Freewheeling Andy

If he's just avoiding chips and cake, and eating fish and fruit, I wouldn't try and change it, Angel...

Keep working on it, Angel. I was always unadventurous and sullen about my food. But the "little bit of... x" every meal eventually brought rewards. There was an age (probably about 18) when it suddenly dawned on me that I just said I didn't like things because that's what I'd decided, but the taste was actually rather good. The best thing about that was that it made me realise I could learn to like all kinds of other foods through the same method. The only things that have really failed are cooked egg white, and blueness in cheese.

Blimey, Angel. You've read all the really difficult 19th century stuff? I'm impressed.

Ah. I used to be the fussiest eater in the world. I've got easier going, and I'm sure everyone else is much, much fussier now than I ever was. You can't be over tolerant. Chicken is chicken, for example. Don't let them get away with only liking nuggets (of all things!), and refusing drumsticks or breast. And make sure they always eat a small amount of things they claim not to like. A "New taste for the day" experience, say.

And the same for the Random House Double List. 2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald 4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov 4. THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien 5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley 5. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee 6. 1984 by George Orwell 7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller 10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck 14. DUNE by Frank Herbert 16. STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein 18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut 19. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger 20. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell 25. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding 29. THE STAND by Stephen King 42. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac 43. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad 45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway 51. THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams 55. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess 59. ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card 65. SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury 73. ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert Pirsig 74. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway 75. SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh 76. AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS by Flann O'Brien 77. FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury 779. WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams 80. NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs 84. IT by Stephen King 90. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie

OK. Following Kell's example. These are the ones I've read. In bold the ones good enough to go on a top 100 list. 1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien 4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams 6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee 7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne 8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell 11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller 15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger 16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame 19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres 20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (I only read the first 50-100 pages, though) 25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien 29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck 30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garc

Mamacita's list is far more plausible (well, the "Board's List". Clearly the top places on "readers list" were come to by some tactical voting amongst scientologist loonies and others). Even though I find Joyce unreadable, I can see why he's top. Of course, number 7 or 75 on the Board List of Mamacita's should be number one. Probably

I disagree with number one, for a start. Best book ever? Good grief? And all that Potter nonsense in the best 25 books of all time? Oh dear oh dear. Sometimes I despair of the British public.

Goose isn't really that adventurous. It's nice flavours, though, like a more flavoursome turkey. Not that gamey, so not very "difficult". Does anybody know anything about brining birds?

I really recommend goose for people who are bored of turkey. Although this year there may be too many in the house for a goose - and I've been trying to find out abuot brining turkeys before cooking them. It sounds like the thing that suddenly changes the bird from bland to wonderful. I expect it will be roast tatties, beans, a parsnip/carrot mash and sprouts on the table with the goose. I hope we get roast parnsips but I'm not sure there's enough room in the oven. Also on Christmas Day: German sweetish wine, maybe a spatlase. White burgundy Decent bordeaux Dessert wine (loupiac/sauternes) Vintage port.

Hopefully: Game casserole on Christmas eve evening. Smoked salmon, Goose Christmas pud on Christmas day "lunch".

Oh. Sorry. Pierogi dumplings (which are sort of half-way between ravioli and dumpling). Golonka pork knuckle. Golabki stuffed cabbage leaves. Bigos pork and cabbage stew. Kielbasa, smoked grilled sausage. Zurek, fermented buckwheat soup. Barsch betroot soup. Smoked cheeses, grilled. Basically, very heavy on the meat and cabbage, and then some potato. Ate one meal in a Jewish restaurant in the old Jewish quarter of Krakow and had the most fantastic piece of carp, which was flavoured with something, although I don't know what.

No. Mostly simple.

I've just spent the weekend eating. Polish food is lovely. But it's very very heavy, and now so am I.

Tomorrow I go to Poland and get to eat pierogi and golonka and stuffed cabbage.

You're not the only one somewhat exhausted after drinking too much on Saturday.

Ahoy there. Good to see that you can sit at a computer today.

Well, this reinforces my prejudices - people I know who enjoy the books I enjoy said much the same about The Lovely Bones (and even people who enjoyed it told me not to read it because it was just make me very angry). I shall leave it alone. I also agree that the "Next Lovely Bones" trail on the front of Time Traveller's Wife almost put me off buying the thing. It's not the first time that a recommendation has almost put me off a book that turned out to be good.

I'm worth less than the books. The books, together, cost

Damn. I was trying so hard to read books faster than I bought them, but the remainders/discounts section of my local Waterstones sold me: How The Universe Got Its Spots by Janna Levin and Monturiol's Dream:The Submarine Inventor who Wanted to Save The World by Matthew Stewart.

Ditto, do not read, etc... But, Mau, if he had told Clare to hide the guns one of two things would have happened - either Henry's past and future are (and were) always immutable, because that's the nature of his time travel, and there was never anything he could do. His future was always going to happen. But worse, if he messed with the past he could ruin his present, he could change everything, and it might mean that he never met Clare, and never had Alba, and was that a risk worth taking? One aspect that interested me was the way the Henry led up to the end of the story in the manner of the terminally ill. I saw parallels (which were obvious) of people with terminal cancers, trying to tie up all the loose ends. I did wonder, in particular, though, whether he was inordinately mean telling Clare that they'd meet again in the distant future. Because that might be the thing that puts her life on hold, that leaves her waiting for him rather than going off and doing other stuff of her own.

Ah. I read the last third of this in the middle of the night. What a fantastic book. I think the more I think about it the happier I am with how well the book worked, how well it avoided the big paradoxes. What really got me was the way that it made clear that for Henry at least the future and past were fixed and immutable, but that what was going to happen to him began to crystallise over the preceding years from his earlier visits. And the story crystallised that future, too, slowly. I'm still intrigued that he didn't ever try and change the past, though, just to see what would happen. Although it was a love story, I didn't think it was particularly girly, really. It's clearly not a driven action book, but the characters weren't particularly girly (even Clare and Alba seem to be quite tomboyish). There were some technical points, such as the lottery incident, where Henry seems to travel forwards when he chooses to, and clarify things about the past, even though in theory he really struggles when travelling forwards.

It's also very small, the collection.

The fantasy stuff is not for me, and never really was. I couldn't work out whether "The Curious Incident Of The Dog..." was a kids' book or an adult one.

There's a museum upstair in a library in my corner of London, called the Cuming Museum. It's about 5 minutes walk from home. In the Cuming Museum there is almost nothing. It's basically aimed at schoolkids and has a mix of "This is what London smelled like in mediaeval times", "This is what a dinosaur is" and "Here's a poster from a balloon show somewhere nearby in 1800". But also in the museum is the Lovett collection. This is very odd, because it's pretty much not on display. It's just in a bunch of drawers in the museum, with almost no signs. It is a collection made by the brothers Lovett, of lucky charms and superstitious objects of late 19th century and early 20th century London. Crows feet and teeth and lucky combs and that sort of thing. Quite peculiar.