In our quest to read more in 2020, this week we are looking to some of our favourite authors for inspiration for the next titles to add to our New Year’s reading lists.
We’ve put together a selection of favourites from celebrated authors that will be sure to help you choose the next novel to read.
Continue reading to see if you and these renowned writers share any literary favourites!
Louisa May Alcott, Little Women – Maya Angelou
Poet and author Maya Angelou has been quoted as choosing Alcott’s classic coming-of-age novel, Little Women, as one of her favourites: “I felt like I was almost there with them in their living room and their kitchen.”
James Joyce, Dubliners – Ernest Hemingway
One of many titles on the list of Ernest Hemingway’s favourite literary works is James Joyce’s Dubliners. He lists this among the titles he would “rather read again for the first time… than have an assured income of a million dollars a year.”
Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None – Gillian Flynn
Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn has chosen the classic Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None as one of her most-loved books. She quoted it as being the book “you grab when you’re feeling cranky and nothing sounds good to read.”
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye – Samuel Beckett
Irish novelist Samuel Beckett shared some literary favourites in his letters during the period from 1941 to 1956. Of the classic American piece The Catcher in the Rye he wrote, “I liked it very much indeed, more than anything for a long time.”
Colette, Chéri – J.K. Rowling
Of the famed French author Colette’s 1920 romance novel, Chéri, J.K. Rowling said, “The final scene is incredibly moving; it makes me cry. I absolutely bow to Colette.”
Sir Thomas Malory, King Arthur – Mark Twain
In response to a letter from a local pastor in Maine – the state where the American writer spent his summers – Mark Twain listed King Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory as one of his most-loved pieces of literature.
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House – F. Scott Fitzgerald
In 1936 while the American fiction writer was under medical supervision at the height of his personal troubles, F. Scott Fitzgerald annotated a list of 22 pieces of essential reading to his nurse, Dorothy Richardson. On that list was Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play, A Doll’s House.
Joseph Conrad, Victory – Joan Didion
American author and essayist Joan Didion describes Joseph Conrad’s 1915 novel Victory as “maybe my favourite book in the world.”
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time – Vladimir Nabokov
The first half of Marcel Proust’s seven-volume novel In Search of Lost Time is on the list of favourites for Russian writer and Lolita author, Vladimir Nabokov.
Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison – Jane Austen
According to the Jane Austen Society of North America, one of Austen’s favourites was The History of Sir Charles Grandison by fellow English writer Samuel Richardson. The novelist also mentioned in her letters that she read Lord Byron’s The Corsair: “I have read the Corsair, mended my petticoat, & have nothing else to do.”
