Ten books ranging from the verses of a revered Welsh poet to the drug and sex-filled stories of first-time Valleys' novelists have been shortlisted in the search for the book most representative of modern Welsh life.

One of the shortlisted books will be picked as the winner to reflect contemporary Wales on World Book Day, which falls on Thursday, 6 March.

Each of the four UK nations have to select a book which voters judge captures a feel for the current era.

It's punchy and aims to put right the long standing presumption that locations in Wales cannot be interesting enough to be backdrops to interesting novels Rhodri Morgan

Scotland's shortlist, announced earlier in the week, includes best-selling novels such as Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting and Iain Banks' The Crow Road.

Both books have been adapted for the screen - Trainspotting for cinema, in the film starring Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle, and Crow Road for the BBC television series.

In Wales, Residue, a collection of 50 RS Thomas poems, sits alongside John Williams's Cardiff Dead, a tale of the capital at the end of the 20th century as parts of the city disappear in a flurry of development.

Welsh Assembly First Minister Rhodri Morgan said of Williams's book: "It's punchy and aims to put right the long standing presumption that locations in Wales cannot be interesting enough to be backdrops to interesting novels."

Stories

Two Rhondda writers - Richard John Evans and Rachel Tresize - make the list with their debut novels Entertainment and In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl.

Trainspotting by Welsh made the Scottish shortlist

Both books look at the seamier side of life in the post-industrial south Wales valleys, with hard drugs, violence and copious amounts of sex a big part of the mix.

Work, Sex and Rugby by Lewis Davies recounts a four-day odyssey through the pubs, bedrooms and building sites of a Welsh town.

Two volumes of short stories, Magpies: Short Stories from Wales, edited by Robert Nisbet, and Power, edited by Elin ap Hywel, complete the fiction contenders on the list.

Charlotte Williams's Sugar and Slate tells the story of the author's investigation of her half-Welsh, half African-Caribbean roots in a journey of self-discovery.

Those with an interest in the formation of Wales and its people have two non-fiction titles to choose from.

A History of Wales, by John Davies, traces its history from the end of the Ice Age to the establishment of a devolved assembly.

Catalonia

The People of Wales is a collection of nine essays written by historians into the people of Wales during the last millennium.

World Book Day has been running since 1995, when it was established by the United Nations' body UNESCO.

The origins of the day come from the Spanish region of Catalonia, where men and women give each other roses and books to mark St George's Day, their patron saint, on 23 April.

In the UK, every schoolchild will receive a book token worth �1 to mark the event.