 | The Stars My Destination (S.F. Masterworks) by Alfred Bester
Buy new: £5.49 / Used from: £1.02 Unbelievably fast-paced, exciting adventure. Each chapter is like a mini-action movie, but this is also a story about an initially simple man discovering just how much he is capable of.
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 | The Catcher in the Rye by J. Salinger
Buy new: £5.59 / Used from: £3.09 This tops so many people's lists, that I don't think I have to say much about it.
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 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (Essential Penguin) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Buy used from: £0.27 100 years in the life of a family and a town in South America. Rich, quirky, full of character. Beautifully written, like a fairytale for adults. Every sentence is compelling.
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 | Ham On Rye by Charles Bukowski
Buy new: £5.77 / Used from: £4.54 No-one writes low-life better than Bukowski. This basically autobiographical novel, though, charts his early life; Adolescent miseries, sexual desire... Written as always with humour and melancholy.
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 | A Scanner Darkly (S.F. Masterworks) by Philip K. Dick
Buy new: £5.59 / Used from: £1.43 Usually, I find PKD's work ingenious but somewhat cold. This is warm, life-like, hilarious, tragic and barely SF at all. A book about friendship and addiction.
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 | The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £2.99 The adventures of an intensely ordinary man whose mundane life slowly turns into a surreal detective story. Slow-paced but highly addictive. Try it!
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 | No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker
Buy used from: £0.01 Rich, gritty first-person account of a guy just out of jail trying, and failing, to go straight. Bunker is an amazing writer who really shows us the realities of the criminal world.
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 | Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
Buy used from: £8.84 Mediaeval Germany: Two young monks, both dedicated to their quiet vocation. Then one strays into sin and leaves. The other stays. Big questions asked within a compelling, beautiful narrative.
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 | Candide (Penguin popular classics) by Voltaire
Buy new: £2.00 / Used from: £0.01 Written in the 1750s but still fresh and very funny today. Globetrotting comic novel with a vivid cast of characters.
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 | The Book Of Skulls (S.F. Masterworks) by Robert Silverberg
Buy new: £5.59 / Used from: £1.20 NOTE: This *isn't* SF. It's a great, character-driven story about a bunch of kids in the '70s, on a road trip into the Arizona desert, seeking out a cult said to know the secret of immortality.
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 | Omnibus: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales No. 2 (H.P. Lovecraft Omnibus) by H.P. Lovecraft
Buy new: £5.49 / Used from: £1.00 Lovecraft's stories are drenched in atmosphere. These editions collect (nearly) all of his fiction in three volumes. Vol.2 contains my favourite story of all, 'The Temple.'
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 | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: AND Through the Looking Glass (Penguin Classics) by Lewis Carroll
Buy new: £4.49 / Used from: £3.60 Classic surreal masterworks. This edition includes the all-important Tenniel illustrations.
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 | Preacher: Gone to Texas by Garth Ennis
Buy new: £6.59 / Used from: £14.99 Like comics? I'm not crazy about them, as they are too often disappointing. But the 'Preacher' series is the best I've ever read. Ultraviolent, hilarious entertainment with 3 great lead characters.
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 | Hard Boiled by Frank Miller
Buy new: £12.99 / Used from: £5.99 Like comics? Me too, when they're this well-drawn. Miller's writing is minimal and blah. Darrow's art is the star; A hyper-detailed, perverse, run-down future - You can pore over this for hours.
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| Meditations (Penguin 60s) by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius
Buy used from: £0.01 This tiny book is always by my bedside, so I can pick it up when I'm down. Little nuggets of truth that remind you life is short and there's no point dwelling on the past or worrying over the future.
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