if you could only read two books again....

Fiction - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Non-fiction - Lonely Planet's Beautiful World (don't really read non-fiction, but love a coffee table book)

I remember advising nun asking my primary school class what our favourite book was and I said ‘a town like alice’
My teacher told my mum and she was mortified- I think it was considered racy in rural Ireland

Fiction - The Northern Lights by Pullman or if I’m being cheeky, the whole trilogy

Non-fiction - space below my feet by Gwen Moffat. First female British Mountain Guide and a brilliantly written book.

I’d forgotten the Once and Future King! I just ordered a copy!
For me my fiction book would be Les Miserables...so much in this story! If you haven’t read it I would definitely recommend it.
For non-fiction I would choose Toast. So funny and vivid! Nigel Slater can do no wrong!

Fiction : Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
Non fiction: Almost Like a Whale - the origin of species updated by Steve Jones

Although close second Dark Star Safari - I also loved it.

Fiction - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.
Non-fiction - Wartime, Britain 1939-1945 by Juliet Gardiner

The Poisonwood Bible
Wild Swans

vix I didn’t say you should enjoy any of them

Fiction: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Non-fiction: a socking great atlas. I absolutely love maps and can look at them forever.

Fiction - Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

Non fiction - the Big Book (AA)

Year of the cornflake is my pick. Not sure if it's fiction or not cos it's meant to be real but it's so funny I think bits must be made up. Completely recommend x

Non-fiction is a not-so-little pearl of a book - 'The Darkness is Light Enough' by Chris Ferris - the journal of a woman who walks through the countryside at night, and the badgers she meets. I could (and do) re-read it many times.

Fiction is 'The Once and Future King' by T.H. White. Lots of wisdom in there.

Judas I absolutely hated Never Let Me Go.

The Oxford book of love poetry. You can keep dipping in and getting something new every time. Would that be fiction? For non fiction A history of the world by Andrew Marr.

Sorry to be depressing, but, for the world we’re living in today everyone should read one of the following for their ‘fiction’ choice:
1984 - George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

But now for something lighter......non-fiction. Exhilarating, terrifying, shocking and sad: Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

Ooh I’d go for parade’s end but all the volumes so it’s cheating a little bit. Bloody love parades end and it’s very long and dense so would keep me busy.
For non fiction maybe I’d have Wild Swans by Jung Chang as it’s one of my fave auto/biographies and also long!

Oops miss the bit about being non fiction.

Red tent and The handmaids tale

And Jane eyre

Adrian mole!

Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer and Gone with the Wind are my 2 absolute faves but this is so hard!!

Non-fiction - Gweilo by Martin Booth the BBC correspondent who grew up in Hong Kong. Fascinating. And I'd second a previous poster who said Blood and Sand by Frank Gardener.

Watership Down, how I loved that book.

Delia Smith How to Cook

On the non-fiction side I would unhesitatingly plump for Paul Theroux - Dark Star Safari - it's his journey from Cairo to Cape Town. It's absolutely amazing. I would quite like Stalingrad but I think the fascination with that (which has lasted through several reads) might fail over time. And there's always A History of Western Philosophy which I have kept by the bath since I was an undergraduate. It's actually hilarious a fact that escapes most people - so I conclude I must be a bit odd.

The fiction side is harder - something to read and reread - not many novels could possibly stand up to that. I think it would probably be a Shakespeare play. I have an enduring love of the late plays but I would probably just go for Hamlet. It's a play I haven't read enough and I'm sure it will last me.

Fiction- can I have Lord of the Rings? Even though it’s technically 3 books not 1.
I rarely read non fiction but agree with a pp- Bill Bryson- would have to be Small Island

The Count of Monte Christo for my fiction. I love everything about it and just have the fondest memories of reading it. Senor Vivo and the Coco Lord by Louis de Bernieres is my other one but if I can only have one I'll take the Count.

I do read a lot of non fiction too and I think for pure joy in her writing style I might pick The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davies. It would be a tough choice between this and The Whisperers by Orlando Figes.

Being cheeky can I have Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov too. Fictionalised but based on fact and first hand experience so straddles the two.