If there’s one question I dislike, it’s “What’s your favourite book?”

I complete surveys for YouGov, not because I’m opinionated enough to have one on basically everything but because it nets me about £100 a year. Not a lot, I’ll agree, but enough to make it worth my while to answer questions on things which I don’t think about and therefore skip merrily through ticking the “Don’t Know” or “Neither Agree nor Disagree” option as often as possible. I’ll be honest: my answers probably don’t help their market research. Questionnaires which should take 15 minutes generally take me about 5.

But back to the Favourite Book question, which seems to be coming up with some regularity. I’m not sure if it’s a trick question, or if they’re comparing answers to last time, or quite why they keep asking. Don’t really care. I usually only give them the first title which comes to mind anyway, which is normally a Jane Austen or a Georgette Heyer. Sometimes it’s been Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love.

I suppose the common denominator is the marriage-plot. And being largely comic. Mitford has a tragic ending, poor Linda, but never mind that. The sort of thing easily dismissed as light and fluffy by those who only look at the often misleading, deceptive covers (something which infuriated Heyer about her novels). We aren’t supposed to judge by covers, but we do: the cover usually gives a clue as to the content. Or not, in the case of these, when they emphasise the romance over the rest.

But I’m not sure if I have a Favourite Book. Lots of comfort re-reads. Books which linger in my memory for their characters or the feelings they evoke. Books I reach for to give an easy answer when I don’t want to think about it. Books I love but which aren’t reread with the same frequency.

Perhaps as I read through my library – and the local library – I shall discover an all-time Favourite Book. Or perhaps I’ll just add to the list of possible favourites. That seems more likely, but I live in hope.

Do you have a Favourite Book?