What books do you think are essential reading?

[JazzerMcCreary]

I’m turning 29 tomorrow. I’ve decided that as I’ve either done or have no interest in doing the typical ‘pre 30 bucket list’ activities, I’m going to try to read 30 new books over the next year.

So tell me, what books would be on your list?

@LakieLady

I think at least one Ian McEwan should be on the list, probably Atonement, but Saturday, Enduring Love and Solar are excellent.

Rose Tremain is great, and I'd include Restoration.

For humour, some Wodehouse; I prefer Blandings to Jeeves but if you're not laughing out loud in the first 3 pages of any of them, you've lost your sense of humour imo. My Blandings omnibus is my go-to book when I'm feeling low.

Also Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons, I think)

Also on my list would be:

The Great Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald)

Scoop! (Evelyn Waugh)

The Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys)

At least one Graham Greene (my choice would be Brideshead Revisited, but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, so Brighton Rock or The Honorary Consul)

Middlemarch

1984

Howard's End

Mrs Dalloway

The Buddha of Suburbia

The Tin Drum (this would actually make my top ten, and I wish my German was good enough to read it in its original language)

A John Le Carre, probably Tinker, Tailor etc

White Teeth

Cider With Rosie

And now for my shameful admission: I cannot, just cannot, read Dickens. Great characters, great stories but I lose the will to live during the long descriptive passages. I just can't get beyond the first 50 pages of any of them.

And I suspect that people might either be Hardy fans or Dickens fans. None of my Dickens loving friends can abide Hardy.

I'm sure you meant to say Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

Vile Bodies by EW is also very good. Simultaneously very funny and heartbreakingly sad.

I would second Terry Pratchett. Easy to read, very funny and very clever. Also Harry Potter if you haven't read them yet.

My go-to comfort reads are always the Anne of Gables books. Such a beautifully evoked world full of imperfect people and love.

Max Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”. Transformational. It. Explains. Everything

And I suspect that people might either be Hardy fans or Dickens fans. None of my Dickens loving friends can abide Hardy

I Iike both!

Gosh. That takes me back to my student days @Moanranger!

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
All of Shakespeare
1984 George Orwell
Hitch hikers Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

I am definitely team Hardy. Can’t get through Dickens, even though I feel I should. Can take a film or television adaptation though.

I cried on the tube while reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. Proper, ugly face cried. Brilliant book!

A lot of the above. But I’ve loathed some that pps have mentioned, Heart of Darkness for one.

A few oldies I’d include,

Three Men In A Boat, by Jerome K Jerome - a very funny classic
Quartet in Autumn, by Barbara Pym
Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis

Tolstoy - The Death of Ivan Ilyich. It's a novella so nowhere near the commitment of War and Peace, but wow.

The Suitcase - Sergei Dovlatov. Very funny.

LakieLady - I nearly didn't read "A Tale of Two Cities" because I found the first chapter so incomprehensible. Once I was past that, it was a really good book.

Any telling of King Arthur is a must but my absolute favourite is The Once and Future King by TH White. I first read it when I was 12 and I’ve read it so much since the cover has been sellotaped back on.

[quote merryhouse]@Monkeyrules I would love to read Interview With A Vampire by Anne Fine![/quote]
That's a brilliant suggestion. I bet she'd put a great twist on it with her humour too.

@Timeforatincture That's a great suggestion. I spent my teens borrowing all the Diana Wynne Jones books from the local library and missed The Merlin Conspiracy and Deep Secret so will track them down.

I read books for pleasure so I would say:
Gone with the wind
Twenties girl - Sophie kinsella
Marshmallows for breakfast - Dorothy koomson
Heaven can wait - Cally Taylor
Pride and Prejudice
I love the play script for Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas, but if you can’t read plays leave that one out.
The actual book of Ella Enchanted is such a delightful far away read!
Lizzie Jordan’s secret life - chris Manby
The Stravaganza series - Mary Hoffman (the descriptions are mind blowing)
The kingmaker - Gemma perfect. it’s not the best prose in the world, but the concept is very enticing
The doll maker - Tess geritson (very creepy and weird house of wax style reading)
The Luxe series - Anna godbersen purely for the dresses!
The Marked series - ally condie, for the very political observations
The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris
I literally read and read and read. Our house is full of books.

Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez

The Psychopath Whisperer - Kent Kiehl
How Not to Be A Boy - Robert Webb
Nothing More Dangerous - Allen Eskens
The Corset - Laura Purcell

Happy birthday OP! :)

I’ve not long finished “A little life” by Hanya Yanagihara-it came highly recommended so I was half expecting to be underwhelmed but it really was a brilliant read. It was quite harrowing/bleak and I was gutted at points but I thought it was excellent and have thought of it often.

Also, another vote for Hamnet and Shuggie Bain!

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

I’ve not long finished “A little life” by Hanya Yanagihara-it came highly recommended so I was half expecting to be underwhelmed but it really was a brilliant read. It was quite harrowing/bleak and I was gutted at points but I thought it was excellent and have thought of it often.

I hated this book it was so depressing.

The Gift of Fear.

The Gifts of Imperfection (it's the ten year anniversary of this book and the author, Brene Brown has just started a short podcast series to accompany it).

I had myself down as a big reader but I've read hardly any of what people have mentioned above. I've tried a few classics but find them incredibly difficult to get on with!

Alan Watts - anything by him.

Persuasion by Jane Austin. The most romantic book ever

'You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope'

Love that sexy sea dog.

@Cam2020

And I suspect that people might either be Hardy fans or Dickens fans. None of my Dickens loving friends can abide Hardy

I Iike both!

I like neither! I was forced to read Hardy at school and loathed it with a passion. I hate how grim and utterly relentlessly depressing they are. I've tried them as an adult too and just can't bear them. I do however see that they are well written, I just don't like them.

Dickens though, oof. I think that the stories are fab, very imaginative and interesting etc, and I like them on telly/film (especially David Copperfield, which is a great story) but oh my god the tedium of reading through the endless pages of description and trivia and irrelevancy.

Not. For. Me.

I'd put my top 5 books that one should read at:
Cold Comfort Farm
Persuasion
Winnie the Pooh (the proper original one, not simplified Disney things)
The Summer Book (Tove Jansson)
1984

NB though, this is my list for me today. Tomorrow it might be different (although CCF and Persuasion will always be there).