When I was a teenager, I thought favourites were forever and whenever I was taken by someone new, I thought it was because my taste up until then had been inferior.  I’ve stopped trying to get outside time now. My favourites are dependent on the stage of my life. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

1. Paul Auster

2. Ian McEwan

3. John Fowles

4. John Christopher

5. Philip K. Dick

6. John Updike

7. James Joyce

8. Thomas Hardy

9. Raymond Carver

10. Siri Hustvedt

11. Cormac McCarthy

12. Donna Tartt

13. Graham Greene

14. Hans Koning

15. J.D. Salinger

16. J.M. Coetzee

17. Jorge Luis Borges

18. Rick Moody

19. Angela Carter

20. Tim Winton

21. Geoff Nicholson

22. Jorge Luis Borges

23. Thomas M. Disch

24. Robert Silverberg

25. Patricia Highsmith

26. Gillian Mears

It’s based on me loving several works by that author – not just a single work. I feel bad I haven’t connected with more women writers, but that will come as I make a better effort to read them – affirmative action. I loved Lionel Shriver’s Kevin and Carol Shield’s Stone Diaries in the last month; I need to seek out more of their writing.