Safe to say that Wilde had read more than his fair share of books in the 46 years he lived. The details of what and how he read, as well as how his life was influenced by his reading, is presented in an unusual biography, Oscar's Books, by Thomas Wright, first published in 2008 and now available in paperback.

The book opens with a description of the sale of Wilde's "library of valuable books", auctioned in 1895 to pay his legal costs after unsuccessfully suing the Marquess of Queensberry for libel. The books were sold outside his house to the distress of their owner and the horror of his friends. Most of the almost 2000 books were bought for a song by book dealers and when displayed in their shop windows, Wilde's friends managed to buy some of them and return them to him.

To say that Wilde was defined by his books is an understatement. Wright's absorbing "bibliomemoir" tells of the role storytelling and books played in his life. Growing up, Wilde's presentation of himself centered, ostentatiously as was his wont, around his bookishness. But this was not only an image he cultivated; he was one of the best and most widely read classicists of his time, and this grounding provided him with the springboard for his own writing.

Very few of us have, or want to have, the classical literary education that informed Wilde's life. So, fortunately, Oscar's Books is just one of a range of titles that consider books in the context of "we are what we read" that have been published recently.

On a darker level, due out in December, is the paperback of Hitler's Private Library by Timothy Ryback. A voracious reader, Hitler was thought to have owned more than 6000 books at the time of his death, and his choice raises more directly the nature/nurture question inherent in the "we are what we read" analogy: is who we are determined by what we read, or is what we become an effect of what we read?

But because it's the end of the year, you might be more inclined to read "lighter" books. To that end I recommend Susan Hill's HowardsEnd is on the Landing, subtitled "A year of reading from home". I love the idea of taking the time to read or re-read books already owned, and Hill has inspired me to take a new look at my own shelves with a commitment to reading one such book every month.

Then there's Nick Hornby's The Complete Polysyllabic Spree - a collection of his entertaining magazine columns about books bought and read (or not read) in the preceding month. What I like about his approach is that for anyone who wants to understand how their own reading might influence their life, this type of journal-keeping would be ideal.

But all these books refer to a European context. I know nothing about the literary influences on the lives of key South Africans (Nelson Mandela comes to mind). What books have informed our authors, thinkers, journalists, political and business leaders, sportsmen and celebrities? If a chapter on this subject was added to biographies, it would add to our understanding of the people themselves.

Especially if they don't read at all.