Memes are cool; I like memes. I came across this one on David Hebblethwaite’s excellent blog Follow the Thread. He writes that he found it on the Musings of a Bookshop Girl blog. As memes go, it is beautifully simple… and bloody hard to complete. Just list a favourite book for each letter of the alphabet. To be honest, for a couple of letters I had so many choices, I wasn’t sure which one to pick. Other letters – you know, the high-scoring ones in Scrabble – were not so easy…

A The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell (1960)

B The Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning (1981)

C Coelestis, Paul Park (1993)

D Dhalgren, Samuel R Delany (1974)

E Evening’s Empire, David Herter (2002)

F The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles (1969)

G Glimpses, Lewis Shiner (1993)

H How Far Can You Go?, David Lodge (1980)

I Icehenge, Kim Stanley Robinson (1984)

J Jerusalem Fire, RM Meluch (1985)

K Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (1988)

L Lady Chatterley’s Lover, DH Lawrence (1928)

M The Master Mariner: Running Proud, Nicholas Monsarrat (1978)

N Nightwatch, Andrew M Stephenson (1977)

O The Ophiuchi Hotline, John Varley (1977)

P The Prodigal Sun, Sean Williams and Shane Dix (1999)

Q The Quincunx, Charles Palliser (1989)

R The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe (1979)

S Synthajoy, DG Compton (1968)

T Take Back Plenty, Colin Greenland (1990)

U The Undercover Aliens, AE van Vogt (1950)

V Voyage, Stephen Baxter (1996)

W Where Time Winds Blow, Robert Holdstock (1981)

X X, Y, Michael Blumlein (1993)

Y The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, Michael Chabon (2007)

Z Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (2010)

Sadly, it’s a poor showing on the gender parity front – only 15% women writers. There were a number I wanted to include, but I happened to like a book beginning with that letter by a male writer just a little bit more. Also, I am generally a bigger fan of the oeuvres of women writers than I am of individual works by them.

On the other hand, I hadn’t expected science fiction to make such a strong showing, though it has formed the bulk of my reading since an early age. The numbers go: sf 62%, mainstream 31%, and 1% apiece for fantasy and horror. While I find mainstream novels of a higher quality than sf overall, some of my favourite novels remain science fiction ones.

Finally, the 1980s and 1990s are the most popular decades, with 27% and 23% respectively. I’ve no idea why, since I may not have read the books in question during those decades. The first decade of the twenty-first century scores a measly 8%, and there’s only one book from this decade.