Showtime meme

I've been tagged by Persiflage (an LJ friend) to identify my favourite performances by the following - relatively randomly chosen - actors. This means there are some where it is easy to choose some favourite performances, and others where there was an obvious favourite, and others where it was 'depends on my mood' (e.g. some days you just want to indulge ins something you shouldn't...) and others where I was pushed to think of a choice.

Hmm. Here goes:

Male

• David Tennant - Casanova /Hamlet - Doctor Who/Blackpool/Einstein and Eddington but I can watch/listen him in anything - does an addiction to the Hiccup audio books count against me?
• Ben Daniels - Conspiracy (because everyone in that was incredible) Law and Order-UK (because he nails the Sam Waterston righteous liberalism
• Paul McGann- Our Mutual Friend /Doctor Who (esp. on audio)
• Mark Gatiss - Funland (evil stuff, but everyone is brilliant in it)
• John Thaw - Kavanagh QC (which I think I like more than Morse)
• Douglas Henshall - Anna Karenina / This Year's Love / Primeval (especially s1) - The Crucible / Coast of Utopia - Voyage, and on radio 'Fragile!'/ 'The Long Farewell'/ Bampot Central, but again, anything will do. He's never less than worth turning up to watch/listen to - most particularly when that delicious Scottish voice comes through.
• Derek Jacobi - Cadfael, Breaking the Code, and anything on stage that I WISH I had seen him in (plus he was awesome in Doctor Who)
• John Simm - The Devil's Whore --- probably followed by Life on Mars, State of Play and Crime and Punishment
• Kevin Whately - Lewis (and he's certainly better in this than in Morse: room to breathe and plays well against Mr Billie Piper)
• Martin Freeman - Sherlock (because I couldn't bear The Office: though he is well sweet in Love Actually)

Female

• Judi Dench - Mrs Brown /A Fine Romance/As Time Goes By (but I wish I had seen her on stage)
• Kate Ashfield - WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! --- sorry, that makes more sense if you read anything written on Marie Phillips's previous blog (Struggling Author) or read subsequent writings here. Otherwise, Shaun of the Dead
• Freema Agyeman - Doctor Who/ Law and Order UK
• Saskia Reeves - Butterfly Kiss (just a stunning performance, as was Amanda Plummer)
• Lalla Ward - Doctor Who
• Karen Gillan - Doctor Who
• Claire Ashfield - who??
• Hermione Norris - Wire in the Blood/Cold Feet/Spooks (though I never quite forgave her initial actions in the last of these)
• Maggie Smith - Tea with Mussolini (I must be the only person who doesn't mind her heartstrings being shamelessly pulled by this film)
• Julia Roberts - The Pelican Brief (because I love a conspiracy thriller)

Blimey, that was a fairly random list!!!!

Rolling my eyes at the "I write like..." meme

Okay: first up I put in the review I wrote for Maureen Carter's "Death Line".

Turns out I write like Edgar Allan Poe.

Then I put in my review for the recent Doctor Who season finale.

Turns out I write like David Foster Wallace.

Then I tried my review for 'The Silence'.

Seems I'm H.P. Lovecraft.

I tried my piece on reading and not reading.

I'm actually Cory Doctorow.

If I put in the Big Session 2010 review...

I'm back to being H.P. Lovecraft again.

So here's the thing:

How many famous authors is it actually drawing on to be able to 'define' writing styles? There is a nice critique at Tea Berry-Blue which neatly quizzes the 'analyzer' with extracts from a variety of authors - including a range of female writers.

Who'd have thought? Turns out they mostly write like white male authors.

An interesting exercise, but perhaps not one to take too seriously.

Meme of myself 2009

Adapted from Persephone's recent and wonderful post.

1. Are you a male or female? Female, but happy to be one of the boys.

2. Describe yourself. Wage slave with a conscience, trying to make life better. Instinctively behaving like the teenage girl I never really was first time around. Imagines herself as a grande dame de lettres of the 1930s (I do have the odd frock suitable for this role)

3. How do you feel about yourself? Frequently bewildered

4. Describe your parents. I've written about my parents before. But describing them?

My dad was a talented man who hardly got the chance to show his skills: he was a significantly talented linguist in his youth who worked for most of my childhood as a bus driver (where perhaps he did at least get to translate the various curses of late night passengers). He was intelligent, fierce in his opinions (he loathed Ian Paisley with a passion that bordered on hysteria) and he loved light operetta and Jim Reeves (I have not taken on these 'pleasures'). He became a born-again Christian when he was a POW in the UK, married and divorced (not my mum), left the church, and finally returned to his faith with zeal as I passed into secondary education c.12 years old. Although I grew up as 'daddy's girl', his deteriorating health took him away from me in every sense. I kinda wish I had loved him better, but mostly I wish I had known him as a younger man both before and after his conversion,

My mother grew up loving history and literature and passed that passion on to me. She was tall, grew up a tomboy, and despite everything never failed to encourage me to enjoy life and do the things that mattered to me. Housework and tidiness were never high on her priorities (a trait I inherited, sometimes to my frustration) and though she improved over the years it was telling that she - like me some 30+ years later - was reprimanded in school for her appallingly limited needlework skills and inattentiveness in sewing class. I loved watching movies with her as a child and getting hooked on series such as The Aphrodite Inheritance and The Sandbaggers. I miss her more than words can express, not least for being the sort who would call me up to say when Jarvis Cocker were on TV.

5. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriends. There's a reason they're ex's.

6. Describe your current boy/girl situation. My much beloved Cloud (Neil) is more infinitely patient with my failings than I can believe is reasonable of a human being. 19 years together come August 2009.

7. Describe your current location. The 'teenagers' room, aka my study. Posters on the wall, itunes playing, reading blogs, laundry drying on the radiator. Yep, teenager.

8. Describe where you want to be. Happy right here, though wish I had more paid holiday from work (and I get a good deal - what can I say? I'm greedy)

9. Your best friend(s) know too much shit on me for the possibility of falling out to be anything other than a nightmare (I hope)

10. Your favourite colour - red, or blue, or purple.

11. You know that friendship is more powerful than anything, and that you should "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." (Margaret Mead)

12. If your life were a television show what would it be called? It's Just my Imagination

13. What is life to you? valuable, and more precious when shared with people around me

14. What is the best advice you have to give? "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Favourite TV moments: MediumRob's weekly meme

MediumRob's weekly meme this week asks for 'favourite TV moment'. Well, that's not at all difficult to decide upon. And though Stu ran off with some of my favourites before I even found the meme, I'll try and conjure some thoughts:

• The Labour 1997 election victory (and being optimistic enough to hope that it would mean better things ahead: sigh. Not quite everything we wanted...)
• The punch at the end of 'This Life' (still gives me a thrill)
• The Doctor saying 'wish me luck' when he goes back through the fireplace and Madame de P saying 'no' - The Girl in the Fireplace (guts me every time)
• When Skye and the Doctor change synchronisation - Midnight (shudder)
• [PLEASE NOTE: I'm stopping there because even though I could come up with a long list of DW choices, not least from recent years, it seems unfair to do so]
• The scene of Harry Perkins onscreen resignation not quite going as the establishment intended - A Very British Coup (just thoroughly brilliant TV)
• The 'its the devil!' scene on the Blackpool tram in 'Funland' (for making cloven hooves seem so hilarious)
• The dance-off to "These Boots are Made for walking" - Blackpool! (for putting two of my favourite actors in the same frame: an action not topped by The Next Doctor)
• The upright tax man Shaun losing his moral compass in the travel agency in 'Our Friends in the South' aka 'Holding On' (David Morrissey's face as he falls for the hapless sales girl in the travel shop is priceless)
• Josh Lyman's 'secret plan to fight inflation' discussion with the White House Press room- Celestial Navigation (priceless hilarity in a gem of an episode)
• Giles' returning to slap down Dark Willow: "I'd like to test that theory" - Two to Go (not least because they'd kept the return out of admitted pre-blogs-go-stratospheric net world)
• Spike's hair-focused analysis of Angel - In the Dark (just hysterically funny)
• [Please note: I could have had a lot of Buffy/Angel moments and that is before we get to Firefly]
• The shocking end of season One of 'The Sandbaggers' (still amazes me after all these years - my mum and I sat open mouthed)
• The explanation of family history and a photograph at the end of 'Shooting the Past' (because as a photography fan who loves stories it makes me fuzz with glee)
• The scene with the depressed priest in 'Father Ted' where the "Theme from Shaft" transforms his demeanor, only for Radiohead to bring him down again

So that's my list. I better stop there or I will be thinking 'oh that was great!' for the rest of the night...

PS update to include perhaps my MOST favourite, which I really should have included despite its obviousness....

Birthday Calculator

Cloud forwarded me this time distracting website. Now, who else's birthday do I want to look at...?

10 October 1966
Your date of conception was on or about 17 January 1966 which was a Monday.

You were born on a Monday
under the astrological sign Libra.
Your Life path number is 6.

Your fortune cookie reads:
A thrilling time is in your immediate future.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 3, 6 & 9.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 8, 11 & 22.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 5 & 7.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2439408.5.
The golden number for 1966 is 10.
The epact number for 1966 is 8.
The year 1966 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/21/1966 and ending 2/8/1967.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Horse.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Raven; your plant is Ivy.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Choiach, the fourth month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 26 Tishri 5727.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 27 Tishri 5727.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.17.13.2.4 which is
12 baktun 17 katun 13 tun 2 uinal 4 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Monday, 24 Jumadiyu'th-Thani 1386 (1386-6-24).

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 10 April 1966.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 10 April 1966.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 23 February 1966.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 29 May 1966.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 5 June 1966.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Thursday, 15 September 1966.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Tuesday, 5 April 1966.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 22 February 1966.

As of 3/16/2009 10:40:54 AM EST
You are 42 years old.
You are 509 months old.
You are 2,214 weeks old.
You are 15,498 days old.
You are 371,962 hours old.
You are 22,317,760 minutes old.
You are 1,339,065,654 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Mya (1979) Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (1978) Bob Burnquist (1976)
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (1974) Brett Favre (1969) Mike Malinin (1967)
Tanya Tucker (1958) David Lee Roth (1955) Charles Dance (1946)
Ben Vereen (1946) Harold Pinter (1930) Richard Jaeckel (1926)
Thelonious Monk (1917) Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1924) Helen Hayes (1900)
Giuseppe Verdi (1813)

Top songs of 1966
I'm a Believer by Monkees The Ballad of the Green Berets by S/Sgt. Barry Sadler
Winchester Cathedral by New Vaudeville Band Soul and Inspiration by Righteous Brothers
Monday, Monday by The Mama's & the Papa's We Can Work It Out by Beatles
Summer In the City by Lovin' Spoonful Cherish by Association
You Can't Hurry Love by Supremes Wild Thing by Troggs

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 6.06575342465753 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

Your lucky day is Friday.
Your lucky number is 6.
Your ruling planet(s) is Venus.
Your lucky dates are 6th, 15th, 24th.
Your opposition sign is Aries.
Your opposition number(s) is 9.

Today is not one of your lucky days!

There are 208 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 43 candles.

Those 43 candles produce 43 BTUs,
or 10,836 calories of heat (that's only 10.8360 food Calories!) .
You can boil 4.91 US ounces of water with that many candles.


In 1966 there were approximately 3.7 million births in the US.
In 1966 the US population was approximately 179,323,175 people, 50.6 persons per square mile.
In 1966 in the US there were approximately 1,800,000 marriages (9.3%) and 479,000 divorces (2.5%)
In 1966 in the US there were approximately 1,712,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1966 the population of Australia was approximately 11,704,843.
In 1966 there were approximately 223,731 births in Australia.
In 1966 in Australia there were approximately 96,061 marriages and 9,859 divorces.
In 1966 in Australia there were approximately 103,929 deaths.

Your birth flower is MARIGOLD

Your birthstone is Tourmaline

The Mystical properties of Tourmaline

Pink Tourmaline promotes female balance and protection. Green Toumaline promotes male balance.
Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Opal, Jasper

Your birth tree is

Rowan, the Sensitivity
Full of charm, cheerful, gifted, without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, artistic, passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.



There are 284 days till Christmas 2009!
There are 297 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waning crescent.

TV celebrities/characters to be stuck in a lift with: inspired by MediumRob via the Guardian

Anna Pickard started it (though I doubt it's a new meme in itself).

Subsequently, MediumRob has offered up his selections and Dan his own list.

The meme is: which ten TV celebrities (real or fiction) would you like to be stuck in a lift with.

Inevitably, given the sonic screwdriver, The Doctor has hit several people's thoughts. Well, yes. Duh. However, that would surely cover more of the 'people USEFUL to be stuck in a lift with (as they could help you get out)'.

Which frankly, if we're talking Tenth Doctor here, seems something of a wasted opportunity.

So with that in mind, here are my thoughts:

People to be stuck in a lift with:

• The Doctor (because that brain, of any incarnation, with or without sonic screwdriver, would certainly work out some exit strategy; plus, you know, interesting)
• Stephen Fry (smart and experienced in these matters; the go-to guy for the task)>/li>
• Ross Noble (he'd probably have me giggling at the lights)
• Josh Lyman - the West Wing (he'd sigh and rage and just be generally good company in his own peculiar way; plus, ya know, Bradley Whitford... *sigh*)
• Lester Freemon - the Wire (because he'd be calm and methodical under the pressure)
• Willow Rosenberg - from Buffy (because she'd use magic in a good way, right?)
• Paul Merton (he'd help pass the minutes away)
• Kathy Burke (because it would be interesting to see who Cloud would be more pleased to see when he sees us exit after being rescued)

Final thought:

• David Tennant and Dougie Henshall (frankly, don't rush the rescue if I'm stuck with them)

UPDATE: as at 12 Feb, MediumRob has already stirred one of the most active comment threads in ages. Take a look: we've got a little out of hand you could say...

100 books half-read

Via EineKleine Rob (who came via Phil)

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated. (I see no reason to restrict ‘books I hated’ to school - there are only a couple of books on the list I really disliked, and neither of them was a school text.)
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - life is too short
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible - what can I say: my dad was an evangelical christian..
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - is it possible to DOUBLE underline one that you really love?
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - Blimey, I mean, I've read a LOT of Shakespeare but not all of it although I have loved pretty much all I have read...
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - phew, just got under the wire on that!
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - no desire to read that in a hurry again...
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - tried and failed. God, it's miserable.
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - life is too short, sorry.
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - could not get on with it
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Hmm, I think there are 50 I think I can lay fair claim to - some I haven't read for a long LONG time. Others: meh. Not much I hate, though several I really haven't got time for in this lifetime. For shame.

5th line meme

Before anyone else tags me (ta Paul by the way):

Pick up the nearest book.
Open to page 123
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

Nearest book for me was Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. Please don't laugh.

p.123 is from Chapter 6 and the fifth sentence is actually the first in a section entitled 'One Item At A Time':

You may find you have a tendency, while processing your in-basket, to pick something up, not know exactly what to do about it, and then let your eyes wander onto another item farther down the stack and get engaged with it.

The passage continues:

That item may be more attractive to your psyche because you know right away what to do with it - and you don't feel like thinking about what's in your hand. This is dangerous territory. What's in your hand is likley to land on a 'hmppphhh' stack on the side of your deak because you become distracted by something easier, more important, or more interesting below it.

Oh dear: I should probably acknowledge and counter some of my own tendency to behave that way in processing my own non-in-tray-piles of paperwork. *shudder*

Who to tag? Help yourself hapless bloggers...

A-Z of blogs

Stolen shamelessly from EineKleineRob.

Autocomplete blog meme. Simple procedure: type each letter of the alphabet in the address bar (one at a time, obviously) and see which blog comes up first. The result should be a map of your personal blogosphere, or at least those bits of it you’ve visited recently.

This version echoes a bit of Phil (excluding letters where nothing came up) and a bit of Rob (I wasn't particular about excluding those sites only visited a few times, since I too may revisit on such whimsical information).

Apologies to those who maybe came alphabetically a little below the first appearing blog for each letter. Or for those where my history has cleared out identifying them.

A - 'Theatre is Life, Film is Art, TV is Furniture' [Anna Waits]
B - Behind the Sofa [The Doctor Who multi-authored blog]
C - Cloud in Trousers [thank goodness! Neil might never forgive me otherwise!]
D - From Despair to Where? [as the subtitle says 'Stuart and Dave's communist blog]
E - Eine Kleine Nichtmusik [EineKleineRob of course!]
F - Feeling Listless
G - The Gaping Silence [Phil, from whence the meme came...]
I - Indigenous Stranger [James Diggs]
J - Joe in Vegas [Joe, funnily, in Vegas]
M - Music is Our Hot Hot Sex [collective blog]
O - Informationally Overloaded [at onemanblogs - Gordon McLean]
P - You Don't Think You're Taking This Too Seriously...? [persiflage_1 at livejournal for all your Doctor Who thoughts and especially Doctor/Martha fan-fic needs]
R - Rullsenberg Rules [no idea who she is...]
S - Stu_N [unsurprisingly, Stu N...]
T - The Big Blowdown [Reidski]
W - The Woman Who Talked Too Much [Marie - our successful author]
Z - All About My Movies [Emma]

Darren's meme...

If Darren will make such threats, then I guess I have to respond...!

1) What was the last 1980s song you heard?

The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
I was (briefly) listening to 6Music's Listener's Mix...

2) What was the last thing you saw on Youtube?

This Scissor Sisters Doctor Who video. God, I'm shallow.

3) What was the last entry on Wikipedia you viewed?

House of Leaves when writing my book meme.

4) What was the last computer/video game you completed all the way through?

You are kidding right? It's well over 10 years since I had a game of Tekken. I think that's the closest I have ever come to playing a computer game at all. I've never done level games.

5) What did you last pig out on?

Chinese meal (or rather the post-meal prawn crackers).

6) What is the last undeleted text message on your mobile phone?

Note to self: delete more texts. Not telling. Sorry. ;)

7) When did you last have a conversation with someone other than a family member?

Depends what you mean by conversation. Do work colleagues count? Last non-work conversation was probably Saturday with friends Nick and Sue.

8) Aside from where you live, what is the last village/town/city you visited?

Derby on Saturday for the Silk Mill Workers commemoration day march.

9) What was the last competition you won?

Primeval book competition!

10) What are the last three blogs you visited?

Rosby, Swiss Toni, Anna Waits.

Tags??? Help yourselves folks...

Book meme: an A-Z of authors

This meme has been doing the rounds for some time now, and I wanted to try and give it a fresh spin: after all, it's not that I couldn't include Austen et al on a list of fiction I have read, alphabetical by author. No, my concern is that such a list merely confirms a lot of similar lists. Perhaps trying to come up with a list of slightly more off-beat texts - ones you may not have already read will prove more interesting for me to write -- if not for you to read.

• Armstrong, Kelley: Bitten
  The first and possibly the best of her werewolf family based stories


• Brookmyre, Christopher: One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night
  I could have gone for any number of CB's fictions, but I have a special love for the Parlabane stories. It could have something to do with this performance or this reading.


• Calasso, Roberto: The marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
  A delightful blending of mythologies


• Danielewski, Mark Z.: House of Leaves
  I know I keep banging on about this book, but I still love it and still enjoy reading it regularly. A totally twisty headfuck that ramps up the tension with its multi-stranded narrative.


• Ellroy, James: American Tabloid
  A grand spreading tale around one of my favourite subjects (the JFK assassination)


• Fforde, Jasper: The Eyre Affair
  Still the most breathtaking and enjoyable of his novels and therefore a fine introduction to an always fun and smart writer


• Grundin, Robert: Book - A Novel
  A 1992 novel that seems to lack almost any kind of footprint on the net. It's a fiction about fiction and academics: I'm a sucker for this sort of thing.


• Hall, Steven: The Raw Shark Texts
  Post-modernism? A bit fantasy-esque? Twisty narrative? Thanks, I'll buy it.


• Iles, Greg: Dead Sleep
  Rather nasty and ultimately predictable thriller. Can't say I didn't enjoy its page-turning skills though.


• Juster, Norton: The Phantom Tollbooth
  Still one of my childhood books, a vivid play with words and numbers.


• Krauss, Nicole: The History of Love
  Even just thinking about this story makes me well up with tears; a poignant and touching multi-stranded tale.


• Lurie, Alison: The Truth About Lorin Jones
  It's about an art historian and feminist art history: of course I like it. Sad that it seems to be out of print...


• Miller, Martin: Lonely Werewolf Girl
  Read quickly because it was just so darn much fun and gripped me throughout.


• Noon, Jeff: Pollen
  Still creeps me out even thinking about this book: a vivid bit of fantasy.


• O'Flynn, Catherine: What Was Lost
  A fabulous capturing of voice and place that has stolen the hearts of all who have read it. A remarkable debut.


• Phillips, Marie: Gods Behaving Badly
  What is wrong with you people!? BUY AND READ THIS BOOK! It's warm and very, hilariously funny.


• Q.... na, sorry, stumped on this letter.


• Rosoff, Meg: How I Live Now
  A book for 'young people'? Just a fabulously tender tale. I couldn't bare to listen to the radio reading because the story breaks my heart.


• Sudbery, Clare: The Dying of Delight
  Clare is brilliant and brings all of her characteristic verve to the page.


• Tyler, Anne: The Amateur MarriageA gift from a friend and a story I loved reading.


• Updike, John: Seek My Face
  Another art history related tale of a scarcely veiled Pollock, Krasner and Guggenheim tale.


• Vidal, Gore: Empire
  Shades of heiresses and powerplays: the only Vidal novel I've finished...


• White, Antonia: Frost In May
  I went for one classic text on this list, partly because I think it may have fallen out of favour, but its a much loved text by me.


• X... nope


• Yalom, Irvin D.: When Neitzsche Wept
  It's about Freud and Neitzsche. It's a lot better than that sounds...


• Z... stumped me there too.

Done.

All about an Shuffle-me meme

Via Stu_N

The rules-
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY?" YOU SAY?
Why so close

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
The Old Castle

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Downtown

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
The Town Where Time Stood Still

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Luna Park

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
We Used To vacation

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
The Bugle Sounds Again

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Time Has Told Me

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN?
Own Man

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
The Marching Song of the Covert Battalions

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Roll Over Beethoven

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Appetite

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Machine Drug

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
The Year of the Leopard

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Under Your Spell

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
If You Know By Now

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Give My Love to Kevin

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST??
Prison Grove

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Exchange

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
So Young Still

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Mrs Meggary

Ah, lists: you know how I love a list!

How long since the last book meme?

Since EineKleineRob asked so nicely, I thought I should try...

Total number of books owned

Am frightened on counting, especially after how many we lugged home on the plane. About 3,500?

Last book bought

Lots! Art Deco: Los Angeles, Getty Center Photography Collection Handbook, The Puttermesser Papers: A Novel by Cynthia Ozick....

Last book read

Last one completed: Possibly an Artemis Fowle book before I passed them on to neice and nephew!

Currently reading: The Raw Shark Texts by Stephen Hall. I started it last night and am already about 1/3 through it. Completely insane but very vivid and compelling and with a central idea of a conceptual shark, a Ludovician shark, that eats memories: Audrey Niffenegger liked it a lot.

Five books that mean a lot to you

Hmm. Not really had time to rethink this so temporarily will refer you to this.

Next tagees: bah, humbug. I'll try and think of someone who would do this, but in the meantime, meme yourself senseless...

Summertime tag

From lovely Emma over at All About My Movies. Thank you for giving me breathing space to contemplate my thoughts on the ending of Who season 3.

01. Name movies you watch every Summer.
"If Only" and "This Year's Love" - especially this scene. Very personal choices, but something of a delightful ritual.

02. Songs that remind you the most of Summer.
All of Pulp's album, "His 'n' Hers". Just as Different Class always reminds me of autumn/winter (particularly the dark tones of 'I-Spy'), so their previous album always stirs up summertime. I'd also nominate the always lovely "Echo Beach" by Martha and the Muffins ('my job is very boring I'm an office clerk' - in the years I was just that, it was an especial treat to sing loudly along to this!)

03. What was the greatest Summer holiday you ever had?
Given that mostly I haven't DONE summer holidays since I was about 22, it's a tough one to answer. I did have a lovely summertime last year though.

04. Your favourite airport reads.
Urgh. Not sure I even approve of the concept of an airport read.

05. Are you a sunbather?
Used to be. Not any more.

06. Your ideal holiday destination this Summer that you haven’t been to before.
Not sure I have one...

07. Describe your Summer of 2006 in 10 words or less.
Summer Sundae. Being lazy. Not enough house renovation going on.

08. What Summer movie must you see this year?
Must I? Go on then, Harry Potter.

09. Which Summer changed your life?
1990. Met my boy on an Open University Summer School. Can't get more life-changing than that on a hot summer's evening.

10. Do you like the beach? What do you bring to the beach with you?
Hmmm... Have gone off beaches over the years. It's almost like a regression for me. Apparantly when I was a baby I HATED the beach, hated sand. It moved beneath me you see - scared the bejeesus out of me. So I could only sit on the beach on a towel and if sand got onto the towel I yowled. I think I've gone back to that. Back when I last had a beach holiday I took a cassette player. That long ago. Mind, I do love beaches. Especially Aberdeen and Woodend (scroll for Woodend).

11. Your earliest memory of a Summer holiday.
Donkeys at Weston-Super-Mare. Always managing to look the wrong way when someone called me for a photo.

12. And finally, what do you intend on doing this Summer?
Intentions versus reality.

I intend putting together a book proposal on my PhD. I intend organising builders, plumbers and plasters to do some work on my house.

Instead I will probably write some nonsense, then it will be time to go to NZ and then I will get to the end of the vacation and have to go back to work and I will think "crap..."



Hmm, so that's MY take on summertime.

UPDATE: Catherine just won my heart completely. She loves Godspeed You! Black Emperor ...

In the House: the Big Blogger House

As if you didn't know that it was Big Blogger time again, here comes a big reminder that we all have a duty.

It's called VOTE CLARE!

(NB if you ain't high by the end of reading her post then you are clearly lacking something...)


But there's more to it than that (what, more than THAT?!!!): there's a meme too.

Three reasons why I would be an ideal housemate imprisoned in a house with random strangers for way too long.

1. I would provide good visual entertainment - of course, that would only work in a real house with strangers rather than perhaps a virtual one (but maybe if we all had webcams... oh heck...)
2. I make darn fine choc chip cookies (thanks to Joe's inspiration) - always good for keeping people happy
3. I can talk obsessively and at length about many subjects such as those listed at the top of my blog... hang on, that's potentially more of a negative...

Three reasons why I would be the Housemate From Hell

1. I am an unsociable grump and can easily fall into moody fits of sulky depressed silence - probably NOT a positive for long-term stuck with strangers scenarios...
2. I'm not a joiner in activities: there's a reason I was never much good at clubs and societies
3. If tasks go wrong and our food provision goes down this will Not Be A Good Thing. I get cranky when I'm hungry. You wouldn't like me when I'm hungry.

Now people, pick up this meme and RUN WITH IT!!!! That means all of you!!!

Clare needs your votes.

Vote Clare!

Do it!

NOW!!!!!!

You have only until MIDDAY 2 JULY 2007!!!! Then this mail will self-destruct!

(Or go into archiving... It's a close run thing)

Tagged people with surprises

JJ (sic) did this. Then so did Joe.

Seven Things About Me That May Surprise You
Seems hard given how horribly and self-damagingly open I am on this and other people's blogs, but still, I will give it a go.

1. I hated the Pogues and Kirsty McColl's "Fairytale of New York" when it was first released. Now I love it. It is after all a story song. And you know what a sentimentalist I am for that sort of thing.


2. Despite my interest in family history I have pretty much lost contact with the few remaining distant bits of family I had left. I miss seeing Neil's family regularly far more.


3. I frequently leave things unfinished. The only reason this probably doesn't show up much is because I do so damn much in the first place. But I have LOTS of unfinished business in every sense of the word.


4. I won a bible reading competition at my parent's church, and was only narrowly beaten at a regional final by a much older and more experienced reader. It was an extract from Song of Solomon. And by reading I mean reciting. (You also had to do a passage previously unseen until 5 mins before performance).


5. We didn't have a telephone until I was 15. That meant a lot of afternoons and evenings on street corners (waiting for a phone box people, waiting for a PHONE BOX. Honestly, your opinion of me...)


6. I still haven't sent anything to David Tennant to sign for me. Given how extraordinarily popular the lad now is, I think I've missed my chance there. He probably now has a team of 'signers' to keep up with the demand. Should've done it pre-Who!


7. I really don't understand English Grammar but I often have to explain it to students. I'm winging it.

The rules:

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country you’re in.
Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
Velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia(London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
Tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, United States)
Todd (Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
Miss Kendra (los angeles, california, u.s.a)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, CA, USA! USA! USA!)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Kat (Ontario, Canada)
Badgerdaddy (Ludlow, Shropshire, England)
Dandelion (England, Great Britain)
All Cobblers The Sticks, England.
JoeInVegas (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA)
Rullsenberg (Nottingham, England)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.

This is TOUGH, and if I had the choice to go broader, the lovely Swan would absolutely be on there.
1. Gusto. Had a very nice meal at this Italian deli/restaurant last September. We go quite often (and did before then as well), but now it has added zing in visiting.
2. Alley Cafe. Vegan/Veggie restaurant. Divine salads. Fabulous day to day specials. Always good value and V hip music in the background.
3. The Vic, Beeston/The Lincolnshire Poacher. Two pubs with a shared menu team. One is near the Uni and is a fab place to go after work (or study). The other is in the city centre. Both have great beer gardens and a mouth-watering selection of whisky. The food is top notch.
4. Petit Paris. A generally older and quieter clientele than the other venues, but as a pre-theatre or gig eatery its a really indulgent location.
5. Home cooking - if it involves a tomato based sauce for rice, pasta, cous-cous then we can make a cracking selection. Nice biscuits/cookies too thanks to the inspiration of Joe.

3. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.

Shucks, anyone fancy it? It seems harsh to pick on people and I'm definitely lacking a global blogroll...

Notes to self

Must think about Billy's wish-list meme.

And any number of other posts in progress. Although this would be made much easier if NTHell (sorry VirginMediaHell) were providing a functional net service...

12 cities

Thanks to Paul B for this thought of a meme. My favourite twelve cities would be:

New York: stunning, uncanny, breath-takingly awesome - a city oft visited in the movies and TV and thankfully on a handful of occasions in 'reality' (though it is such unreal place, you can confuse the two).

London: easier to get to, and cheaper (free museums!), ergo a possible over-taker of NYC. Not quite the same pizzazz but a buzzy kind of place. Had a great weekend there so feeling more pro London right now!

Birmingham: I do have some residual disappointments - they lost two of the remaining pieces of inner city greenary when they redeveloped the area in front of the Rep and Symphony Hall, and where they put the Floozy in the Jacuzzi. They also demolished the Triangle cinema at Aston Uni. But I still love what has happened to Brum over recent years. A triumph of optimism and will.

Manchester: it was my in-transit home for quite some time whilst studying at Leeds and still living in the West Midlands (funnily I felt more at home in Manc than I ever did in Leeds itself). Always interesting, if not always in a good way. We had a great blogmeet there earlier this year which is the chief reason it makes the cut.

Amsterdam: my favourite European city of those visited. Relaxed. Fun. Full of culture. And the houses have big windows so you can see inside to all the big bookshelves. Heavenly!

Glasgow: it rained when we were there (quel surprise) but I say 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh'. 'nuf said...

Edinburgh: Hills! Views! A Castle! Fascinating to visit even though it was during the festival ;)

Aberdeen: this really makes the cut because of the lovely George, but we have had such great weather up there and have SOOO enjoyed the beach that I had to include it!

Venice: It smells. It's full of tourists. It's over-priced. And yet... It is beautiful and full of obscured delights down hidden passages. Plus, you know, Peggy Guggenheim lived there...

Paris: Spectacular but even though I love Before Sunrise/Sunset, I can't say I warm to the place overall. Nevertheless, a truly fabulous city to see and one not to be missed. Besides, Jarvis lives there...

Oxford/Cambridge: sorry but I can't separate the two as they (and their bookshops) are inextricably entwined in my minds eye!

Berlin: the only city on my list I haven't been to. I did want to try and keep this list to places I have actually been - that's not to say other places aren't well loved or haven't offered me some great experiences. And given those I haven't visited this is clearly a very small list. But I have to include Berlin as it is such a central place in German history. One day I will check out my German origins properly and actually visit the country!


So there you have it. 12 cities. What are yours?

iTunes meme, shamelessly nicked

Ta to Jim and Darren for inspiring me to do this!

Total Songs

6398 songs, 28.63 GB

Sorted by Song Title

First: '64 AKA Go - Lemon Jelly

Last: Zuckendes Fleisch - Einstürzende Neubauten

Sorted by Artist

First: 1-Speed Bike - Seattle/Washington/Prague/00/68 Chicago/Nixon/Reagan Circle-Fighting Machine

Last: ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man

Sorted by Album

First: The Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band With Choir - "This Is Our Punk Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing (first track = "Sow Some Lonesome Corner So many Flowers Bloom")

Last: Various artists - Zentertainment 2006 (final track = "Walk A Mile [Tiga remix edit]" by Coldcut)

Please bear in mind that the stereo is the main way in which we play things in our house still, so this probably tells you more about what goes on when I'm on my computer!

Ten Most Played Songs

1. A Long Time Ago - David Ford (12 plays)
=2. 13 Angels Standing Guard 'round the Side of Your Bed - A Silver Mount Zion (9 plays)
=2. Something's Going To Happen Soon - Ballboy (9 plays)
=2. Us - Regina Spektor (9 plays)
=5. They'll Hang Flags From Cranes Upon My Wedding Day - Ballboy (8 plays)
=5. It Dawned On Me - Calla (8 plays)
=5. 100,000 Fireflies - The Magnetic Fields (8 plays)
=5. Give Me Back My Dreams - Sally Timms [The Sixths, aka Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields] (8 plays)
=9. The Matter [Of Our Discussion] - Boom Bip, featuring Nina Nastassia (7 plays)
=9. Pull The Wires From The Wall - The Delgados (7 plays)

Ten Most Recently Played

Rhine & Courtesan - Rachel's
Besame Mucho - Dan Sartain
Green Pastures - Anonymous 4, Darol Anger, Mike Marschall
Parting Friends/Wayfaring Stranger - Anonymous 4, Darol Anger, Mike Marschall
You Fair & Pretty Ladies - Anonymous 4, Darol Anger, Mike Marschall
Beloved - Hannah Marcus
Looking for Space - Hannah Marcus
State of the union - David Ford
What would you have me do - David Ford
A Long Time Ago - David Ford

Find 'sex' - how many songs show up?

11 (but there's a lot of repetition here!)

Sex is Boring - Ballboy (from A Guide to the Daylight Hours)
Sex is Boring (acoustic version) - Ballboy (from Club Anthems 2001)
Sheffield: Sex City - Pulp (from Babies EP release)
Sheffield: Sex City - Pulp (from Intro: The Gift Recordings)
Sheffield: Sex City (instrumental) - Pulp
Wet Sex Anaesthetic - Nought (from Buffalo Bar Presents Sound Issues Vol.1)
Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll - Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Sex Machine - The Flying Lizards (from Rough Trade Post Punk Vol 1)
A Complete History Of Sexual Jealousy [redone version] - Momus (from Slender Sherbet: NOTE this is a really really rubbish version but you can't get the original for love nor money and we only have it on vinyl!!!)
Sex - The Pipettes (from a sampler CD)
Sex and Mayhem - Devastations (from a sampler CD)

Reminder established from this: I still haven't loaded up 'Don't Try This at Home' with the excellent 'Sexuality' by Billy Bragg!

Find 'death' - how many songs show up?

10

Death Goes To The Disco - Pulp
22: The Death Of All Romance - The Dears
Death II - Pulp
The Death Of Ferdinand De Saussure - The Magnetic Fields
Clubbed to Death - Rob D (from The Matrix)
Time And Death Invading The Arcadian Scene - The Death of Rosa Luxembourg
Death Smiles at us All - Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard (from Gladiator)
The Black Angel's Death Song - The Velvet Underground and Nico
Death Of A Tune - The Hidden Cameras
Death or Glory - Jesse Malin

Find 'love' - how many songs show up?

203. The top 10 rated songs are:

Past Lovers - Ballboy
Labelled with Love - Squeeze
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Susanna and the Magical Orchestra
To Know Her is To Love Her - The Beatles (live at the BBC)
Is This What They Used to Call Love? - The Magnetic Fields
To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey
Love's Almighty - Telepopmusik
The Night You Murdered Love - ABC
A Lover Sings - Billy Bragg
Love Minus Zero/No Limit - Bob Dylan

Find 'war' - how many songs show up?

13 (excluding those where war is just part of a standard word)

The War - Bill Hicks (spoken word stuff counts yeah?)
Between the Wars - Billy Bragg
Masters of War (Live) - Bob Dylan
Blood on Blood War - Cappadonna
War - Carla Whitney
Details of the War - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
War and Peace - Gilad Atzmon
What Do We Want? (We Don't Want No War) - Hondo
Postwar Glamour Girls - John Cooper Clarke
Girl in the War - Josh Ritter
The War is Over - Phil Ochs
We All Said Stop the War - Robb Johnson
The Riflemen of War - Seth Lakeman


Find 'peace' - how many songs show up?

7

War and Peace - Gilad Atzmon
Security and Peace - Superqueens
Peace in Our Time - Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Peace in Our Time (demo) - Elvis Costello and the Attractions
We Want Peace - Hermione
No Justice, No Peace - Robb Johnson
Rest in Peace - Spike (from Buffy "Once More, With Feeling")

Find 'rain' - how many songs show up?

22 - 10 randomly selected

Why does it always rain on me? - Travis
Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall - Simon and Garfunkel
She talks to Rainbows - The Ramones
Black Rain - David Thomas and the Foreigners
Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Paint a Rainbow - My Bloody Valentine
In the Rain - The June Brides
A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall (Live) - Bob Dylan
Rain Down Blues - Big MayBelle
Dry the Rain - The Beta Band

Find 'sun' - how many songs show up?

58 - 10 top rated

When the Sun Goes Down - Artic Monkeys
Leave The Earth Behind You And Take A Walk Into The Sunshine - Ballboy
Sunshine on Leith - The Proclaimers
Another Sunny Day - Belle and Sebastian
The Warmth of the Sun - Brian Wilson
Warm and Sunny Days - The Dears
Fades the Sun - Duke Spirit
Sunrise - Pulp
Burnt by the Sun - Sophie Solomon (with Richard Hawley)
Blister in the Sun - The Wannadies

Find 'socialist', 'communist' or 'anarchist' - how many songs show up?

2

Cocaine Socialism - Pulp
Anarchy in the UK - The Sex Pistols

Book meme response

I haven't thought about this too much really, not least because I was out last night (see another post):

1. One book that changed my life - The Open University degree prospectus (because it led me to go to Summer School 16 years ago [ scroll to question 5])

2. One book that I have read more than once - Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves (though I could equally say The Sandman...)

3. One book I would want on a deserted island - I'd probably go for a book of Buffy Scripts just because it would also provide me with visual entertainment as well as I watch the programmes in my mind's eye. But certainly some kind of script book.

4. One book that made me laugh - blimey, this question was much harder than I expected. Clearly I am a miserable reader who likes to cry, be driven to tension, and horrified/mystified because there is a real dearth of funny books in my collection! There are some usual suspects that have made me laugh - Al Franken being one - but a lot of things that have made me laugh have had a strain of black humour in them. I certainly laughed when reading The Dying of Delight by the lovely Clare, but I also cried to that as well. And I'm taking it that unintentional laughter doesn't count, right? Otherwise it would probably go to The Da Vinci Code...

5. One book that made me cry - still gotta go with His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

6. One book I wish I'd written - the definitive study on Peggy Guggenheim (though some may say I might yet do that...)

7. One book I wish had never been written - plenty I wish had never been read, but written? Certainly there has been as much that has been misinterpreted and mis-used as has been written out of hatred. I would think the most unforgivable book would have to be vile, nasty, and virulently anti-semitic 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'.

8. One book I am currently reading - Pop Fiction (yes, I am revising the Chick Flicks essay)

9. One book I have been meaning to read - Julian Barnes "Arthur and George" (still haven't got around to it; though it does prompt me to ask for my videotape back from HLW...)

Any takers for this meme?