I would second(or third, or fourth) that Choke is Chuck Palahniuk's best novel. However, Survivor was very close. The pages go in backwards order as the main character gets closer to his inevitable and calculated death. Lullaby was a bit of a bore, and I haven't read Fight Club, because I quite liked the movie, and usually if I read a book after seeing the movie, one or the other gets spoiled. I guess I'm just fearful in this case.
He's got a new "joint" out now called Diary, which I want to read - if anyone has, please post a review.

Other good reads -
FASTER:The accelleration of just about everything by James Gleick. Great analysis of maximum speeds of elevators and MTV.
Time Travel in Einstein's Universe by J. Richard Gott. Subtitle: The physical possibilities of travel through time. And that pretty much sums it up. Fascinating. Very easy to read for a normal person who might like Chuck Palahniuk novels.

I also have a very special (and nicely drawn) japanese children's book about the life of Le Corbusier - which for me, since I don't read kanji, is of course more humorous than informative. But then again, so was Choke.

are always at the top of my list.

OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W.Somerset Maugham
NARCISSUS AND GOLDMUND by Hermann Hesse

Best book of last year?

Fast food nation? Argh.. don't read enough books.

But I do read a lot of OLD books.

all I can say is FAULKNER

either "The sound and the fury"
or.... "Light in August" (Joe Christmas kicks your ass)

I also just read "Of mice and men" by the stein-beck, and was thrown aside by this almost overly simplistic tale that crams such a variety of emotion into itself. microcosmic:moralistic

miesvanderrice

actually "j" that was kind of on topic. Cause i've been going back and forth on whether to buy it or not. So you may have just pushed me to not buy it. Thanks for the input.

some things that come to mind after reading others on this list (mainly postmodern fiction/poetry stuff):
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar (more mindblowing than Calvino)
Maximus Poems by Charles Olson (Rita will love this, and yes I've read Merrill)
suprised that nobody's mentioned Rushdie. while I'll give a nod to the Satanic Verses, Shame was always my fav of his.
Kazuo Ishiguro's shares the complexity and sinister existentialism of Kafka
Johnathan Franzen's Corrections is still the best thing in this vein from the past few years (yikes! 2001?! I probably do need to get out more)
while it's true Joyce learned lots from Mehlville, I can't see where Moby Dick out-Joyces Joyce. Ulysses is still incredible after all these years, and Finnegans Wake remains unsurpassed in any number of ways
for more on Mehlville, check out Charles Olson's Call Me Ishmael, an absolutely brilliant piece of criticism

still:
best book in the last year: Oracle Night by Paul Auster (and many things of his deserve mention here)
best book ever: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (though I expect Oprah will succeed in watering even this one down for the masses)

. Fifth Business/ The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies
. The Razor's Edge (Maugham)
. American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and pretty much anything
else by Neil Gaiman
. House of Leaves (still getting through it but it's been a great ride,
pushes the limit of 'literature')

And if you're interested in comparative mythology and
discussions of human consciousness, this book's got both:

Maps of Meaning, by Jordan Peterson

1421 contained misinformation regarding the Chinese achievements and the author also grossly understated the European achievements in the 1400's. I believe Europeans had guns by then and not just bows and arrows. :)