I had a bit of time yesterday so I wrote a list. I like lists. I was thinking about all the books that I’ve enjoyed reading. I thought I’d list my best 50. Of course that didn’t work. There were books I could not possibly leave out. So it soon blossomed to a 100.
I had to limit myself so I just did the novels (A few aren’t novels) and I missed out the Sci-fi and the Rock books (I might do them at a later date!)
It’s not comprehensive. Some writers like Julian Barnes, Sebastian Faulks, Jaspar Fforde, John Fowles, Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller and Haruki Murakami, I like everything they’ve written – but that would make for a boring list, wouldn’t it?
Some that I love I know I will have missed off. (I will kick myself).
Anyway – this gives you a glimpse. I can’t imagine a world without reading. A man who reads lives a thousand lives. I have. I get lost in books. They’ve brought me more pleasure than anything else – as much as music and sex!!
So which fabulous writers have I missed out? Who would be on your list?
Opher Goodwin’s 100 Essential Reads:
| 1 | Haruki Murakami – IQ84 |
| 2 | Jack Kerouac – On the Road |
| 3 | Margaret Atwood – Oryx and Crake |
| 4 | Ken Kessey – One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest |
| 5 | John Fowles – The Magus |
| 6 | Kasuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day |
| 7 | John Steinbeck – East of Eden |
| 8 | Robert Sheckley – Journey Beyond Tomorrow |
| 9 | Philip K Dick – A Scanner Darkly |
| 10 | George Orwell – 1984 |
| 11 | Allen Ginsberg – Howl |
| 12 | D H Lawrence – Lady Chatterleys Lover |
| 13 | William Burrough – The Naked Lunch |
| 14 | Isaac Asimov – Foundation Series |
| 15 | Lynne Reed Banks – The L-Shaped Room |
| 16 | Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird |
| 17 | Allan Sillitoe – The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner |
| 18 | Andrea Levy – Small Island |
| 19 | Nelson Mandela – the Long Walk to Freedom |
| 20 | Jack Kerouac – The Dharma Bums |
| 21 | Haruki Murakami – Norwegian Wood |
| 22 | Sebastian Faulks – Birdsong |
| 23 | Paul Auster – New York Trilogy |
| 24 | Philip Roth – American Pastoral |
| 25 | Kurt Vonnegut Jnr – Cat’s Cradle |
| 26 | Julian Barnes – The Noise of Time |
| 27 | Iain Banks – Whit |
| 28 | Iain McEwan – Atonement |
| 29 | Jonathan Franzen – Freedom |
| 30 | Ernest Hemmingway – For Whom the Bell Tolls |
| 31 | Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale |
| 32 | D H Lawrence – Women In Love |
| 33 | Stephen King – The Stand |
| 34 | Jaspar Fforde – First Among Sequels |
| 35 | Aldous Huxley – Brave New World |
| 36 | William Golding – The Inheritors |
| 37 | Gunter Gras – The Tin Drum |
| 38 | Salman Rushdie – Midnight’s Children |
| 39 | Anthony Burgess – A Clockwork Orange |
| 40 | John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath |
| 41 | Ken Kessey – Sometimes A Great Notion |
| 42 | Salman Rushdie – The Satanic Verses |
| 43 | Haruki Murakami – Kafka on the Shore |
| 44 | John Le Carre – The Constant Gardener |
| 45 | Nikos Kazantzakis – Zorba The Greek |
| 46 | Richard Brautigan – Trout Fishing in America |
| 47 | Robert Heinlein – Stranger In a Strange Land |
| 48 | Hilary Mantel – Wolf Hall |
| 49 | Will Self – The Book of Dave |
| 50 | Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things |
| 51 | Hilary Mantel – Bring Up The Bodies |
| 52 | John Fowles – The Collector |
| 53 | Iain McEwan – The Cement Garden |
| 54 | Henry Miller – The Tropic of Capricorn |
| 55 | Norman Mailer – The Naked and the Dead |
| 56 | J D Salinger – Catcher in the Rye |
| 57 | George Orwell – Keep the Aspidistras Flying |
| 58 | Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita |
| 59 | Joseph Heller – Catch 22 |
| 60 | J R R Tolkein – Lord of the Rings |
| 61 | Franz Kafka – The Trial |
| 62 | Alice Walker – The Colour Purple |
| 63 | Milan Kundera – The Unbearable Lightness of Being |
| 64 | Douglas Adams – The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy |
| 65 | Terry Pratchett – The Colour of Magic |
| 66 | Rachel Carson – Silent Spring |
| 67 | Anne Frank – Diary of a Young Girl |
| 68 | Erich Marie Ramarque – All Quiet on the Western Front |
| 69 | Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 |
| 70 | Richard Dawkins – The Selfish Gene |
| 71 | Richard Dawkins – The God Delusion |
| 72 | Patti Smith – Just Kids |
| 73 | Alexander Solshenezshin – A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich |
| 74 | Maya Angelou – I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings |
| 75 | Ben Okri – The Famished Road |
| 76 | Alexander Solshenezshin – The Gulag Archipelago |
| 77 | Heny Miller – The Air-conditioned Nightmare |
| 78 | Mezz Mezzrow – Really The Blues |
| 79 | Robert Harris – Ghost |
| 80 | Desmond Morris – The Naked Ape |
| 81 | Yuval Noah Harari – Sapiens |
| 82 | Yuval Noah Harari – Homo deus |
| 83 | Owen Jones – Chavs The Demonising of the Working Class |
| 84 | Owen Jones – The Establishment and how they get away with it |
| 85 | Margaret Atwood – Maddadam |
| 86 | Kasuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go |
| 87 | Charles Bukowski – Ham on Rye |
| 88 | Herman Hesse – Steppenwolf |
| 89 | Desmond Morris – The Human Zoo |
| 90 | Jane Goodall – In the Shadow of Man |
| 91 | Dian Fossey – Gorillas in the Mist |
| 92 | James Baldwin – Another Country |
| 93 | Philip Roth – I Married a Communist |
| 94 | Philip Roth – Portnoy’s Complaint |
| 95 | Pat Barker – Regeneration |
| 96 | Dee Brown – Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee |
| 97 | Arthur C Clark – 2001 A Space Odyssey |
| 98 | Chris Mullins – A Very British Coup |
| 99 | Alexei Sayle – Stalin Ate My Homework |
| 100 | David Storey – This Sporting Life |
Interested in fact based espionage and ungentlemanly officers and spies? Do read “Beyond Enkription” by Bill Fairclough – it is the first stand-alone fact-based espionage novel of six autobiographical tomes in The Burlington Files series. As the first book in the series, it provides a gripping introduction to the world of British intelligence and espionage. It is an intense electrifying spy thriller that had me perched on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. The twists and turns in the interwoven plots kept me guessing beyond the epilogue. The characters were wholesome, well-developed and intriguing. The author’s attention to detail added extra layers of authenticity to the narrative.
In real life Bill Fairclough aka Edward Burlington (MI6 codename JJ) was one of Pemberton’s People in MI6; for more about that see a brief News Article dated 31 October 2022 published in TheBurlingtonFiles website. The series follows the real life of Bill Fairclough (and his family) who worked not only for British Intelligence, but also the CIA et al for several decades. The first tome is set in 1974 in London, Nassau and Port au Prince: see TheBurlingtonFiles website for a synopsis.
Fairclough is not a professional but his writing style is engaging and fast-paced, making it difficult to put the book down as he effortlessly glides from cerebral issues to action-packed scenes which are never that far apart. Beyond Enkription is the stuff memorable spy films are made of. It’s unadulterated, realistic, punchy, pacy and provocative. While the book does not feature John le Carré’s “delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots” it remains a riveting and delightful read.
This thriller is like nothing we have ever come across before. Indeed, we wonder what The Burlington Files would have been like if David Cornwell (aka John le Carré) had collaborated with Bill Fairclough whom critics have likened to “a posh Harry Palmer”. They did consider collaborating but did not proceed as explained in the aforementioned News Article. Nonetheless, critics have lauded Beyond Enkription as being ”up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. No wonder it’s mandatory reading on some countries’ intelligence induction programs.
Overall, Beyond Enkription is a brilliantly refreshing book and a must read, especially for espionage cognoscenti. I cannot wait to see what is in store for us in the future. In the meantime, before reading Beyond Enkription do visit TheBurlingtonFiles website. It is like a living espionage museum and breathtaking in its own right.
Best read these news articles for starters – https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2023_06.07.php & https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2022.10.31.php.