Which are the top 5 Hindi novels, story books, Shayari or poem collections that one must read?

Some of the best books I have read are in Hindi. Without restricting myself to 5, will mention all those that one should read as and when one can - 1. Tumhare Liye - by Himanshu Joshi This takes you to that era of Nainital when the city was still beautiful and not commercialized. The amazing narration of the beauty of the city with its lakes, in winters of north India, when clubbed with an innocent love story makes it one of the best books I have read. Just 152 pages and you will never be the same. 2. Radhey - Ranjeet Desai A book on karna, from how he saw everything and dealth with it. The introduction, first 4 pages, is so-so powerful, that you will get up only after you have finished reading it. Shows the internal duels of Karna with self. 3. Mrityunjaya - by Shivaji Sawant Another book on karna and Mahabharata - but takes everyone into account- their reasons and their point of view. One of the best written books. Will drive you to tears.. especially when karna talks about his brother and where krishna comes in to talk to him. 4. Raag Darbari  by Shri Lal Shukl and Kaashi ke Assi by Kashinath Singh One of the best satires i have read till date. You will roll on the book laughing... Both the books were suggested to me by the book shop at Prithvi theatre and i owe them for these :) 5. Somnath and Vaishali ki Nagarvadhu - by Acharya Chatursen No one can be better than Achara Chatursen at writing a fictional story on a historical backdrop. Will keep you glued till the book ends... A lot of characters and a lot of parallel plots, but all converging to one mega end. The most amazing thing about the writer is that it takes no more than a paragraph for him for character building and it is etched in your memories for long-long time. 6. Tamas - by Bhishm Sahni A very peculiar way of narrating stories when clubbed with the backdrop of independence era and communal riots that accompanied it, makes for a perfect recipe for a lump in the throat by the time you finish it.   7. Swami by Ranjeet Desai This is a most popular historic novel with literary credibility written by Ranjit Desai. The novel comprises of the political life, bravery and personal life of Madhavrao Peshwe. This is among the few novels which have depicted the history and literature in Marathi. 8. And of course, Godan by Premchand Most of the books are award winning and need a read to understand why so. Out of these, Swami, radhey and Mrityunjay are originally in Marathi but have been dubbed in many languages.

Kitne pakistan Tamas Gunahon ka devta Maila aanchal Virata ki padmini

I would recommend Mrityunjay and Chhava by Shivaji Sawant. Panipat by Vishwas Patil.

Godan by Premchand.

1. Raag Darbari (Shree Lal Shukla) 2. Gunahon Ka Devta (Dharamveer Bharti) 3. Antim Aranya (Nirmal Verma) 4. Ve Din (Nirmal Verma) 5. Aadarsh Hindu Hotel (Bibhuti Bhushan Bandhopadhyay) 6. Chitralekha (Bhagwati Charan Verma)

I will add "Mahasamar" in eight volumes by Narendra Kohli. It is a retelling of Mahabharata and obviously biased towards Pandavas. But he does a pretty good job of interpreting the events to justify his bias.

I providing many next 5s: 1-Kabuliwala. 2-Pinjar. 3-Gora. 4-Subarnalata. 5-Bakul Katha. 6-Kadambari. 7-Anandmath 8-Mawali 9-Parti Parikatha 10-Chidambara 11-Kamayani 12-Yama 13-Volga se Ganga 14-Akbarnama 15-Ain-i-akbari 16-Shahnameh 17-The baburnama 18-Rajatarangini 19-Mudraraksasa 20-Arthashastra

Thanks to my school and its library where I was introduced to the vast world of Hindi Literature.....epics! classics! originals! A few recommendations- 1.  Krishnakali, by Shivani (Highly recommended for Hindi lovers) 2. Pratham Pratishruti, by Ashapurna Devi 3. Tumhare Liye, by Himanshu Joshi 4. Dharti, Sagar aur Seepiyan, by Amrita Pritam 5. Virata  ki padmini, by Vrindavanlal Verma 6. Godaan, by Munshi Premchand 7. Bhoot ka Bhavishya, by Ilachandra Joshi 8. Durgeshnandini, by Bankim Chandra 9.  Bhoole Bisre Chitra, by Bhagwati Charan Verma 10. Panchtapta, by Vimla Gupta Apart from these, a few non-novel but novel-like recommendations- 1. Rasidi Ticket, by Amrita Pritam (Highly recommended for Hindi lovers) 2. Ateet ke chalchitra, by Mahadevi Verma

I'll recommend on the basis of what I have actually read: 1. "Tumhare Liye" by Himanshu Joshi 2. "Gunaahon ka Devta" by Dharamveer Bharti 3. "Chitralekha" by Bhagwati Charan Verma All are of different tastes. You may give a try!