Even though he didn't actually write it himself, the voice and vernacular are all Keith. Particularly fascinating when describing London after the war.
Dylan Jones - 24/07/2012 |
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa;... David Mitchell writes - I don't know how else to say it: one of the best novels written by anyone, anywhere, at any time. A Sicilian aristocrat watches his world fade away, taking his pre-eminence in it, with it.
David Mitchell - 11/03/2011 |
To be honest, I could have put American Psycho, Glamorama and Lunar Park in this list as well – I’m a huge Easton Ellis fan. But since I thought I’d better keep it to one, it had to be Less Than Zero – I don’t think any novel has ever affected me more than this classic account of empty, soulless twentysomethings drifting through a drugs, sex and booze-addled Christmas in LA. The writing is so spare and clean and empty, and the content so bleak and painful. It’s just an absolute masterpiece.
Will Hill - 15/03/2012 |
Aristophanes; Alan H. Sommerstein;... A great comic play, which constructs a fantasy of a ‘cloud cuckoo land’ where stressed Athenians hope to escape their financial worries and high taxes (sound familiar?) but have first to negotiate with a group of well-organised (and highly symbolic!) birds.
Jeremy Mynott - 13/03/2012 |
Maybe the strangest thing about this book is remembering that it accompanied a BBC TV series in 1972. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore…. I’m fond of it because my father always kept it with him, wherever he lived, in flats or old people’s homes, long after he’d been divorced and had only about five books to his name. I think it represented to him a time when there was a stronger desire, in the culture, to bring complicated ideas to the masses. Anyway it’s a moving and polemical essay about property and art, seeing and owning.
Zadie Smith - 10/08/2012 |
Her last published work, this story of lost love, the importance of being true to yourself and second chances is my favourite Austen. It’s wise and elegant, movingly elegaic.
Moira Young - 09/08/2012 |
I read historical novels for boys just as voraciously. My first love was Biggles, but Horny has that little extra (specifically, he likes women). 'A Ship of the Line' [included in this collection] is probably my favourite.
Lindsey Davis - 20/03/2012 |
Even if it wasn't so topical, I would have picked a Smiley novel. I love the understated style and beautiful story-telling. And I love spies.
Lindsey Davis - 20/03/2012 |
Barbara Pym; Alexander McCall Smith Barbara Pym has been described as the Jane Austen of our times, and I would concur with this view. She created a whole world of people living rather mousy lives, illuminated with poignant detail. She is extremely funny in an understated way.
Alexander McCall Smith - 28/07/2011 |
Georges Perec; John Sturrock; John... If you read it from front to back you will never be able to move through the everyday spaces of your world unthinkingly ever again.
Zadie Smith - 10/08/2012 |
I recently took part in a 48-hour continuous live reading of Stein’s The Making of Americans in Brooklyn, New York. I thought I’d hate reading her aloud, but in fact the section I got was really beautiful. So then I picked this up off my 'should have read it 20 years ago' pile. And it’s so funny and thrilling. What a house they ran together, and what amazing people passed through it: Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, Hemingway, Fitzgerald!
Zadie Smith - 10/08/2012 |
I couldn’t put together a list of my favourite books without including a Dr Seuss. To be honest you could swap The Cat in the Hat for Fox in Socks, The Lorax, or any Dr Seuss, but The Cat in the Hat is the first one I reach for when only Seuss will do (I have days like that). I like the limited colour palette, but it’s the rhyming, slightly anarchic story that I love.
Emily Gravett - 10/11/2011 |
This is the Dickens I return to more than any other. Pip’s journey to maturity – the misunderstandings, betrayals, misplaced pride, friendships, heartbreaks and hubris – always makes my heart ache with fellow feeling.
Moira Young - 09/08/2012 |
For high-octane reading pleasure, you can’t beat a Jack Reacher book. It’s impossible to choose just one, but Tripwire puts the squeeze on from the first page and slowly tightens until you can’t breathe. Philip Pullman and Antonia Fraser are fans too.
Moira Young - 09/08/2012 |
Weird, could-happen-tomorrow thriller with Gibson's brilliant off-kilter observation of modern technological society and culture. Unputdownable, smart, exciting.
Nick Harkaway - 25/01/2013 |
Johanna Spyri; Eva Ibbotson HEIDI: Heidi is responsible for many a late-night under-the-covers reading session when I was a child. I admired her compassion for her invalid friend, Clara and her naïve flirting with Peter, the goat herd. It’s the first book I remember where I was completely taken up by the story. I even refused to go to school one morning, claiming to be sick and demanding to be sent to Switzerland! For me, it’s stood the test of time and I still love it.
Sara Sheridan - 19/06/2012 |