Leo's Website
Books
Homepage
About me
About site
Contact

INDEX
Books
Films
Music
Photos
Int Fiction
Favourites
Playing IF
Writing IF
History
Companies
MUDs
Retrogaming
BBC
Spectrum
C64
Amiga
Arcade
PC
Other
Programming
Misc
Links

This is a list of books that I'd say were my all time favourites. Deciding who is my favourite author of all time is more difficult, perhaps a toss-up between Dostoyevsky and Tolkien? Michael Moorcock & Terry Pratchett would be close runners-up. Contains spoilers.


Adams, Douglas

Life, the Universe and Everything The third of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Trilogy (in five parts) and my personal favourite, sees Arthur Dent & co. saving the Earth from psychotic, xenophobic cricket playing robots. Atmospheric, interesting locations (prehistoric Earth, Lord's Cricket Ground, the planet Krikkit), great characters (Agrajag) and sublimely funny.

Asimov, Isaac

Robot series As a fan of 'old-school' science fiction I do like the works of Asimov. The three main books of the Robot series, The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn are exciting detective novels set in the future concerning the adventures of plainclothesman Elijah Baley and his robotic companion, R. Daneel Olivaw.

Bach, Richard

Jonathan Livingston Seagull A dinky little blue book, less than 100 pages long, and many of them black & white photographs of seagulls. An allegorical tale of striving for spiritual perfection, seeing beyond the surface of things and the possibility of life after death. Poetic, perfect, timeless and inspirational.

Brontë, Charlotte

Jane Eyre This is my favourite of nineteenth century British female authors' works. Page-turning and enjoyable. Has you rooting for Jane from the beginning. Deeply satisfying.

Brooks, Terry

The Sword of Shannara Trilogy A trilogy of classic early fantasy books: The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara & The Wishsong of Shannara. Sword does copy The Lord of the Rings 'formula' somewhat but it's still a great read. Simple, uncomplicated old-school fantasy.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson

The Secret Garden Had this on cassette when I was a kid & it made a big impression. The moorland and country house setting is very atmospheric (kind of like Wuthering Heights for kids, or maybe not) and the tale of physical & spiritual renewal of Mary Lennox, Colin & Mr Craven by the power of nature is life affirming. One of my favourite childhood comfort books.

Camus, Albert

The Outsider Aka The Stranger. A very short book, can be read in a few hours but packs a huge punch. Meursault is a young man, alienated from society and emotionally detached. His mum dies. He shoots and Arab on a beach and is caught, tried & executed. The existentialist ideas are certainly interesting but what I most love about this book is the imagery that sears into your brain and Meursault's deadpan first-person narrative - you're in his head with him.

Carroll, Lewis

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Cervantes, Miguel de

Don Quixote

Conan Doyle, Arthur

The Lost World

Defoe, Daniel

Robinson Crusoe

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor

Crime and Punishment

The Idiot

Gallico, Paul

The Snow Goose

Gogol, Nikolai

Dead Souls

Grahame, Kenneth

The Wind in the Willows

Haggard, H. Rider

King Solomon's Mines

She

Hesse, Hermann

Steppenwolf

Moorcock, Michael

A Nomad of the Time Streams

Elric of Melniboné series

The Dancers at the End of Time series

The History of the Runestaff

Peake, Mervyn

The Gormenghast Trilogy

Pratchett, Terry

Hogfather

Tolkien, J.R.R.

The Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings

Tolstoy, Leo

The Raid and Other Stories

Wilde, Oscar

Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Winsor, Kathleen

Forever Amber