Ten novels to know me

My friend, the Poet Macaque, aka Hamish MacNeil shared something on Threads which intrigued and challenged me:

Ten novels to know me (Macaque) :

1. Moon Palace – Paul Auster
2. The Passion – Jeanette Winterson
3. The Passion of New Eve – Angela Carter
4. American Gods – Neil Gaiman
5. Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts
6. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
7. The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts – Louis de Bernières
8. Blackberry Wine – Joanne Harris 
9. The Crow Road – Iain Banks
10. 10. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

I confess I have only read three of them, Lolita, Blackberry Wine and Brave New World. I have read books by some of the others, and those I haven’t I should catch up on. However, this set me thinking, and after much cogitation I came up with eleven books which would fit the criteria of books by which you would know me. These are favourite books, but also books which have had some influence on me – as a writer, to be sure, but also personally.

Ten novels to know me, Lois:

1. Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy – John le Carré
2. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
3. Catch – 22 – Joseph Heller
4. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
5. 2666 – Roberto Bolsaño
6. The Complete Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt
7. Secret History – Donna Tartt
8. Just William – Richmal Crompton
9. Modern Cookery – Eliza Acton
10. Middle Eastern Cookery – Arto Der Haroutunian

There are other books, of course, but these have a significance beyond being a favourite, or even in terms of “best”!