books you should read before you die?

[Newbie]

The Five Peole You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom is a must for everyone to read, very moving.

Ooh yes, loved that book. Moving, thought provoking & just wonderful.

[Flummery]

Second The Book Thief, I loved that book.
The Five Peole You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom is a must for everyone to read, very moving.

Loved The Book Thief but the Mitch Albom book which we read for our village book group, I couldn't stand. If we weren't going to discuss it I wouldn't have persisted.

[Jeanied]

Hmm - I have lots of favourites - some already mentioned. I have a real soft spot for Terry Pratchett and look forward to having some time to read his books in the future!
How about Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books? I do like the satire.

[zazen999]

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco?

[i can see a deleted post and I think this is the answer to the question]....

[jojo2910]

I also second and third A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Kite Runner and The Book Thief and Harry Potter.

[Qzy]

The Plague - Albert Camus
The Go-Between - L P Hartley
I Capture The Castle - Dodie Smith
Plain Tales Fron The Hills - Kipling

I have hundreds......

[digthatchick]

Mine are The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Cement Garden - Ian Mc Ewan
Saturday - Ian Mc Ewan
The Peculiar Memories of THomas Penman - Bruce Robinson
Dance, Dance, Dance - Haruki Murakami
The Wind up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon
The Morville Hours - Katherine Swift

and my favorite ... After the Ecstasy the Laundry - Jack Kornfield

[smallfrog]

I love reading but haven't pick up anything i really want to read for a while i'm sure the mood will take me soon. These are a few that haven't been mentioned but should.

Hens Dancing by Raffaella Barker Makes you want to live in norfolk and bask in the summer sun.

Blackberry wine By joanne harris. Chocolate is brillant but i bet most of you have read that already. This is about a wine, an allotment and france.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger i know its been mentioned but its to good not to say it again.

The history of the world in 10 1/2 chapters by Juilian Barnes (purely for the chapter Parenthesis.

lots and lots more but i do love these.

[Hilary B]

Kipling, YES!! Better than Dickens any day.
Harry Potter... not bad
I like Georgette Heyer's detective stories AND most of the Historical ones (a few exceptions)
So many books I own and enjoy (many times over) but
If all else fails me
If I want to read, but can't decide which of my thousands to choose today, I turn to Terry Pratchett, and find cleverness, fun, philosophy, and the best giggles I've ever known.

[basketcase]

As already mentioned: Jane Austen (all!), Terry Pratchett's Discworld books; 1066 and All That; The Dark Is Rising series; Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and quite a few more

Also:
All DL Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books - esp the Harriet Vane ones
The Chrysalids and The Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham)
The Narnia Books
Asimov's Foundation Trilogy
HG Wells' short stories

Loads of others. I love reading. I'll read a cereal packet, me!

[Rhona]

Like others, there are hundreds of books that I love, but trying to stick to the original post (rather than just listing my favourite books), these I've read, but want to re-read;

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Wuthering Heights
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
Miriam - Truman Capote (short story)
The Unconsoled - Kazuo Ishiguro


The books I haven't read but want to...blimey...too many to list!

[Glutton4...]

I grew up with Enid Blyton and then Agatha Christie. It went a bit pear-shaped in School when (like someone else mentoned) I was TOLD what to read, and having to analyse what was written drove me to, well, just switch off. I like to get into a book and enjoy it, not spend my time wondering what the author was trying to say. I'm like that in life though; if you've got sommat to say, say it, don't faf about!

Most of the time I like crime thrillers and the like; Grisham, Cornwell, Coben, Reichs and similar. I've tried to get into Hitchhikers and Pratchet, but so far, no go, much to Mr. G's disgust! Had Harry Potter on audio book, read by the fabulous Stephen Fry - absolutely ACE!!! I also liked Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who/Millennium trilogy, which I had as a present.

Catching up on my Mags at the mo, but always on the lookout for more crime!

[ginger ninger]

So many to chose from.

The Picture of Dorian Gray � Oscar Wilde
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof � Tennessee Williams
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde � Robert Louis Stevenson
Stoker�s Dracula � Bram Stoker
Frankenstein � Mary Shelley
And one of my favourites has got to be...

...Dewey - Vicki Myron, if your a cat lover its one not to miss.

[taff]

early Anne McCaffrey, Terry Pratchett - especially the witch novels, Richard Morgan, Mark Chadbourn, Annie Hawes travel books, Alisatir Reynolds. Sorry, all sci-fi bar one...

[its hilly]

Cold Comfort Farm (there's something lurking in the woodshed)
Gorillas in the Mist
The cat Who came in from the cold (not a 'classic' but excellent, esp if you love cats.)
Cant remember the authors Im afraid, and yes Terry Pratchett, Harry Potter etc