Life must be filled up

Sebastian Faulks has been asked by Waterstones (© all broadsheets) to list the forty books which have most inspired him. You can see the list here. Faulks is a clever chap and a real whiz on R4’s The Write Stuff. Sadly, I don’t like his novels but I was interested in seeing his picks. Strange that the same person who loves David Copperfield (yay!) can go for unreadable Henry Green.
Today’s Telegraph has a ‘Books that touched our souls’ page in which their ‘star writers’ pick another forty books betwen them. A N Wilson plumps for Shakespeare and the Bible (quite right!) amongst others, self deprecatingly acknowledging that it's like being on Desert Island Discs. Other people's choices are more surprising. The Tibetan Book of the Dead? I don’t believe him. Three cheers for the picker of The Compleet Molesworth, which I do believe is profoundly philosophical and have actually been inspired by.

Have a go?