Reading
For me, reading fiction is one of life's great pleasures. Here's a record of the novels and short story collections that I've enjoyed. (Books are listed alphabetically by author.) See my recommended books page for content and design related non-fiction.
- Things Fall Apart (1958) by
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003) by
- Lucky Jim (1954) by
- Take a Girl Like You (1960) by
- The Old Devils (1986) by
- Money (1984) by
- Winesburg, Ohio (1919) by
- Case Histories (2004) by
- Surfacing (1972) by
- The Blind Assassin (2000) by
- Pride and Prejudice (1813) by
- Persuasion (1818) by
- The New York Trilogy (1987) by
- Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) by
- The Sense of an Ending (2011) by
- Herzog (1964) by
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (1993) by
- Out of Africa (1937) by
- On Love (1993) by
- The Death of the Heart (1938) by
- The Heat of the Day (1948) by
- Any Human Heart (2002) by
- Restless (2006) by
- Trio (2020) by
- Jane and Louisa Will Soon Come Home (1980) by
- Jane Eyre (1847) by
- The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) by
- The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) by
- Possession (1990) by
- The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by
- Fold (2011) by
- The Outsider (1942) by
- The Plague (1947) by
- The Fall (1956) by
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) by
- Oscar and Lucinda (1988) by
- A Month in the Country (1980) by
- The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) by
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974) by
- The Honourable Schoolboy (1977) by
- A Perfect Spy (1986) by
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by
- Through the Looking Glass (1871) by
- Wise Children (1991) by
- Leading the Cheers (1998) by
- The Promise of Happiness (2005) by
- Other People's Money (2011) by
- What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981) by
- Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) by
- Stories (1903) by
- The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) by
- The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914) by
- The Scandal of Father Brown (1935) by
- The Girls (2016) by
- The Accidental Woman (1987) by
- What a Carve Up! (1994) by
- The House of Sleep (1997) by
- The Rotters’ Club (2001) by
- The Alchemist (1988) by
- Foe (1986) by
- Disgrace (1999) by
- The Woman in White (1859) by
- The Moonstone (1868) by
- I, Tituba (1986) by
- Heart of Darkness (1899) by
- Lord Jim (1900) by
- The Last of the Mohicans (1826) by
- Generation X (1991) by
- Life After God (1994) by
- All Families are Psychotic (2001) by
- Hey Nostradamus! (2003) by
- The Power of One (1989) by
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (1977) by
- Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984) by
- Going Solo (1986) by
- Last Bus to Woodstock (1975) by
- Last Seen Wearing (1976) by
- The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (1977) by
- Service of All the Dead (1979) by
- The Dead of Jericho (1981) by
- The Riddle of the Third Mile (1983) by
- The Secret of Annexe 3 (1986) by
- The Wench is Dead (1989) by
- The Jewel That Was Ours (1991) by
- Ttrust (2022) by
- David Copperfield (1850) by
- Great Expectations (1861) by
- Ragtime (1975) by
- All the Light We Cannot See (2014) by
- The Idiot (1869) by
- The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845) by
- Paddy Clark, Ha Ha Ha (1993) by
- The Sign of Four (1890) by
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) by
- An American Tragedy (1925) by
- The Bafut Beagles (1954) by
- My Family and Other Animals (1956) by
- A Heartwarming Work of Staggering Genius (2000) by
- Middlemarch (1872) by
- The Virgin Suicides (1993) by
- Middlesex (2002) by
- Lara (1997) by
- The Sound and the Fury (1929) by
- As I Lay Dying (1930) by
- Light in August (1932) by
- Birdsong (1993) by
- Human Traces (2005) by
- Engleby (2007) by
- A Week in December (2009) by
- A Possible Life (2012) by
- Jeeves and the Wedding Bells (2013) by
- Where My Heart Used to Beat (2015) by
- Snow Country (2021) by
- Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) by
- The Beautiful and the Damned (1922) by
- The Great Gatsby (1925) by
- Tender is the Night (1934) by
- The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (1935) by
- The Crack-Up (1935) by
- The Lost Decade (1935) by
- Madame Bovary (1856) by
- Casino Royale (1953) by
- The Good Soldier (1915) by
- Parade’s End (tetralogy) (1948) by
- The Sportswriter (1986) by
- Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) by
- A Room with a View (1908) by
- Howards End (1910) by
- A Passage to India (1924) by
- Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2012) by
- The Collector (1963) by
- The Magus (1965) by
- The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969) by
- The Ebony Tower (1974) by
- The Corrections (2001) by
- Freedom (2010) by
- Hideous Kinky (1992) by
- The Solitaire Mystery (1990) by
- Sophie’s World (1991) by
- The Christmas Mystery (1992) by
- The Promise (2021) by
- The Snow Goose (1941) by
- The Beach (1996) by
- The Tesseract (1998) by
- Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by
- Lord of the Flies (1954) by
- The Spire (1964) by
- Rites of Passage (1980) by
- The Wind in the Willows (1908) by
- I, Claudius (1934) by
- Brighton Rock (1938) by
- The Power and the Glory (1940) by
- The Heart of the Matter (1948) by
- The End of the Affair (1951) by
- Twenty-One Stories (1954) by
- The Quiet American (1955) by
- Our Man in Havana (1958) by
- A Sense of Reality (1963) by
- Snow Falling on Cedars (1994) by
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) by
- The Midnight Library (2020) by
- Wessex Tales (1988) by
- Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) by
- Fatherland (1992) by
- Enigma (1995) by
- Archangel (1998) by
- The Ghost (2007) by
- The Second Sleep (2019) by
- The Go-Between (1953) by
- The Scarlet Letter (1850) by
- Catch-22 (1961) by
- The Sun Also Rises (1926) by
- Men Without Women (1927) by
- A Farewell to Arms (1929) by
- Green Hills of Africa (1935) by
- The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber (1936) by
- To Have and Have Not (1937) by
- For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by
- Across the River and Into the Trees (1950) by
- The Old Man and the Sea (1951) by
- The Prodigy (1906) by
- Gertrude (1910) by
- The Glass Bead Game (1943) by
- The Talented Mr Ripley (1955) by
- I’m the King of the Castle (1970) by
- The Woman in Black (1983) by
- A Kestrel for a Knave (1968) by
- The Kite Runner (2003) by
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by
- What I Loved (2003) by
- Chrome Yellow (1921) by
- Brave New World (1932) by
- Eyeless in Gaza (1936) by
- The World According To Garp (1978) by
- A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by
- Goodbye to Berlin (1939) by
- The Remains of the Day (1989) by
- When We Were Orphens (2000) by
- Never Let Me Go (2005) by
- Nocturnes (2009) by
- The Portrait of a Lady (1881) by
- The Aspern Papers (1888) by
- Selected Short Stories (1896) by
- The Turn of the Screw (1898) by
- Three Men in a Boat (1889) by
- The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2009) by
- The Prophet and the Idiot (2022) by
- Dubliners (1914) by
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) by
- Metamorphosis and Other Stories (1915) by
- The Trial (1925) by
- On the Road (1957) by
- The Dharma Bums (1958) by
- Maggie Cassidy (1959) by
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) by
- The Secret Life of Bees (2001) by
- The Poisonwood Bible (1998) by
- The Lacuna (2009) by
- Demon Copperhead (2022) by
- Kim (1901) by
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984) by
- The Leopard (1958) by
- Sons and Lovers (1913) by
- The Atom Station (1948) by
- To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by
- Cider with Rosie (1959) by
- Out of the Silent Planet (1938) by
- Perelandra (1943) by
- That Hideous Strength (1945) by
- Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew (1955) by
- Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (1950) by
- Narnia: The Horse and His Boy (1954) by
- Narnia: Prince Caspian (1951) by
- Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952) by
- Narnia: The Silver Chair (1953) by
- Narnia: The Last Battle (1956) by
- Moon Tiger (1987) by
- The Photograph (2003) by
- Under the Volcano (1947) by
- Wolf Hall (2009) by
- Bring Up the Bodies (2012) by
- Embers (1942) by
- One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by
- Life of Pi (2001) by
- The Piano Tuner (2002) by
- Of Human Bondage (1915) by
- Cakes and Ale (1930) by
- Rebecca (1938) by
- My Cousin Rachel (1951) by
- The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (1998) by
- Tears of the Giraffe (2000) by
- Morality for Beautiful Girls (2001) by
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) by
- Enduring Love (1997) by
- Amsterdam (1998) by
- Atonement (2001) by
- Saturday (2005) by
- On Chesil Beach (2007) by
- Solar (2010) by
- Sweet Tooth (2012) by
- Billy Budd, Sailor (1924) by
- Focus (1945) by
- Cloud Atlas (2004) by
- Private Peaceful (2003) by
- Beloved (1987) by
- The Love of a Good Woman (1998) by
- Norwegian Wood (1987) by
- Under the Net (1954) by
- The Bell (1958) by
- The Black Prince (1973) by
- The Sea, the Sea (1978) by
- Lolita (1955) by
- Pnin (1957) by
- Pale Fire (1962) by
- A House for Mr Biswas (1961) by
- A Bend in the River (1979) by
- The River Between (1965) by
- One Day (2009) by
- Appointment in Samarra (1934) by
- Yonnondio (1974) by
- The English Patient (1992) by
- Down and Out in London and Paris (1933) by
- Animal Farm (1945) by
- 1984 (1949) by
- The Thursday Murder Club (2020) by
- The Man Who Died Twice (2021) by
- The Bullet that Missed (2022) by
- The Last Devil to Die (2023) by
- Where the Crawdads Sing (2018) by
- Cry, The Beloved Country (1948) by
- The Bees (2014) by
- The Moviegoer (1961) by
- The Visit (1999) by
- Silver Birches (2009) by
- The Shadow Doctor (2017) by
- The Shadow Doctor: The Past Awaits (2019) by
- The Bell Jar (1963) by
- The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838) by
- A Question of Upbringing (1951) by
- A Buyer’s Market (1952) by
- The Acceptance World (1955) by
- At Lady Molly’s (1957) by
- Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant (1960) by
- The Kindly Ones (1962) by
- The Valley of Bones (1964) by
- The Soldier’s Art (1966) by
- The Military Philosophers (1968) by
- Books Do Furnish a Room (1971) by
- Temporary Kings (1973) by
- Hearing Secret Harmonies (1975) by
- The Shipping News (1993) by
- The Godfather (1969) by
- The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) by
- Exercises in Style (1947) by
- Swallows and Amazons (1930) by
- The Evenings (1947) by
- Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by
- Housekeeping (1980) by
- Gilead (2004) by
- American Pastoral (1997) by
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) by
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998) by
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999) by
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) by
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003) by
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) by
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) by
- The God of Small Things (1997) by
- Midnight’s Children (1981) by
- Holes (1998) by
- The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by
- For Esmé ~ With Love and Squalor (1953) by
- Franny and Zooey (1961) by
- Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters / Seymour: an Introduction (1963) by
- The Norfolk Mystery (2013) by
- Whose Body? (1923) by
- Clouds of Witness (1926) by
- Unnatural Death (1927) by
- The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928) by
- Strong Poison (1930) by
- Murder Must Advertise (1933) by
- The Nine Tailors (1934) by
- Gaudy Night (1935) by
- The Tobacconist (2012) by
- Funny Boy (1994) by
- The Lonely Londoners (1956) by
- We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003) by
- I Capture the Castle (1948) by
- Gorky Park (1981) by
- White Teeth (2000) by
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) by
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) by
- Treasures of the Snow (1950) by
- Tortilla Flat (1935) by
- Of Mice and Men (1937) by
- The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by
- Cannery Row (1945) by
- The Pearl (1947) by
- East of Eden (1952) by
- The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemen (1767) by
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by
- Perfume (1985) by
- Gulliver’s Travels (1726) by
- The Secret History (1992) by
- The Little Friend (2002) by
- The Goldfinch (2013) by
- The Hobbit (1937) by
- LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) by
- LOTR: The Two Towers (1954) by
- LOTR: The Return of the King (1955) by
- Anna Karenina (1877) by
- Cane (1923) by
- Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2006) by
- The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce (2008) by
- The Girl on the Landing (2009) by
- Rules of Civility (2011) by
- A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) by
- The Lincoln Highway (2021) by
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ (1982) by
- The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984) by
- The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (1914) by
- Fathers and Sons (1862) by
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) by
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by
- Rabbit, Run (1960) by
- Rabbit Redux (1971) by
- The Enchanted April (1922) by
- Slaughterhouse 5 (1969) by
- Decline and Fall (1928) by
- A Handful of Dust (1934) by
- Scoop (1938) by
- Brideshead Revisited (1945) by
- The Complete Short Stories (1962) by
- Sword of Honour (trilogy) (1965) by
- Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) by
- The Day of the Locust (1939) by
- The House of Mirth (1905) by
- The Age of Innocence (1920) by
- The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) by
- Stoner (1965) by
- My Man Jeeves (1919) by
- The Inimitable Jeeves (1923) by
- Carry on, Jeeves (1925) by
- Thank you, Jeeves (1934) by
- Blandings Castle and Elsewhere (1935) by
- The Code of the Woosters (1938) by
- Joy in the Morning (1947) by
- The Mating Season (1949) by
- Jeeves in the Offing (1960) by
- Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963) by
- The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) by
- Mrs. Dalloway (1925) by
- To the Lighthouse (1927) by
- Orlando (1928) by
- The Waves (1931) by
- Revolutionary Road (1961) by
- The Shadow of the Wind (2001) by
- The Book Thief (2005) by
- Chess (1943) by
- Twentieth-Century Short Stories (1959) by
- The Art of the Tale (1986) by
- Tales from the Beach House (2021) by