1. “Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin. I think it’s possibly the best novel of the last 50 years. The language is just heartbreakingly beautiful.

2. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson. This series is heavy going, but it’s an incredible story and well worth the effort. If I have to pick one book out of the trilogy, it would be book 2, “The Illearth War”

3. Dune by Frank Herbert. One of the all-time classic science fiction novels.

4. “Hogfather” by Terry Pratchett. There are too many books in the Discworld series to count them as one entry on the list, so if I have to pick one, it’s the Discworld version of a Christmas story, featuring the Hogfather (who rides on a sleigh pulled by wild boars and leaves you pudding if you’re good and bloody bones if you’re bad), the tooth fairy, the God of Hangovers, DEATH, and DEATH’s granddaughter Susan.

5. “Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee” by Jeff Zentner. This is the newest book on my list. I’m a 51 year old man, and I’m not ashamed to admit that it made me cry. Twice. In public.

6. “The Saga of Pliocene Exile” by Julian May. A fun, sprawling, epic science fiction tale featuring aliens, time travel, psychic powers, romance, huge battles, doomed lovers, and way too much more to list here. Totally worth your time.

7. “E” by Matt Beaumont. An epistolary novel, told in the form of emails, all about the goings-on at a London ad agency in 1999. It’s absolutely hilarious.

8. “Attachments” by Rainbow Rowell. Another epistolary novel, and a love story between a newspaper movie critic and the IT guy whose job it is to monitor employee emails to make sure they’re following all the company rules.

9. “The Hunting of the Snark” by Lewis Carroll. It’s one of my life goals to memorize the whole thing. I’m not remotely close yet.

10. “Mr. Smith and the Roach” by, well, me. It’s the story of a retired NYC homicide detective and his new roommate, a six-foot-tall talking cockroach, who team up to solve the mysteries of who stole Mr. Smith’s pension, and who created the Roach.