 | United States: Essays, 1952-92 v. 1 by Gore Vidal
Buy new: £10.89 / Used from: £5.88 Phenomenal collection of essays on literature, politics, history and identity. Frightening erudition, but so very good.
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 | Essays (Penguin Modern Classics) by George Orwell
Buy new: £9.48 / Used from: £7.19 Another brilliant essayist. Pithy, lucid and in parts compelling. Forces you to focus on the use and power of language.
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 | Inventing Ireland: Literature of the Modern Nation by Declan Kiberd
Buy new: £8.36 / Used from: £5.82 Essential reading if you care about what it means to have a national identity. Stimulating and an absolute joy to read.
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 | Paddy and Mr. Punch: Connections in Irish and English History (Penguin history) by R.F. Foster
Buy used from: £3.71 Similar to Inventing Ireland in terms of themes. Equally stimulating, challenging and pleasurable. Read this then read "The Irish Story".
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 | On Liberty (English Library) by John Stuart Mill
Buy used from: £0.01 Awe inspiring. Excellent prose, reasoning and argument combine to produce one of the foundations of the liberal movement. Timeless.
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 | History of Western Philosophy (Routledge Classics) by Bertrand Russell
Buy new: £12.74 / Used from: £9.99 Lovely. If 800 odd pages seems daunting, try any collection of his essays to begin with. A brilliant writer and a brilliant mind.
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 | Far from the Madding Crowd (Penguin Popular Classics) by Thomas Hardy
Buy new: £2.00 / Used from: £0.01 So glad I was forced to read this for English GCSE. Keep coming back to it and other work by Hardy. I probably shouldn't use Hardy as a touchstone for understanding male and female relationships.
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 | The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Buy new: £5.00 / Used from: £0.01 Another author I should not rely on for emotional guidance, but he writes so beautifully I cannot but see some element of truth about human nature in his work.
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 | Gulliver's Travels (Penguin Popular Classics) by Jonathan Swift
Buy new: £2.16 / Used from: £0.01 Another essential book on human nature. This is the best book of its kind ever - in the running for best book ever too. Reads like a contemporary work. Terrific scope, v clever and v well executed.
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 | How Far Can You Go? by David Lodge
Buy new: £5.46 / Used from: £0.01 A very exciting, and arguably scandalous, novel to read for a young catholic in London. Asks questions on catholic teaching on sex that have not been answered.
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 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (Essential Penguin) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Buy used from: £0.01 No book has moved me quite so much as this one. Incredible storytelling, epic cast and full credit to the translator for conveying the power of Marquez' prose. Have read nothing like it since.
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 | Greetings, Carbon-based Bipeds! by Arthur C. Clarke
Buy used from: £0.01 Read this by accident; reinvigorated my interest in science and science fiction.
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 | Last And First Men (S.F. Masterworks) by Olaf Stapledon
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £2.19 Why is Olaf Stapeldon not more widely known? Inverted history, a study in myth making and a sobering reflection on our universal insignificance. See also "Starmaker" by the same author.
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 | Foundation (The Foundation Series) by Isaac Asimov
Buy new: £4.44 / Used from: £0.01 Read Asimov; even if you don't like science fiction. Read the Foundation series, then read the Robot series and marvel at his grasp of history, politics, science and narrative.
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 | The Collected Poems of W.B.Yeats (Wordsworth Poetry) (Wordsworth Poetry Library) by W.B. Yeats
Buy new: £3.76 / Used from: £0.79 My grandfather would always proselytise about Yeats and I would never listen. One summer, in Galway, I fell in love and Yeats suddenly made sense. Granted, a bit of a cliche as revelations go.
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 | God's Funeral by A.N. Wilson
Buy new: £9.09 / Used from: £0.01 My father can blame A N Wilson for removing the last vestige of my faith in God's existence. A brilliant book in its own right - packed with knowledge, every page enriched the mind. Thrilling.
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 | Northern Lights: WITH Subtle Knife AND Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials) by Philip Pullman
Buy used from: £4.99 Wish I could have read this 15 years ago. Powerful.
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 | Writings on an Ethical Life (ISNM) by Peter Singer
Buy used from: £16.83 One day I will grow up and stop eating meat. Singer is utterly compelling and I am ashamed that I have yet to acknowledge this in my own attitude towards animals.
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 | The Oxford Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part I (Oxford World's Classics) by William Shakespeare
Buy new: £7.19 / Used from: £0.01 Another book to be thankful to my English teacher, Mrs McGurk, for introducing me to. Prince Hal is a bit of a hero, "one day I will imitate the sun... " (and stop, among other things, eating meat).
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 | Translations (Faber Paperbacks) by Brian Friel
Buy new: £4.87 / Used from: £0.01 Marvellous play about the role of language in forging identity. Multiple layers of meaning . Not just for those interested in Ireland.
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 | The Future of Law: Facing the Challenges of Information Technology by Richard Susskind
Buy new: £22.96 / Used from: £14.00 My post-university career thus far has been largely shaped by this book.
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 | Legal Philosophies by J. W. Harris
Buy new: £17.24 / Used from: £4.67 I saw him speak on Kelsen and was amazed. Harris is blind, yet appears to have the entire jurisprudential canon committed to memory. Best guide to the subject.
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 | Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Penguin Modern Classics) by George Orwell
Buy new: £5.71 / Used from: £2.98 My favourite Orwell novel.
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 | The Way of All Flesh (Penguin Popular Classics) by Samuel Butler
Buy used from: £0.01 Another author who should be more widely read. Very rewarding Victorian novel dealing with one man's journey away from received wisdom.
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