Stephen King - The Stand

This makes at least three times that I've read The Stand, maybe more like four or five. The idea of apocalypse has always had a strong hold over my mind, and I got to The Stand pretty early in the piece; I won't say that it's in any way a definitive account of imagined apocalypse, but it's certainly the one which has most vividly and enduringly impressed itself upon me. All of its characters have stayed with me, and I could recite almost every critical scene, small and large. There's something magnificent about it, both in the sweep and, more particularly, in the detail - it's a genuine achievement of imagination and craft.