East of Eden, hands down. That said, it’s hard to explain why (a short description of this book will always sound dull and boring)—I suppose it’s the character development. It’s truly something else.
Anna Karenina, but not because of Anna (she’s kind of a dickhead); because of Levin. So good.
East of Eden definitely has a place in my top 5. Having been forced to read grapes of wrath in highschool, I didn't touch another Steinbeck for quite a few years. I think being told to read something immediately changes your opinion about the book and author.
East of Eden was a perfect book about humans. Definitely changed the way I think and feel about Steinbeck. Worth every page.
My all time favourite would be Blood Meridian, but very close would be A Canticle for Liebowitz, A Clockwork Orange, and Slaughterhouse 5. All brilliant books, and the last two are very short as well.
Canticle hits my post apocalypse and medieval loving brain in exactly the right spot, Clockwork is so challenging at first but the immersion is ridiculous, and Slaughterhouse is a brilliant piece of unreliable narrator fiction.
Travel:
Into the Heart of Borneo - Redmond O'Hanlon. He was a pasty, British, natural history book REVIEWER, until his editor had the brilliant idea to torture him by packing him up and sending him to Borneo for a month.
In Trouble Again - Redmond O'Hanlon. Freshly surviving Borneo, his editor sends him to the Amazon for TWICE as long.
These two books are bright, funny, and immensely readable. You will be tempted to follow them with his 3rd book "No Mercy: A Journey to the Heart of the Congo." Be aware this one is neither bright, nor funny. He and his crew barely survived, it's an amazing story, but a super tough read.
Road Fever - Tim Cahill. Hired by General Motors for a promotional stunt, Cahill and his co-pilot/co-driver Garry Sowerby drive a show-truck from the tip of Argentina to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, as fast as possible.
Lord of the Rings (although I would lump any Tolkein under this), Count of Monte Cristo, Rendezvous with Rama, one of Thomas Hardy's (can't decide which but maybe Return of the Native, Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
Still probably Birthday of the World, by Le Guin. Short story compilation, particularly enjoyable if you're familiar with her other work. Finishes with one of my fav generation ship stories.
Honorable mention for Kushiel's Dart being my all-time favorite piece of guilty-pleasure reading.
I've read some of her Hainish Cycle and some from the Earthsea series, also LHoD and Omelas and some of her non-fiction. But didn't know about Birthday of the World until this! More Le Guin is always good. Thank you.
You're in for a treat. lol For fans, it's imo the cherry on top of her entire career. Kinda the sweet treat that ties the whole thing together and puts a bow on it. It's all refined riffs and dives into some of her seemingly favorite kinds of concept material.
Four Ways To Forgiveness is also really good. Her later short story work is, in general, my favorite of her entire catalogue. She's just kinda done with fucking around and has finally arrived at exactly the kinds of things she wants to say, and she fires them like a ping pong ball machine gun.
The book that made me fall in love with reading was "City of The Beasts" from Isabel Allende. I picked it up because my dad had left it lying around, and I completely fell in love. Not only with Isabel Allende, but with reading.
And my favorite book is "One Hundred Years Of Solitud". The first time I read it, was pre internet, so I would write down the name of the characters, to keep track of the family tree. It was just so beautiful, and it really opened me up to fantasy.
Beyond the Sky and Earth - Jamie Zeppa
The Hobbit/LOTR - JRR Tolkien
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
Outlander series - Diana Gabaldon
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman (honestly anything by him)
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
I just finished Endurance, a pretty fun classic nonfiction about a dangerous trans-Antarctica trip. I think it’s pretty well known but I hadn’t heard of it until I read it.
Every now and then I consider reading the HP series, I get a little ways in and then drop, not from bad writing or anything just cause my brains jumping to the plot points since I’m familiar enough w the movies, a curse really.