Amis's personal list of the best Nabokov, in rank order (from his 15 April 1999 talk "Nabokov and Literary Greatness"):

 Lolita
 
 Despair
 
 King Queen Knave
 
 Pnin
 
 Laughter in the Dark
 
 Pale Fire
 
 Transparent Things
 
 The Eye
 
 Nabokov's Dozen
 
 Speak Memory
 
 

 
 Other Amis recommendations:

 Collected Poems, by Peter Porter ("humour again playing its critical part amid the complexity and pain"--The Observer, 4 December 1983: 25).
 
 The Quantity Theory of Insanity, by Will Self ("I admired [its] turbulent comedy, . . . originality . . . sheer braininess"--The Observer, 1 December 1991: 28).
 
 Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang (". . . made me feel like a five-year-old. This is a family memoir that has the breadth of the most enduring social history"--The Observer, 1 December 1991: 28).
 
 U and I, by Nicholson Baker (". . . very funny, very honest, and ridiculously gripping"--The Observer, 1 December 1991: 28).
 
 Riding the Rap, by Elmore Leonard (reviewed in The New York Times Book Review, 14 May 1995: 7)
 
 Independence Day, by Richard Ford (recommended as summer reading in the Sunday Times, 6 August 95: 76).
 
 Konin: A Quest, by Theo Richmond (recommended in the Sunday Times, 6 August 95: 76). As Amis notes, the book is "about one city cleansed of jews by the Nazis in the 1940s. The survivors are now all dying and historiography has to take a step back and look at it once more."
 
 The Moor's Last Sigh, by Salman Rushdie (chosen as "my novel of the year" in the Sunday Times, 19 November 95: 71).
 
 Oswald's Tale, by Norman Mailer (reviewed in The Sunday Times (London), 10 September 1995: 1-2)
 
 Palimpsest, by Gore Vidal (reviewed in The Sunday Times (London), 22 October 1995: 7/1)
 
 Crash, by J.G. Ballard (re-reviewed in conjunction with the release of David Cronenberg's film adaptation, The Independent on Sunday, 10 November 1996: 8-9)
 
 Underworld, by Don DeLillo (reviewed in The New York Times Book Review, 5 October 1997: 12-13)
 
 The Actual, by Saul Bellow (reviewed in The Observer, 17 August 1997: 14)
 
 A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe (reviewed in The Guardian, 9 November 1998: 10)
 

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