I'm really excited by the interest expressed by everybody here. It's really good to know that others could be as excited as me!

Anyway, I thought of little games (as opposed to the Official Games that I hope to organise in the new year) of getting to know each other or better known as ice breakers I suppose...

Please tell us your top 5 most favourite books (and therefore must haves). Basically the 5 books you could not live without ever!

I'll start this off...

1. North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell
2. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. The Gift (or the Naming if you're outside of Australia) by Alison Croggon (the first book of the Pellinor series)
4. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
5. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

Hhmm... the first 2 was easy but the last 2 I really had to think. I know it's cheating a bit (re: HP series) but I really can't choose so I guess any of the book in the series would do.

1. The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers
2. Orbitsville, by Bob Shaw
3. The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski
4. Quick Service, by P. G. Wodehouse
5. The Wandering Jew, by Eugene Sue

I just realised how typically girlish my list is! hah, oh wells, I can't help it :)

Seth, I have been intrigued by Anubis Gates before but just haven't gotten around to it. It must be terrifically good for it to be no. 1 for you. I'll have to read it sometime soon. Was there movie?

I'm not really into sci-fi books but I love stargate SG-1, lol (i own the whole series on dvd)

No movie of Anubis Gates yet...although there's an intriguing thought!

Hmmm... these are really tough for me. There are very few books I will read a second or a third (or more) time, unless it is a series and then I have a ritual of reading all the books to prepare for the release of a new one (like the Harry Potter series). These books, however, I read again because I just love them. But I also read them over and over as a kid/teen. I haven't had a chance to see if I still really love them.

1. Dune
2. The Iliad and The Odyssey (can't think of one without the other.
3. Jane Eyre
4. The Hobbit
5. Gone With the Wind

1. The Harry Potter Collection (I know it is 7 books but I count it as one story)

2. Lord of the Rings trilogy

3. Frank McCourt's Trilogy

OK so that is really 13 books! :)

I'm not usually one to read a book more than once, even if it is a favorite, but here are some that I would consider reading again.

1. Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
2. Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox (yes, a children's book - I have actually read this a couple of times)
4. Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks
5. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Hmmm...Boy, this is hard! And, I suppose this list could change at any time.

1. The Witching Hour-Anne Rice
2. Water for Elephants-Sarah Gruen
3. Salems Lot-Stephen King
4. The Tipping Point-Malcom Gladwell
5. Life of Pi-Yann Martel

Shockingly ;-) most are recent reads.

Reaally too many to list, and the list changes all of the time, but for today I will say...

GONE WITH THE WIND
I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE
PILLARS OF THE EARTH
THE KITE RUNNER
BLINDNESS

Like Melissa, I usually don't read a book twice but here are some of my all-time favs...

Harry Potter series
Memoirs of a Geisha
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Dog's Life, Story of a Stray
Stephanie Plum series by Evanovich

Okay, I'm thinking of this as a desert island situation. If I could only have five ... forever:

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon

The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman

Harry Potter and ... I can't pick just one! Got to have 'em all.

Pride and Prejudice

And, for the sake of variety, I'm going to have to go with a short story book for my last pick ... either "The Night in Question" by Tobias Wolf or TC Boyle "Stories"

I have no doubt what my top three are:
* Harry Potter series
* Lord of the Rings series
* Jane Austen omnibus

So technically they're 16 different books, but they're almost inseparable for me! The other two making the top five would be Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sophie Kinsella's Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic.

the first three were easy, but got harder narrowing down to the last two.


1. The Bible
2. Heidi
3. The Alchemist
4. The Kite Runner
5. Yesterday I Cried

Sorry, but at the moment, I only have 4! I just don't have a fifth all time favorite, because none have fit that lovely honor yet....

But....

1. Eye Contact----Cammie McGoven
2. 1984-----------George Orwell
3. Frankienstien--Marry Shelly
4. Wicked Lovely--Melissa Marr
Those are my top four.

1. The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
2. The Hobbit - Tolkien
3. Tales of the Otori - Lian Hearn
4. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

=)

choosing from my not so impressive collection of books that i've read, i guess my top 5 would be:

1. HANNAH HURNHARD'S HINDS FEET IN HIGH PLACES
2. CORRIE TEN BOOM'S THE HIDING PLACE
3. DEAN KOONTZ'S LIGHTNING
4. JUDITH MCNAUGHT'S PERFECT (the ONLY romance novel i liked)
5. ROBERT LUDLUM'S BOURNE SERIES

Hm... This is TOUGH! I feel as if I've let down other books I'd swear by by choosing only 5. So I think I'll do it this way instead:

My top 5 fantasy books
1. The Lord of The Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Tehanu, Ursula K. LeGuin
3. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
4. I have to take a pick among Terry Pratchett's works here... Maybe Nightwatch. Or Monstrous Regiment.
5. Tales From Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin

My top 5 sci-fi books
1. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny (I know I haven't even finished reading it, but it's already a favorite)
2. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
3. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut
5. Dune, Frank Herbert

My top 5 young adult books
1. My Side of The Mountain, Jean Craighead George
2. Catherine Called Birdie, Karen Cushman
3. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4. Sue Townsend
4. Good Night, Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
5. A Day No Pig Would Die, Robert Newton Peck

These are books from different genres that I keep rereading:
1. The Persian Boy, Mary Renault
2. The Life of Pi, Yann Martel
3. Memory (a Vorkosigan saga book), Lois McMaster Bujold
4. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
5. Watership Down, Richard Adams

I know most of these titles are old, but I guess I'm still playing catch up with the classics, and enjoying it.

1.Jane Eyre
2.To Kill a Mockingbird
3. The Thirteenth Tale
4. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory(my favorite from childhood)
5. Eye of the World (or any Robert Jordan-the fantasy book that will get even non fantasy readers into the genre)

1 Harper Lee- To Kill a Mockingbird
I've read this 5 or 6 times from when I was age nine and again just last month--a wonderful book

2. Shamuel Shem MD- The House of God
The humor got me through college and I've re-read it several times instead if banging my head against a wall and quitting my job

3.Lewis Carroll- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
A childhood favorite in our family- My Great-Gran read this to my grandma, then my mom ,then me and we were truly blessed when she was still alive and able to read it to a fifth generation of little girls--including my first daughter

4. James Thurber- Dog Stories
Too funny..The Dog Who Bit People was a gift from my favorite teacher and became one of my children's favorite bed time stories.

5. Anne Rogers Clark and Andrew H. Brace- International Encyclopedia of Dogs
Very well written reference book-plus visiting children and adults love to look at the photos. This gives you all the standard information plus all good and bad points of each breed so you won't be shocked when what you thought was the perfect dog does not meet your expectations. ( I'm not a vet--I just talk to lots of wanna-be dog owners when I'm out with my pugs).

Ann, your Dog encyclopedia sounds wonderful!

Hi
Thanks. It is such a great resource. I need a new one as this one is pulled out so often that it is falling a part.

So my fifth book that I would add is Wicked Lovely by Mellisa Marr. It was one of the greatest fantasy/YA books I have ever read.

1. The Bible
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Persuasion
4. Harry Potter
5. Queen by Alex Haley

1. Enders Game
2. A Tale of Two Cities
3. The Golden Compass
4. Huckleberry Finn
5. Narnia series

1. Twilight (It's my guilty pleasure)
2. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. ( I still remember the first time I read it, and how magical it was. I've read it many times since.
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. Our Town
5. The Hiding Place

It is extremely difficult for me to form lists like this. I bet it would be completely different if I picked 5 next week.

1. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
2. My classic Dictionary
3. An old anthology of poetry that i just adore.
4. Persuasion - Jane Austen
5. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

This was hard. The first one was a clear winner, after that it just became a jumble of ten million books that i love.

Toughie! Okay here are my top 5 at the moment:

1. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
2. CANDLE IN THE DARKNESS by Lynn Austin
3. PAULA DEEN-IT AINT ALL ABOUT THE COOKING by Paula Deen
4. WIDOW OF THE SOUTH by Robert Hicks
5. LOVE COMES SOFTLY by Janette Oke

I do love the Harry Potter series but since it is 7 books but I can only pick 5 of all time, so, there is my list.

Since I recently have been reading the Twilight series, I just have to make 1 change:

1. The Bible
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Persuasion
4. Harry Potter
5. Twilight series

This was a hard list to write.

1. The Bible
2. A good dictionary
3. The Book Thief
4. The Hobbit
5. A Night in the Lonesome October

Hmmm

1. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Memoirs of a Geisha
5. The Book Thief

1. HP Series by J.K. Rowling
2. Private Series by Kate Brian
3. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. The Princess by Lori Wick
5. Case for Faith by Lee Strobel

1. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
3. The complete works of Robert E. Howard (mostly short stories)
4. The Bloodied Chamber by Angela Carter (again short story collection)
5. The Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

OK only 5...

1. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
2. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
3. On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
4. The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
5. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
1984 by George Orwell
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter Hamilton (not exactly one book, but I couldn't just pick one instead of the whole series)

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

As always, this is a list of the moment and I have many close runners-up...

Oh this is tough!

1. Tess of the D'Urberville's by Thomas Hardy
2. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3. The Harry Potter series (can that count as one!)
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris

I am such a classics junkie I have a hard time getting into more contemporary authors. Anything Austen or Bronte!

Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte
Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden
The Giving Tree-Hal Silverstein(I know it is considered a childrens book but I love it still)

1. ALEX CROSS SERIES - JAMES PATTERSON
2. THE WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB - JAMES PATTERSON
3. MAURA ISLES & JANE RIZZOLI SERIES - TESS GERRITSEN
4. SCARPETTA SERIES - PATRICIA CORNWELL
5. JACKIE COLLINS BOOKS.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
5. The Joyous Season by Patrick Dennis

I was good and stuck to just one book per author but it was damned hard to choose which books to choose for Austen, Heyer and Dennis.

1- Rice Mother
2- Kite Runner
3- Blindness
4- The Bell Jar
5- Life on the Color Line

In no particular Order

Can I change my list later?
Today...11/28/08 my top 5 are...
1. Audition-Barbara Walters
2. Water for Elephants-Sara Gruen
3. Harry Bosch Series-Michael Connelly
4. Lynley Havers Series-Elisabeth George
5. Shutter Island-Dennis Lehane

This is a tricky one, but I think I'll choose:

A Tale of Two Cities
Jane Eyre
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Mrs Dalloway
My Bones and My Flute

Thinker-I love The Scarlet Pimpernel!

The Scarlet Pimpernel is AWESOME! I also had no clue that it was part of a series until quite recently. The Elusive Pimpernel is another one but I haven't read it yet...

Just added The Elusive Pimpernel to my shelf, got to get a copy of this one!!

I love love love the Scarlet Pimpernel.

There's a whole series of them, check: http://www.blakeneymanor.com/series.html...

some of them you can find online as free e-books

Gee thanks for the site Karen.
Didn't know there were actually so many related titles, I'll check out the e-books if I can't get them in the stores.

Thanks again!!

1. Harry Potter Series
2. Chronicles of Narnia
3. The Princess Diaries
4. The Giver
5. Confessions of a Shopaholic

These books make me feel 10 years younger! LOL~