Picking the perfect holiday read is not as easy as it might seem.

The key elements include: nothing too intellectual (you're on holiday, after all); nothing too depressing or sad (ditto - those traumatic childhood books have no place by the pool); nothing too long (they'll be too heavy to hold from a horizontal position on the beach); and, of course, nothing you're ashamed to be seen with in public.

Couple this dilemma with airport delays and choosing a holiday read alone could leave you needing a nice break. So with this in mind, we've rounded up ten books that will work from Mauritius to Moscow.

If you'd like to add your own suggestion to the list, please use the 'What do you think?' facility at the bottom of the page.

All of the following are available from our amazon list

Getting Rid of Matthew

Jane Fallon

The first thing that should commands space in the suitcase is a straightforward and charming read like this intelligent chick lit by Ricky Gervais' partner, where the twist is that the heroine wants to lose the man in her life.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

J. K. Rowling

Now the fastest-selling book in both US and UK history, 2007 belongs to Harry Potter. Completely indispensable reading, especially if you want to keep up with what your friends/children/the national newspapers will be talking about for the next six months.

Bad Debts

Peter Temple

Sharing Potter’s darker overtones is Peter Temple’s enticing and mysterious story which stars Jack Irish, who is a gambling lawyer and the kind of alcoholic loose cannon for whom detective fiction was invented.

The Time Traveller's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

If you haven't already read this fantastic and multi-award-winning examination of the eternally absent nature of men, now is the time to follow Henry and Clare across decades of time travel as they fight to make their love survive.

Ten Days in the Hills

Jane Smiley

Depressed directors, politically correct models and stoner agents can be found in Jane Smiley's warm-hearted and hilarious depiction of Hollywood glamour gone wrong.

A Spot of Bother

Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon follows up the critically acclaimed and award-winning Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time with a charming and humane tale about a dysfunctional family that is all too familiar to most of us.

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree

Nick Hornby

For those of a slightly more literary bent, Nick Hornby's latest release is a cheery man romp through every book he reads in a year, from literary classics to football programmes. Written in his classic chatty style, it examines why we are still reading, even when there's a film to be watched or a drink to be drunk.

Brideshead Revisited

Evelyn Waugh

Swot up for this autumn’s television series by reading Evelyn Waugh’s glorious and classic story of aristocratic students at university in the Twenties.

Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides

Both highly intelligent and properly enjoyable, Eugenides' Nobel-prize-winning book is narrated by Cal, a teenage hermaphrodite, and follows the Greek Stephanides family as they struggle to establish themselves in America.

The Big Oyster: History in a half shell

Mark Kurlansky

Holidaymakers who prefer fact to fiction should check out this sumptuous gastronomic history from the famous food journalist, which looks back at the days when New York could easily have been the Big Oyster rather than the Big Apple.