My Top 10 Books of All Time | As Of 2023

Hi guys. I understand you disagree on the "Lord of the Rings isn't one book" take, and I do agree that it is one story. However, I'm not going to bend my rules for any series and it WAS released as 3 books. That's why I didn't count it as one. You, however, may do as you wish! Let me know your picks below.

Hello there
I was wondering is there any novel/Series manga etc that can be recommended to start reading?
Im looking for something with a lot of characters something like what i read recently ( WoT) that had thousand+
Thanks

I found it fascinating that I have read each one of these books, with the exception of IT, multiple times and I have never agreed with a person on You Tube more than I agree with him.

Wow... I just found your channel and I can't believe I watched the entire thing and it felt like 5 mins. Great video! I usually skim and fast forward a lot when I am on Audible trying to find a book quick.

Do you have any videos for listing books for kids in the middle school age bracket? I look for new suggestions for my kids who have read the harry potter series, the warriors series, the hobbit etc. Thanks!!

ah, FINALLY a book reviewer that likes what i like!!

A storm of swords over Lord of the rings is a smoothbrain take

Def got Some good suggestions. Have you read any Ursula k le guin? She’s the goat of Sci fi for me

I'm going to read all the books you have recommended that I haven't read because you have included Ender's Game and I remember being absolutely blown away by it and it had like some of my usually least favorite tropes and yet, and yet it did it so masterfully that it opened up my eyes to a new world of fiction so to speak

Yikes, I hated It. oh well, different strokes.

Lonesome Dove is great, as is Shogun. Gus and Call are played quite well by Duvall and Jones.

“I love beginnings” spoken like a true King reader right there haha

How many hours a day do you read?? How do you fit it in your schedule??

As soon as he recommeded ender's game, disliked and left the video. Worst book I ever read.

I read dune in 1 night

The Count must make the cut

I love your list for the variety in it. Being from the UK books like To Kill A Mocking Bird are not covered in school so that's gone into my must read list, as will Gone with the Wind.
First video I've seen of yours, so no idea if you've come across Janny Wurts and Raymond Feist's collaboration, Servant of the Empire. They are a set of 3 but I think if I were going to choose just one it would have to be Daughter of the Empire as it is the most standalone. The world is gorgeously crafted with such a rich culture, with an utterly believable story of a female protagonist overcoming extreme adversity with the skill of being a flexible thinker in a rigid society.
Totally agree with Dune being at the top. Even now I look at the world through the lens of that book. Like you said it shows that those in control only project what they want to be seen. You can never trust that as their true motivation/goal. Power groups, even allies, are always striving for the advantage. And religion while a core tenet of belief for some is only a means to control for others. Today's oppressed are tomorrow's oppressors! It's a deconstruction of our own society through the veneer of science fiction. Genius!
Oh and just to be annoying Fellowship of the Ring is technically 2 books as are the other three so if you are strictly saying only 1 book... 😂😂😂 I agree with others that as the author himself wanted them published together in one edition it is different from other series where they were never intended to be published as such even by the authors. It also has been published as one giant book... A paperback no less! My friend has one as a kid. But your list, your rules 😁
Once again, great list. I am subscribed!

Yank's BS.

Can’t complain about anything on this list. Lonesome Dove is great and Comanche Moon is crazy. Blood Meridian tops them both. Simmons The Terror is also one of my favorites.

The Unacceptable Views of a Small Fringe Minority, by Christian H McGhee.

A storm of swords is easily the best asoiaf book! Can absolutely breeze through it.

I like the 1965 Ford Mustang repair manuall book!

I can't accept a list without Don Quijote or the Decameron.

Just remember, Jurassic Park NEEDS to be really good, as it can't get the free points a soundtrack allows.

yea the third book in a song of ice and fire really is amazing!

Lord of the Rings, first book i ever read. At 24. Started an addiction. Love Crichten, Airframe is my fav

i tried reading dune and couldnt get into it

Dune, IT and Jurassic park are very good picks for top 10. I would also have chosen This thing called darkness and maybe The Martian.

A great list. I have read most of those. I have read Dune five times, not thirteen, but it is a great book.

I enjoyed how you discussed your feelings toward Dune and how it changed your life and I totally understand what you mean because books can change your life in a big way. The book that has changed mine is one called Endurance by Alfred Lansing. Without that book I don’t know where I would be tbh

Very nice video 💯

Dune is one of my favourites. I couldn't stop reading it. I've read all 6 in row and I could drink every word of them. ❤

That's such an US-centric list.

I love Lonesome Dove so much

For more great character books by McMurtry, I’d recommend both Horseman Pass By and Leaving Cheyenne. Both are early works, too.

My favourite book is actually The Way of Kings

Great list. Enders game and Dune, absolutely. Ive read Dune probably 4 times and love it every time. Id have to say top ten would have to be books that Ive read more than once so off the top of my head I’d probably have in there Legend by David Gemmell, Armour by John Steakley, The blade itself Joe Abercrombie, Magician Raymond E Feist, Old mans war John Scalzi, The Descent Jeff Long. If was to put in a LOTR book Id also probably go Fellowship as the later books have the draggy bit where Frodo wanders for ages through the marshes which is tedious in the extreme. Never bothered with Game of Thrones because its not finished and probably never will now he’s cashed in. Not sure if Ive read Hyperion or not tbh but I will definitely give Lonesome Dove a go thanks.

Hey Mike, which Narnia edition do you have on your bookshelf there? It looks nice!

Dude definitely read speaker for the dead

If you haven't, you should read the sequels to enders game (not the side stories). They are in a completely different tone, and more hard scifi.

Putting aside the LotR argument (it really is one book), I too am a huge King fan and in my opinion IT is his best work. Its construction is close to perfection, the way it knits the two timelines together and accelerates towards its conclusion is almost artistic. Dune is arguably my favourite SF novel (though I do love the Hyperion Cantos) and A Song of Ice and Fire my favourite fantasy series - The complexity and depth far exceeds the TV series. I'm just p****d at Martin for letting down the fans who made him what he is. I started reading it around the time A Storm of Swords was released.

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Adding a recently read book to your top 10 is a bold take. I don't add any that I have't read twice. Our top 10 list are completely differernt, which is undersandable. However I was shocked that Hitchhicker's Guide wasn't on your list. I think you might have pushed me to reread Gone with the Wind. No Sherlock Holmes or Harry Potter? DIfferent taste, but I enjoyed your list.

Great list. My top 10 would have quite a few cross overs.

I would definitely recommend continuing the Ender series. Subsequent books are quite different from the first (except the one retelling the first book from Bean’s perspective, which is excellent), but all compelling and epic in their own way.

How you talk about Dune is how Ender’s Game hit me as a teen, but even more so Speaker for the Dead.

The other sequels to Ender’s Game are good enough for the most part, but Speaker is such a deep exploration of generational trauma and empathy.

This list is really awesome!
There are so many super pretentious "top 10 lists" of books no "normal" person ever reads, so your list is really liberating and "real".
Greetings from a new subscriber in Sweden

Some great picks Mike...I gotta have some Steinbeck in my list.

I heard James Joyce was a thing, ever read any and would you recommend? Love the vids thanks

Hyperion is such an awesome book but I agree Fall is only an OK follow-up. Satisfying ending at least