SIG2340 hit a couple of mine -

Ellsberg - Under the Red Sea Sun, The Far Shore
? - Shibumi

Then some great stuff that hooked me into reading at a young age:

Ian Fleming - Anything James Bond

Alistair MacLean - Ice Station Zebra

Ice Station Zebra was required reading in Jr. High English class. Until that happened I couldn’t imagine how ANYONE could read an entire book that didn’t have any pictures. Truly a critical point in my life. It didn’t however make me any better at being an English student.

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

Stalingrad - Anthony Beevor

Life on the Mississippi - Mark Twain

A Bright Shining Lie - Neil Sheehan

Slaughter House Five - Kurt Vonnegut

quote:

interest

Holy Bible
Confessions (Augustine)
Born to Wonder (Alister McGrath)
The Solace of Fierce Landscapes (Beldon Lane)
The Old Man and the Sea (E. Hemingway)

It's a tough question, but if I based on books I've read more than once:

- The Bible
- My Imitation of Christ
- A Christmas Carol
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- How to Win Friends and Influence People

quote:

Originally posted by Humbug:

Life on the Mississippi - Mark Twain

Sorry for the drift, but this is probably the funniest book I have ever read. I highly recommend it.

Presently [Mr. Bixby] turned on me and said:—

'What's the name of the first point above New Orleans?'

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know.

'Don't know?'

This manner jolted me. I was down at the foot again, in a moment. But I had to say just what I had said before.

'Well, you're a smart one,' said Mr. Bixby. 'What's the name of the next point?'

Once more I didn't know.

'Well, this beats anything. Tell me the name of any point or place I told you.'

I studied a while and decided that I couldn't.

'Look here! What do you start out from, above Twelve-Mile Point, to cross over?'

'I—I—don't know.'

'You—you—don't know?' mimicking my drawling manner of speech. 'What do you know?'

'I—I—nothing, for certain.'

'By the great Caesar's ghost, I believe you! You're the stupidest dunderhead I ever saw or ever heard of, so help me Moses! The idea of you being a pilot—you! Why, you don't know enough to pilot a cow down a lane.'

Oh, but his wrath was up! He was a nervous man, and he shuffled from one side of his wheel to the other as if the floor was hot. He would boil a while to himself, and then overflow and scald me again.

'Look here! What do you suppose I told you the names of those points for?'

I tremblingly considered a moment, and then the devil of temptation provoked me to say:—

'Well—to—to—be entertaining, I thought.'

For me it would be:
No Second Place Winner-Bill Jordan
The Art of War -Sun Tzu
Kill or Get Killed-Rex Applegate
On War -Carl von Clausewitz
Sixguns-Elmer Keith

Nice selections GRIZZLY

The Bible
A Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi
Japanese Swordsmanship, Gordon Warner and Donn F. Draeger
The Art of Peace, Morihei Ueshiba
A Divine Revelation of Hell, Mary Katherine Baxter

The Bible
1776 - David McCullough
Tales of the South Pacific - James Michener
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
The Valley of the Moon - Jack London

McClane's New Standard Fishing encyclopaedia
Wyman's Gardening encyclopaedia
Field guide to birds (or Peterson's when I find it again)
Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Bread
Lord of the Rings trilogy

Red Storm Rising
Thunder Below
One Second After

2 to be named later

The Cardinal of the Kremlin
Term Limits
The Source
Anything by Wilbur Smith
Anything by Ben K. Green