Some users of BookCrossing are once again compiling a listing of the Top 100 books read by BookCrossers in 2005, as well as BookCrossers’ all-time favourites. Coming up with the lists, especially for my reading this past year was an interesting exercise and trying to come up with my top 20 favourites was quite a challenge – of paring it down to 20! I stuck only to fiction for my top 20 of all time.

My top 20 read in 2005 (in no particular order)
1. The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
2. Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett
3. Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin
4. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
5. Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss
6. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
7. Outwitting History: how one man rescued a million books and saved a civilization by Aaron Lansky
8. Chasing the Devil’s Tale by David Fulmer
9. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
10. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
11. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
12. House of Many Gods by Kiana Davenport
13. The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne
14. The Gospel of Judas by Simon Mawer
15. Enchanted, Inc. by Shanna Swendson
16. Thud! by Terry Pratchett
17. Second Hand by Michael Zadoorian
18. Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
19. Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner
20. Ghostheart by Roger Jon Ellory

My top 20 of all time (today’s opinion on the topic, again in no particular order)
1. Persuasion by Jane Austen
2. Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
3. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
4. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
6. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
7. Lord of the Rings (series) by J.R.R. Tolkien
8. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
9. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
10. The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
11. The Comedians by Graham Greene
12. Jeeves and Wooster books (series) by P.G. Wodehouse
13. The Cazalet Chronicles (series) by Elizabeth Jane Howard
14. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
15. Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
16. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
17. Miss Garnet’s Angel by Salley Vickers
18. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
19. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
20. Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen