Which murder mystery writer will you not find on David Nicholls's bookshelf?

Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls Trilogy. I met her once, at the very first World Book Night in 2011, in the same green room as Alan Bennett and John le Carré.

Needless to say, I was a little intimidated by the company, but she was charming, charismatic and kind, with a wonderful air of glamour. I’d not read her work but recently I watched an amazing documentary about her, Blue Road, so picked this up.

All the qualities on display in the film – honesty, courage, rebelliousness – are there on the page too, and she has a wonderful style, often quite spare but full of these incredibly vivid images. Fourteen years on, and I’m a fan.

I wonder sometimes if I’ve lost the ability to read long novels,

the kind of 800-page monsters that I used to wolf down in the pre-internet age. Some books have always defeated me – I’ve read the first third of Middlemarch at least four times, enjoying it very much before always running aground at the same point.

But the biggest omission is probably Anna Karenina, the greatest love story ever written (I’m told). I have five copies on my shelf, all different translations, and on a desert island, I might actually find the time and the focus required.

I was a passionate reader as a child, a devout member of The Puffin Club which, along with my local library, did a brilliant job of putting books into the hands of readers who might not know where to start.

I loved The Silver Sword, E. Nesbit, all kinds of wonderful books that have disappeared now. I adored the Moomins, while at the same time finding them incredibly melancholy, all part of the pleasure, I think.

But The Chronicles Of Narnia swept me away. I devoured them, particularly The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader and Prince Caspian, and longed to be part of that world. My love of fantasy didn’t last long – Tolkien defeated me – but I understand that intoxicating feeling.

I do worry about dismissing much-loved writers – but I’ve come to accept that Agatha Christie is not for me.

I have no doubts about her skill as a writer, but the desire to solve the puzzle is never enough to get me through.