All my favourite books

[jack]

Every few years I post an update of "all my favourite books". I'm excited by all of them, although they vary from "I would actively recommend to anyone" to "well, I like it, but it's kind of problematic and I'm not sure you'd really get much from it..."

FAVOURITES BOOKS

Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light / early Amber Chronicles
Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome
CS Forester - Hornblower
Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Frank Herbert - Dune
Umberto Eco - Name of the Rose/Foucault's Pendulum
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
Dianna Wynn Jones
JK Rowling - Harry Potter
Ursula Le Guin - Earthsea
Stephen King - Eg. Firestarter, Carrie, [but some are bad]
Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones
Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park [but some are bad]
Asimov - Foundation, some short stories
Larry Niven - Mote in God's eye, Moat Around Murchusun's Eye, Ringworld, Warlock universe
Vernor Vinge - Fire upon the Deep, Deepness in the Sky
Temeraire -- Hornblower with dragons
Egan -- mindbending hard scifi and examining consciousness
Stross -- a cross between Lovecraft and Cryptonomicon
Maria Doria Russel -- Jesuits in SPAAAAAAAACE
Bujold -- Wonderful space opera
Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrel -- Susanna Clarke (Napoleonic gentlemen magicians with faeries, Jane Austen-esque, completely different to Tolkien-derived fantasy.)
Diana Wynne Jones
George Martin, Game of Thrones -- excellently characterised semi-realistic high fantasy
Anthony Price, Labyrinth Makers (David Audley series) -- excellently characterised spy drama, like Le Carre, but a lot shorter books and good in a different way
Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
Fathing, Jo Walton

FAVOURITE CLASSICS

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
Discworld - Terry Pratchett
To Kill a Mockingbird
Orwell - Animal Farm / 1984
Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan
Richard Adams - Watership Down
Dumas - Three Musketeers