WHSmith are celebrating their 225th anniversary and to kick things off this year they asked people to share their favourite books. Read the WHSmith blog post here.
I got involved and got people talking about their favourites. So, let's get on to the answers I got to the following two questions, as asked by WHSmith:
- What is your favourite fiction book written in the last 225 years?
- What is your favourite children's book written in the last 225 years?
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Here are the responses for favourite fiction book:
"Jane Eyre - it's just amazing!" - Nikki
"The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson. It was gripping but I was so disappointed with the TV drama." - Rachel
"The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom was very thought provoking!" - Alex
(Alex also mentioned Kane and Abel by Jeffery Archer and The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay)
"The Island by Victoria Hislop because I couldn't put it down, which is unusual for me as I am not a great bookworm." - Sheran
"The Hobbit because it was one we read as a class in year five and it is what first got me into The Lord of the Rings, which is my favourite series" - Clay (my husband)
"The Five People You Meet in Heaven - I read it in one sitting." - Gill
(Gill also mentioned The Catcher in the Rye)
"The Night Circus - A real fantasy but unputdownable!" - Emma
(Emma also mentioned Pride and Prejudice, any Jodi Picoult and Sherlock Holmes - Emma really loves books!)
"Pride and Prejudice - it's a classic." - Donna
"P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern because I have read it twice and it's just a really good story." - Karen
"An Interview With a Vampire by Anne Rice, not only for providing us with the film staring a very gorgeous Brad Pitt but for starting my love of all books about vampires." - Nikki
"Slumdog Millionaire because it was one of the first books I remember reading as an adult." - Lizzie
"Bridget Jones's Baby because I read it quickly and it was funny." - 'Princess' (also known as Genna, but she tried give me a fake name!)
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Here are the responses for favourite children's book:
"Little Women was a book I read as a child with my mum and holds happy memories." - Debbie
(Debbie also mentioned The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett)
"We're Going on a Bear Hunt because my mum used to read it to me a lot and I liked the adventure of it." - Clay (my husband)
"The Enchanted Wood because I loved this books as a child. I read it many times and know much of it off by heart." - Karen
"The Faraway Tree because of the children's reaction when you read it to them - they love it." - Sheran
"The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett for capturing the imagination and the possibilities of what could be hidden behind a door in a wall.That started when I read it in primary school and continues into my adulthood." - Nikki
"Eat Your Peas by Kes Gray is a great read aloud book with humour for adults and children." - Gill
"Stig of the Dump was read to me by my favourite teacher in year six." - Lizzie
(Lizzie also mentioned The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and If I Stay by Gayle Forman)
"The Gruffalo because I love rhyming books." - Donna
"Danny Champion of the World. I remember my teacher reading this to me in primary school." - Julia
"Of Mice and Men because I remember it from school and it has always stuck in my mind." - Nikki
"Any of the Milly-Molly-Mandy books by Joyce Lankester Brisley because I liked her name and the things she did. I remember the one with her surprise bedroom." - Rachel
"We're Going on a Bear Hunt because I like bears." - Genna
"Harry Potter because I grew up with these books." - Emma
(Emma also mentioned the Beatrix Potter stories, The Faraway Tree, The Secret Garden, Danny the Champion of the World, Matilda, The Gruffalo and Green Eggs and Ham - like I said, Emma loves books!)
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Thank you so much to everyone who shared their favourite books for this article. I was lovely to hear everyone discussing their favourite books and I think it awakened the love of reading again for some people. It was also funny trying to watch people choose just one book rather than a handful (unless you're myself or Emma, in which case we still have a very long list!)
Now, on to my favourites...
My favourite children's book was tricky because there are so many great ones. The first book that came to mind was Stick Man by Julia Donaldson, but then I remembered back to my own childhood rather than books I've read to children. I immediately thought of Harry Potter because I was that person who would want the book at midnight on the day of release. I can remember my Dad going out to get it, coming and waking me up at 1am after he'd been out and got it to show me, but then being told I wasn't allowed to start reading it yet and to go back to sleep! Who does that? So I thought I'd settled on J.K. Rowling but I then remembered my love of Jacqueline Wilson and it was then that I knew it would have to be one of her books. I owned every single book by her growing up. As soon as she released a new one, I bought it (or rather my mum did, I was a child after all!) There were two books that stuck in my mind by her. The first was Lola Rose and I have such fond memories of reading that book as a child. I can actually picture myself laying on my bed, in my bedroom decorated with fairies, reading it. However, I went for the book that had the biggest impact on me and that was...
...Vicky Angel. I remember how this book was the first one I'd ever read where a character died, and not an elderly person dying of old age, a child. This story stayed with me and I reread it a number of times. Some people might think that it's a bit morbid for a child to read that but it's not like that at all. I remember carrying it around with me in junior school. I also remember rereading it when I was in college, after an old school friend died in a car accident. It wasn't in the same way as the book and we were older than the characters but reading it again then just helped me through that unfamiliar situation.
Now, for my favourite fiction book I had an even longer list! I cannot type out the whole list that I originally had because it really is so long but I had classics on my list like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, timeless books like The Book Thief and The Lord of the Rings and a ton of more modern-contemporary books. Classics are amazing but I know that . So, staying away from the classics, I went for...
...How to Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahern. It had to be a Cecelia Ahern book. She is my favourite author and she is the reason I got back into reading as an adult. This story is just amazing and if someone said to me that I could only keep one book from my bookshelf that would be the one I would pick up. It's just an impactful story for me, that has a sad and tense beginning, building up to something beautiful at the end. It's like when you watch a film and you just want two characters to kiss or get together already! It's just lovely and I will happily read it again and again for years to come.
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If you want to get involved with any of the discussions for WHSmith's 225th anniversary, use the hashtag #WHS225 to join in throughout 2017! Also, you can read more about their celebrations and things that WHSmith will be doing this year by clicking this link.
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