In his poem “Rain” Raymond Carver described a sensation that will be familiar to any book-lover: “Woke up this morning with/a terrific urge to lie in bed all day/and read.” The American writer could resist the languor only for “a minute” before he surrendered to “the keep of this rainy morning”.

If your perfect Saturday involves not leaving your house, you’re in luck—we have just published our list of the best books of the year. Our picks span the globe and the centuries as well as categories including biography and memoir, the arts, economics, food, history, politics, science and technology. Each of the 70-odd titles comes personally recommended by one of our journalists. With so much to enjoy, it would be positively foolish to do anything other than put your phone away, bury yourself in blankets and pick up a new book.