Unlike my husband, I wasn’t raised as a reader. The guy obsessively reads and buys books with a collection I have to as him to chop down repeatedly, especially since we moved home in March. Since I began reading, he reluctantly allowed me my own bookshelf. His five shelves are heaving with non-fiction, literary classics, historical fiction and some incredibly random books. Whereas my shelf––which I meticulously keep minimal, keeping only my favourites and restricting the physical TBR to fit on my sad little shelf––are regularly mocked by him.
The concept of fantasy tales and romance arcs is crap according to him. Of course, he says it with love, but he’s also a literary snob. The guy has been my sweet sounding board for my writing, reading and consuming my stories. He’s talked about my books with passion to me, my sister and teenage daughter. And there’s an adorable delight in watching people debate about your characters and their journeys. But it made me realise––if he can enjoy my written work, then he can enjoy my favourites too.
With this realisation, I challenged him to a book swap. My top five favourites versus his top five favourites. They had to be reads that we would both enjoy, and I appreciated him taking this seriously. So here’s the top five we picked for each other. We’ll let you know how we get on...
His top five.
1984 - George Orwell
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
The Master & Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (Counts as two books)
My top five.
The Seven Year Slip - Ashley Poston
Six of Crows - Leah Bardugo
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
Daisy Jones & the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Butcher & Blackbird - Brynne Weaver
