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Last night, I plucked up the courage to ring Dotun Adebayo’s Virtual Bookshelf. Readers of this blog will know I’m a fan. Normally nowadays I can’t listen live, as the phone-in takes place between 2am and 3.30 (not great when you have to out the house for 6.30 to get to work). However, I’ve taken time off to write Johnny Mackintosh’s third adventure (provisionally Battle for Earth) so I, like Dotun, can afford to be up all night.

I telephoned to nominate Harry Potter – the entire series – for a place in the list. Dotun, lovely man that he is, allowed this, which did rather set the cat amongst the pigeons. Do the rules of the Virtual Bookshelf allow a boxed set? Everyone hates listening to their own voice but, for the next few days only, that shouldn’t stop you hearing my praise of the boy who lived and his magnificent creator on the bbc i-player: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00vc2dl/Up_All_Night_18_10_2010

I’m between 1:21:25 and 1:29:30 (a whole 8 minutes).

The nomination caused much heated debate, with many voices against (and every vote against cancels one for), but at the end of the phone-in Harry won the day and made it on as Book 60. However, Harry Potter still needs your help. Next week, Dotun and his literary reviewer (last night it was Hephzibah Anderson) invite listeners to remove one from the most recent ten titles on the list. Harry creates strong feelings in people and Dotun suggested he was in danger of being removed after only one week.

Don’t let that happen. I propose the AA Road Atlas of Britain (currently in place 51) should go as it doesn’t really compare with Rowling’s great work – I would be more lost without Harry than I would without a map. So next Sunday night/Monday morning, I say the atlas has to go.

If you’re a literary insomniac, there can be no better way of spending one evening a week than by listening to Dotun Adebayo’s Sunday night (or, more accurately, the early hours of Monday morning) Book Phone-In on BBC Radio Five Live.

From 2.00-3.30 am, renaissance man Dotun, together with a literary partner, discuss the wonderful world of books, from the perspective of people who are passionate about reading and good writing. When I didn’t have a day job I’d often write through the night, so the show would make for an inspiring backdrop. Nowadays, I have to be up by 6.30 every morning so I’m not always able to follow it and that’s tricky because of the ambitious change in the show’s original format.

The current goal is to build a virtual bookshelf of a hundred titles, nominated and voted on by members of the public. The very first title was the Oxford English Dictionary, coincidentally chosen on the very morning in April 2009 that I began working for Oxford University Press. Over the next 100+ weeks the remaining titles will be chosen.

To give more information on the show, how to nominate and all the books currently on the shelf, I’ve created a separate page on this site. Clicking on Dotun’s smiling face will take you straight there.