Pull up a chair, everyone. Grab some popcorn, or peanuts if you prefer. The show’s about to begin…

As the year draws to a close, newspapers, magazines and news websites are inundated with every imaginable ‘best books of the year’ list. The best fiction, the best non-fiction, the best in paperback, the best in hardcover, the best cookbooks, the best children’s books, the best science-fiction, the best biography, the best political biography, the best autobiography, the best book cover... You get the picture.

Then there are the many variations of ‘the best book’ lists. There’s the typical Top Ten list, the somewhat truncated Top Five list, the mammoth Top 100 list, and even the very selfish, single-entry ‘best book’ of the year, er, list. And as the first decade of the new century has to an end, one online newspaper is already offering a list of what in its opinion are the best books from the last 10 years.

Whatever! The best book I read this year was without a doubt The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea. Originally written in Arabic (Banat al-Riyadh) in 2005, the English translation was published in 2007. I liked it because it isn’t one of those salacious harem stories, rather, a true to life portrayal of the personal lives of four young girls in modern-day Saudi Arabia, written in the form of emails.

In fact, I enjoyed the book so much that I bought a copy each for my two closest girlfriends who I knew would appreciate it as much as I did due to our shared childhood spent in Saudi Arabia.

A colleague at work holds firm that To Kill a Mocking Bird is her ‘best book’. Yes, that’s right, in 2009, her best book is still the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, which was published in 1960. It was also her best book last year, and will likely remain on the top of her personal Top 10 list many years from now.

Still widely taught in English-language schools around the world, it is the story of Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch told from the perspective of his precocious six-year-old daughter Scout. Although the novel deals with serious issues such as racial inequality and rape, it still contains some witty observations at which one cannot help but smile.

For example, the tomboy Scout says about their maid Calpurnia: ‘She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl.’

The point here is not to argue that one should only read books that deal with serious issues, or books that were published 50 years ago. The point is: don’t feel pressured to read a book simply because it’s considered to be ‘in vogue’. Especially not out of fear that some prissy busybody will turn to you in a room full of people and screech, ‘OHMYGAWD! You HAVEN’T read Burnt Shadows??’

The truth is that I have zipped through Kamila Shamsie’s latest, as well as Ali Sethi’s Wish Maker, and, once it becomes available for sale in Pakistan, will want to read Husain Naqvi’s Homeboy. I also eagerly look forward to reading Yann Martel’s upcoming novel Beatrice and Virgil, which Penguin Books’ most recent press release says will be out in the summer of 2010.

Martel, in case people have forgotten, is the Spanish-born Canadian author of the superb Life of Pi which won the 2002 Man Booker Prize. It’s the one with the cover that features a little boy riding in a dingy boat with an enormous Bengal tiger; impossible to miss.

So by all means read new releases and follow the trail of contemporary authors, but don’t be persuaded to put aside your Nabokov, Tolstoy, Twain or even Christie. Books aren’t clothes; with books, you don’t need to worry about how long the shirt is, how wide the pants are, or how eye-catching the satin ribbon adorning the neckline is. Nor is reading about doing what everyone else is doing right this minute – try as the publishing industry might, there will never be an ‘It Book.’ Indeed, reading may the last personal pleasure left to us, for in the privacy of our homes, with book in hand, we need not compete or conform.

That said, I have a niggling feeling that even the Booker Prize committee isn’t immune to the influence of the latest fad. Did the fact that they selected Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall as this year’s favourite have anything to do with the popularity of the very sexy historical fiction television series The Tudors? Maybe.

Dawn.com invites its readers to post their ‘Best Book,’ whether it be of 2009, or of all time.

The following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.