Before You Die

A bookseller has sent me a list of 55 books I ought to read before I die.

And the question is why?

Not why did they send me the list but why are these particular books so essential?

I gave it a quick once over and my heart sank. Nothing quirky, non-obvious, outside the canon. The first title was To Kill A Mockingbird.

I was watching an interview with Patrick DeWitt yesterday and he was saying you've got to find the books that speak to you. He was largely self-educated, he says, which meant he dodged the canon.

It doesn't seem to have hobbled his writing skills.

I'm on his team, totally...

Not Tonight Sweetie, I've Got The Most Frightful Headache...

(detail of window in St Michael, Lewes, depicting the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket)