omg, naming top 10 is impossible. - Edit 2
Before modification by Aeryn at 22/04/2010 03:59:44 AM
1. The Last Herald Mage Trilogy - Mercedes Lackey
2. The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson
3. Crime & Punishment - Dostoevsky
4. Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Ronbinson
5. Jude The Obscure - Thomas Hardy
6. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
7. Byzantium (3v) - John Julius Norwich
8. The Island At The Center of the World - Russell Shorto
9. 1491 - Charles C Mann
10. Natasha's Dance - Orlando Figes
2. The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson
3. Crime & Punishment - Dostoevsky
4. Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Ronbinson
5. Jude The Obscure - Thomas Hardy
6. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
7. Byzantium (3v) - John Julius Norwich
8. The Island At The Center of the World - Russell Shorto
9. 1491 - Charles C Mann
10. Natasha's Dance - Orlando Figes
Restricting it to SF/F (not hard, although I'd probably have something by Hardy on the list) and leaving Tolkien off the list, ordered by how many times I've re-read the book:
1. Catherine Asaro - Primary Inversion
2. Barbara Hambly - The Ladies of Mandrigyn
3. Catherynne M. Valente - Palimpsest
4. Nicola Griffith - Slow River
5. Tanith Lee - The Birth Grave
6. Vera Nazarian - Lords of Rainbow
7. China Mieville - Perdido Street Station
8. Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars
9. Samuel R. Delany - Tales of Neveryon
10. Storm Constantine - Calenture or Sign for the Sacred [can't choose, really can't]
11. Elizabeth Bear - By the Mountain Bound
I can't get it down to 10. No way. If I had to save 10 books from a fire, I guess I'd let Barbara Hambly go because I've read it enough times.