The Guardian in the UK recently did a follow-up poll to one done by the New York Times asking “literary luminaries” to select the best British, Irish or Commonwealth novel published between 1980 and 2005. The result included a few surprises (kids’ lit hits His Dark Materials and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince being among the runners up for example), but predictably the top books and most of the also-rans are what might be classified as literary fiction. The novel as high art: resonant, dramatic, profound. Classics-in-waiting, canon in utero.

The response by readers? Well, it’s no surprise that such a list makes most of us feel less than well read (I myself haven’t read a single one of the top ten). Some people noticed that only one of the listed top 10 novels of the past 25 years was written by a woman. And of course, there was much discussion of the supposed pretension exhibited by the voters. After all “resonant, dramatic, profound” to the literati often translates to “self-gratifying, gloomy, boring” to the average reader.
The American result had been much the same. So, we have novelists Toni Morrisson and John Updike, J. M. Coetzee and Penelope Fitzgerald, but what about all those great books that were just a great escape? What about Stephen King and P.D. James, Maeve Binchy and Piers Anthony?

We decided the only answer was to do our own Best Books of the Past 25 Years survey and ask you to choose.

I’ve been thinking about my own nominations, but it’s difficult. Twenty-five years is a long time, and I’ve changed my reading habits considerably over that period. What I loved fifteen years ago, I wouldn’t necessarily love today–and my memory’s faded. But here it goes anyway:

• The Bishop’s Heir by Katherine Kurtz
• Missing Joseph by Elizabeth George
• The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman
• A Time to Kill by John Grisham
• Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

You can see Linda’s picks on the nomination page.