I have read much of the above numerous times, except for LOTR, which I couldn't bother with the first time and have never gone back to. Likewise CS Lewis, on re-reading 'Travels with Charley' I found it the least interesting of Steinbeck's work, he would not be remembereed if that were his only book, just this side of worthless.

I mus correct Jerry's first post, though, because it is a wounderful, important book. 'Call it Sleep' is by Henry Roth, not Philip Roth.

I would also recommend the trilogy 'Scot's Quair' by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (pseud. of James Leslie Mitchell) but not for the same reasons, just because it's been forgotten and I find it readable over and over again.