1. Grapes of Wrath / Steinbeck
2. Risk Pool / Russo
3. American Pastoral / Roth
4. Underworld / DeLillo
5. All the King’s Men / Warren
6. Love in the Time of Cholera / Marquez
7. Nobody’s Fool / Russo
8. Human Stain / Roth
9. Great Gatsby / Fitzgerald
10. Coal Black Horse / Olmstead
11. Confederacy of Dunces / Toole
12. A Dream of Kings / Petrakis
13. East of Eden / Steinbeck
14. The Big Sleep / Chandler
15. The Fortunate Pilgrim / Puzo
16. Stone Diaries / Shields
17. March / Brooks
18. The English Patient / Ondaatje
19. All the Pretty Horses / McCarthy
20. 11/22/63 / King
21. Canada / Ford
22. Plainsong / Haruf
23. Revolutionary Road / Yates
24. Farewell, I’m Bound to Leave You / Chappell
25. I Married a Communist / Roth
26. Serena / Rash
27. Catcher in the Rye / Salinger
28. Olive Kitteridge / Strout
29. Devil all the Time / Pollock
30. Blue Angel / Prose
31. Blue Diary / Hoffman
32. Short History of a Small Place / Pearson
33. Ancient Light / Banville
34. The Sense of an Ending / Barnes
35. Moby Dick / Melville
Top Short Story Writers, in more or less chronological order by when I encountered:
1. Arthur Conan Doyle
2. Edgar Allan Poe
3. H.P. Lovecraft
4. Harlan Ellison
5. Ring Lardner
6. Ray Bradbury
7. Ethan Canin
8. Raymond Carver
9. T.C. Boyle
10. Charles Baxter
11. Richard Yates
12. Sandra Cisneros
13. Andre Dubus
14. Stuart Dybek