tom

tom paulin haunted by rumour::Anthony powell kicks things off, before liddle goes further afield, asking some other cultural arbiters for their own favourites: aphra behn gets a mention, as well as salman rushdie, alice walker, dostoevsky, and don quixote.
Good book, and really makes you think.
In the end, and excluding a few that might be thought to drift from the topic, the remainder of comments are all redblooded calls for the bonfire, delivered with varying degrees of wit and coherence.
How stupid an author is or a book is pales before the enormity of the stupidity of readers who make it a hit.