What are your six favourite fiction books (or authors) ?

[Dr. Dread]

I did exactly the same thing. I couldn't take his fake Latin American country seriously, and I didn't like the writing style.

Heart of Darkness is good, though.

I should get that.

[Florestan]

Actually, a writer's opinion about another writer is not to be taken too seriously. Valid also for composers, as we know only too well.

[karlhenning]

Actually, a writer's opinion about another writer is not to be taken too seriously. Valid also for composers, as we know only too well.

QFT

Though that does not stop me from speaking admiration for any composer 

[Florestan]

QFT

Though that does not stop me from speaking admiration for any composer 

Even Telemann or Ditters von Dittersdorf? 

[karlhenning]

There must be other factors stopping me from speaking their admiration  0:)

[DavidW]

There must be other factors stopping me from speaking their admiration  0:)

Yes but you have not heard Mahler's needless reorchestration of Ditters symphonies for the entire city of Boston!

[bwv 1080]

I must have answered this before as it came up under new replies, but currently my list for "serious" fiction is:

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
Europe Central - William T Vollmann (hard to pick which book, the 4 published books of the Seven Dreams are also contenders)
Austerlitz - WG Sebald
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
Against the Day - Thomas Pynchon (have a love / hate relationship with TP, sometimes I think he is an "empty virtuoso" with nothing to day, other times I am a huge fan)

I am a total modernist when it comes to fiction.  Anything written before the 1960s is problematic for me

[Wilhelm Richard]

Heart of Darkness is good, though.

Better than good...GREAT!
Not sure if I could come up with only six favorites...I may or may not be back on this one. 

[mahler10th]

It is simple for me:

1.  Ed McBain 87th Precinct series written by Evan Hunter - simple, hardboiled, old detective proceedurals - reading is easy and complelling.
2.  Jack Kerouac - On the Road - I was an 80's beatnik.
3.  Rosemary Timperly (1920 - 1988) - British writer who wrote psychologically claustrophobic works, her stories always well rounded and compact.
4.  Oscar Wilde - One always needs something sensational to read.
5.  Benjamin Franklin - Being human, dealing with other humans, figuring things out.
6.  Arthur C Clarke - more visionary than novelist.

No order.
Nothing too pretentious I hope.

[vandermolen]

It is simple for me:

1.  Ed McBain 87th Precinct series written by Evan Hunter - simple, hardboiled, old detective proceedurals - reading is easy and complelling.
2.  Jack Kerouac - On the Road - I was an 80's beatnik.
3.  Rosemary Timperly (1920 - 1988) - British writer who wrote psychologically claustrophobic works, her stories always well rounded and compact.
4.  Oscar Wilde - One always needs something sensational to read.
5.  Benjamin Franklin - Being human, dealing with other humans, figuring things out.
6.  Arthur C Clarke - more visionary than novelist.

No order.
Nothing too pretentious I hope.

Interesting choice - yes, I can imagine you as an 80s beatnik of the Taoist sort 

[Xenophanes]

Isaac Asimov--The 3 robot detective novels and the Foundation Trilogy

Conan Doyle--Complete Sherlock Holmes

G. K Chesterton--Complete Father Brown

Dorothy L. Sayers--The Lord Peter Wimsey novels

Karel Capek--The Absolute at Large

Rudyard Kipling--The Jungle Books and Just So Stories

I could have put in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

[Florestan]

Anything written before the 1960s is problematic for me

In what sense?

[bwv 1080]

In what sense?

in the sense its not interesting to me

[Florestan]

in the sense its not interesting to me

Great answer, indeed. I guess asking "Why?" is superfluous.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

in the sense its not interesting to me

What happened in 1960 that suddenly made literature interesting to you? 

[Herman]

I am a total modernist when it comes to fiction.  Anything written before the 1960s is problematic for me

Florestan's quote would have been easier to digest if he'd included the first half of the statement.

[bwv 1080]

What happened in 1960 that suddenly made literature interesting to you? 

It got less boring  

I like Joyce, Waugh, Conrad, Twain, Faulkner, Melville and other earlier writers, but name me one book written before 1960 that has the visceral impact of Blood Meridian

[Dr. Dread]

Okay, here are six from me. As a side note, I could NEVER get into 1984, even though I've tried multiple times.

H.G. Wells: The Island of Dr. Moreau
T. Ligotti: The Nightmare Factory
G. Wolfe: Book of the New Sun
K. Vonnegut: Breakfast of Champions
Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment
A. Clarke: Childhood's End

[Drasko]

As a side note, I could NEVER get into 1984, even though I've tried multiple times.

Have you tried Zamyatin's We? Maybe that one could work better for you.

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Library-Classics-Yevgeny-Zamyatin/dp/081297462X

[Dr. Dread]

Have you tried Zamyatin's We? Maybe that one could work better for you.

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Library-Classics-Yevgeny-Zamyatin/dp/081297462X

I will wishlist it. Thanks, Drasko.