What a tremendous book this is! 650 pages of epic fantasy, rich in metaphor, thrilling, multi-layered and profound, it's about treachery, books and libraries, portals into brilliantly realised other worlds, secrets and much more. Just read it!

This hilarious satirical classic was published a couple of years after the first successful summitting of Everest, and relates a fictional version of the conquest of the world's highest peak. The madcap collection of eccentrically named, pompous Brits are absurdly incompetent, mostly ill, drunk or lost, but have a ripping adventure. Quite brilliant, it's one of only two published books by W E Bowman - the other was a spoof of the Kon Tiki expedition. Deservedly a classic!

A tough, gritty novel, set in the ferry terminal at Algeciras in Spain, from where boats come and go from Tangier in Morocco. 2 men wait for a girl, Dilly, the daughter of one of the men, who has run away. The story unfolds with flashbacks telling the story of what has come before. The men are Irish, malevolent gangsters, semi retired and past their best, but still able and willing to offer menace. The prose and dialogue is snappy, expressed in short sentences, with long passages of just dialogue.

This precious, vital book spawned a genre of medical memoirs with something powerful to say about life and death. It's a book about the modern experience of mortality, of what it means to get old and die, and how that experience could be made better. A wise and moving book, which everybody should read.

This is about the tenth collection that David Sedaris has written. He specialises in humorous, brilliantly observed true stories about his and his family's life and behaviour. This collection is perhaps darker than his previous books, but it is still extremely funny. He's now middle aged, and has a glimpse of mortality. Death has never seemed so funny, but he does also have an emotional touch.

The Second World War continues to provide inspiration to novelists, who can often reveal information that historians can't, especially when imagining espionage activities which clearly took place. Michael Ondaatje's recent novel Warlight explores similar territory to this novel, and also William Boyd's Restless. Those who took part in espionage during the war find that their activities come back to haunt them years later.