Top ten books about disability

Paul Wilson is the award-winning author of seven novels, including Mouse and the Cossacks. He works for part of the week as the Business Writer for Pluss, the UK`s largest Social Firm and a leading provider of disability employment services, for whom he writes a regular blog. In 2010 he was elected Vice Chairman of BASE, the British Association for Supported Employment.

One of Wilson's top ten books about disability, as told to the Guardian:

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

There's an ongoing debate in disability politics over to what extent disability should be seen as a deficit or as a difference. Melville's classic sticks rigidly to the former view, but creates a memorable tale of would-be revenge sought by the one-legged Captain Ahab against his nemesis, the whale.

Read about the other books on the list.

Moby-Dick also appears among Lynn Shepherd's ten top fictional drownings, Peter Murphy's top ten literary preachers, Penn Jillette's six favorite books, Peter F. Stevens's top ten nautical books, Katharine Quarmby's top ten disability stories, Jonathan Evison's six favorite books, Bella Bathurst's top 10 books on the sea, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best nightmares in literature and ten of the best tattoos in literature, Susan Cheever's five best books about obsession, Christopher Buckley's best books, Jane Yolen's five most important books, Chris Dodd's best books, Augusten Burroughs' five most important books, Norman Mailer's top ten works of literature, David Wroblewski's five most important books, Russell Banks' five most important books, and Philip Hoare's top ten books about whales.

--Marshal Zeringue