I've been phoning my colleagues, friends, relatives and acquaintances to get them to disclose to me what books they own. They all have shelves and shelves of them - so I asked which books of theirs they think also appear on the shelves of their friends, colleagues and relatives.

I've come up with a few that are on ALL the shelves of people I spoke to. This can mean a number of things: the books are bestsellers and have found their place in millions of homes. Or my circle of family and friends like reading the same kind of thing. Or they suggested these books to each other. Word of mouth is very power for making purchases such as books. Until someone tells you, or you read a review, you really have no idea what's between the covers.

So the list that follows is not a worldwide popularity thing, or a bestseller list, but the results of my research on the phone, in person and online. Some of the titles are obvious. Others are rather surprising.

I think everyone in the world has this book! Although it's old-fashioned, and written in the style of travellers and intellectuals of the early 20th century, it can be quite absorbing because the author's brilliance and analytical observation comes through right away.

The author built a house on the site of a Roman ruin, and writes about the location, but interweaves it with a lot more than you bargain for when you read the blurb.

Good, if you have the time

This is quite a clever thriller that's slower and more intelligent than just a book-long chase. There is a good romantic interest, so it comes with more than one reason to read on. The protagonist is flawed, of course, and the woman beautiful and clever. Then there's the mysterious ancient atlas she wins at an auction, and the quest it sends them on.

Yes, it's all about treasure and all about the sea. There's history, pirates... the whole bit. Quite enthralling. Everyone I spoke to enjoyed it. What one reader hated was the protagonist's name. It didn't annoy me one bit.

Everyone said they read this one twice. I started on my third attempt but got interrupted by life and other annoying things.

It was made into a movie which was nowhere as enjoyable as the multi-layered novel. Byatt is extremely clever: she weaves in references of all sorts (music, literature, philosophy, literary theory), some so subtle they are hardly there at all. But if you miss any references, you lose nothing of the story itself.

Possession: A Romance is about a mysterious liaison between two writers and what happened when they had an affair. More enthralling than the mystery is the slant on the human condition that transcends the years. People were fascinating in history, and the historians are fascinating now.

This is a little-known novel but all my relatives had it. Perhaps sailing in the Mediterranean has something to do with it. Or an interest in mysteries involving writers! I looked on my shelves and found a copy.

It gives a nice feeling of the island, which I am told is nothing as quiet and attractive any more. Not quite a travelogue, not that thrilling, but it keeps you to the touching end. If you like mysteries about missing children, this is it.

The romance in this novel feels authentic - both the writer and the woman he meets feel as if they have the balance, doubts and enthusiasms of real people.

Well, it sold millions, so everybody has this one and it's no surprise. I have two copies, and both are rather new-looking. It's accompanied by a few companion volumes about its controversy. I think I enjoyed the research about the rationale behind the novel better than the story itself. I would have liked more romance, frankly.

I did not enjoy the movie as much, but I'm not much of a visual person. Everyone I asked admitted it puzzled them in places, but they all agreed they wanted to know more about the locations mentioned.

This is the first of Goddard's that most people read, except for one of the people I asked who said they read Days Without Number first and went out to get everything he had ever written. Robert Goddard writes clever books with references, but they are lighter than A S Byatt's. He bases his stories more or less in the same part of England, and uses family sagas to ground his thrillers and mysteries.

Sometimes, you get a kind of bitter-sweet romance. This one is great: it's content is obsessive because it's about a missing woman. But even the reader becomes obsessive, and does not put the book down unless it's for a very good reason.

Well - if you ask Australian readers what they have on their shelves of course they will come up with something by Tim Winton. I was expecting Cloud Street, but The Riders was mentioned by more than just a dozen readers on my list. So I searched at home and yes, I have it too. A well-thumbed paperback that looks as if it's been all over the world on boring flights.

The protagonist in this search and chase is flawed and mildly annoying at times. I seem to remember getting impatient with his visions of castles. Still, the atmosphere is absorbing and the connections between locations is probably what did it for most of the people I asked. 'People make connections between places, and Tim Winton writes well about those connections,' one of them said.

This one won the Pulitzer, so it's no wonder everyone I spoke to had it. Mind you, one person realised they had borrowed it from me years ago - that's why I couldn't find it anywhere in my house!

This is similar to the other books in the sense that the male protagonist goes on a search or quest that involves an attractive and elusive woman. But the style of Proulx's writing is the most stunning factor. The sentences are terse to the point of weirdness sometimes, which makes a lot of people wish they could write like that too. The wild weather and coastlines in the book also make you wish you could visit Newfoundland. Not a travelogue, but an atmospheric piece.