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

Loved this as well.

Forgot about In Cold Blood by Truman Copate - really good!

Adding The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell

A Dark-Adapted Eye, Barbara Vine

Anno Dracula, Kim Newman.

Milly Molly Mandy makes a welcome appearance 😍 Although absolutely nothing surprising ever happens (going for a walk with Little Friend Susan being the height of excitement!), these books are just great - I think M-M-M in her pink-and-white stripy dress beats e.g . the Alfie stories. Yes, the entrancing map of the village. Like the map in the endpapers of Winnie the Pooh (which interestingly hasn't cropped up as anyone's favourite?).

Oh yes! I’ve still got my childhood copies 😍

Posting then going to read the thread.

Katherine
The Secret History
The Book Thief
Ballet Shoes
Little Women (and subsequent novels)
Anna Karenina
The Great Gatsby
Circe
Rebecca
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (nf)

I say, I can see from the photo you're an alphabetical-by-author shelver! But that's a subject for another thread 😃

I do this too. It’s the correct way imo.

Little Women Louisa M Altcott

Rebecca D de Maurier

Star of the Sea Joseph 0'Connor

The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry

The Speckled People Hugo Hamilton

Five Quarters of the Orange Joanne Harris

The Invention of Wings Sue Monk Kidd

Stones from the River Ursula Hegi

Suite Francaise Irene Nemirowsky

The 19th Wife David Ebershoff

The Secret Garden
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Wild Swans
Rivals
The ABC Murders
Anna Karenina
The Cobra Event
Memoirs of a Geisha
Vanity Fair
The Moving Finger

I love reading book threads, I always end up adding to my ‘to read’ list! Not a top 10 but books I have loved over the years:

Pillars of the earth (actually think this is no1!) Ken Follett
Bravo two zero - Andy McNab
The folk of the faraway tree - Enid Blyton
Hamnet - Maggie O Farrell
The Nightingale- Kristin Hannah
The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
In Memoriam - Alice Wyn
A million little pieces - James Frey
Flowers in the attic (and all the follow on books) - Virginia Andrews
Goodnight Mister Tom - Michelle Magorian
The whole sweet valley high series, I’d get through at least 1 a week when I was in school! - Francine Pascal
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
The girl with the dragon tattoo series - Steig Larson

and many more!!

@schnubbins
Five Quarters of the Orange Joanne Harris

I loved that book as well. I thought the huge pike and the wish was so clever.
Another one for my list:
The Believers by Zoe Heller.
Zoe Heller is like Donna Tartt in that there are long gaps between her books. Maybe she has run out of ideas, but I wish she’d publish another book soon.

Totally agree. Loved your list too.

Last One At The Party
Polo
Rivals
The Ladykiller
Faceless
Precious You
Remember Me
The Hunger Games

So many, but these spring to mind. In no particular order….

The Shardlake Series - CJ Sansom

Birdsong (and many of his other books) - Sebastian Faulkes

Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen

The Children of the New Forest - Captain Maryatt

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

Spike Milligan War memoirs

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

Love in a Cold Climate etc - Nancy Mitford

Darling - India Knight

I need to add more.
Riders, Rivals, Polo and The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous- Jilly Cooper.

Chances and Lucky, Jackie Collins.

Great idea for a thread, OP.

Persuasion by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. James
Black and Blue by Ian Rankin
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell

I love Silas Marner. Very moving and underrated.

oops slightly more than 10 and in no particular order

The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
The world according to garp - John Irving
To kill a mocking bird - Harper Lee
Sophie’s choice - Williams Styron
The little house on the prairie books - Laura Ingalls Wilder
The hand that first held mine - Maggie O’Farrell
Case History books - Kate Atkinson (and Time after Time)
Oliver Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
Early Morning Riser - Katherine Heiny
Atonement - Ian McKewan
Any Human Heart - William Boyd
I Capture the Castle - Dodi Smith

Lightning Dean Koontz
To kill a mocking bird Harper Lee
1894 George Orwell
Animal Farm George Orwell

The Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
Anything by Maeve Binchy
Rachel’s Holiday Marian Keyes
The Chalet School Books Elinor M Brent Dyer
Adrian Mole Diaries Sue Townsend

@LittleLapwing apart from the Stephen King & Silas Marner, I'm with you.
I'd add Rivals by Jilly Cooper & Lord of the Rings.

What a great thread. It was so hard keeping to 10, but in no particular order:

We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Schriver
Shall we stay or shall we go - Lionel Schriver
The Kiterunner - Khalid Hosseini
A thousand splendid suns - Khalid Hoseini
Room - Emma O'Donoghue
The girl with the louding voice - Abi Dare
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
The book thief - Markus Zusak
Where the crawdads sing - Delia Owens
As long as the lemon trees grow - Zoulfa Katough

It's interesting that so many have got To Kill a Mockingbird on their list. I'm reading it at the moment and I'm struggling with the sheer quantity of characters in it. There's something about the writing style that I can't get to grips with. I shall persevere.

Rebecca
Wuthering Heights
Wild Swans
All my Mothers
Birdsong
Anna Karenina
Jayne Eyre
The Kiterunner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Little Women

Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson
Kontiki Expedition by Thor Heyerdahl
A Tale of Two Cities
Rebecca
Jane Eyre
Gone with the Wind
We Need to Talk About Kevin
The Poisonwood Bible
The Paper Palace
Shardlake series

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis De Berniere
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Homeyman
His Dark Material Trilogy by Philip Pullman
Robert Galbraith books
Darling by Rachel Edwards
Vanity Fair by William Thackeray
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

My list would also mainly be Stephen King. I think the dark tower series is my favourite but I love most of what I’ve read. Still lots to read but I need a break from him once I read his books as some a rather intense.