Read all about it – library team selects best titles to mark World Book Day

Bookworms from the University of Northampton Library and Learning Services team have chosen their favourite titles to mark World Book Day (Thursday 1 March).

EM Forster’s A Room With a View – “Questions class conventions with humour and romance whilst making you fall in love with Italy without even visiting.” Cheryl Gardner

Rupert Bear annuals – “When I was a child (a few decades ago) it was the best Christmas present ever.” Yvonne O’Connor

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – “A masterful melting pot of morality versus law, nature versus nurture, rationalism versus faith, poverty versus wealth – the conflicting psychological and physical dualism at the heart of the human condition – what more could you want?” Cleo Cameron

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird – “I love the way it subtly draws you into an innocent world then tells you everything need to know about justice and society.” Richard Byles

John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces – “One long belly laugh from start to finish.” Chris Powis

Watership Down, by Richard Adams – “In a strange way as a child it helped me believe that there was hope even in the darkest of situations and that just maybe things would get better.” Dawn Hibbert

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild – “Simply because it was the first ‘proper’ book I read as a child. I read it over and over again until it fell apart.” Jussy McLean

The Twits by Roald Dahl – “This is the first book I ever read on my own as a child and re-read it again recently with a teenager struggling to read. It was just as hilarious and reminded me of the joy that reading can bring- gloriumptious!” Lisa Anderson

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig – “I first read it when I was 18 and have enjoyed re-reading it many times since. It’s my favourite book because just by asking the seemingly simple question ‘what is quality?’ Pirsig ends up illuminating the whole of life in his attempt to understand and see through many of the supposedly ‘natural’ oppositions through which we perceive the world: technology and nature; romantic and classical understanding; the self and the family; the individual and society; isolation and belonging; madness and sanity; philosophy and everyday life; East and West; rationality and irrationality; science and mysticism; subjectivity and objectivity; teachers and students.” Rob Farmer

Did you know?

The most popular books loaned by the library in the last year were:

1) Accounting and finance for non-specialists by Peter Atrill and Eddie McLaney: 545 loans

2) Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Lloyd Harris and  Nigel F. Piercy: 478 loans

3) Child Development by Laura E. Berk: 398 loans

4) Teaching physical education creatively by Angela Pickard and Patricia Maude: 373 loans

5) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: 277 loans