My 10 all-time favourite books
Original list submitted to Starmag’s book poll (in no particular order except as I remembered them):
House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Fear of Flying, Erica Jong
Wild Swans, Jung Chang
The Talisman, Peter Straub and Stephen King
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
Possessing the Secret of Joy, Alice Walker
Dancer Dawkins and the California Kid, Willyce Kim
After an email from Daphne Lee who asked for another title to replace Wild Swans (because it’s non-fiction and therefore does not count), here is the revised list (arranged in the order of when I read them):
Early 80s
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Fear of Flying, Erica Jong
The Talisman, Peter Straub and Stephen King
University texts
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
Late 80s
Possessing the Secret of Joy, Alice Walker
Dancer Dawkins and the California Kid, Willyce Kim
Looking at the list, it looks like I haven’t read a book since the last 80s! Of course, I have. It’s just that when I was thinking of what books I consider all-time favourites, I decided recent reads have not stood the test of time. Maybe in 10 years or so, Paul Auster’s Oracle Night and Paul Coelho’s The Alchemist might make it to my list.
