Jon Richardson

Jon Richardson's Top 10 Favourite Reads

If, in my lifetime, I manage to create something half as original, imaginative and witty as this, I will be absolutely delighted. A wonderful and important piece of work. The kind of book I have to buy over and over again because I keep giving my own copy away to people I care about who, somewhat selfishly, I want to think of me when they think of the writing.

One of the few books I have read repeatedly, a masterpiece for fans of the genre. The twin time frames of the narrative allow King to write a graphic and terrifying horror story, but also to do what he does best of all, capture the fierce loyalty of childhood friendship.

Given to me by a friend when I was ill on the other side of the planet, it was a perfect and engrossing distraction from pneumonia. Instantly gripping and proof that not all protagonists have to be simply endearing to be worthy of reading about.

The debate about how old a reader of this kind of work should be passes me by completely, I see these three books as nothing less than exquisitely written stories of genuine depth and complexity, evoking as much emotional response in me as anything I have ever read. The stage adaptation at The National Theatre is also a memory I will hold dear for many years to come.

The precursor to his best-known work, "The Alchemist", it explores a similar theme in greater depth. I must admit that in recent years I have found this kind of work difficult to reread as happily as I don’t have the same self-doubts and unanswered questions that I had when I was younger, but it remains a book that undoubtedly helped me find the strength to change my life for the better.

An important part of my childhood, and for that reason something I reach for in adulthood to remind me of simpler times. Up we go, up we go!

The title alone makes this worthy of mention, but I have very fond memories of reading this and discovering for the first time the world of magic realism. A book I remember reading on a bench in a silent park on bright sunlit afternoon, despite the fact I’m almost certain I didn’t--it’s hard not to love any book that makes you rewrite your own history.

I bought this after reading ‘Into The Wild’, and perhaps because it consists of actual letters rather than a speculative recounting of events I found it much more affecting. Everett’s writing on solitude and his eventual fate strike a chord deep within me. Another book I read regularly. “The chief danger to an even semi-intelligent happiness lies in being analytic. One who is truly analytic cannot possibly be happy unless there is some great contradiction in his nature-some side of himself where the cold mind never probes. For to think is the beginning of death.”

An absolute classic, one of the few books I would happily describe as perfect. There is nothing else I can say about it.

It’s my mum’s favourite book and that fact alone makes it one of mine.

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