October 2025
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    Pretty straightforward, but wanting to know what everybody considers their all-time favorite books that they’ve read.

    Books so good, you would want them in your personal library and would recommend it to almost anyone.

    by Neon_Aurora451

    24 Comments

    1. Superballs2000 on

      Lonesome Dove, Deliverance, No Country For Old Men, The Road, A Confederacy of Dunces

    2. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

      North Woods by Daniel Mason

      The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

      Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

      The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

      The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

      Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

      The Princess Bride by William Goldman

    3. anericanaudhdwhore on

      a tree grows in Brooklyn, Anne of green gables,  Prozac nation, the bell jar, the newest Sylvia Plath biography, the Joan Didion biography, the Rosemary Kennedy biography, the really radical Helen Keller biography, Kate zambreno books, being Lolita, my dark Vanessa, three women, trick mirror

    4. WileEandtheHiFi on

      This is a tough one, but here are a few …

      Classics: Jane Austen is a favorite, especially Emma and Persuasion. Beautiful prose and witty writing that is gentle and easy to consume while still providing food for thought.

      Sci-Fi: The entire Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. Funny, suspenseful, great world building. Just all around fantanstic series that people who enjoy all different genres have gotten excited about.

      Historical Fiction: City of Thieves by David Benioff. Set during WWII it follows two young men who are trying to find eggs (yes, really) during the siege of Leningrad. The historical details woven in are realistic and while it get dark in places it also manages to have quite a bit of humor.

      Non-Fiction: The Human Cosmos: Civilization and the Stars by Jo Marchant. Just wow. A fascinating read that covers thousands of years of human history through our connections with the stars. Broken into broad catagories such as Time, Faith, Land, and Ocean each chapter covers various discoveries and how cultures throughout history incorporated these discoveries into their daily lives, technology, and beliefs.

      I have more but these cover a good spread of books that I have recommened to almost anyone who enjoys reading.

    5. sadderskeleton on

      I’ll pick seven so we’re not here all day lol. 1) The Likeness by Tana French. 2) Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. 3) Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. 4) Morningstar by Pierce Brown. 5) The Devil in the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. 6) Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson. 7) Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen.

    6. SomeKindoflove27 on

      **The Secret History** by Donna Tarte

      **my Cousin Rachel** by Daphne Du Maurier

      **The Beach** by Alex Garland

      **I am legend** by Richard Matheson

      **misery** by Stephen King

    7. A Gentleman in Moscow

      King Leopold’s Ghost

      The Hobbit

      The Martian

      The River of Doubt
      – Teddy Roosevelt attempting to map the most dangerous and mysterious river in the Amazon. It is written by Candice Millard too who is without a doubt the best history writer we have today. Her book about the Garfield assassination is also amazing.

      Tales from the Ant World
      – E.O. Wilson was the foremost ant expert in the world and head of the Entomology department at Harvard. Each chapter is just a different amazing thing ants can do, but Wilson is so passionate and energetic about ants it becomes contagious.

      How to Hide an Empire
      – Really good history book about America’s imperialism. I had no idea so many parts of the world used to be owned by America

      A Life on our Planet
      – This is by David Attenborough and it’s half memoir about his experiences creating the nature documentary genre and half about climate change and habitat destruction he’s seen first hand. It’s so good and I think he narrates the audiobook version.

    8. I have a list of my top 10 reads ever that I update if a new favorite comes my way:

      The Secret History, The Expanse, Light From Other Stars, The Song of Achilles, The Blacktongue Thief, I Who Have Never Known Men, Kindred, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Piranesi, In the Dream House

    9. Background-Factor433 on

      The Last Aloha by Gaellen Quinn.

      Rise of the Manō by Leialoha Humphreys.

      Dragonfruit by Malia Mattoch McManus.

      Never Whistle at Night.

      Mauna Kea by Tom Peek.

      To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose.

      Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes.

      Reclaiming Kalākaua by Tiffany Lani Ing.

    10. Capable_Pipe5629 on

      The metamorphosis by Kafka

      Beloved by Toni Morrison

      More contemporarirly my fav books of the last few years:

      Annie bot

      Sorrow & bliss

      Stay and fight

      Oryx and crake

      My year of rest and relaxation

      Apparently if you put “and” in the title I’m bound to like it 😅

      I like creepy, disturbing books, books with main characters that have weird internal motivations, books that are subtle with their themes/messages instead of beating you over the head with it, books that have a dark humor and satire

    11. 1. Mistborn era 2 – Brandon Sanderson – Especially the last book in this series, but whole series is really great

      2. Project hail mary – Andy Weir – the way the author writes and explains complex science is so cool

      3. Talking to strangers – Malcolm Gladwell – extremely thought provoking. I was nervous to read this at first but definitely was hooked.

      4. Red rising – damn I wish I could read this series again for the first time

      5. Gods and monsters – Shelby Mahurin – the way death is presented was really beautiful to me.

    12. Squirrelhenge on

      Lord of the rings
      A prayer for Owen Meany
      One hundred years of solitude
      Blindness
      Murderbot series
      Rivers of London series
      Vorkosigan saga
      Broken Earth trilogy
      The Prophet
      Cyrano de Bergerac

    13. RubyTheHumanFigure on

      Well, my time is far from over but a few that come to mind are::

      The Alienist by Caleb Carr

      One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

      To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

      Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

      Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

      The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

      Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

      The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

      Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

      Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton

      The Haunting of Hill House, & We Have Always Loved in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

      Something Wicked This Way Comes, & The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

      The Little Prince by Antione Saint-Exupery

      Dracula by Bram Stoker

      The Call of the Wild by Jack London

      His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

      The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

      101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

      It, Pet Sematary, & Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

      A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

      Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

      The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd
      Alexander

      The Curse of Lono by Hunter S. Thompson

      Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton

      The Wastelands, & Wizard & Glass by Stephen King

      Peter Pan by James M. Barrie

      A Little Princess by Frances Hodgeson Burnett

      Matilda, The Witches, James & the Giant Peach, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, & Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

      The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

      The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

      Night by Elie Wiesel

      The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

      Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas by Fredrick Douglas

      Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

      The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

      News of the World by Paulette Jules

      Wyldling Hall by Elizabeth Hand

      The Stranger Beside Me by Anne Rule

      Two or Three Things I Know for Sure by Dorothy Allison

      Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

      The Juniper Game by Sherryl Jordan

      The World of Pooh by A. A. Milne

      Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

      Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

      The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

      The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

      Treasure Island, & Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

      Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

      Lord of the Flies by William Golding

      Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

    14. *The Bridge of San Luis Rey* by Thornton Wilder

      *The Lord of the Rings* by JRR Tolkien (fantasy)

      *Till We Have Faces* by CS Lewis (fantasy)

      *Watership Down* by Richard Adams (fantasy)

      *Lonesome Dove* by Larry McMurtry

      *HMS Surprise* by Patrick O’Brian (third in a series but I read this one first)

      *Crime and Punishment* by Dostoevsky (liked this better than *The Brothers Karamazov* but maybe because it’s more simple and focused on a smaller cast of characters)

      *Northanger Abbey* by Jane Austen

      *Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy* by John le Carre

      *Whose Body?* by Dorothy L. Sayers (detective fiction)

      *The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie* by Alan Bradley (detective fiction)

      *Dracula* by Bram Stoker

      *The Last Unicorn* by Peter S. Beagle (fantasy)

      —–

      Some childhood favorites:

      *The Boxcar Children* by Gertrude Chandler Warner

      *Little House on the Prairie* by Laura Ingalls Wilder (I liked the whole series but this specific one had the best combination of travel and wilderness survival for me)

      *The Changeling* by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

      *The Yearling* by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

      *Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh* by Robert C. O’Brien

      *Kidnapped* by Robert Louis Stevenson

      *The Hobbit* by JRR Tolkien

      —–
      Favorites from my Christian-fiction era (that might not carry over as well as, say, Dostoevsky):

      *The Ball and the Cross* by GK Chesterton

      *A Cry of Stone* by Michael D. O’Brien (the other one of his that affected me most at the time was *Sophia House*; but *The Fool of New York City* might be his most enjoyable book for people who aren’t O’Brien’s specific type of Catholic)

      —–
      Some non-fiction (I don’t read and remember enough of it):

      *1491* by Charles Mann (pre-Columbian American history)

      *I See By My Outfit* by Peter S. Beagle (travel memoir)

    15. *1Q84* by Haruki Murakami

      *Demon Copperhead* by Barbara Kingsolver

      *When Breath Becomes Air* by Paul Kalanithi

      *The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue* by V.E. Schwab

      *Shark Heart* by Emily Habeck

      *Educated* by Tara Westover

    16. youknowiamasussexnow on

      Classics –

      Rebecca

      A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

      The Great Gatsby

      Newer –

      Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

      A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

      All Elizabeth Strout books (Olive Kitteridge etc)

      The Heart’s Invisible Furies

      Three Junes

      The Secret History

      Blood, Bones & Butter (memoir)

      The Correspondent

    17. Fancy-Restaurant4136 on

      Watership Down, Remains of the Day, Death of Ivan illych, a tree grows in Brooklyn, the book thief, the heart’s invisible furies by John Boyne. up the down staircase, all creatures great and small

    18. ConstantReader666 on

      Just the very best top reads in random order,

      David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

      Jack Dawkins by Charlton Daines

      To Dance With Dragons by Jaq D. Hawkins

      The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny

      Time Shifters by Shanna Lauffey

      A Halloween Tale by Austin Crawley

      Joyland by Stephen King

      Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey

      Watership Down by Richard Adams

      The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

      Godstalk by P.C. Hodgell

      Alaric the Goth by Marcel Brion

      Phantom by Susan Kay

      Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

      Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

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