I was asked recently, by the tutor at a writing workshop, to compile a list of my ten all time favourite books. “They can be fiction or non-fiction, contemporary or classic, commercial or literary” he told me. “It’s just a good way of getting to know something about you, like looking through your CD collection.”

I gulped. Not just at the idea of a stranger rifling through my CDs, raising an eyebrow at the Bon Jovi album and sighing at the best of Bryan Adams (they belong to my sister, I swear), more so at the thought of a stranger, and a very literary stranger at that, judging a list of what I had deemed to be good books.

Bestseller lists, award shortlists, lists of ‘future classics’; lists of books are compiled on a regular basis. Prize judges and literary editors have an unbelievable amount of influence and power over readers. Take for example, the Man Booker prize winner 2005 John Banville. A former literary editor himself, Banville’s novel The Sea had mustered sales of only 866 copies in the two months before its inclusion on the longlist of the most prestigious literary prize. An immediate tenfold sales increase followed.

Publishers are getting in on the act too. To celebrate their 15 th birthday recently, Vintage asked 48 reading groups to pick, from a list of one hundred titles, fifteen books that can be considered modern classics. They are all excellent books and deserved winners but whether they will still be read in 100 years time begs to be seen.

Even humble old readers like you or I cannot resist listing books. Check out the lists on amazon.co.uk for further proof – ‘Sit with a Glass of Wine and Read these Books’ and my particular favourite ‘Great Dog Books’. But when creating a list to share with other people, how true can you be to yourself? How many of your ‘favourite’ books are prize winners and bestsellers and the books that Radio 4 tell us we should be reading?

Moving bravely on to my list: what do my choices say about me? Here goes.

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Matilda – Roald Dahl

Saturday – Ian McEwan

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

Are You Experienced? - William Sutcliffe

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle

The Last Family in England - Matt Haig

Atonement – Ian McEwan

The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon

I am happy to make a bold statement here and say The Great Gatsby is one of the best novels ever written. This book made my list because of the beauty and simplicity of the prose and because every time I read this book I am transported to a sumptuous garden party in East Egg, a mint julep in hand.

Next on my list is Matilda by Roald Dahl – a piece of absolute storytelling genius. Anyone who read this book as a child will identify with the belief that they were Matilda. Granted, I could not move objects with my mind but I was that quiet, bookish child at school and had a vivid imagination when it came to torturing headteachers. This is the first book that I can remember reading and praying it would never end.

The only author to receive two slots on my list is Ian McEwan with Atonement and Saturday although I could have chosen any of his other titles. Saturday perfectly captures one day in the life of an ordinary man and the digressions on war, politics, poetry and relationships are exquisitely placed. I was lost in the protagonist’s life, as I was in Atonement, a gripping novel set in the placid English summer of 1935, that questions the idea of fiction, and of truth.

John Fowles’ classic The French Lieutenants Woman is included in my list because of its groundbreaking narrative style, as is Matt Haig’s The Last Family In England, the first novel (as far as I am aware) to be narrated entirely by a Labrador.

So, my 10 all time favourite books range from travel writing to children’s fiction, includes only one ‘classic’, and three future modern classics (according to the publishers at Vintage), two books about dogs and one about a caterpillar. There is a distinct lack of non-fiction or biography and only two books by women. So how did I end up with this literary melting pot?

For me, each book on my list awakens a certain memory or a specific time in my life. I read The French Lieutenants Woman during a particularly hedonistic spell at university. The book was so involving, it consistently won over nights out, and at times, lectures. ReadingMatilda under the duvet after bedtime was the first time I remember thinking ‘Wow, books are great’. Each book on my list is a truly personal choice and somehow manages to evoke the sights and sounds of its setting, whether that is a heath on the Yorkshire Moors or the backpacker’s trail in India. Books can transport you thousands of miles across the globe, one hundred years back in time, and even into the mind of a Labrador.

People have a tendency to be snobbish when it comes to books. Following the recent explosion of reading groups, book clubs, and dare I say, Richard and Judy, not only are people reading a whole lot more: they are a more critical audience. Should your favourite books be Booker prize winners? Should the Times literary editor have recommended them? Does it matter? I don’t think so. And that is why I sent the above list to the tutor of the writing workshop and why I am more than happy to admit I love The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

If you love books, read what you like, and love what you love.