Ok, a lot of the titles that are special to me have already been listed, so these are the ones that I would add (listed in no particular order - I love them all equally):

1. Gilded Needles - Michael McDowell

This book blew my socks off. I'm not a horror reader but McDowell has changed my entire outlook on that genre and I consider Gilded Needles to be his best work for me.

2. The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth

The short explanation for this pick is that it set a standard for me about what a thriller should be. I seriously love this book. It has action but also makes one think. Note - The Bourne Identity did cross my mind as a potential contender but it would be like like bringing a knife to a gun fight. LoL. 

3. The Tennant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte

This is the book that tipped Jane Eyre of its pedestal for me. Anne was a badass.

4. Howards End - E.M. Forster

This is a conventional choice. I get it. It's a book that is on many lists already. However, this is Forster's best work and it is a shame that it is on any "Best of List" because that kind of hype usually backfires. At least it does for me. It's one book that also should never be forced on high school students because this book is deeply personal and no one should be forced to discuss how this book makes sense to them. I don't know. 

So, yes, this is a "classic" by a dead white guy, I am not going to hold that against the book. 

5. A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood

Where compilers of Best of Lists like to include Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf, I'd usually like to substitute their entries with Isherwood. Yup. I know. Dead White Guy. But still one of the best books I've read. There is especially one part where I always think that the Bell Jar can bugger off - For me "I am. I am. I am." has nothing on "Waking up begins with saying am and now."

6. The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey

I love this book for so many reasons: it literally has no plot and yet Tey managed to turn this into a suspenseful murder mystery, showing that actual history is thrilling. Tey challenged the accepted view of historical fact and basically had the guts to challenge Shakespeare and every school history book being taught at the time of writing. Moreover, she made me look at historical paintings in a more enlightened way. I love Tey - as you are sick of hearing by now, I'm sure - and this one started that that journey.

7. Forbidden Journey - Ella K. Maillart

I am listing this because this is the seminal book of Maillart's that established her firmly as my favourite badass travel writer and explorer. She's usually overshadowed by her two-time travel companion (and brother of Bond creator) Peter Fleming, whose books are really shallow and short-sighted in comparison to Maillart's. She's one author that may not have the stylistic skills of her peers, but she's one that has more things to say than most of the travel writers I have read.

8. The Comedians - Graham Greene

Yup. Greene. I cannot leave Greene off a list and I still consider The Comedians his best book. There is no wallowing in Catholic guilt in this one like there is in what is usually listed as his best work. This one faces and exposes the inhumanities of a violent regime gripping Haiti at the time Greene wrote this and pokes it with a very pointy stick. 

9. Artful - Ali Smith

Ok. Smith. Artful is not a novel. It's a lecture that is presented as a part-fictional narrative. What is important to me about this one is that it encapsulates how language works and how an author can make language work in a multitude of ways. If I were to compare this another work about a different art - John Berger's Ways of Seeing had a similar effect on me. (But he is usually listed on a Best Of list somewhere and I wanted to pick a book about language and literature.)

10. Embers - Sandor Marai

Maybe an odd choice but this is a book that I read decades ago and it is still with me. It is one of the books that set a standard for other books to follow with respect to creating atmosphere because even thinking about Embers I can smell the wood burning in the fireplace and the pine trees outside. 

So, one of the things I noted with some regret while compiling this list is that there aren't many titles on here that originated in languages other than English. There are a lot of authors I adore who did not write in English but the ones I would have picked usually also appear in the Best of Lists - which I take as a sign that I need to make more of an effort to read diversely. 

Of those I would have picked, these are my top 5 (again in no particular order):

- Hermann Hesse: Steppenwolf & Unterm Rad (tr. Beneath the Wheel)

- Klaus Mann: Treffpunkt im Unendlichen (no idea if this was translated into English)

- Kurt Tucholsky: any of the satirical works

- Jules Verne: Journey to the Centre of the World

- Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo

Do 4 III książki Wydawnictwa Czarne wydawane w serii „Orient Express” można kupić taniej. Akcja odbywa się przy okazji premiery e-booka Paula Theroux "Szczęśliwe wyspy Oceanii. Wiosłując przez Pacyfik". W tej książce autor "w chybotliwym kajaku-składaku odwiedza wyspy południowego Pacyfiku. Podróż rozpoczyna w Nowej Zelandii, a kończy tysiące kilometrów dalej na rajskich Hawajach". 

E-booki z serii "Orient Express" w ebookpoint.pl taniej do 4 marca (źródło: ebookpoint.pl)

Opis premiery brzmi ciekawie, ale ja nadrabiam zaległości. Skusiłem się na „Wielki bazar kolejowy. Pociągiem przez Azję” Paula Theroux, oczywiście ze względu na epizod indyjski w opisanej tam podróży. No i jest to najniższa cena tego e-booka od momentu jego pojawienia się na rynku. Po papierową wersję (412 stron) jakoś nie miałem siły sięgnąć.

Kilka pozycji zmieściło się w cenie poniżej 15 PLN. Podaję całą promocyjną ofertę, według rosnącej ceny:

A Christmas card by Paul Theroux
This story starts out with a family and the father has gotten them lost on the snowy road.
They notice a light and approach the house. The man wants the family to stay the night.
The man leaves a card for them when they leave in the morning. The card is magic and changes so only some can see the true image.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

This was my first taste of Paul Theroux, but I tend to love the orange-spined Penguin books and the Sunday Times byline on the cover suggesting the author "is as cool as Maugham", just had to be tested.

Set in Malawi, the book follows the antics of American, Calvin Mullet, sent by his company 'Homemakers International', to establish the use of insurance on the continent and European, 'Marais', a wannabe revolutionary leader, seeking to ignite a popular uprising against the incumbent dictator ('Osbong'). The interplay between their disparate paths and the buffeting of the respective ambitions, lends itself to a satirical examination of a paternalistic brand of imperialism. But, the impact of capitalism, in the guise of a local brothel just piles on the irony, as the author casts an empathetic, quizzical eye over the insincere and ill-informed fumblings of the 'developed' world and the assumed vulnerability of the 'developing'. Throw in the stereotypical British ex-pat, Major Beaglehole and the scope for political incorrectness is huge. However, read as a book of its time (1970s), the caricatures are cleverly assembled and instantly recognizable.

A very entertaining read, I'm not sure I would put Theroux in the same bracket as Maugham, but he does have an impressive back catalogue  and I shall look forward to sampling some more.