Those epics you keep on your shelf so your living space looks like a salon (call me Gertrude)? Their dust-gathering days are over… Use the spare time you’ve acquired (if any) to dust off the dusty dust jackets and tackle the tomes that are too big to take on the tube—and too meaty to tackle in morsels.

FOR THE LIT CRED

The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel

The publishing world has been bating its breath for the launch of the final instalment of Hilary’s trilogy charting the downfall of Henry VIII’s right-hand man, Thomas Cromwell. A wordsmith at the top of her game, Mantel’s account of behind-the-scenes schemes and the treacherous nature of favour will leave you surprised that you’re not dressed in velvet and pearls when you manage to wrench your attention away from her eerily keen observations. It’s vividly evocative and utterly enthralling; if anyone could have a Tardis, I know whose front door I’d be rapping on…

You’ll like if you love… Wolf Hall

FOR THRILLS

The Magus, John Fowles

Through this magical mystery tour set in Greece, Fowles spins a gripping, fantastical yarn of illusion and intrigue that takes some mysterious turns. Psychologically thrilling with sinister themes, this riveting read is the twistiest tale that dismantles the bridge between real and imagined. Prepare to be left with some questions…

You’ll like if you love… The Secret History

FOR ROMANCE

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

Let’s face it—you’re probably not going to read War & Peace (if you are, skip the “arable” bits… farming farming, blah blah… get back to Pierre and Natasha). Karenina, however, will swallow you whole with its fateful account of forbidden desire, betrayal and the glamorous Russian elite as they’re forced to relinquish their grip on society’s purse-strings. Sexy, frustrating and ultimately devastating, this charts the collapse of romance and Imperial Russia.

You’ll like if you love… Madame Bovary

FOR KICKS

Riders, Jilly Cooper

Gird your loins and don your jodhpurs… the bounders abound in this romp of a novel. Sex and stable-hands, bonking and horseboxes—Jilly’s ridiculous book about aristocrats in the ’80s is “fluff” with a pulse. A flurry of sexual escapades, this charts the successes of Rupert C-B (le sigh) as he charms his way around an imaginary county. You’ll be ordering Rivals before you’ve called time on the first Rutshire Chronicle. Trot on…

You’ll like if you love… Horse & Hound

FOR ESCAPISM

The Corfu Trilogy, Gerald Durrell

You might not be going on holiday any time soon but this heart-warming, witty and wonderful memoir is food for the soul and the ultimate “misery medicine”. Delivering Greece to your sitting room, Gerald’s joyful anecdotes will leave you actually warm and fuzzy… Think: vitamin D between covers. This book is nostalgia wrapped up in familial warmth and then tied with a ribbon of sunshine (and Lawrence is hot).

You’ll like if you love… Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

FOR INTROSPECTION

The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

A cult classic that triggered a movement and earned its creator an army of book-wielding worshippers, The Fountainhead celebrates self over sympathy. It follows the stratospheric rise of its infallible protagonist, Howard Roark, who refuses to compromise art for “achievement”; Roark ploughs his own architectural furrow and builds to the beat of his drum. Ethically questionable—especially in terms of Roark’s relationship—this problematic novel has a legion of detractors, but however allergic you are to Ayn’s ethos, her manifesto is pretty unputdownable.

You’ll like if you love… 1984

FOR THE ’GRAM

Middlemarch, George Eliot

Dorothea may be English literature’s most maddening protagonist, but Middlemarch has much to recommend it. Not only is Penguin’s millennial pink Clothbound Classic like catnip for ’grammers, but this (at times exasperating) parable examines all the things that make us tick. Times have changed and we might (on the whole) be a little less pious, but Eliot’s tale of restraint, disappointment and neighbourly life has a wry—if elusive—sense of humour that transcends the centuries.

You’ll like if you love… Parade’s End

FOR THE KUDOS

Ulysses, James Joyce

Haven’t read it. Probably won’t (although it’s on my list of resolutions each and every year). If admiration acts as motivation, I will dutifully doff my cap to anyone with guts enough to wade through some 800 pages of Joycean stream-of-consciousness—although I admit, it would take a bit more than a cap doff to motivate me. Let me know how it goes? It does have an obscenity trial on its side…

You’ll like if… you’re a glutton for punishment