Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne

I think the key to the charm of the classic yarn of Victorian English stiff upper lippery is that its written by a Frenchman. Phileas Fogg is heroic, unflappable and generally portrayed as a likable eccentric throughout this unlikely tale. Contrast is provided by his French valet, the excitable and acrobatic Passepartout. The story doesn't bear too much scrutiny over issues such as character motivation or the plausibility of the final twist, but taken as a light-hearted romp it's a fine read.

The Book of General Ignorance - John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

If you've never seen the splendidly know-it-all panel game QI, then I strongly suggest you get yourself over to YouTube and sample its delights. As UK readers will know, this is the hugely successful tie-in book, full of seemingly easy questions with entertainingly improbable, but doubtless true, answers.

An example will suffice to give the general flavour of erudite amusement:

Q: What colour is the universe?
A: Beige

Maigret and the Ghost - Georges Simenon

A mystery that Conan Doyle would have wrapped up in 20 pages is expanded to a short novel in the hands of Simenon, but the whodunnit aspect is not really the point. The character portraits convince, and the smoky milieu of the Parisian artworld is woozily evoked. Lovely stuff.

The Kindly Ones - Anthony Powell

Halfway through A Dance to the Music of Time, and Powell starts with a characteristically disorienting flashback to a childhood incident before returning to the "present" and the outbreak of World War II. I was surprised to find myself saddened by the death of the lovable scoundrel Uncle Giles - I hadn't realised how emotionally attached I have become to the characters in this magisterial sequence.