100 Best Scottish Books

Following on from these two recent fiascos, I've finally found a book poll on the net where my reading count reaches double figures. It's sourced from The List, which is , I guess, Scotland's equivalent of Time Out and the article dates from 2005.

Twenty-one out of a hundred is not a bad reading haul, and there's another twelve or thirteen books on the list that I'd like to read at some point.

I thought it was a nice touch from the list compilers that they did not insist that the authors had to be Scottish by birth; just that the book listed had to have a strong Scottish connection. Hence, for example, the inclusion of Orwell's 1984 in the hundred, which was written on the Isle of Jura. (And, if you've ever read Orwell's collected essays and letters, his strong dislike of Scottish people is very apparent.)

Each listed entry in the linked article has a wee synopsis and well worth further investigation, but I have posted below links to some of the more interesting entries. (Well interesting to me.)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark (1961)

Tunes of Glory - James Kennaway (1956)

The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan (1915)

Under the Skin - Michel Faber (2000)

Buddha Da - Anne Donovan (2003)

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater - Thomas De Quincey (1822)

King James Bible: Authorised Version - Various (1611)

The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)

The Divided Self - RD Laing (1960)

The Gowk Storm - Nancy Brysson Morrison (1933)

The Cone-Gatherers - Robin Jenkins (1955)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

Sunset Song - Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1932)

Born Free - Laura Hird (1999)

The Silver Darlings - Neil M Gunn (1941)

The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell (1791)

Annals of the Parish - John Galt (1821)

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (1902)

The House with the Green Shutters - George Douglas Brown (1901)

Lanark - Alasdair Gray (1981)

Paradise - AL Kennedy (2004)

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - James Hogg (1824)

Trumpet - Jackie Kay (1998)

Morvern Callar - Alan Warner (1995)

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell (1949)

Swing Hammer Swing! - Jeff Torrington (1992)

Hotel World - Ali Smith (2001)

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh (1993)

The Trick is to Keep Breathing - Janice Galloway (1989)

Jericho Sleep Alone - Chaim Bermant (1964)

The Expedition of Humphry Clinker - Tobias Smollett (1771)

Lilith - George MacDonald (1895)

Imagined Corners - Willa Muir (1931)

Living Nowhere - John Burnside (2003)

Jelly Roll - Luke Sutherland (1998)

The White Bird Passes - Jessie Kesson (1958)

Young Adam - Alexander Trocchi (1954)

Rob Roy - Walter Scott (1818)

The Sea Road - Margaret Elphinstone (2000)

The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith (1776)

The Break-Up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-Nationalism - Tom Nairn (1977)

Consider the Lilies - Iain Crichton Smith (1968)

No Mean City: A Story of the Glasgow Slums - Alexander McArthur and H. Kingsley Long (1935)

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf (1927)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling (1997)

Madame Doubtfire - Anne Fine (1987)

Me and Ma Gal - Des Dillon (1995)

The Highland Clearances - John Prebble (1969)

A Concussed History of Scotland - Frank Kuppner (1990)

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume (1748)

A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay (1920)

The Golden Bough - James Frazer (1890)

Grace Notes - Bernard MacLaverty (1997)

The Cutting Room - Louise Welsh (2002)

The Quarry Wood - Nan Shepherd (1928)

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks (1984)

Brond - Frederic Lindsay (1984)

A Day at the Office - Robert Alan Jamieson (1991)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson (1995)

The Dear Green Place - Archie Hind (1966)

Miss Marjoribanks - Margaret Oliphant (1866)

The Sound of My Voice - Ron Butlin (1987)

Flemington - Violet Jacob (1911)

Greenvoe - George Mackay Brown (1972)

The New Road - Neil Munro (1914)

Psychoraag - Suhayl Saadi (2004)

The Bull Calves - Naomi Mitchison (1947)

The Coral Island - R. M. Ballantyne (1858)

From Russia, With Love - Ian Fleming (1957)

A Disaffection - James Kelman (1989)

The Shipbuilders - George Blake (1935)

Our Fathers - Andrew O'Hagan (1999)

A Sense of Freedom - Jimmy Boyle (1977)

A Twelvemonth and a Day - Christopher Rush (1985)

The Lighthouse Stevensons - Bella Bathurst (1999)

Adam Blair - John Gibson Lockhart (1822)

But n Ben A-Go-Go - Matthew Fitt (2000)

The Siege of Trencher's Farm - Gordon Williams (1969)

The New Testament in Scots - trans. William Laughton Lorimer (1983)

The Game of Kings - Dorothy Dunnett (1961)

Open the Door! - Catherine Carswell (1920)

The Lantern Bearers - Ronald Frame (1999)

An Oidhche Mus Do Sheòl Sinn - Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul (2003)

Children of the Dead End - Patrick MacGill (1914)

One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night - Christopher Brookmyre (1999)

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (1908)

Garnethill - Denise Mina (1998)

Joseph Knight - James Robertson (2003)

The Magic Flute - Alan Spence (1990)

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1997)

The Guns of Navarone - Alistair MacLean (1957)

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith (1998)

Mr Alfred, M.A. - George Friel (1972)

Sartor Resartus - Thomas Carlyle (1836)

Black and Blue - Ian Rankin (1997)

Scar Culture - Toni Davidson (1999)

Whisky Galore - Compton Mackenzie (1947)

The Citadel - AJ Cronin (1937)

For the Love of Willie - Agnes Owens (1998)

Docherty - William McIlvanney (1975)