Wow, I would be hard pressed to even narrow it down to a top 10. Hmmm, in NO particular order:

Mists of Avalon
Pillars of the Earth
Time Traveler's Wife
Lonesome Dove
Shogun
The Handmaid's Tale
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Outlander
The Secret History
Tigana
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Stand (uncut version)
Replay

Oh, and Ozma of Oz - the book that started it all :) I hated reading and I had a really hard time learning to read. I remember crying frustrated tears when my dad would help me study with flashcards. In first grade (maybe second, I don't really remember) we had different "areas" in the classroom to spend time in. There was a cool sandbox, a cool toy kitchen (with little plastic food I loved!) and...the reading area. I remember getting stuck in the reading area and thinking UGH how boring. I picked up Ozma of Oz out of pure desperation. I fell into it. Completely, utterly, my first book love affair. When the teacher rang the bell to change sections, I didn't want to leave, I wanted to keep reading. A lifetime love of reading was born right there, with that book. It will always be special to me.

all of Jane Austen's works
all of JK Rowling's
Stephen King's early stuff -- before he got so famous that he didn't have to edit his writing!
The Twlight books by Stephenie Meyer (except I was disappointed by Breaking Dawn)
House of The Spirits by Isabel Allende
and other than that, any historical romance novel -- love the ones by Stephanie Laurens, Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas, etc.

Oh gosh. Add everything on Glory's list to mine. I especially loved Time Travelers Wife.

What about guilty pleasure books? :D
I admit to a shameful love of all things Nora Roberts and one particular Harlequin American series writer, Muriel Jensen.

.

My father-in-law gave me a Nora Roberts book to read and it was interesting because it was set in Alaska but the love story made me feel like skimming the book. I could never get into romance novels myself.

I'm a big Agatha Christie fan too. :)

My favorite is And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I was forced to read it in 8th grade, and I loved it!

Oh, I used to love Nora Robert's Regency romances. I think she writes them under the pen name Amanda Quick (Mistress was my favorite!). I used to love the romance genre - Bertrice Small (Skye O'Malley), Kathleen Woodiwiss (Flame & the Flower, Wolf & the Dove, A Rose in Winter), Judith McNaught (Whitney My Love), Johanna Lindsay (Fires of Winter). I'm not sure if I changed or they changed, but I just can't read them anymore!

Hands down it's Journey to America by Sonia Levitin. I read it when I was in 4th grade (14 years ago) and I re-read it once a year. I can not even explain why I love it so much.

I also read anything by Sylvia Brown, if your into psychic's and/or mediums, I would recommend her.

The first book I remember as a child reading and thoroughly loving is "The Secret Garden". Also "The Jungle Book" by Kipling. I also loved "To Kill a Mockingbird"and "Les Miserables" (Read the long 1500 pages version twice). Recent books I adore are "Contact" by Carl Sagan, "Life of Pi", "The Kite Runner", "Secret Life of Bees", any of the Harry Potter books, most of John Grisham's books and the Clive Cussler series with Dirk Pitt.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson has to be one of my favorite books, although I've only read it once. It is just so beautifully written. It was made into a movie that was equally as beautiful. I recently purchased a new book by him and I have high hopes that it is as good.

I love just about anything that Harlen Coben, Sue Grafton and Jodi Picoult.

There are a ton of books that I just couldn't put down--lately the Twilight Series and Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth and World Without End and lots more that I certainly can't think of right now! Obviously some of these are better written than others!!!

YOu know, I used to read romance novels all the time - especially when I was in college. They were great mindless fluff for taking me away from studying. I could knock out a book in an evening just for entertainment.

It's been a few years though and I can't read most of them any more. Maybe I've gotten older and wiser (heh - or something) but they all seem so simplistic to me now. One of the reasons I like Nora Roberts is that at least her characters are real people with real issues. Well, for the most part - the fantasy series are a bit out there but fun if you can suspend disbelief. But then again I like fantasy-sci-fi, so I'm ok there too. :)

The Anne Rice vampire books - I loved the first two and the rest of them I couldn't read. Just couldn't.

Another series that started out REALLY well was the Anita Blake series by Lauren Hamilton - about an alternate reality where vampires and warewolves and so forth were a part of society. Part of the first books were about the struggles "non-human" creatures had in gaining legal rights. Very well written and a beautifully created universe. But the later books seemed to just become an outlet for the main character (Anita) to have ever more kinky sex. They turned into nothing more than porn novels, IMO. (And don't get me wrong, I have a solid appreciation for good porn (:D), but I felt like she ruined a really well written series with a really cool premise to write porn.)

.

Its probably easier to list authors:

- Stephen King
- Dean Koontz
- Chuck Palahniuk
- Bret Easton Ellis

oh this is so hard I devour books like a madwoman and I have so many books that I love.

I think my all time favorite is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

My favorite authors are Orson Scott Card, Juliette Marrilier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Raymond Feist, Morgan Lewellyn. Marrilier has a series that I read once a year - the Sevenwaters Trilogy. I love it, especially the second book.

I've always been a reader so some of my faves are from when I was a kid- The Bridge to Terabithia was so good. I read too many Babysitters Club books to count (I had over 100 of them when I was a kid). Oh and I will always love Ramona Quimby. :D

lizzie - you read the george r. r. martin series "song of fire and ice"? absolutely the best fantasy series i've ever read. and from your list of authors i think you'd enjoy it. i couldn't get into the wheel of time series either and then when i found these books it was oh so sweet....just a humble recommendation. only bummer is he hasn't finished it yet so we're all still waiting to see how it ends.

Glory - if you like Regency books, have you read Georgette Heyer? She was the *original* Regency author and in the course of writing her books developed the worlds most complete resource on Regency society. Her research for her books was donated by her son or grandson (can't remember which) to a museum in London after her death.

I love her books because they are *so* historically accurate and well researched. Recently a bunch of them were re-issued in paperback. I really highly recommend them.

.