Books I have read, enjoyed and can remember the titles and authors of are....

Non-Fiction
The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker and River out of Eden by Richard Dawkins - all expounding Darwin's ideas and bringing them up to date.
Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana - an account of sailing in a square-rigger by a law student who tried it 'just for fun' in the 1850s (I think). Part-way through this now.
Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson - an erudite and entertaining (like everything he writes) dissection of the English language
Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss - ditto, specialising in erroneous punctuation, like greengocers' apostrophes.


Fiction
The Handmaids Tale by....?? Disturbing but fascinating.
Under the Greenwood Tree, The Trumpet Major and Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. If you get on with these, try Tess and Return of the Native.    NOT Jude the Obscure.
The Richard Bolitho books by Alexander Kent - a bit more exciting and less literary than...
The Jack Aubrey books by Patrick o'Brian - a bit like Wagner - some wonderful moments but some dreadful half-hours
The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

That'll do for now.

Steve