Independent Bookshop Week: Our writers' favourite paperbacks

Andy Richardson: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Trying to choose a favourite book is like a three-child father trying to select a favourite kid.

Books provide endless wonder – what’s the quote about real life being okay, but not a patch on reading a great book.

Favourites come and go, depending on a mood or on what soulful sustenance I might need.

If I were to take one book to a desert island, it might be Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy – because it lasts forever and because when I read it, I started to feel as though I knew the characters and inhabited their environment. A dizzying world of colour and smell, action and drama, it was remarkably well written and is the sort of book that people will still be reading 50 years from now.

That’s not to say it’s my favourite book, however. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a memoir by journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, probably holds that accolade. Describing his life before a massive stroke left him with locked-in syndrome, it’s a book about context and reflection, about perspective and gratitude.

Bauby wrote the book by blinking his left eyelid during a two-month period, with assistance from a transcriber. It is simultaneously heart-breaking and life-affirming, tragic and filled with optimism and joy for life. It reminds us to be grateful for what we have, to live in the now, to cherish those we love, and to make the most of each moment. Beautifully written, deeply poignant, and immensely powerful, it is a book to adore.

Matt Panter: The Lord of the Rings

It was a love affair that didn’t actually start with the book.

I was seven years old when my dad, Albert, first pressed the play button on a cassette recorder, to begin a BBC radio adaption of The Lord of the Rings. It featured a host of well-known voices, sadly no longer with us, including Ian Holm, as Frodo Baggins, Michael Hordern as Gandalf, John Le Mesurier as Bilbo and Robert Stephens as Aragorn. And Bill Nighy, still a leading light in British acting, starred as Samwise Gamgee.

I was hooked by the fantasy world of Middle Earth, following Frodo, Sam and the fellowship on an epic quest, with danger around every corner, as they bid to destroy the ring of power in the fires of Mount Doom. I even shed a few tears when it appeared wise wizard Gandalf had perished in Moria and when flawed Boromir was killed while defending hobbits Merry and Pippin.

It gripped me in the way ‘good vs evil’ stories always did at that age, having watched Star Wars from the age of about five.

Having listened to a dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, I decided that, when a little older, I had to read the complete book by JRR Tolkien and it’s something I have never regretted. Of course you can listen to the BBC drama or watch the film trilogy, but delving into the pages of the book, and the incredible detail that is involved, takes your journey to Middle Earth to another level.

You discover characters and story arcs that no drama has had the time or inclination to delve into, and the book provides so much depth and scope.

I remember being blown away by the way in which Tolkien constructed so many languages, anything from Entish to the Black Speech and Elvish.

Having read the books, it always makes you feel you have an air of authority over people who have only seen the films, in the same way as I feel inadequate that my knowledge of Harry Potter is based off Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and all. And so, when I have a chunk of time spare, I intend to immerse myself in the books of JK Rowling. For me, you can’t beat stories where good eventually triumphs over bad.

Dan Morris: The Name of the Wind

With my colleague Lieutenant Panter paying tribute to old J.R.R as the daddy of the fantasy genre, it is with pleasure that I pay homage to a writer that pays homage to him.

Since Tolkien changed the world with his tales of Hobbits, heroes and Haradrim, every high fantasy author that has drawn breath has attempted to emulate his greatness.

Some – many in fact – have failed, yet some have almost succeeded, as did the creator of my current favourite ‘comfort tome’.

First published in 2007, The Name of the Wind is the inaugural novel in a planned trilogy by American wordsmith Patrick Rothfuss.

A man whose brains and beard both seem to know no bounds, Rothfuss had long worshipped at the altar that Tolkien built, but had wanted to help expand the fantasy genre by creating a work that avoided many of its generic characteristics.

As a result, The Name of the Wind is no home to bold clichés of elves, dwarves, good and evil, but a intriguing novel where an unlikely hero makes his way through a grey world full of complex characters.

Young fiery-haired Kvothe is a member of the Edema Ruh – a travelling people whose purpose is to entertain the world with acting and song. When Kvothe’s troupe welcome the arcanist Abenthy to travel with them, Kvothe begins to show a talent for science and the pseudo-magical arts.

However, tragedy soon strikes. After Kvothe’s parents are killed by a terrible and mysterious force, our young lute player turned magician is forced into a life as a beggar until he can summon the strength to pursue vengeance and fulfil his destiny as one of the most feared heroes of the age...

Though part two in the series – The Wise Man’s Fear – was released in 2011, we’re still waiting on the third and final instalment. However, if you can bear to open your heart to this enchanting tale knowing a conclusion is nowhere in sight, you absolutely should.

Heather Large: Back Home / One Hundred Names

As a teenager, I really enjoyed Back Home by Michelle Magorian, who is probably better known as the author of Goodnight Mister Tom.

It’s the story of 12-year-old Virginia ‘Rusty’ Dickinson who returns to England after being evacuated to America for five years in the Second World War.

She soon discovers it’s a very different place to the country she’s left and starts feeling homesick as she gets to know her family again.

Independent and not afraid to speak her mind, Rusty struggles to get get used to the rigid rules and rationing as well as her strict new boarding school.

But things start looking up when she meets a fellow evacuee named Lance.

I was fascinated by the differences between life in the post-war years to what was at the time, late-1990s Britain.

As an adult, one of my favourite novels has been One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern. I had to force myself to put it down so I wouldn’t finish it too quickly. There was no way of knowing how it was going to end, which made it even more appealing.

Both uplifting and thought-provoking, it’s about journalist Kitty Logan whose career has been destroyed by a scandal. With the help of her dear friend Constance she begins to unravel a mystery. She has a list of 100 names given to her by her mentor but with no explanation or clues about what connects them. Eager to discover how they are linked in the hope of writing a story as a tribute to her friend, believing it was one of her unfinished projects, she starts to track them down one by one.