Top Ten Tuesday / Top Ten Picks - All-Time Favourite Books

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish, and Top Ten Picks is hosted by Random Ramblings. This week they share the same topic, so it's only natural I do both at the same time.

I'm a little late in getting this week's top ten out, but I've been working so much lately I've hardly been home at all. This is by no means a complete list, because there will be books I've forgotten to add and there will be new books to add in the future. But for now, here are my all-time favourite books (or, the ones I can remember at the moment).

1) Kabalmysteriet (The Solitaire Mystery) by Jostein Gaarder. You might have heard me mentioning this book before, but it really is the best book I have ever read. Gaarder is mostly known for Sophie's World, and although I like that one too, The Solitaire Mystery is completely different. The story has so many different layers (it's actually a story within a story - or a bun), but they all tie together beautifully. And there's no philosophy lesson.
2) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. It seems you either like Jane Eyre or you like Wuthering Heights. I've read both, and to me JE doesn't even come close to this haunting, tragic, scary love story. I even persuaded my English teacher in high school to let me read WH instead of Animal Farm, which was the required reading.
3) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I can't remember whether I read this before or after The Lord of the Rings, but while I love LOTR, I love The Hobbit even more. It's much lighter and more humorous, and has all the action and excitement without the information overload.
4) Matilda's Last Waltz by Tamara McKinley. I love all the books by this Australian author, but this one is particularly haunting. I cried my way through most of it.
5) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The ultimate Christmas story. It has been recreated in countless ways (I really like A Muppet Christmas Carol, of all things), but the original story will always be the best.
6) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I don't even remember half of the storyline right now, but I know I was completely emerged in it when I read it. After a few years of losing interest in reading it reminded me of why I love books and reading so much.
7) Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. My feel-good read. It's a warm, sweet story about love and friendship set in Scotland during the Christmas holidays. I try to read it every other year for Christmas, and love it just as much, if not more, every time.
8) Tsarens juveler by Tormod Haugen. I don't know if this book has been translated into any other languages, but if it is, you should check it out. I read it for the first time when I was about 12, and then again two years ago, and I still love it. It's a magical tale of jewels, legends and moonlight, as well as family, dreams, belonging, forgiveness and forsaking.
9) The Inkheart Trilogy by Cornelia Funke. I know I haven't read the last book in this trilogy yet, but I'm including this anyway, because I aboslutely love the first two.
10) The Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene. Nancy Drew has been my heroine since I was a litle girl, and I still love reading about the young sleuth and her friends solving all sorts of mysteries.

That was hard! There are so many other wonderful books I want to include, like Neverwhere, the Harry Potter series, The Lies of Locke Lamora, The Thirteenth Tale, Les Miserables... Hey, as I'm sort of doing two memes, maybe I can make two lists? ;)