Oliver Twist

I have finished the first book on my list and can now stop feeling guilty about Oliver Twist. I no longer remember why I didn't read my o'level set books, but I didn't . I can only assume that I thought a working knowledge of the plot, based on the musical, would be sufficient. And even though I went on to read several of Dickens' other novels, and would include Great Expectations in my Desert Island Reads, I never got round to revisiting Oliver. So what did I think of it, after all these years? Well, I thought it was pretty good actually. The eponymous hero is bit of a drip, the casual anti-Semitism jars from a modern perspective and the coincidences are a bit of a stretch, but there are some wonderful scenes and some terrific characters. There's plenty of Dickensian squalor, lashings of Victorian sentiment and the plot is a pageturner, even though I knew what was going to happen. It also made me laugh out loud a few times - I always forget how funny Dickens is. I would have preferred a stickier end for the dastardly Noah Claypole  and it's a shame we don't find out what happens to the Artful Dodger after his  splendid court appearance ( and in my mind's eye he still looks EXACTLY like Jack Wild) but most of the characters get what they deserve. So - 1 down, 59 to go.

I think it's time for some bread-and-butter reading

I have started to compile a list of 60 books I should read before I am 60 and have come up with some rules.

I want this list to include ought-to-read books so I'm inclining towards the classics here. The sort of books that have enhanced people's lives, or are regularly selected as all-time favourites, or are acknowledged masterpieces. The sort of books, in many cases, that I feel I have read because the stories are so well known but that I have inexplicably never got round to reading.  I'm only going to include fiction, so no poetry, plays or biographies; only one book per author; only books I have never read in their entirety before (regrettably this means I will be revisiting various books studied in my youth which I only skimmed - my O'level essay on Oliver Twist owed more to the musical than to Dickens and I think Kate Bush was as much of an influence as Emily Bronte when I thought about Wuthering Heights). I am thinking only adult fiction as I feel I probably have read the majority of the children's classics. I would like to include some more recent books - I am thinking about 25% should have been published in my lifetime, but I also need to expand my pre-Victorian horizons.

Having said that I am reasonably well read - by the time I got to university I had got the hang of actually reading my set books.  But there are gaps. Books I have just always thought I wouldn't enjoy. Books I have been put off by being told too many times that I must read them because I will love them, which makes me feel stubborn and resistive. Books I have ignored because they are written in the present tense and it gets on my nerves (I am calling this Wolf Hall syndrome). The time has come to embrace them all.

I would love a bit of help with this. I do want to stretch myself but equally I would like there to be a fighting chance of enjoying the book and it not feeling like a total and utter chore. I have come up with the first ten, which should give you an idea of the sort of thing I had in mind, but I would love some recommendations.

1. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
2. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
3. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
4. Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe
5. Zuleika Dobson - Max Beerbohm
6. The Heart of Midlothian - Walter Scott
7. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
8. Casino Royale - Ian Fleming
9. Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope
10. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

So. What else should I be reading?