Ernest Hemingway, 1952

K, OK, there is nothing about fly fishing in here, but this is one of the greatest books ever written and even if you hate everything that Hemingway ever did, you have to read this one before you die. This book was really close to Hemingway's heart, it took him decades to write it and there isn't a word out of place anywhere. The prose is just about perfect and the characters are drawn so well that you want to get out there and pull with them as the giant marlin fights so long into the night.

Papa based this on a fish he caught, probably in the thirties, but how he managed to transform his experience into this epic struggle between a defeated old fisherman, a young boy and a record marlin, I have no idea. Genius on the page - if they let me take one book to my desert island, this would be it.