What are your favourite books, and what do they mean to you

[Vinther1991]

There are so many fantastic ones, I could probably name 50. But I will restrict myself to just a handful. I think the two that probably mean the most to me are:

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
It is probably the most entertaining novel I have ever read, extremely funny and creative.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A book that feels truly lived. Every character is interesting, and it covers basicly every aspect of life. So beautiful.

Right behind those two there are some other classics, such as:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Wurthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Love in the Time of Cholerad by Gabriel Garcia Marques
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Some contemporary ones that left an impression:
The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

In non-fiction I will highlight:
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe