I have read over 1,000 novels, but who's counting. As I'm guessing many who have signed onto GoodReads have read a significant number of books too. Those I selected as "read" signifies the novels that, for me, are standout achievements and more recent compared to such classics as War and Peace, The Odyssey and Moby Dick. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to include To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf's because it is my favorite novel, a book I've read numerous times. And I rated all my selections with 5 stars, not because these books are perfect creations, but because the author's achievement is monumental – having produced something new, strange and different, which is what something "novel" is defined to be, and what every novel should strive to be.