There's a set of books which you're just supposed to know about, at least if you live in The West and fancy the idea of being thought 'educated'.

There's the Bible, Shakespeare, James Joyce, Walter Scott and Machiavelli. Dr Jekyll, Tiny Tim, Starbuck, Socrates, Mr. Scrooge, Raskolnikov, Einstein and Enkidu. The Brontes and Boswell, Wordsworth, Newton Confucius and Don Quixote.

Here they all are. 100 of the most quoted, most known, works of all time, in the original author's own words, but squashed up into nice little abridgements you can read in an hour or so. Little versions which smell and sound just like the originals.

And ... with The Hundred Books it becomes possible to read the whole thing as a single narrative, to discover a Pisgah View of the written history of the great grand thing of how We got where We are now, in way that's just impossible for ordinary mortals.

Read the lot, you'll love it, and you'll never, ever, be bored in an airport again.