There’s an art to demonstrating literary shrewdness from a glimpse of one’s shelves. Here’s how to establish yourself as a worldly, erudite and well-read individual.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but to judge a person by their books, well that’s perfectly acceptable. On display for all and sundry to see, you could persuasively argue that no other personal accoutrement is as revealing as the tomes that weigh in on your coffee table — moreover, the literary masterpieces that reside on your shelves.

Irrespective of how dusty they might be, one would hope to find your worldly perspective reflected in a well-rounded literary assemblage. There are some titles whose presence is simply obligatory; The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Lee Harper’s To Kill A Mockingbird, and Papa Hem’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. But then come those solely there to impress; Homer’s Iliad, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and inevitably something by one of Russian greats — perhaps a copy of Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov that when your date picks it up, you proceed to inform him/her that it’s Hillary Clinton’s favourite piece of literature. Never mind if its spine hasn’t once been broken. 

While a few heavy-hitting volumes are all but imperative in the name of gaining some literary kudos (William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury might be a step too far), these ought to be broken up by subject matter more fanciful too. A splice of Truman Capote will demonstrate your deep-seated romanticism, and from who else could you have learnt that ‘the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it’’ but for Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray? 

A heavily dog-eared copy of Shantaram — once taken on an intrepid escapade in a former life, i.e. your 20s — will serve as the marker of someone well-travelled while Keith Richards’ Life might be your only (vicarious) escapade into the world of rock stardom.

It always pays to have some poetry on hand — Wordsworth and Coleridge’s aptly titled Lyrical Ballads ought to do the trick, while an antique copy of The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (the second most widely read collection of stories in the world after the Bible) reveals all those who remain young at heart. 

Though barely touching on the subject of coffee table books, a genre largely reserved for the very best of art, design and fashion, therein lies a trove of culture-loving insinuations for observers to pass judgement on. In light of as much, and with the giving season ahead, the following are some excellent titles that will help demarcate an astute taste in books.