Favourite books

I’d been planning to make a list of my favourite books anyway, and then Saoirse (xleptodactylous) came up with her “Top 100 Books from Bookish People” poll, for which the idea was to nominate your top ten books.

So I cast my eyes over my favourites shelf and decided on my all-time top ten, which are:

1. Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
2. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
3. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
4. The Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander
5. The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler
6. Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
7. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
8. Juniper, Gentian and Rosemary by Pamela Dean
9. The Owl Service by Alan Garner
10. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer

To add to that, here are the rest of my favourites:

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen
Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
PopCo by Scarlett Thomas
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Among Others by Jo Walton

So, basically, I like books about bookish people, pretentious or murderous cliques, and magic in the real world!

The only one of these I don’t have the actual book of is Among Others, as I read it on my Kindle, so I plan to get a copy to add to my bookshelf. To tell the truth, I’m also not sure where my copy of I Capture the Castle is, so I may have to buy that too!