It's really hard to pin down my favourite books. I read somewhere that "a book changes by the fact that it stays the same when the world changes". So this is rather a list of my favourite book experiences during my life. Some of the titles I read as a child wouldn't qualify as my favourite books today, but the experience of them during childhood was stronger than anything read as an adult.
I like this way of thinking about it!
When I was a teenager I have fond memories of 'The Death Gate Cycle' series of books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - a great (and large to say the least) read. Loads of different genres here but I just love them all
Forgot about those... I loved the giant puzzle of putting that world together. I'd be curious how it holds up for me.
Anyway, my 10 might be lighter on SFF than some, but here goes:
Catch-22, Joseph Heller - No book captures the insanity of the modern condition and our enslavement to "procedure" like this one. I've never seen human society the same since.
American Tabloid, James Ellroy - No book shows the thin line between our heroes and the questionable people that made their history possible like this one does.
Harry Potter, JK Rowling - great series, powerful characters and friendships, and Umbridge is one of the best villains of all time
Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton - in addition to freaking dinosaurs, the meditations on scientific progress changed my perspective forever
Dragonlance Chronicles, Weis & Hickman - what, no LOTR? Not for me. I've read this series 4-5 times and for all its flaws (D&D plotting and over the top angst), it remains one of the most enjoyable fantasies I ever read. It's action-packed, exciting, has characters you grow to love, and relationships that wind up being far more complex than you'd expect from a book that few out of a gaming session
The Silmarillion, Tolkien - I'm not THAT blasphemous. Still, I find this to be his better work. It's weird, it's epic, it's heart-breaking... somehow these characters and events jumped off the page so much more than he ever managed in LOTR. Plus, I did my college thesis on it.
Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett -I like Maltese Falcon, but Bogey is what makes that story. But this novel, is hard-boiled as it gets, and kicked off my obsession with crime novels.
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky - He can be a bit overwrought, but this tale of an arrogant academic and his sin and redemption rejuvenated my interest in literature in high school. Though maybe I should resent it for turning me into a lit major.
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurty - There are tropes, but there's also epic sweep, danger, adventure, death, sex, romance, and everything the American west is known for. Give me this book, with its clear prose and its flawed characters with their memorably meaningless quest, over Cormac McCarthy any day.
The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler - His best novel. Marlowe at his most weary, cynical, and betrayed.
