These are the books I re-read again and again, every year, that I return to when I need comfort ... I guess they're the bibliophile's version of mashed potato and bananas and custard.
Non-Fiction
1. Thomas Cahill. How the Irish Saved Civilisation
2. Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species
3. Richard Dawkins. The Blind Watchmaker
4. Jared Diamond. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies
5. Stephen J Gould. Dinosaur in a Haystack
6. Matt Ridley. The Origins of Virtue
7. Matt Ridley. Genome
8. Oliver Sacks. An Anthropologist on Mars
9. Simon Singh. The Code Book
10. Chris Stringer. African Exodus
Fiction
1. Richard Adams. Watership Down
2. Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale
3. Jane Austen. Persuasion
4. David Gutterson. Snow Falling on Cedars
5. Nick Hornby. High Fidelity
6. Keri Hulme. The Bone People
7. Barbara Kingsolver. The Poisonwood Bible
8. Harper Lee. To Kill A Mockingbird
9. E Annie Proulx. The Shipping News
10. Dorothy L Sayers. Busman’s Honeymoon
Science Fiction and Fantasy
1. Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451
2. Orson Scott Card. Ender’s Game
3. William Gibson. Neuromancer
4. Frank Herbert. Dune
5. Robin McKinley. The Blue Sword
6. Robin McKinley. Beauty
7. Vonda McIntyre. Dreamsnake
8. Terry Pratchett. The Discworld Series (okay, so including some 30-ish books may be considered just a leeeetle cheeky - Bite Me.)
9. J R R Tolkein. The Lord of the Rings (Shut up you over there in the corner; it is SO one book)
10. Connie Willis. The Doomsday Book
Children’s Books
1. Frances Hodgson Burnett. The Secret Garden
2. Roald Dahl. James and the Giant Peach
3. Kenneth Grahame. The Wind in the Willows
4. Rudyard Kipling. Just So Stories
5. Madeleine L’Engle. The Time Quartet (cheating again, ha)
6. C S Lewis. The Complete Chronicles of Narnia (see above)
7. Michelle Magorian. Goodnight Mister Tom
8. A A Milne. Winnie the Pooh
9. E B White. Charlotte’s Web
10. Dianne Wynne Jones. Dogsbody