To ask what are your top ten favourite books?

[Theda13]

I’m looking for recommendations, and thought this thread may be of some help to others too.

Mine are:

1. The Life of Rebecca Jones by Angharad Price
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
3. The Book Thief by Markus Kusak
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
6. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
7. The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
8. 1984 by George Orwell
9. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
10. Carol by Patricia Highsmith

It's really hard to choose 10 favourites but these are some of the ones I have read multiple times.

1.Wild - Cheryl Strayed
2.Wintering -Katherine May
3.The Way of the Hermit - Ken Smith
4.English Pastoral - James Rebanks
5.The complete book of self sufficiency - John Seymour.
6.Any Human Heart - William Boyd
7.The Way Home - Mark Boyle
8.Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
9.The Wild Other - Clover Stroud
10. The Once and Future King - TH White

In no particular order:
1984 George Orwell
Goodbye to all that by Robert Graves
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
Watership Down Richard Adams
Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
Dream of Fair Horses Patricia Leitch
Fear of Fifty Erica Jong
Rivals Jilly Cooper

Thanks to this thread, I’ve ordered a copy of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. There are so many other books I want to get, but I’ll have to wait until payday!

I think I know what you’re referring to already… I’m so excited to read it!

Depends on my mood! But off the top of my head:

1. The Handmaid's Tale
2. Memoirs of a Geisha
3. Notes from a Big Country
4. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
5. Elantris
6. The Pelican Brief
7. Kiss the Girls
8. The Thursday Murder Club (series)
9. A Simple Act of Violence

10. Oryx and Crake

The Blue Castle by L M Montgomery
The Girl in a Swing by Richard Adams
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Old Baggage series by Lissa Evans
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
The Crimson Petal and the White by
Michel Faber
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

All books I could read over and over and the characters still live on in my head.

I don't know anyone who has read Pavane! I read it decades ago, can't remember it well but it must have made a big impression because I don't recall the titles of many books I read back then.

O waited too long and read wveryone else’s lists which reminded me of so many books that I have loved!
the top ‘top ten’:

*The little white horse - Elizabeth Goudge
*The Golden Gate - Vikrem Seth
*The Butcher Boy - Patrick McCabe
*The French Lieutenant’s Woman - John Fowles
*Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Tomas Hardy
*Possession - AS Byatt
*Athena - John Banville
*The girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larson
*The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
*All the Rebus books by Ian Rankin

and then there are all the others that are forever stuck in my mind…

All the Marian Keyes books
Energy Medicine - Donna Eden
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
The Collector - John Fowles
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allen
The Nightingale - Kristen Hannah
The Women - Kristen Hannah
The Heather Blazing - Colm Toibin
The Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy
Behind the Scenes of the Museum - Kate Atkinson
The Seven Sisters series - Lucinda Riley
The Hunger Games series
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Claudine at School - Colette
All of the Harry Potter Series
The Secret History - Donna Tartt

Thanks for the great ideas for books I have never read but need to now!

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.

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

10. Quartered Safe Out Here - George Mcdonald Fraser

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!

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

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.

@JulieJo

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

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?

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.

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.

My Friend Flicka 😊

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.