3.82 avg rating — 359,208 ratings

"Sample:

“Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again."
"Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?"
"Yes. I want to ruin you."
"Good," I said. "That's what I want too.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Almost any Hemingway book could take the Hemingway slot on this list."

3.86 avg rating — 198,064 ratings

"“A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune”

Like Hemingway, any of his books could go here."

4.15 avg rating — 67,023 ratings

"My dad gave it to me for my confirmation and it's a really beautiful way of thinking about the world. "

4.24 avg rating — 49,404 ratings

"I love him so much I named my first born child after him. "

4.25 avg rating — 22,154 ratings

"The series that sparked my love of reading in the 5th-ish grade."

3.93 avg rating — 6,004,712 ratings

"If you can get past how much you hated this book in the 10th grade, it has some of the most beautiful prose in American literature. Honorable mention to Tender is the Night.
"

4.29 avg rating — 1,657,647 ratings

"I've probably read this book 30 or 40 times. "

3.99 avg rating — 893,648 ratings

"Probably the funniest book I've ever read. I re-read this one every couple years and notice new, hilarious things. "

4.11 avg rating — 117,527 ratings

"The seminal work of american poetry."

3.95 avg rating — 89,429 ratings

"My gateway into Philip Roth, and through him Saul Bellow and others. "