Books I have read and loved
Tom Wolfe - Bonfire of the Vanities. Great story
Joseph Heller - Catch 22. Lives up to the hype
Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Brilliant
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago. Feel the bile. Also recommend Cancer Ward and The First Circle
David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas. Unique. Also recommend Number 9 Dream
Aravind Adiga - The White Tiger. Unbelievable for a first novel
Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall. Great take on the historical novel
Mario Vargas Lhosa - The Feast of the Goat. Very dark
Brett Easton Ellis - American psycho. Savage genius
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 100 years of solitude. Brilliant prose
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love in the time of cholera. Even better
Roberto Bolano - 2666. Turns the idea of the novel on its head
Arthur C Clarke - The songs of distant earth. Utterly melancholy
George Orwell - 1984. Classic
David Lewis - Liar's Poker. Great insight into investment banking
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory. Very dark, very funny. Love anything by Iain Banks/Iain M Banks, have all his books.
Terry Pratchett - Discworld series. Nuff said.
Steven Runciman - The Sicilian Vespers. Great piece of historical writing
Simon Sebag Montefiore - Stalin: The court of the red tsar. Superbly researched.
Frank Herbert - Dune series. Unique. Do not bother with the prequels written by his son and Kevin J Anderson
Robert Graves - I Claudius/Claudius the God. Very atmospheric
JG Ballard - Empire of the Sun. Great writer
Peter F Hamilton - Void trilogy. Pleasingly escapist
Rudyard Kipling - Stalky & Co. Hilarious
William Gibson - Neuromancer. Invented cyberpunk
Salman Rushdie - The Moor's Last Sigh. No one can write like him. Also recommend Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Gregory Roberts - Shantaram. Epic
Anais Nin - Delta of Venus/Little Birds. Filth
Henry Miller - Sexus. Bonkers
Ursula Le Guin - Earthsea Quartet. Lovely fantasy
Howard Marks - Mr Nice. Hilarious
Annie Proulx - The Shipping News. Lovely light style
Michael Burleigh - The 3rd Reich. Masterful
Orlando Figes - A People's Tragedy. Massively detailed history
Neil Gaiman - American Gods. Incredibly imaginative
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World. Brilliant classic
Jerome K Jerome - 3 men in a boat. Very funny
Scarlett Thomas - The End of Mr Y. So original.
Bernard Cornwell - various works. Extremely bloody
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange. Savage
Alastair Maclean - The Golden Rendezvous. Great little story
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaiden's Tale. Bleak
Roald Dahl - all works. Without parallel in children's fiction

No apologies for length.
(anvil, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 17:12, 14 replies)

I want to moan that this is just another bloody tedious list answer.
But you've gone to quite some effort with the tiny reviews at the end.

So I won't moan after all.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 17:15, closed)

Ursula Le Guin - Earthsea Quintet
The fifth one, The Other Wind, is the best.
(chutneyweasel, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 17:35, closed)

nice list - these are great books
top banana!
( sutit only the crumbliest, flakiest posts, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 19:11, closed)

I take issue with some, many, or all of your choices.
Still, it's a long list, so I'll just reassert my opinion that Catch-22 is a massive load of shite, and move on.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 20:05, closed)

Well if you've moved on...
You won't mind or notice if I say you're wrong, get over it...
( jagwap, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 22:31, closed)

Well if you've moved on...
You won't mind or notice if I say you're fucking bang on the money with that one. What. A. Load. Of. Shite.
( evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 0:05, closed)

I was going to refrain from replying on the basis that arguments concerning personal literary preferences are entirely subjective and thus a petty and tedious waste of time.

Then of course I remembered that this is the internet, which aside from porn and commerce was designed purely with petty and tedious arguments in mind.

Therefore:

U iz RONG blud!!!


lolololol pwned


ahem.
(anvil, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 10:46, closed)

Worse
than
Hitler.

I hope you get hit by a plane (leaving your legs rolling in the surf, for comic effect).
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 23:01, closed)

God, when you get it wrong, you really get it wrong
Has to be in the top ten best books to come out of the US in the 20th Century. NO, in the top five. And that includes 'The Grapes of Wrath'.

I won't waste more time on you.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 14:16, closed)

A rudyard Kipling book considered hilarious...I must investigate.

(shezam slouching towards nirvana., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 20:07, closed)

Lots of good choices here
But for Anthony Burgess - but 'Earthly Powers' is a MUCH better book.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 14:18, closed)

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll give it a go. The only other one I've read by him is Enderby, which is completely nuts.
(anvil, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 16:22, closed)

Well that's interesting.....
43 writers, 50+ books noted, of which I have read 23 and agree with your comments. With a 46%+ hit rate I am now compelled to avail myself of the other 54% based on your reviews.

Wish me well, I may be some time......

*top list btw*
( NooShmoo It's a fantazmagorical pile of ultra bollocks, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 17:04, closed)

:D

(anvil, Wed 11 Jan 2012, 12:39, closed)