Stolen from I Love Books:

• Ambrose Bierce: The Devil’s Dictionary [1911]
• Greil Marcus: Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock’N’Roll Music [1975]
• David Nasaw: The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst [2000]
• Claire Tomalin: Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self [2002]
• Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass [1855, 1856, 1860 …. ]

This is not the same thing as listing “my 5 favorite books.” I wouldn’t even try to do that.

Picking only five was way harder than I thought it’d be.