Sunday, May 3, 2009

Sunday Salon: 15 books. you've been tagged

This has been doing the rounds of Facebook recently. I thought it was worth a blog entry.

The name of the game is to list 15 books that will always stick with you and do it within a 15 minute time frame. Pass it on to 15 friends and see what they come up with.


Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Ten Little N*ggers (yes, that's what it was called way back when dinosaurs roamed) - Agatha Christie.I found this on my grandmother's bookshelf when I was a teenager and it introduced me into the world of crime fiction.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Christine - Stephen King (my first horror book and it gave me the heebie jeebies)

Needful Things - Stephen King (it was supposed to be horror but I laughed all the way through - it made me realise I had a taste for sick puppy humour)

all of the Dalziel and Pascoe novels by Reginald Hill

Riotous Assembly - Tom Sharpe - political commentary in the form of farce - glorious.

The Colour of Night - Terry Pratchett (audio book narrated by Nigel Planer - introduced me to Pratchett's beautifully odd disc world)

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

Be My Enemy (aka F*ck This for a Game of Soldiers) - Christopher Brookmyre - Mad, bad, tacky, tasteless, politically incorrect, hysterically funny and the best ranter in the business

Underbelly - John Silvester & Andrew Rule - hooked me on Australian true crime

The Body Farm- Patricia Cornwell - my first encounter with the forensic side of crime - that fascination has stayed with me even though Cornwell hasn't. I've long since given up reading her books.

Diamond Dove - Adrian Hyland - so many themes in this book combined with aboriginal spirituality

A Beautiful Place to Die - Malla Nunn - I've just read it and it truly was a WOW book. Set in 1952 South Africa, the fear and paranoia that apartheid laws brought is all through this book.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good list! I'll try to get around to this when I have a spare 15 mins (ha!).

susan said...

Hi Sunnie,

I'm new to Sunday Salon. Glad you posted the Ten title. Suggests to me you don't overly concerned yourself with others getting a wedgie.

Dorte H said...

Great list - and I even know a handful of them :)

Glad McCall Smith is on it; I won it last month and am going to review it soon.

Gavin said...

Great list. I have "Diamond Dove", published at "Moonlight Downs" in the US, from my library. It is my introduction to Aussie crime fiction!

Sunnie Gill said...

Glad you enjoyed it, Gavin. There are so many fine Aussie crime writers these days.
http://www.nedkellyawards.com/winner.html is a very good place to start with a long list of past winners of the Ned Kelly Awards.