[Tannhauser]

My favourite books are quite often what I've just read, and they are all tied to particular times. I like a lot of American authors:

Sinclair Lewis Main Street, Babbitt
John Dos Passos USA
Joseph Heller Something Happened!
Phillip Roth American Pastoral
John Updike Rabbit series esp. Rabbit is Rich
Herman Melville Moby-Dick
Tom Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities

I also like the 19th and 20th century humourists and commentators:

George Orwell Coming up for air
Keith Waterhouse Billy Liar
HG Wells A History of Mr Polly, Tono-Bungay

And I'm a sucker for historical and fantasy fiction and magical realism:

Robert Graves Count Belisarius
T.H. White The Once and Future King
Gabriel Garcia Marquez Love in the Age of Cholera

But my very favourite - weirdly enough - is Augustan and Romantic-era fiction:

Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights
Jane Austen Emma, Mansfield Park
Charlotte Bronte Shirley
Henry Fielding Tom Jones

Certainly a lot of these are not everyone's cup of tea. Something Happened!, for example, is an incredibly boring, offensive book (but also a work of genius). There are dozens more, but that's enough.