Sermons in books

[callmemadam]

Sebastian Faulks has been asked by Waterstones (© all broadsheets) to list the forty books which have most inspired him. You can see the list here. Faulks is a clever chap and a real whiz on R4’s The Write Stuff. Sadly, I don’t like his novels but I was interested in seeing his picks. Strange that the same person who loves David Copperfield (yay!) can go for unreadable Henry Green.
Today’s Telegraph has a ‘Books that touched our souls’ page in which their ‘star writers’ pick another forty books betwen them. A N Wilson plumps for Shakespeare and the Bible (quite right!) amongst others, self deprecatingly acknowledging that it's like being on Desert Island Discs. Other people's choices are more surprising. The Tibetan Book of the Dead? I don’t believe him. Three cheers for the picker of The Compleet Molesworth, which I do believe is profoundly philosophical and have actually been inspired by.

Have a go?

Comments

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that if I were on Desert Island Discs, I'd be bartering my 10 records for another book.

Off the top of my head (and presuming everyone gets the bible and Shakespeare), I'd say these are some of the books that have changed my head and heart:

Mansfield Park
Saturday
The Last Battle
Anne's House of Dreams
Middlemarch

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

There is quite a lot of showing off on that Telegraph writers' list, isn't there?

Telegraph show-offs

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I'll say!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

A very eclectic list! Mansfield Park and Middlemarch come up on all my lists, too. I think it's the moral depth. Middlemarch would be my desert island book. I so agree one is not enough.

Molesworth

[margaretpowling.livejournal.com]

I adored and still adore Molesworth, the Curse of St Custard's. I believe he began life, so to speak, in the magazine Young Elizbethan (later simply Elizabethan) which, again, I was fond of. I recall one column in Young Elizabethan when he was having a music lesson. " 'C' - this one go plunk," he would sa (sic). A typical Molesworth thort.

Re: Molesworth

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Many, many fans here. See my link to Ho for Hoggwarts!

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm Desert Island Books would have to include Persuasion for me and The Last Chronicle of Barset. Cranford or Cousin Phillis, can't choose! Provincial Diary and Three Men in a Boat. The Golden Treasury of Poetry which was probably THE book of my childhood.

But what books have led to paths I've taken? That's hard because I need some perspective, but certainly Dorothy Butler's books: Babies Need Books and Cushla and her books especially. Susan Hill's The Magic Apple Tree I think. Definitely Heidi's Alp by Christina Hardyment. Don't knock the corner's off by Caroline Glynn I love, and I think must be out of print now. The London Girl series and A Child in the Forest series. Margaret Foster book about the Quaker family and their biscuits and Gillian Tindall's Celestine about the history of letters found in a French farmhouse. I always absolutely love Miss Read, Geraldene Holt's Cake Stall, Mrs Tiggywinkle, Shirley Hughes and The Tiger Who Came to Tea too. :) Donna

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. you've left out Ballet Shoes:-)
Seriously, your list is really interesting. I read Don't Knock the Corners Off years ago and had completely forgotten about it. Must look out for a copy.