I may be a social media junkie, but I love me a good book.  I adore the smell of an old library, it’s books yellowing at the edges, the perfume of age, well-worn with thumb and fingerprints and dreams.  Here are 10 of my favourites.

Yes, I can count. “The Shining” is missing. Clearly another book that got burnt by ill-advised mothers everywhere.

1. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood.  Just. Handmaid’s Tale. That is all.
2. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath.  Tortuous but remarkable. Mental illness has always fascinated me. Does that sound wrong?
3. Wild Swans – Jung Chang.  Not purely fiction, it’s the most amazing journey of a chinese woman through China’s Cultural Revolution.  This book moved me so much, I sobbed when I finished it.  I was on a #3 tram at the time.  Embarassment.
4. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.  Fuelled my romantic notions of chasing the love of my life across abandoned moors. Shame we don’t have many abandoned moors in Australia. Do deserts count? Dream aborted.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee. I read this at school and STILL that fact hasn’t put me off the book.
6. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini. Hell and inspiration wrapped up in one little book.
7. The Shining – Stephen King. I could have included all Stephen’s books in this list, but it wouldn’t be very varied now, would it?  This is probably my favourite.
8. No Reason for Murder – Ayako Sono.  A crazy story by a female Japanese author that illustrates the hotbed of Japanese society so wonderfully and dangerously.
9. Seven Little Australians – Ethel Turner. Is there a book more quintessentially Australian than this one?  I’ve read this book so many times, I think it’s probably falling apart.
10. The Exorcist – William Peter Blatty. When I was 13, I gave my original copy of this book to a friend I met at Guide Camp. Her mother found it and BURNT IT. Clearly, this was a book that was meant to be read.