Books from A to Z

To ring out the old year, I thought i'd participate in the ABC Book Meme.
For this meme, you list a favorite book that starts with each letter of the alphabet. If you don’t have a book for a letter (such as Z or X) then you can substitute a favorite book that simply has that letter in the title (ex. The Lost City of Z or Hot Six by Janet Evanovich). However, you can only do this a maximum of 3 times. (Z, X, and Q. But not Z, X, Q, and V.) Books can be of any genre from fiction to non-fiction to poetry to textbooks.

Here's mine:
A – After the First Death, Robert Cormier. My favorite book when I was 14.
B – The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
C – Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell. The man's a prose magician.
D – Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson
E – Elementals, Bill Willingham. One of the titles that showed me how mature comix could really be.
F – Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk. But I won't talk about it, so don't ask.
G – Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon. The most impressive thing I've ever read, hands down.
H – Hellboy, Mike Mignolta. Pure, pulpy fun. And the art is do die for.
I – It, Stephen King. Reading this book as a teenager made be part of who I am today. King created an amazing world, parts of which I recognized in my own rural upbringing. And it scared the crap out of me.
J – Stone Junction, Jim Dodge.
K – Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami. I could have chosen any number of Murakami's novels, but this one really stuck with me.
L – Love & Rockets, by Los Bros Hernandez. Jamie and Gilbert have been so good for son long that it's hard to conceive of a world without them. Jamie's art alone is worth the price of admission.
M – Mao II, Don Delillo. Could have gone with Underworld, but I read Mao II first and it had a bigger influence on me. Plus I like to think the main character is Thomas Pynchon.
N – Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes. I find Russia fascinating, and this book will tell you everything you want to know about that large, cold, mysterious place.
O – Oryx and Crake, Maraget Atwood. Intelligent SciFi done right. An excellent book on every level.
P – Promethia, Alan Moore. The tarot and kaballah in a superhero wrapper. A lot more fun then it sounds. I love how the artist used a different drawing style for almost every issue.
Q – Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, Jorge Luis Borges
R - 2666, Roberto Bolano
S – Solaris, Stanisław Lem
T – The Complete Stories of Ernest Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway
U – Ubik, Philip K. Dick
V – Vineland, Thomas Pynchon
W – War and Peace, Leo Tolstoi. A classic that really lives up to the hype. Not all of it is good, but it really is riveting for a majority of its 1000 pages.
X – X-Ray, Ray Davies. A rock biography that manages to add true mystery and drama. Surprisingly good!
Y – “Ylla” from Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. One of the best days of my life was sitting listening to the White Album while reading this book.
Z – Franny and Zooey, J. D. Salinger


Others that I love, but that didn't make the cut include:
Cats Cradle, Margaret Atwood; Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link; Watchmen, Alan Moore; An Encounter with Medusa, Arthur C. Clarke; The Master of Petersburg, J.M. Coetzee. It was also tough to make room for poetry and short stories.

So what would be your list?