Thursday 5 March 2015

What's your favourite book?

Happy World Book Day!  In honour of the day, I’ve been thinking about some of my favourite reads.  This isn’t a definitive list, but all of these books would be somewhere in my top twenty...

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Emma – Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen

Jane Austen is my go-to author. I’ve read all her books more times than I can count and each time they feel fresh, funny, and sharp as a whip. 

The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever – Steven Donaldson

These two books defined and shaped my adolescent reading and cemented me as a book worm.  I was hooked on sweeping fantasy adventures and one day still hope to write one!

Never Let me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Outcast – Sadie Jones
Wolf Hall & Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Just a few of my favourite recent reads – all of these books have kept me on the edge of my seat, trying to read while cooking the dinner.  That kind of thing.  Most of them have broken my heart one way or another.

The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson – Bernard Bailyn (non-fiction)

This is the only academic history book that has ever made me cry.  Bailyn was a wonderful writer and a superb historian.  I’d love to see the tragedy of Thomas Hutchinson, the last Royal Governor of Massachusetts, brought to life in some way – if I thought I had the chops for it, I’d give it a go myself.

So, that's me.  What  books do you come back to again and again?

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing Sally – I love your choices! I completely agree re Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver has really stayed with me too. From childhood, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is an all-time favourite that I still revisit. I occasionally try to read whilst ironing, but it never ends well!

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    1. Hi Clare! Thanks for commenting. I just googled The Poisonwood Bible and it sounds great. Must add it to the pile. Reading while ironing sounds dangerous... But I do like that you can turn the pages on a Kindle one-handed, very good for multitasking!

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