Author(s): Zane J Peder (ed.)

Writing & Reading

J. Peder Zane asked 125 celebrated authors to choose ten books they loved. Did Alexander McCall Smith and Lee Smith have any in common? They are both partial to a famous adulteress. While Paul Auster and Melissa Bank don't agree on anything, they picked top ten Tolstoys, though different ones. Was it Douglas Coupland or A.M. Homes who chose Fight Club as their favourite? Zane includes essays by authors on favourite books, as well as an essay by Sven Birkerts trying to understand the top ten. Authors include: John Banville, Julian Barnes, Andrea Barrett, Peter Carey, Jim Crace, Michael Cunningham, Margaret Drabble, A.L. Kennedy, Stephen King, David Lodge, Norman Mailer, Claire Messud, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Proulx, Jonathan Raban, Ian Rankin, Barry Unsworth and Tom Wolfe. With synopses of every book listed, "The Top Ten" is a guide to the classics, to some likely suspects and some thoroughly obscure titles, to books cherished by favourite writers and to years of pleasurable reading. First published 2007.