In my New Year's resolutions list, one of the things I have vowed to do is read a big book. Now, it's not that I am unintelligent, far from it, but there maybe a few of the classics I haven't completely finished and there may be a few more I may not have read at all - even though I may have claimed I have...

Now, in my defence I've only claimed to have read some of these titles to impress dates. You know the type - the men who make you feel intellectually inferior just by looking at you (mentioning no names, Mr D...) and the only way you can claw back any self-worth is to, well, lie...

So now it's time to rectify this and stop using War and Peace as a doorstop and actually get around to reading it. But I just can't seem to get excited about Audrei Bolkonsky. Not a great start to the New Year for the Prince or myself.

So, instead of feeling too disheartened. I asked my friend Joel (a true bookworm and scholar) to create a 'must-read' list for 2011. I asked him for his definitive list of the novels which are due to be released this year and which will definitely be the talk of any dinner party.

Here are the books according to Joel that my nose needs to be seen in this year and the type of men they'll help me to impress.

The Urbanite

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe (Penguin Classics)

This novel, first published in 1958, is being re-released and follows the lives of four young women working in publishing in New York City. The book was a succès de scandale, with its tales of office affairs, drinking and power-hungry women when it was first released. It is sure to gain the same notoriety this time around too.

The Anthropologist

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham (Fourth Estate)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of, Thee Hours, dissects a marriage and one man's crisis of confidence in this book.

The Humourist

I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron (Random House)

The American film director returns with a wise and witty collection of essays about growing older.

The History Buff

The Sixty-Five Years of Washington by Juan José Saer (Open Letter)

In this brilliant novel, the Argentine writer Saer packs several decades of his country's history into a single hour.

Once I've finished reading all of these I'll certainly feel more equipped to deal with those booking date-types. I may even start hanging around outside the public library, wearing thick-rimmed glasses for added effect...