This week sees the start of activities in the build up for the launch of the 2015 Books Are My Bag campaign, a nationwide campaign to celebrate everything that is wonderful about bookshops. This excellent idea (started just a few years ago), aims to bring book lovers back to their high street bookshops and away from the online super giants.
This year, the Books Are My Bag campaign wants to know which books you love the most and could happily re-read over and over again. What are the top 8 books you would take to a desert island? You can make your own list on postcards in participating bookshops, share on social media and stake a claim for your all time favourites.
It really is an impossible task with so many amazing books to choose from. I have tried (aka agonised), and here are my top 8 (in no particular order). These books all mean something special to me. They each made me gasp or sigh or smile or cry when I first read them. They are the books that I would happily re-read over and over again. And here they are, pulled from various bookshelves dotted around the house.
My Books Are My Bag Top 8 Desert Island Reads are:
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie
The Princess Bride -William Goldman
A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
The Lord of The Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
Many bookshops will be having parties this Saturday (10th October) and there are lots of events planned with author readings, competitions and lots more. See the Books Are My Bag website and Facebook pages for more information or follow #BAMB and #DesertIslandReads on Twitter for more information and to get involved.
Happy book buying!
The Memories We Keep by Walter Zaccheus (sp)
The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
The Arthurian Legacy by Mary Stewart
Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole
The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor
A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor
That Autumn in Edinburgh by Ciji Ware (and any other book by her)
The Collector of Dying Breaths by M. J. Rose (and anything else by her)
The Huntress/FBI Series by Alexandra Sokoloff (and anything else by her)