If you search the Internet you can find lots of ‘Best Books Ever’ or ‘Top 100 Books To Read Before You Die’ lists. The BBC did a pretty decent Big Read list back in 2000 as well. It got me thinking that these lists are not for everyone, as maybe you just like crime thrillers, a bit of poetry, or some sci-fi etc.

Also, I think I’ve only read about a quarter of the suggested books on these ‘must read‘ lists, which sometimes makes me feel a little bit of a philistine. Then I got to thinking about the sort of people who compile these lists, the Guardian reader types, the arts councils, the pseudo-intellectuals, nah, I’m having none of that. I’ve read The Catcher in the Rye for example, and it’s without doubt one of the worst books I’ve ever read. So much for ‘literary classics’ eh!

So, I thought I’d compile my own list. Pretty random to be honest and no excuses about the lack of ‘classics’. I’ve read quite a few and loved many of them but I think on balance I prefer a certain type of book. Something that really grabs me, intrigues me or entertains me.

Personally, I love discovering new poets, I like crime thrillers, ‘kitchen-sink’ / working class novels, American fiction, autobiographies, travel books, science and quirky stories.

My favourite popular writer is Frederick Forsyth but I also love Cormac McCarthy and Robert Olmstead. In poetry we’re talking Gary Snyder, Brian Patten and ‘the beats’. My favourite all-time book is probably Saturday Night & Sunday Morning or The Ragged Trousered Philantropists but I’m discovering new and wonderful stuff all the time.

Below I’ve tried to create a diverse collection, in no particular order and limited each author to one book. No doubt I’ll update this list as and when but in the meantime might be worth a look, especially if you find a hidden gem yourself.

My Top Reads

• Saturday Night Sunday Morning – Alan Sillitoe
• Far Bright Star – Robert Olmstead
• Ask The Dust – John Fante
• Turtle Island – Gary Snyder
• Fist of God – Frederick Forsyth
• Whoops – John Lancaster
• Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
• On the Road – Jack Kerouac
• Lean on Pete – Willy Vlautin
• The Ragged Trousered Philantropists – Robert Tressell
• Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
• The Death of Bunny Monroe – Nick Cave
• Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S Thompson
• A Walk Around The World – Ffyona Campbell
• Greed – Chris Ryan
• The Naked Lunch – William Burroughs
• Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
• Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen
• This Angry Land – Terrence Strong
• The Word For World Is Forest – Ursula K. Le Guin
• Steppenwolf – Herman Hesse
• The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
• Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
• Horses Arse – Charlie Owen
• Grinning Jack – Brian Patten
• Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
• All The Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
• Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
• Dark Star Safari – Paul Theroux
• Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame – Charles Bukowski
• The Sound of Thunder – Wilbur Smith
• My Wicked Wicked Ways – Errol Flynn
• Animal Farm – George Orwell
• The Ginger Man – J.P. Donleavy
• Howl – Alan Ginsberg
• Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? – Philip K Dick
• Burton – Byron Farwell
• Hack – Graham Johnson
• Blood And Champagne – Alex Kershaw
• Gone Tomorrow – Lee Child
• Selected Poems – Anne Sexton
• Zanzibar to Timbuktu – Anthony Daniels
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
• Travels With My Aunt – Graham Greene
• City Boy – Geraint Anderson
• The Iliad – Homer
• Roses Are Red – James Patterson
• Prisoners of Geography – Tim Marshall
• Cocaine Nights – J.G. Ballard
• The Hot Zone – Richard Preston
• Flashman – George MacDonald Fraser
• In Parenthesis – David Jones
• The Day After Tomorrow – Allan Folsom
• Bound For Glory – Woodie Guthrie
• At Play In The Fields Of The Lord – Peter Matthiessen
• Rich: The Life of Richard Burton – Melvyn Bragg
• e – Mark Beaumont
• Collected Works – Arthur Rimbaud
• The Sett – Ranulph Fiennes
• Travels on My Elephant – Mark Shand
• The Bayou Trilogy – Daniel Woodrell
• Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
• The Devil All The Time – Donald Ray Pollock
• M Train – Patti Smith
• Emergency Sex – Thomson, Postlewait, Cain
• Selected Poems – Verlaine
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert T. Kiyosaki
• The Moon’s A Balloon – David Niven
• Last Exit To Brooklyn – Hubert Selby Jr
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test – Tom Wolfe
• Hunger – Knut Hamsun
• A Thousand Splendid Suns – Kahlid Hosseini
• The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
• White Line Fever – Lemmy
• Stoner – John Williams
• Cwmardy – Lewis Jones
• Land Rover – Ben Fogle

Just click the link to find out more or buy from Amazon.

• Waterstones (alternative to Amazon)

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