 | The World According to Garp (Black Swan) by John Irving
Buy new: £5.96 / Used from: £0.01 The first Irving novel I read - an epic of women, wrestling, humour, tragedy.
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 | The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Buy new: £4.49 / Used from: £0.01 Absolutely compelling - I learnt so much about the Belgian Congo, and Africa.
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 | The Stand (The Complete and Uncut Edition) by Stephen King
Buy used from: £0.01 I've been a Stephen King fan since I found Carrie in a second hand bookshop. This is probably his best: Apocalyptic, huge! King tells a thumping good yarn.
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 | His Dark Materials Gift Set: "Northern Lights", "The Subtle Knife", "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
Buy used from: £10.00 Was recommended this by the teenager next door: fab, escapist and better than Harry Potter.
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 | Kindred (Bluestreak) by Octavia E. Butler
Buy used from: £5.79 First Butler book I read: sadly she died this year, so there'll be no more from this brilliant author. Butler explores race and gender in this magic story.
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 | Catch-22 (Vintage Classics) by Joseph Heller
Buy new: £5.96 / Used from: £2.90 I was trapped in hospital with nothing else to read or I probably wouldn't have finished this classic anti war tale: I was so glad I did - wow.
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 | The Lord of the Rings (3 Book Box set) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Buy new: £13.00 / Used from: £11.92 As a hardened fantasy reader, I've got to include this! Just skip the tedious historical battle stories and stick to the nitty gritty.
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 | The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
Buy new: £9.98 / Used from: £4.53 Another blockbuster and cult classic that I adore. These books had me laughing out loud at times. Totally surreal - the last book in the trilogy upsets all your assumptions. Masterpiece.
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 | The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
Buy used from: £0.01 Read this years ago, but it has stood the test of time. Romantic but good escapist stuff of the kind I eat up.
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 | The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
Buy used from: £0.17 Another of my favourite authors: interesting questions posed in a great story.
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 | The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Buy new: £5.39 / Used from: £3.49 Steinbeck is another excellent storyteller - this tale is the story of a family forced to evacuate the 'Dust Bowl' during the Great Depression in USA.
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 | Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz
Buy new: £6.13 / Used from: £0.01 Couldn't include King without putting in Koontz. This story features one of my favourite characters, Christopher Snow, and I love Koontz' humour.
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 | Practical Demonkeeping (Pine Cove Series) by Christopher Moore
Buy new: £5.09 / Used from: £0.22 No 13 - how appropriate. I was introduced to Mr Moore by bookcrossing. He makes me laugh out LOUD. This was the first I read - but go read em all.
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 | American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Buy new: £4.50 / Used from: £1.99 I sense themes emerging in my list. This book is a bit of horror, scifi, fantasy, and humour but, above all, a bloomin' good yarn.
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 | Dune by Frank Herbert
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 I wasn't that bothered by the sequels, but this first book is masterful. Herbert creates an entirely believable, fascinating new world called Arrakis.
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 | Watership Down (Puffin Books) by Richard Adams
Buy new: £4.19 / Used from: £0.01 An epic tale of bunnies with all my favourite components.
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 | Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Buy new: £4.79 / Used from: £1.72 This is the only book by Mieville I've read, but I'll be back, to be sure. Fantastic, wierd imaginings - brilliant writing, and British too!
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 | The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid
Buy used from: £0.01 Hard to know which of McDermid's novels to choose - they're all great, but in the end I went for the Tony Hill (psychological profiler) + Carol Jordan (DI) no. 1. McDermid was my intro to this genre.
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 | Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Buy new: £6.02 / Used from: £0.01 Read this whilst traipsing around China. It is the story of three generations of women with the huge backdrop of China's tumultous history in the twentieth century.
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 | Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart
Buy new: £14.88 / Used from: £13.30 I read this a long time ago - and remember being entranced. I lived not far from Caerfyrddin (Merlin's hill) hence my interest. Stewart puts a new twist on the Arthurian legend..
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 | Toxic Shock (A V. I. Warshawski novel) by Sara Paretsky
Buy used from: £0.01 Which VI Warshawski novel to pick? could have been any of them! VI is my kind of hero - tough, sassy, James Bond kind of luck but my kind of politics.
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