My Top 10 Books Of All Time
It is no surprise to anyone that I love a new release. I love the wait for a pre-order to come through, I love the joy of seeing a highly awaited hardback a few days before official release in my local bookstore. I love when a bookseller tells me that they know I’ll love the book I’ve picked out. I love being able to keep up with publishing trends (though we are always a few years behind?) in real time. And sometimes, it is just so much nicer to read a book on paper than it is on my Kindle.
But buying hardbacks is deeply unsustainable. I’ve been shelling out the £14.99 to £16.99 to £19.99 to even £22.99 regularly for the past 9 months. And my bank account is suffering. My bookshelves are suffering. My bedside table houses 2 stacks of book that threaten to kill me in my sleep. My desk has its own carefully balanced pile of books, just in case the walk across my room to my bookshelves or bedside table is too much. And of course, there are always the books I leave to read at work.
So every now and again I tell myself to pause. Don’t buy the latest book. Wait. Wait for the paperback. Or even better, just read it on your Kindle! And in those times, where I need to read something good to fight my consumerist habits, I go back to my favourite books.
So here are my favourite books of all time. I’ve purposely excluded anything I’ve read for the first time in the past 12 months, because I figure I’ll be too biased/still wearing my rose tinted glasses. I’ve chosen books I love as an adult, but also books I have loved throughout my childhood, my teenage years and still enjoy or think highly of now. In general, these books are the books I love that stand the test of time, and that stand the test of new releases. I either love returning to them, or I always think highly of them.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
This one feels obvious. I first read this in 2017 on the recommendation of my sister who gave me NO warning, and it took me 6 months to finish (for reference, I finished Yanagihara’s other 700+ page novel, To Paradise, in 2 days). And this is the only book I refer to when I say I think highly of it rather than one I love to return to. I struggle to re-read this because it is a big commitment. Pages and pages of content that either leave you feeling warm (oh Harold and Julia! oh Willem!), or completely horrified and you need to put it down (literally everything else).
There are plenty of criticisms of this book. It is tragic, and unrelentless in this tragedy. When you feel things have gotten to their lowest point, you quickly realise it will get much much worse. Yanagihara is criticised for essentially writing tragedy porn. And I get that. And in a way, I agree.
But if we put aside this (and any other) criticism, the book in itself is well written. In my opinion, the style of writing is slightly detached, but this makes way for the incredible descriptive writing. The sentences are so clean! Easy to read but not in a way that’s boring! And Yanagihara is so wonderful at storytelling. Slowly building up the pieces of the story, contrasting the horror of Jude’s life with the warmth of the strong relationships between him (and they are so warm, there is so much love) and the other characters. It’s a book to be absorbed in.
I hesitate to recommend this because of many many content warnings, and so warn anyone to look it up with caution, but this book holds a very special place in my heart for being one of the absolute best novels I’ve read. It’s one that immediately jumps into my head when thinking about my favourite book.
Monogamy by Sue Miller
I will never not love re-reading this book. I’ve spoken about it before - Monogamy is the story of Annie, who marries Graham after meeting him at a book launch. One day, Annie wakes up and realises Graham has died next to her in his sleep. Whilst mourning, she finds out that Graham has been having an affair.
This book is not only well written, but well thought out. Primarily, it’s a book about relationships. It’s a book about Annie and Graham. But it’s also about Annie and her daughter. It’s about Annie and Graham’s son. It’s about Graham and his ex-wife. It’s about Annie and Graham’s ex wife. It’s about Annie and Graham’s affair partner. It’s about Annie and Annie. It’s filled with paragraphs on Annie’s doubt, on her grief as she grapples the truth of her relationship with Graham. The plot is nothing remarkable if I’m being honest, but it’s the way in which Miller explores the relationships and thoughts of the characters that is particularly striking.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
I am not one to shy away from disliking Patchett’s work (where necessary). Some of her non fiction has been particularly boring to me. But The Dutch House is remarkable. I’ve posted about it here before, so I won’t go on too much.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
I am, again, not one to shy away from talking about how much I dislike Murakami fiction. I cannot get on with it, nor do I find his stories particularly interesting. But I think Murakami as a person and as a non fiction writer is a genius. There is something so fascinating to me about someone whose brain is the complete opposite of mine (disciplined to an extreme, able to just get on with things, no thoughts, just vibes) whilst being able to write about it exceptionally well.
Murakami began running in his 30s as a way to aide his writing process. He talks about this in a lot of his other non fiction work, but the gist is that he cannot write properly if he is not taking care of himself physically. Which makes sense.
In this book, Murakami talks about the marathons he runs (one a year!), triathalons, how he trains, the kilometres he runs per week - all of it. What struck me about this book is that it is not a book purely for those interested in running. Yes - the core focus is on running, but it’s also about a glimpse into Murakami’s life and how he handles the issues that arise in his life. Every time I come back to this, I’ve forgotten how much I enjoy reading Murakami’s writing.
How We Met by Huma Qureshi
This is another book that I come to so often it’s somewhat embarrassing. I’m a Muslim woman who has been brought up to believe that marriage is my end goal, that eventually I will have to force myself to fit the confines of what a proper Muslim woman should be. Until I read this book in 2022, it felt like perhaps that really was the only future I had, and that I felt completely alone in that. But there were quotes in this book that felt like they had been plucked straight from my brain, experiences I did not think another person had gone through and feelings I did not realise others had experienced to the same degree of depth. This is the book that I personally feel the most for - there is something so reassuring about seeing someone so similar to me with thoughts so close to my own. Reading this book had such a profound effect on me.
I’m also a real lover of romance, and Qureshi’s love story is so beautiful and touching! There’s so much vulnerability in this book! I love love and I love reading about people falling in love, and I love reading about the endless ways parents and family can surprise you.
The Neopolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante
This feelings like cheating, because I am actually describing 4 different books instead of just 1. But I cannot say any single book in this series is one that stands above the others. The books are best considered in conjunction with each other, the full story of Lena and Lila as they go through their lives.
I have described these books a bit more in another blog post linked here, so I won’t talk about it any more!
Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah
I genuinely think this book is what started my love for memoirs. Everyone has that one book as a child that they read, and re-read, and re-read until the book literally began to fall apart. For me, this was the Chamber of Secrets in the Harry Potter series, and then Falling Leaves. I have vivid memories of reading Chinese Cinderella as a 9 year old, then realising there was a longer, less child friendly book and begging my dad to buy it for me from eBay.
I will say - a 9 almost 10 year old should not have read that book. It is nowhere near as harrowing as something like A Little Life, but it is unrelentless in bad luck for Adeline, in a very realistic way - you aren’t overwhelmed to the point of disbelief, you’re overwhelmed because of its truth.
Adeline is one of 7 children. Her mother dies in childbirth with her, and so she is taken care of by her father, her grandparents and her great aunt. One day, her father remarries. At one pivotal moment, Adeline marks herself out as a sibling who will not sit on quietly. She is subsequently singled out by her stepmother as a troublemaker, and so begin the years of abuse from her parents. I am always won to be respectful of someone’s actual lived experiences, and so I won’t write more about the contents because I don’t think there is a way to do so without seeming to enjoy the pain someone has gone through. But this book is good! The writing is familiar, easy to read (10 year old me had no problem), the contents are often gruelling but there are still elements of Adeline’s childhood voice in her narration! The book touches on the relevant history - history 10 year old me would have no idea about otherwise and therefore appeals to the slight history nerd in me.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
I am a sucker for a good romance. I read this book in my second year of university in one evening, and I lay curled up in my bed crying afterwards; I can only thank god for timing this so conveniently with the absence of my flatmates that evening.
Me Before You features the protagonist, Louisa, losing her job at the start of the series. She is desperate for money to support her family. And so she begins to work the only well paying job she can find - taking care of a quadraplegic man, Will, who just genuinely fucking hates his life. Louisa is everything you want a protagonist in a modern day romance to be - she is bubbly, warm, full of an effort that runs out with an angry rant. Her outburst sparks a friendship between the two and the book continues on.
I was unprepared for how much I would love this. I went on to read both sequels, and loved them just as much. Jojo Moyes describes pain so well, she describes love so well! She describes the emptiness of heartbreak so well! And the characters are so lovable, it’s impossible not to want the best for them too. As I read this book, I found myself internally begging for a different ending - for it to be cliche, for me to be disappointed in the end with predictability. A masterpiece!
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah is one of the first books I read when I really tried to commit myself back into reading. I read it in one night, in bed, convinced that I would never read anything better than this and convinced that reading was a fun I had deeply missed.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an excellent writer. I enjoy everything she writes - her writing is eloquent, well thought out and deliberate. In every book I’ve read of hers, I’ve never felt a word out of place, or that a chapter, paragraph or word was useless.
From other posts, you’ll know I love books that follow characters through their life, dipping in and out of their years. This book is one of those - we meet Ifemelu and Obinze as teenagers, as adults and then many years later again as adults. We see their struggles, as Ifemelu leaves for America without Obinze, we see them find successes without each other, we find them navigating their changed relationship. The plot itself is excellent, the writing itself is excellent but what truly elevates this book is the lens it is read through. I love this and will never fail to recommend it to anyone and everyone.
The Princess Diaries 1-10 by Meg Cabot
This book is one of my teenage favourites. It’s also one of my adult favourites.
Our protaganist, a 14 year old girl in Book 1, finds out she is a princess. She finds out her father is a prince. She finds out she is not a normal American high school girl.
Cue the struggles in her life as she attempts to hide this secret, attempts to deal with this secret and eventually embraces her princess status. But she’s also madly in love with her best friends brother, she’s dealing with her erratic mom who is dating her algebra teacher (and she’s failing algebra?!), she’s dealing with her sworn enemy, she’s dealing with ALGEBRA. Meg Cabot writes in the best way - I find Mia’s frantic thoughts to be endlessly entertaining in a way that I can only describe as reminiscent of my own teenage thoughts. Mia is someone I would hate to know in real life, because she is delusional, but that is the absolute joy of these books.
There are 10 of them, but each book takes about a day of non committed reading if I’m being honest. They are engaging. They don’t cover huge periods of time in one go - they’re mostly focused on one small event, like the winter non denominational dance, or prom, or Mia’s first semester at high school without Michael. And honestly, by the 10th book, Mia’s growth is both insubstantial and substantial. It’s genuinely fun to read.