To ask what are your top ten favourite books?

I'm surprised too, and glad : George Orwell wrote so many good books aside from the most famous 2.

I'm so surprised that Keep the Aspidistra Flying has popped up so much. It's one of those books you don't hear that much about but I love it.

I loved FGTATWS cafe and her other books too , Fairy tale is another good one.
This is a great thread, I love the eclectic mixes of peoples favourites.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Blood Orange - Harriet Tyce
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Corset - Laura Purcell
Poor Things - Alasdair Gray
The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods
None of This is True - Lisa Jewel

So good I read them twice 👌

The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
The Tendrils of the Vine by Colette

I could definitely list ten but too tired tonight...that's what comes to mind ...

Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe - Fannie Flag

Saturn Run - John Sandford and Ctein

The Farseer Trilogy (Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin’s Quest) - Robin Hobb

The Matthew Scudder series starting with The Sins of the Fathers - Lawrence Block

The Complete Tales and Poems - Edgar Allen Poe

Hot Mess - Jaine Diamond

Three Sisters Trilogy (Dance Upon the Air, Heaven and Earth, Face the Fire) - Nora Roberts

Freedom’s Landing - Anne McCaffrey

Fairy Tale - Stephen King

…that was hard. I have so many more. 😂

I need to add more!!

National Velvet, Enid Bagnold
Wifey, Judy Blume
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
All the Jill books, Ruby Ferguson
Dream of Fair Horses, Patricia Leitch

How could I forget The Colour Purple? Not read it in years, it may be very dated but it was such a huge influence on me when it first came out.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Keep The Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith
Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Vine Street by Dominic Nolan
The Crimson Petal & The White by Michel Faber

To be honest, I could probably write this list on another day and come up with ten completely different books, as I'm a 'mood' reader.

Very difficult to rank, so these are in no particular order:

The Good Companions by J B Priestley

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

South Riding by Winifred Holtby

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

Tricky question but books that have stayed with me include:

• We Need To Talk About Kevin
• The Goldfinch
• Norwegian Wood
• Travelling In A Strange Land
• The Great Gatsby
• Rebecca
• To Kill A Mockingbird
• The Kite Runner
• My Brilliant Friend
• The Remains of the Day

I completely forgot to add Margaret Forster to my list. Anything by Margaret Forster. Particularly Hidden Lives, an excellent book.

My favourite books are probably going to sound so trite compared to a lot of those listed, but here goes:
In no particular order:
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4 - Sue Townsend (and the rest of the series!)
Jemima J - Jane Green
Here Come The Girls - Milly Johnson
The Mulberry Lane series by Rosie Clarke
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume (just something from my childhood I remember enjoying)
The Ops Room Girls - Vicki Beeby
Sunny Days and Sea Breezes - Carole Matthews
The Time of Our Lives - Lynda Page
Three Amazing Things About You - Jill Mansell
The Suttons of Yorkshire series - Elizabeth Elgin

After reading these threads , I think it should be best 50 at least. So many others I love, Margaret Attwood, Doris Lessing ,Iris Murdoch.

Tennant of Wildfell Hall
Wolf Hall trilogy ( hope that's not cheating)
Catcher in the Rye
Jane Eyre
Mansfield Park
Poldark books ( cheating?)
Keep the Aspidistra flying
Gone with the wind
Beloved Little women

My Friend Flicka 😊

I was horse mad and I loved Black Beauty, books by Pat Smythe and The Silver Brumbie books.

@Gorgeouslygorgeous me too. I also loved the Pullein Thompson, the Jill books and National Velvet was my favourite.

I wonder which authors of today will still be read in 100 years time?

I would love to know that. I remember reading a book published in 1950s about which recent or contemporary literature would endure and I don’t think the author predicted correctly. I wish I could remember who it was by.

The Handmaid’s Tale was new when I was at university (OK - it was more than 30 years ago!) and felt like an instant classic.
Yes, Martin Amis was well-regarded at the time but you don’t hear so much about his books now.
I wonder which authors of today will still be read in 100 years time?

@JulieJo

"Heidi" Hell yeah! Which translation? I think it makes a huge difference.

I’d love to be a child again. Fiction from my childhood included most of the books Enid Blyton wrote. I started out with Noddy and progressed to The Magic Faraway Tree, the Wishing Chair, The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, Smuggler Ben etc.

I was horse mad and I loved Black Beauty, books by Pat Smythe and The Silver Brumbie books. I read all the Arthur Ransome books and the CS Lewis series. I loved The Hobbit and Watership Down. Children’s literature is so much better than adult fiction.

Loved Candide by Voltaire when I read it for my degree too.

Ive read this thread all the way through. Some of my favourites on here. Some i hated. And some I've googled and will read.
I loved Rebecca. Daphne de Muirier.
Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte.
The shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Its so hard to choose!

At this moment (could be different tomorrow) my top 10 books/book series are:

1. Persuasion - Jane Austen
2. This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson
3. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome
4. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
5. Less than Angels - Barbara Pym
6. Any book by James S.A. Corey
7. Any Hornblower book by C.S. Forester
8. The Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones
9. The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis

These are probably my favourite books, authors. Cheating a bit as there is a LOT more than 10, closer to 70 maybe. That’s off the top of my head.
But something a bit different than most people’s

Throne of glass series - Sarah J Maas
ACOTAR (series)- Sarah J Maas
sword of truth series - Terry Goodkind
Every Darren Shan book I’ve loved.
Cassandra Claire - every book.