100 Favourite Books

Published on by Tabby Wood

Inspired by the late David Bowie’s 100 Favourite Books, I’ve recently been adding to my own list of the one hundred books which have inspired me, changed me, thrilled me or simply mean a whole lot to me.

I’ve finally finished it, and it’s a real mixed bag. I read a lot from a wide range of genres, and of course there are some on my list which have become much loved from reading them to my kids. Some are classics, some you may not have heard of.

In alphabetical order, as it’s almost impossible to place them in order of preference, here we go…

    21st Century Yokel – Tom Cox
    A Blink of the Screen – Terry Pratchett
    A Hat Full of Sky – Terry Pratchett
    A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf
    Always Looking Up – Michael J. Fox
    As You Wish – Cary Elwes
    Baker Cat – Posy Simmonds
    Beloved – Toni Morrison
    Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
    Burning Chrome – William Gibson
    Cabal – Clive Barker
    Children of the Dust – Louise Lawrence
    Diana’s Story – Deric Longden
    Different Seasons – Stephen King
    Dracula – Bram Stoker
    Drawing Blood – Poppy Z. Brite
    Driving Miss Norma – Tim Bauerschmidt and Ramie Liddle
    Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
    Forbidden City – William Bell
    Girl, Interrupted – Susanna Kaysen
    Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls – Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
    Good Omens – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
    Hellblazer: Original Sins – Jamie Delano (graphic novel)
    House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski
    I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
    Iain Banks – The Wasp Factory
    Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach
    Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling
    Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas – Alison Uttley
    Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
    Look Back in Hunger – Jo Brand
    Love All the People – Bill Hicks
    Malice Aforethought – Frances Iles
    Maus – Art Spiegelman (graphic novel)
    Me, Earl and the Dying Girl – Jesse Andrews
    Much Ado About Nothing – William Shakespeare
    My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies – Ed Brubaker (graphic novel)
    Nation – Terry Pratchett
    Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
    Odd Thomas – Dean Koontz
    Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
    On Writing – Stephen King
    Phonogram – Kieron Gillen (graphic novel)
    Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
    Push – Sapphire
    Rat Queens – Kurtis J. Wiebe (graphic novel)
    Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
    Red Leaves – Thomas H. Cook
    Revolver – Matt Kindt (graphic novel)
    Sandrine’s Case – Thomas H. Cook
    Savage Spawn – Jonathon Kellerman
    Silas Marner – George Eliot
    Skellig – David Almond
    Slam – Nick Hornby
    Sleepers – Lorenzo Carcaterra
    Sleepyhead – Mark Billingham
    Strange Weather – Joe Hill
    The Art of Asking – Amanda Palmer
    The Babes in the Wood – Ruth Rendell
    The Bad Seed – William March
    The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
    The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter
    The Bone Season – Samantha Shannon
    The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne
    The Color Purple – Alice Walker
    The Crow – James O’Barr (graphic novel)
    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
    The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Steig Larsson
    The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas
    The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
    The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien
    The Hogfather – Terry Pratchett
    The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
    The House with a Clock in its Walls – John Bellairs
    The Ice House – Minette Walters
    The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. leGuin
    The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
    The Murder Room – P. D. James
    The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
    The Queen and I – Sue Townsend
    The Road – Cormac McCarthy
    The Tao of Pooh – Benjamin Hoff
    The Tripods Trilogy – John Christopher
    The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
    The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – C. S. Lewis
    The Whitby Witches – Robin Jarvis
    Things the Grandchildren Should Know – Mark Oliver Everett
    Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome
    We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
    We Should All Be Feminists – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    What Does This Button Do? – Bruce Dickinson
    When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi
    When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit – Judith Kerr
    When the Wind Blows – Raymond Briggs
    Wicked – Gregory Maguire
    Wise Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
    Wonder – R. J. Palacio
    Y: the Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan (graphic novel)
    Z for Zachariah – Robert C. O’Brien

How many of these have you read, and what would you put on your 100 Favourites list?

Header photo comprised of images of book covers found online