What are five of your favorite books?

[Fragilityh14]

I will mention before I start that
A) I am 19 (which I take as an excuse for having read a lower volume of books than someone twice my age, I've only been alive so long)
B) I have only been reading about particularly libertarian topics for not that long. So I haven't read many of the "essential things"


But five of my favorite books are

The Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

I'm also reading Atlas Shrugged right now (and near the end, have been reading it FOREVER but a whole chapter at a time so it basically leaves me with plenty of time to ponder whats going on and I never go back lost)

I found out only within the past year that the 700 page version of The Count of Monte Cristo I read was heavily abridged, and the actual one is around 1400 pages, and as such I really want to read that.

I think there is a somewhat consistent theme between this books (Which The Count of Monte Cristo may or may not be considered a mild deviation from)...before I say what it is I'm wondering if anyone else has read enough to see it.

I am also wondering if other people here would notice a consistent (possibly besides 'Down with the government!') them to their favorite books...though I will be the first to say every single one of those books shows an extremely negative picture of governments in general, but it can be hard to portray the government in a positive light, and who would want to

[Braddogg]

In no particular order:

The Drama of the Gifted Child, by Alice Miller
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking
Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

This list is subject to change the next time someone asks

[Pat K]

O-K here goes, in no particular order.

The Bible-though I have not read through it in a decade, my
former times plowing through it made me the atheist I am today.

Atlas Shrugged - Some folks say its to long, I don't think so and I think
it is good fiction. Francisco's money speech is reason enough to read it.

Nobody's Business if you do- A great read on leaving people who are
not hurting you alone. Also every time I look at it , I am reminded that
the government, mercilessly ground down and caused the death of
a good man.

Stranger in a strange land- can you Grock it.

Heavy Duty-believe it or not this is a body building book.
Oh I can hear the chuckles now.
But the info in this book is invaluable to some one looking
to build muscle. My body is probably running on the last vestige's
of the muscle I built, using info from this book and the only reason a
5-8 380 pound man can still move.
believe it or not this book is also were I was introduced to Ayn Rand.