Books I'd Like to Have for Christmas

I've about half that - minus the Yeats biog

Congratulations on your 3,000th post Kate P - quality as well as quantity

cactus flower wrote:

toxic avenger wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

I'm very fond of John Peel, he's sadly missed. I only caught his morning programme about the insanities of families a couple of times: what's the Olivetti Chronicles about?

It's a collection of scribblings and musings he made over the years about things including his family, music, things he encountered that day, etc. I was never a big fan of 'Home Truths', though I know many people loved it. My interest stems from having listened to his late-night Radio One show for nigh on 20 years, just about the only thing that made me not want to kill myself in the 1980s...

Was the reception O.K.? I take it you didn't emigrate?

I've been reading stuff on the economy (Stiglitz), environment (Jared Diamond) and politics (Klein) and I'm ready for some total distraction. A bloody good thriller might do the trick. Or perhaps one of Ard Taoiseach's Imperial Tomes. Except I might read some Rosa Luxembourg, if I can find it.

I'm reading Paul Frolich's book about RL right now. (There should be an umlaut over the o in Frolich but damned if I know how to put one there.) It's a really good read - amazing woman.

Reading "Angler" by Barton Gellman. Too scary a read to wait until Christmas and then to have Christmas ruined by this.

Slim Buddha wrote:

Reading "Angler" by Barton Gellman. Too scary a read to wait until Christmas and then to have Christmas ruined by this.

Will it satisfy my need for a read with plenty of tension, terror and angst?

cactus flower wrote:

Slim Buddha wrote:

Reading "Angler" by Barton Gellman. Too scary a read to wait until Christmas and then to have Christmas ruined by this.

Will it satisfy my need for a read with plenty of tension, terror and angst?

It has all those qualities in spades, cactus!!

I quite like Simenon for a light read.

Squire wrote:

I quite like Simenon for a light read.

Oh, me too. Even in French, as he writes in such a clear crisp way it is quite an easy read.

Maybe I should get a subscription to Hello! Magazine. I was in a waiting room to see a consultant for half the morning... amazing the stuff you can read in that rag... and people say men are shallow

johnfás wrote:

Maybe I should get a subscription to Hello! Magazine. I was in a waiting room to see a consultant for half the morning... amazing the stuff you can read in that rag... and people say men are shallow

One of the best posts I ever saw on P.ie was a gent complaining about how his wife was driving him nuts with her obsession with celebrity trash. He had OK! and Hello! strewn all over the house. He couldn't watch football on the box without his wife wittering on about Britney or Madonna or Lindsay bloody Lohan's 50th fall off the wagon. Even Kerry Katona was worthy of her singular assessment. Amy Winehouse and her druggie husband antics were fair game as was the McCartney-Mills divorce. He seriously questioned how shallow can women get. His rant was completed with the wonderful crowning glory of a sentence "I would seriously think about giving her a straight red if she didn't have a great set of baps on her!".

Christmas is my annual chance to purchase some Irish-published / themed books I might not otherwise come across. All suggestions welcome - I get loads of book vouchers from the family.

I think some Derek McMahon poetry is definitely in order, from the Poetry thread earlier in the year. ( btw we haven't had a poem in ages.

Apart from that, Robert Harris' Conspiracy is a must, if it's out in paperback by Xmas. Ard-T has got me into all of that.

Slim Buddha wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Maybe I should get a subscription to Hello! Magazine. I was in a waiting room to see a consultant for half the morning... amazing the stuff you can read in that rag... and people say men are shallow

One of the best posts I ever saw on P.ie was a gent complaining about how his wife was driving him nuts with her obsession with celebrity trash. He had OK! and Hello! strewn all over the house. He couldn't watch football on the box without his wife wittering on about Britney or Madonna or Lindsay bloody Lohan's 50th fall off the wagon. Even Kerry Katona was worthy of her singular assessment. Amy Winehouse and her druggie husband antics were fair game as was the McCartney-Mills divorce. He seriously questioned how shallow can women get. His rant was completed with the wonderful crowning glory of a sentence "I would seriously think about giving her a straight red if she didn't have a great set of baps on her!".

Unless it's the case that his obsession with soccer was driving her to Hello magazine. Where she feels at home with the other WAGs.

Anyone here get an annual at Christmas time?
My brother got the Beano and I'd get whatever one had the stories of the Four Marys. I always wanted a Victor annual - though I couldn't say if they even existed.

I used to get the Beano annual.

The other great thing about Christmas was the Henry Hippo wall calendar from Ulster Bank. Apparently executives all over Dublin were scrambling for them - a very funny thought. I can imagine it to be true though, there was huge disappointment here one year when they could not be got.

I still have all the Beano annuals I got as a kid (starting in 1979). I won't let anyone else near them. Also have a couple of Whizzer and Chips annuals, a Topper annual, but no Dandys (never took to it, weirdly)...

Dandy was more Mickey Mouse while the Beano was as close to Southpark as you could get in the 70s and 80s. Topper was the comic equivalent of Just William as I recall.



He looks a bit too shiny in that pic though.

Slimbuddha - do you think that Santa might bring you a new avatar for Christmas? As you know, I appreciate your techno angst and the serious cause for grief, but a more positive self image might stand well to you in the New Year.