately.

The Harry Potter Series- simply because I grew up with the books, and it's had such a large impact on my generation. Rowling is the reason I loved reading as a teenager and the reason I love all of these other books. I absolutely love the story and reread the series once every few years.

I can't think of a fifth one right now, I'll come back and edit this post when I figure one out

All of these books have some kind of a magical realism, or post-modernism element. So if you're not into it I would skip over this list. 1) As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 2) The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien 3) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 4) The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie 5) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I read a lot and this list is very incomplete: 1) 1984 by George Orwell, the most important book ever written IMO. It reveals, explains, shocks and sharpens your mind. 2) The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, the best explanation for why there is no god. 3) Die Klavierspielerin (Don't know the english title, probably The Piano Player) by Elfriede Jelinek, I must have read it 5 times already and it never stops to lure me into the weird world of sexual repression and the beauty of language. 4) De Dömdas Ö (The Island of the Damned) by Stig Dagerman, a very bleak and moving look at the human condition, beautifully written in just a couple of days when Stig was retreating on an island. 5) Harry Potter (parts 1-7), for the pure joy of reading it. After 100 years it will still be a classic.

1. 1984, which we know you already know what it's about. 2.The Hitchhikers Guide the Galaxy, or rather all 5 in the trilogy. 3. The Series of Unfortunate Events, which here means a great book. 4. The Hobbit 5. Does Wikipedia count?

Like your first, third and fourth well enough. There are better sabremetrics books out there, but none more accessible.

My list:

1. Tolkien's The Silmarillion 2. Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities 3. Asimov's Foundation and sequels 4. Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and sequel 5. Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise

1) Long Dark Tea Time of the soul by Douglas Adams

2)The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins

3)Mortality by Hitchens

4) My First summer in the Sierra's by John Muir

5) Early Days in the Range of Light by Daniel Arnold

1. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It is a must must must must must must must must must must read for every human being. 2. The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten. It's essentially about the zen of music. 3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Beautiful book about the importance of keeping your eyes open to the world around you. 4. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. 5. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. It's honestly a difficult read because it follows Native American's view of cyclical time. Beautiful writing with a large theme of appreciation.

1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Really interesting situation, and the pacing and sequence of events is flawless.

2. The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. Funny if inappropriate book about ecoterrorism, written from the point of view of the ecoterrorists.

3. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin. This is just a lovely high fantasy book with a (mostly) great series accompanying.

4. Sabriel by Garth Nix. Honestly this was just really entertaining, with a well developed and nonstandard mechanic being central.

5. Foundation by Isaac Asimov, and the rest of the series. Predictions of the future, scifi, politics, group psychology, really good stuff.

1. "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George RR Martin. No explanation necessary. Have you picked up "The Lands of Ice and Fire"? It's a collection of maps of the world and it gives you a peek into what the east looks like, including Yi Ti and Asshai.

2. "Amazing Grace" by Jonathan Kozol is an amazing non-fiction book that looks into the lives of the people who live and work in the South Bronx. It's very powerful and I read it straight through.

3. "My Uncle Oswald" by Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl's uncle discovers the world's most powerful aphrodisiac and concocts a scheme that involves having his beautiful female acquaintance use it on the most famous men in Europe. The only book that has ever made me laugh out loud.

4. "My Life" by Bill Clinton. It's huge but it's very well-written and it gives you great insight into past and current politics. I recommend reading it back to back with Hillary Rodham Clinton's "Living History" as they really complement each other nicely.

5. "The Alchemist's Door" by Lisa Goldstein. Not everyone likes this book but it was one of my favorite growing up and I still enjoy rereading it. It's historical fantasy featuring the court magician of Elizabeth I . I like the blend of history and fantasy.

Your number five pick, could you give a little more story behind it? Sounds interesting