 | A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Buy new: £6.94 / Used from: £0.19 A book so good it made me cry after I'd finished reading it.
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 | Northern Lights: WITH Subtle Knife AND Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials) by Philip Pullman
Buy used from: £8.99 So much better than the wizard who is not worthy to be named near these books. Not least because these are highly original stories; not just for kids.
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 | To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Buy new: £4.25 / Used from: £2.50 An amazing book, you can feel the heat just thinking about it.
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 | In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (Penguin Modern Classics) by Truman Capote
Buy new: £6.74 / Used from: £3.88 Truman Capote, Harper Lee's good friend, gives an account of small town murder. A really modern-feeling book, think CSI in the '60s.
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 | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Buy new: £4.68 / Used from: £0.01 A compelling account of life with Asperger's.
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 | The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Buy new: £12.34 / Used from: £1.10 A huge book with tiny writing - all the stories, mostly reprinted from The Strand magazine - including the one that gives the title to number 5 in my list (it would give it away if I told you which).
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 | The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Buy new: £3.15 / Used from: £0.19 A deeply affecting book, about humanity, friendship, war and inhumanity,
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 | The Catcher in the Rye by J. Salinger
Buy new: £4.89 / Used from: £1.99 A modern classic for good reason. It might seem a bit tame compared to modern teenage apathy.
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 | Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Buy new: £7.99 / Used from: £1.99 Gives you shudders to think of what it describes is never too far away from what we have.
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 | Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Buy used from: £5.90 Ditto.
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 | Ulysses (Oxford World's Classics) by James Joyce
Buy used from: £3.94 OK so its taken two years and I'm only half way, but it is good and makes you feel smug that you're managing to read it!
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 | Mrs. Dalloway (Wordsworth Classics) by Virginia Woolf
Buy new: £1.99 / Used from: £0.01 A book that taught me to enjoy the details, not read past them to find something happening.
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 | The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.40 The modern take around Mrs Dalloway, but is so much more than that. The inter-weaving of tales and lives is incredible.
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 | The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £0.01 More interweaving, complex, thoughtful and deep.
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 | The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary classics) by Margaret Atwood
Buy new: £5.00 / Used from: £1.51 See items number 9 and 10.
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 | Please Mrs. Butler: Verses (Puffin Books) by Allan Ahlberg
Buy new: £4.49 / Used from: £0.01 Fantastic school-based poems. Loved them when I was 8, still love and now the kids I teach love them too!
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 | Heard It in the Playground (Puffin Books) by Allan Ahlberg
Buy new: £4.49 / Used from: £0.01 The sequel to number 16. And just as good. The eponymous poem is fabulous - kids love performing and adding to it, adults love remembering all the things it describes.
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 | Quick, Let's Get Out of Here (Puffin Books) by Michael Rosen
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £1.00 I am a complete Michael Rosen addict, this is my favourite. I love the Eddie stories, especially Eddie and the Nappy. I was saddened to hear of his death, but his chubby legs kick on...
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 | Moab is My Washpot by Stephen Fry
Buy new: £6.74 / Used from: £2.96 Fantastic to read about the person behind the person you think you know because you've seen him on TV.
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 | The Liar by Stephen Fry
Buy new: £5.94 / Used from: £2.68 Laugh out loud funny, and when you've read Moab, you kind of know where it comes from.
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