The Modern Library: The 200 Best Novels in English since 1950, by Carmen Callil and Colm Toibin (Picador £5.99 in UK)

The criteria for this book was fiction - not all novels, despite what the title declares - published in English since 1950, as chosen by publisher Carmen Callil and author Colm Toib in. Any list like this is going to be subjective and idiosyncratic, but is there anyone who loves reading who hasn't stumbled across a fantastic book solely through the recommendation of someone else? This book offers short, incisive commentaries on the eclectic and wide-ranging selected titles, while also placing them into some sort of wider context. Each book gets a page, which includes details of the book's publishing history, and of the authors' biographies. A bonus are the useful lists at the back which cite the winners of major literary awards, including the Nobel, Pulitzer, Booker, Whitbread, and American National Book Award, so you can see for yourself what the judges have deemed the best books over the decades. The best way to use this book is to treat it like a lucky-bag, dipping into it at random and then trying out the books therein that you haven't yet read, whether they be Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy-Man (Pakistan); Gita Mehta's A River Sutra (India); Janet Frame's Owls Do Cry (New Zealand); or Agatha Christie's (yes, Agatha Christie of England) A Murder Is Announced.