Top Ten  Books I Recommend The Most

1) We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver. Thebes book I read last year, absolutely stunning and you just can't put it down, I wish everybody would read this.

2) The Perks Of Being A Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky. Beautiful, soulful and ageless. Ignore the hype about John Green because I think this beats anything he's ever done.

3) Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk. My very favourite Palahniuk, and one of my most loved contemporary romances, I love this book.

4) ASOIAF Series - George R.R. Martin. I don't think there's any reader who wouldn't enjoy this series -- it has everything! Dragons, war, death, sex, wolves, beautiful northerners, king's, queen's, imp's, intrigue, betrayal....Read it!

5) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte. The best love story ever written.

6) Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen. Because Mr. Darcy.

7) Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov. I had to have one banned book on this list, and this is one of my very favourites. I think before you read it it can be an easy tale to judge, but once immersed you'll wonder why you ever saw any problem with it.

8) Fiesta/The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway. One of my favourite novels, and I think a game changer for those who say they dislike Hemingway's writing.

9) The Most Beautiful Women In Town - Charles Bukowski. This was the first Bukowski I read and I've never looked back.

10) The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath. I think it's really important for young women to read this book. Everyone always talks about coming of age stories and recommends The Catcher In The Rye, and while it's a great book, I think it's very easy to grow out of and I think it's important to have a female presence in that genre. The Bell Jar feels like it will be with me always, while now I'm at an age when I just want to tell Holden to grow up.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Authors I'm Thankful For

1) William Shakespeare - I don't think I can even think about why I love literature without mentioning Shakespeare. I am so thankful for his contributions to English Literature, which remain as beautiful and relevant today as they were when first written and performed all those years ago.

2) Sylvia Plath - Plath always makes me feel like it's okay not to be so cheerful and positive all the time, because I'm not - and life's not. Her work has a huge dose of reality in it, but it's a kind of reality not normally found in poetry, and I'm so thankful for the stark truth that came from this woman. 

3) Emily Dickinson - For some of my favourite poems. 

4) Allen Ginsberg - Howl gets under my skin every time I read it and will always be one of my favourite things to read. I think he was a great man and a great thinker as well as a wonderful writer, his soul seems to permeate his words, and it's always wonderful to find something so thought provoking.

5) Charles Bukowski - For being the vulgar, male version of Plath and making me feel like less of a loner. I find so many facets of my own personality reflected in Bukowski's Hank Chinaski  I always feel a little less alone with one of his books in hand. Picking up a new one is like being reintroduced to an old friend. 

6) Chuck Palahniuk - For getting me into a whole new, wonderful, darkly satirical, humorous  romantic genre of books. I'll be reading his books as long as I'm alive and  don't think he will ever disappoint me. I am Jacks grateful smile.

7) Jane Austen - She and a handful of other women paved the way for mainstream female authors and I'm extremely thankful for that, she also creates beautiful romance that is so readable I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone these days who hasn't at least heard of her work. 

8) Emily Bronte - Again, for her following her dreams and publishing work as a woman in her time. And for creating the best love story ever written.

9) Frank L. Baum - For Dorothy Gale, who I will forever associate with my childhood, and wonderful memories with my mum, who gave me ruby slippers.

10) Roald Dahl - Again, for my childhood - and probably the reason I love to read so much. My brother and I would be read a Dahl story every night before bed and I think it's what gave me my enthusiasm for books, his stories are still so magical to me. 

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Bookish People You Want To Meet (I'm going dead or alive!)

1) Charles Bukowski

2) Chuck Palahniuk

3) Jim Morrison 

4) Ernest Hemingway

5) William Shakespeare 

6) Emily Brontë

7) Virginia Woolf

8) Henry Miller

9) Anaïs Nin

10) Emily Dickinson

These people just strike me as such inspirational artists, they truly add beauty to my world. Who would you invite to your imaginary-literary dinner party?

Site Of The Month

I absolutely had to make a post about this Big Cartel Shop I've just come across. It's called Miles To Go and they specialise in "The art of literature", meaning, they do really cool shirts and jumpers etc, with book covers/their own designs based on books printed on them. Below is a little wishlist I've made of my favourite t-shirts.

1) To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee / 2) Tell Tale Heart - Edgar Allen Poe / 3) The Perks Of Being A Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky / 4) Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk / 5) Sirens Of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut / 6) Bluebird - Charles Bukowski / 7) Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut / 8) 1984 - George Orwell / 9) Howl - Allen Ginsberg.

There are lots more designs on the site as well as posters, phone covers, wallets, stickers and bags. I just think it's such a cool idea - we wear our favourite bands on our shirts, why not our favourite books?

You can visit the shop here.