My usual intolerance to saccharine pictures is suspended during December, but I still prefer some dramatic bite in my Xmas films. And that's why 'Comfort and Joy'( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsw1I15Fj9I ) is up there with my favourite holiday movies, with its narrative of a thirty-something disc...

Ah yes, Paisley, I know Paisley. Admittedly, I'm acquainted with the one on the other side of the pond, but we shouldn't let that stop us from sharing Paisley stories.

Wilkommen Herr Stricklin.

One can only pray that Philip doesn't join the halls of the departed any time soon, unlike the other writers you've listed beside him like towering doric columns of portent.

Congratulations on your new web sanctuary. Many have trumpeted their arrival in this grandiose virtual vestibule, and yet only a select stolid few have endured. Is it impolite of me to doubt your authority on the seasons? My summer has resembled the Russian thaw, only brighter, and I grimaced when y...

I'm half-way through Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikkoter, which documents China's devastating attempt to become an economic powerhouse within fifteen years, starting in 1958 with a nation-wide roll out of collectivisation. In four years, fifty million people died as a result of this catastrophicall...

LOL. I've liked Neil Gaiman for a long time, and this Amanda Palmer thing was a surprise to me, (1) because he used to be married to someone else and (2) I had no idea who Amanda Palmer is. Did that really make him more popular? I left a lot of room for misinterpretation in my post. I'm sure more p...

Bonjour Beth, I think you'll find the pace in these parts quite conducive to your purposes.

As for this Neil Gaiman guy, one day I find out he's married Amanda Palmer, and overnight it seems every other reader likes him and I'm playing catch-up with the latest cultural phenomenon.

130 for me from the original 2006 list, but it's still pretty laughable in some of its inclusions. The argument that each work has some seminal weight behind it just doesn't hold water, especially with the way it blatantly loots vast sections of some oeuvres just for the sake of making up numbers.

Anyone diligently forging through a 1001 guide, without questioning some of the choices, could use a guide for their guide. Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying was written to fulfil a deadline, and he admitted he produced it soullessly without the intellectual vigour associated with his major works....

How unsporting of you to start this topic a day after April Fools! I rarely pass up a chance to take a cheap shot at Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, but seems the fun's already been had before I got here. My aunt has a bookshelf lined with Archer tomes, and going on my scant knowledge of those vol...