Monthly Archives: December 2006

Last year I resolved to read two out of The Brothers Karamazov, Catcher in the Rye, In Search of Lost Time, Mrs Dalloway, Things Fall Apart and The Tin Drum and to finish both Don Quixote and Little Women. Well, … Continue reading →

If I have made any mistakes I’m sure some one reading this will tell me…

List the towns or cities where you spent at least a night away from home during 2006. Mark with a star if you had multiple non-consecutive stays. *Pristina *Skopje Geneva Vienna Maastricht Dublin Nicosia *Athens Istanbul Chateau St Gerlach Stockholm … Continue reading →

In 2006 I read over 200 books – lost count but I think the final tally was 207 – up considerably from last year’s 137. This was partly because I read quite a lot of shorter books, but also I … Continue reading →

20) Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism, by Marina Warner This is another one of those books that has been hanging around the shelves, mutely asking me when I will ever get around to reading it. And I’m … Continue reading →

Why Saddam Hussein was not tried in an international court in the Hague (cut-n-pasted from here): There are in fact five different international courts in the Hague, and none of them has the right mandate for this job. Going through … Continue reading →

(This is not as serious a complaint as my previous post.) I always scan the honours lists to see if anyone I know has got one (and congratulations to Jonathan Cohen on his OBE, and to Geraldine Rice on her … Continue reading →

Even for monsters like Saddam Hussein. There is much else that could be written, but Iraq is not my area of expertise, so I’ll just refer you to a couple posts by others here and here which also include interesting … Continue reading →

19) Unfinished Tales, by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien Another piece of Tolkieniana, one that I’d been putting off reading for years, fearing that it would be as big a disappointment as The Silmarillion. But in fact, taken on … Continue reading →

Thanks very much for your good wishes, folks; Anne is making a full recovery.

…fascinating series of alternate earths.

18) An Intimate History of Humanity, by Theodore Zeldin I got this ages ago, as it promised to be an interesting investigation of the history of how humans relate to each other. Unfortunately it isn’t; it is a series of … Continue reading →

17) Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming I’m very grateful to for sending me this – I had read a heavily abridged version years ago (back when my mother was involved in adult literacy schemes, I found it on her desk one … Continue reading →

16) Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson Bryson is an American who has lived in England for many years. This book was written in 1994, and shows its age in some respects (reference to the excellent railway system, … Continue reading →

applez alerts me to the sad news that Gerald Ford has died, aged 93 years, and a month more than Ronald Reagan was when he died a few years back. Ford was the oldest ex-President of the United States ever, … Continue reading →

My Christmas present (well, one of them) from my wife was the DVD release of The Robots of Death, and we just sat down and watched it yesterday after lunch (after watching the other single DVD I got, the 1995 … Continue reading →

15) Ockham’s Razor: A Search for Wonder In An Age of Doubt, by Wade Rowland This is the last of the three books that had been staring at me from my shelves for some time, urging me to read them … Continue reading →

14) Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad This took me a while; it is very dense prose, and you can’t skim it. A fascinating tale of disgraced and redemption; the eponymous Jim is complicit, more or less by accident, in marooning … Continue reading →

Other people’s thoughts on last night’s Doctor Who:   here,   here,   here,  here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, chez , here, here, here, and the Behind the Sofa team. As for what I thought of … Continue reading →

My poor wife fainted last night, during one of her brief excursions out of bed (because of her upset stomach), and caught her head a very nasty crack against the furniture. I took one look and thought, “Stitches. Ambulance.” And … Continue reading →

In pictures: The tree, with presents and stockings unopened. …and the blur of opening presents… F did indeed get the SpongeBob clothing he wanted……U enjoyed her new jigsaws (and later, Fimbles DVDs)…B’s Christmas dinner was her favourite – raw ravioli! … Continue reading →

εγενετο δε εν ταις ημεραις εκειναις εξηλθεν δογμα παρα καισαρος αυγουστου απογραφεσθαι πασαν την οικουμενην     αυτη απογραφη πρωτη εγενετο ηγεμονευοντος της συριας κυρηνιου     και επορευοντο παντες απογραφεσθαι εκαστος εις την εαυτου πολιν     ανεβη δε και ιωσηφ απο της γαλιλαιας εκ … Continue reading →

Dear santa, i’m back! i want some 1. spongebob stuoff, and 2.a magic kit. From, Fergal. P.S. iF you can’t find what it says here in your sack or bag, don’t worry. i like EVERY present that is for Fergal!!! … Continue reading →

Season’s Greetings from Belgium!Nicholas is changing jobs in the New Year. After four and a half exciting years with the International Crisis group, he felt it was time to seek new challenges, and will be opening the Brussels office of … Continue reading →

Remember when I said that commuting to work by train would mean I did a lot more reading? Not so. Since I bought my MP3 player, I’ve been listening to a lot of Doctor Who – staring with canonical stuff, … Continue reading →

13) The Elusive Quest: Reconciliation in Northern Ireland, by Norman Porter Like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, this was lent me by a friend and I have been feeling guilty about not reading and returning it, though in this … Continue reading →

My first day off work since I finished at the old job has been a tiring one. artw needed the car first thing to get B to her day-care centre, and it being the day of U’s school’s Christmas service and … Continue reading →

I’m fed up of having to google this up every year. Here, for reference, is my Christmas dinner recipe: ROAST LOIN OF BOAR WITH JUNIPER BERRIES (to feed 6 people) A boned and rolled loin of wild boar will feed … Continue reading →

Thanks to : It’s a nifty little image file, new every time you look at the page.

U is four today. She may not be hugely conscious of the day’s significance, but she will have a good time. She was born exactly ninety years after Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, who is 94 today. (And it is the … Continue reading →