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

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.

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

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. 😂

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 ...

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 👌

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.

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

Caryl Brahms & SJ Simon are unsung treasures. If only there were more comic historical novels like that...

I think Martin Amis will endure, at least some of his books. His journalism was good too. I think he was an awful person (as was Kingsley) but he was definitely talented.

Were Graham Greene seen as a 'modern author' in 1996? I suppose I was thinking that 'modern' then would have been 70s and 80s authors. Though I myself automatically seen anything 19th century as 'old' and anything newer as 'modern' 🤣

Never Let Me Go is definitely one of mine...

Yes, it's really good. Joanne Harris is mainly known for Chocolat (probably partly because of the film) which is a shame because she has a lot of other good ones.

Number 1, my username is a clue, Middlemarch, George Elliott
2, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
3, The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
4.Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
5.Germinal, Emile Zola
6.Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
7.The Stand, Stephen King
8.It, Stephen King
9.Emma, Jane Austen
10.Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

Urgh, Cormac Mccarthy is a great author but I have to skip a lot of his books. Blood Meridian is another great but extremely disturbing one, where skipping the gruesome scalp-hunting scenes (it's set in the early American West) means skipping quite a lot

At least All The Pretty Horses is a more bearable read.

Also virtually anything by Rumer Godden would be on my list.

The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole- Sue Townsend
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe- C.S. Lewis
Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
Lord of the Flies- William Golding
Wolf Hall trilogy- Hilary Mantel
The Great Gatsby- F Scott Fitzgerald
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
It’s not ten but I can’t think of any more that I think are perfect and would go back to again and again

Yes, half my list would probably be Anne Fine, CS Lewis, & a lot of other animal stories. It's a shame those aren't written as much for adults though there are some good ones.

Ryszard Kapuscinski is so good. His book about the last Shah & the coming of Khomeini also feels quite relevant now...

I had nightmares for weeks after reading that section of The Road.

I had similar nightmares after We Need To Talk About Kevin and the little wee sister and the bleach.

I do NOT appreciate horrific acts.

The Map that Came to Life, unknown
A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
Diana, R.F. Delderfield
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Mrs Miniver, Jan Struther
Elizabeth and her German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnim
Utopia for Realists, Rutger Bregman
Katherine, Anya Seton
Francesca’s Party, Patricia Scanlan
Devil’s Cub, Georgette Heyer

Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli
Fall of Giants - Ken Follett
Scythe - Neal Shusterman
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
Wild Swans - Jung Chang
The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman

I’ve ordered Down and Out in London and Paris because of your list (and also because I loved 1984 and Animal Farm) - thank you!

Find it difficult to narrow down but I’ll try.

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
The Outsider by Albert Camus
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Trees by Percival Everett

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Professors House by Willa Cather

Many more, it is difficult for me to do this at the expense of others I also love. Everett is my favourite 21st century writer thus far and Bukowski my favourite 20th. I’m an American Lit lecturer for reference so dedicated my career to this!

If you like Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier is brilliant. Down and Out is good too though and Coming Up for Air. I love Orwell.