1. The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
4. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
5. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
6. Notre-Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo
7. The Hobbit, Tolkien
8. Dead Souls, Nikolai Gogol
9. The Trial, Franz Kafka
0. Cinnamon Shops, Bruno Schulz

and yours?

1: Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenace by Robert Pirsig
2: In the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
3: Lord of the RIngs By J.R.R. Tolkien'
4: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
5: Women by Charles Bukowski
6: American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis
7: The Unbrearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
8: Dracula by Bram Stoker
9: The Trial by Frans Kafka
10: Shogun by James Clavell

Not much for books published before the 20th Century?
No Tolstoy.
No Dickens
No Doestoevsky.
Hell, in the 20th Century no Hemingway,no Fauklner,no Steinback.
You need to expand your horizons a little.
My own list:
1.War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
2.Great Expectations by CHarles Dickens.
3.Brothers Karamzov by Doestoverksy.
4.Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
5.A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway.
6,Huckleberyy Finn by Mark Twain
7.The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck.
8.1984 by George Orwell
9.The Killer Angels by Michael Sharra
10.Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

(Ignorin' non-fiction novels.)
~Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon
~Infinite Jest by DFW
~The Illuminatus! Trilogy by RAWilson and Robert Shea
~Absalom, Absalom! by Faulkner
~Blood Meridian by Cormac
~Mason & Dixon by Pynchon
~Catch-22 by Heller
~V. by Pynchon
~Sometimes a Great Notion by Kesey
~Ratner's Star by DeLillo Grow up.

Top 10 lists are highly subjective, and the fact that he doesn't include some classic authors doesn't mean he never read them...

Well that was a bit harsh. Of course, it never hurts to get acquinted with Hemingway, Faulkner et al., but it's not like Don Quixote should be everyone's favourite novel or anything. Just because it's a classic doesn't necessarily mean that it resonates with you. And this is coming from someone who reads a lot, prefers older stuff and studies literature at the university.

Anyway, here's my list. I picked novels (and novellas!) that have made the biggest impact on me and that I've enjoyed rereading over the years. And since I got a little stumped after I'd thought of nine novels, I decided to bend the rules a little and include a graphic novel. Sorry. :) Not in order of preference, that would be way too hard.

Post Office by Charles Bukowski
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Brothers Karamazov by Fedor Dostoyevsky
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
Ulysses by James Joyce
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

+ Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Agreed. And rubbing someone else's nose in your own elite literary taste is one of the most obnoxious forms of snobbery around. As Henry Miller said: "Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race." Literary history has a sense of irony, as Miller is now full ensconed in the canon himself.

Anyway, onto mine, chosen to reflect personal taste and impact:

1) Nausea -- Jean-Paul Sarte
2) Confessions of Max Tivoli -- Andrew Sean Greer
3) Hunger -- Knut Hamsun
4) The Assassination of Jesse James by Coward Robert Ford -- Ron Hansen
5) High Rise -- J. G. Ballard
6) Like Being Killed -- Ellen Miller
7) The Notorious Dr. August -- Christopher Bram
8) Concrete Island -- J. G. Ballard
9) A Lecturer's Tale -- James Hynes
10) Death on the Installment Plan -- Louis-Ferdinand Céline

LOL - there'd be some people disappointed with my list, then. I don't read to be well-versed in classic literature; I read to be entertained and to spark my imagination. Maybe it's shallow but I don't care to spend time slogging through something that I don't enjoy. I mean, I bought The Odyssey a while back and it just about killed me getting through the damn thing. Okay, it's a classic. I get it. I also couldn't stand it. Right afterward I read Snow Crash, thoroughly enjoyable, and it would probably make it on my top ten along with some other non-classic fiction.

I can't really make a top 10, but so far, I LOVE every books of Haruki Murakami I read up to now!
And I also love the books of Boris Vian I read so far.

And people, stop to be snob about art. Everyone has the right to love anything, be it a "classic" or newer / more mainstream art. And people can love a painting or classical music (for example) without knowing all the meanings / vocabulary bullshit people talk as if this art could be appreciated only by the elite. And if I love something, I don't care if it's the subject of thesis in universities.

My... how literary everyone is. Reading such clever books and all. I couldn't care less about those so called classics, so for variety I'll provide my list.

1. Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey
2. Kushiel's Avatar - Jacqueline Carey
3. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
4. Soul Music - Terry Pratchett
5. Kushiel's Chosen - Jacqueline Carey
6. The Witcher (a.k.a. The Last Wish) - Andrzej Sapkowski
7. Fallen Angels of the Multiverse - Leonid Alehin (Леонид Алёхин) (not available in English)
8. Battle Royale - Koushun Takami
9. Necroscope - Brian Lumley
10. The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks

1 - Night Watch - Terry Preatchett
2 - Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
3 - Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett
4 - Thud! - Terry Pratchett
5 - Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
6 - Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett
7 - Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
8 - The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett
9 - Pyramids - Terry Pratchett
10 - Jingo - Terry Pratchett

Ok so I am biased...

Ten Pratchetts and no Tiffany Aching?

Sorry but what Aching book is better than Jingo?

1) LoTR/Bilbo/The Silmarillion (Tolkien)

In no particular order (books I read every once in a while) :

One thousand and one nights (Various authors)
Zadig, Micromégas (Voltaire)
Le père de nos pères (Bernard Werber)
L'Île mystérieuse (Jules Verne).
Pour tout l'or des mots (Claude Gagnière)
Cugel the Clever (Jack Vance)

1. The Catcher in the Rye
2. The Way of the Peaceful Warrior
3. The Art of War
4. Riddle-Master
5. The Count of Monte Cristo
6. Alice in Wonderland (both)
7. The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy
8. Gone with the Wind
9. Battle Royale
10. Catch-22

Remember, this is my very own personal list, okay? :) I just enjoy those books a lot.