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  • WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Colin-M at 08:19 on 26 March 2009
    It's been done on the BBC, and was great, but I was wondering if it would be different on here (probably less votes for JK Rowling). So, what are your favourite books. I'm talking about the books you've enjoyed the most, not those with the most literary merit - unless they were that good )

    What do you reckon? A list of 5 each?

    I should start the ball rolling, but I need time to think, as at the moment, one of mine is a picture book!

    Colin M
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Myrtle at 08:25 on 26 March 2009
    Ooh, ok, I'm game...though I find it really difficult to stick to just 5 so I'll have to put "subject to change as the mood takes me" on this, being a fickle gal.

    "After You'd Gone" Maggie O'Farrell
    "Fugitive Pieces" Anne Michaels
    "A Prayer For Owen Meany" John Irving
    "The Idea of Perfection" Kate Grenville
    "Feeling Sorry for Celia" Jaclyn Moriarty

    Oh god, that's 5 already!
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Colin-M at 08:47 on 26 March 2009
    I bought "A Prayer for Owen Meany" twice because I hated it first time round but decided I must have missed something, so read it again. That one was really high on the BBC top 100. (hated it second time too.)

    Colin
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Myrtle at 08:50 on 26 March 2009
    Yes, I've met a few people who hated it, so I'm surprised to hear it rated highly on the BBC thingy.

    <Added>

    Now I can't stop thinking about all the books I didn't put in that list! I might join WW under a different name just so I can do 5 more.
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by MF at 09:47 on 26 March 2009
    Ooh, this is hard...

    The Lying Days, by Nadine Gordimer
    Music and Silence, by Rose Tremain
    I, Claudius, by Robert Graves
    Atonement, by Ian McEwan
    The Paris Review Interviews


    I'm not including favourite children's books (The Balloon Tree, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase...) which warrant a thread all of their own!
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Myrtle at 09:50 on 26 March 2009
    Atonement was the next one that popped into my head! Oh, and I, Claudius! Loved that as a teenager. And Trilby you were the one who put me onto those brilliant Paris Review Interviews.
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Jem at 09:56 on 26 March 2009
    I can't really do this. I've read too many books. And my favourite is always the book I've just read. And a book I enjoyed when I was 25, say, I might think is pants at 55. But I'll have a think.

    <Added>

    Ooh, yes, after this can we have a thread on top 100 children's books, please!!!!
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by KatyJackson at 10:10 on 26 March 2009
    Gosh, this is hard!

    "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll
    "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens
    "Nineteen Eighty Four" by George Orwell
    "Notes From a Small Island" by Bill Bryson
    "Father Christmas" by Raymond Briggs
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by MF at 10:12 on 26 March 2009
    Jem, I tried to choose books that were important to me at a particular time - I, Claudius when I was a young teenager, The Lying Days when I was just heading off to uni, Atonement when I was getting inspired to write my first adult novel, etc. I agree that they might not have quite the same effect on me now (children's books similarly, although there's the nostalgic element...)
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by cherys at 10:13 on 26 March 2009
    The Great Gatsby - Scott Fitzgerald
    Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
    Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
    Villette - Charlotte Bronte
    Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
    The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro - (not saying it's great but it's one of my favourites - vivid medieval Japan) - Alison Fell
    Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
    The End of the Affair - Graham Greene
    The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

    This is hard. I'd find it much easier to put together 100 favourite short stories.
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Rainstop at 10:16 on 26 March 2009
    It's okay, cherys, you can stop now. Colin asked for five votes, not the full 100. This isn't the US elections.
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by MF at 10:18 on 26 March 2009
    Did you really *enjoy* Villette, cherys? I'm not quibbling, just intrigued that you'd include it alongside Jane Eyre...
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Rainstop at 10:25 on 26 March 2009
    Ulysses by James Joyce
    Murphy by Samuel Beckett
    Leviathan by Paul Auster
    Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
    The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

    It is bloody hard to limit it to five.
  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Myrtle at 10:34 on 26 March 2009
    Cherys!! Not fair!! You take that list back down to 5 right this minute!

  • Re: WRITEWORDS TOP 100 BOOKS
    by Stefland at 10:37 on 26 March 2009
    The Secret History - Donna Tartt
    The Road - Cormack McCarthy
    Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
    To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

    Mine aren't terribly literary, but then again neither am I.
    I love story, and these are among my faves (it is so difficult to only choose five).
  • This 82 message thread spans 6 pages: 1  2   3   4   5   6  > >