The howl of the wolf Snow in his eyes

I'm pretty bah humbug about snow, really. In spite of my earlier post with the picture of the wedding-cake table, I can't really be bothered with snow. Yes, it's pretty, yes it can be romantic if you are in the video for Last Christmas, but once you get past the age of 10, it just becomes a huge pain, because you need to go places and get things done. I used to hate having to run the gauntlet of primary school kids when I was a teenager, because they'd just pelt you with snowballs and being female I can't throw them back, because I throw like a girl (I am all for feminism, but sometimes you just have to face facts). And now that I'm all grown up, I hate having to go anywhere in the snow.

And I've even been all sneering at the people over this mythical age of 10 who have been building snowmen in their lunch hour. Until I saw the picture you see to your right. That is awesome. That takes commitment. I salute you, snow polar bear makers (I think that's what it is).

Everyone's a winner, baby, that's no lie

I've just finished watching the BAFTAS on TV. I started off with the Red Carpet show (although was kind of disgusted with myself for wanting to watch it). Claudia Winkleman was hosting it, and I love her. I think she is very smart, very funny and supremely irreverent. But I fear she was perhaps a little bit too irreverent. While I think it was a genius idea to get schoolkids to write in with questions to act, I am not sure some of the celebs really got it. And then she said to Penelope Cruz that she wanted to smell her hair....

And you know, I hate when they tell you who they are wearing. It really does wind me up. I would love one of them to say "well, I'm wearing vintage H&M". Or "this is Per Una".

And if I hear one more person saying "oh I'm just really honoured to be here"...

What struck me about the ceremony was that I really have hardly seen any of the films at all (if you ask me FSM was robbed, although they did at least show a clip). Except for the Reader. I think that's it. Still didn't stop me enjoying the whole ceremony, and having opinions. I've been saying to friends of mine since the The Dark Knight was released that Heath Ledger was a shoo-in for most of the awards. Now, I have to say that I haven't seen the film yet, and I also have to say that most of my friends who have seen it tell me that he is very good. I don't doubt it for one minute. And I am not saying that he wouldn't have been nominated in any case. But would be have won? I'm not so sure... We'll see.

The ceremony made for good viewing. I particularly enjoyed Jason Isaacs saying "Good to see you back where you belong" to Johnathan Ross, whose own comment about Mickey Rourke's swearing was priceless (the Oscar chiefs must be terrified at the prospect of him making a winner's speech) . And Mick Jagger also really made me laugh with this whole "Rock-Star-Actor Exchange Programme" joke, especially when he made the crack about Brad Pitt and family going on stage at the Von Trapp Family. Just as he way saying it, the picture cut to him and Angelina and he leaned towards her laughing and said something. Sadly my lip-reading skills are pretty much non-existent. but I would love it if he has said something like "You know honey. We could...."

Well you said I tend to spend my life chasing rainbows

So the next chapter in the Guardian Books saga is love.

Read
Joaquim Maria Achado de Assis - Don Casmurro
Charlotte Bronte - Villette
Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
George Eliot - The Mill on the Floss
F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
Ford Maddox Ford - The Good Soldier
Lewis Grassic Gibbon - Sunset Song
Thomas Hardy - Far From The Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy - Tess of he D'Urbervilles
Nathaniel Hawthorne - THe Scarlet Letter
Pierre-Ambrose-Francois Chodorlos de Laclos - Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love In The Time of Cholera
Ian McEwan - Atonement
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Bernard Schlink - The Reader
Anne Tyler - The Accidental Tourist

Still On Shelves
Gustav Flaubert - Madame Bovary
Paul Gallico - The Snow Goose
Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Surprisingly, well at least to me, there are none on this list that I started but didn't finish, or was supposed to read but couldn't be bothered. There are quite a few on the list that I probably should have read. It seems strange to me that I haven't read any Austen, for example....

I think for my own list of must-read books, I'd choose The Great Gatsby and that's it.

In any case, I make my running total 72, and there are 2 categories left. I don't think I am going to make it to the 100....

Who wants love Without the looks

So, continuing my trek through the Guardian's list, next category is Family and Self. If it means what I think it means, I could score highly-ish, although I doubt anything will come close to my crime figure. But before I start, I forgot to pick out those from my crime list that I would add to my own list of essential books would be Brighton Rock, The Secret History, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and LA Confidential. Much as I love Sara Paretsky, I don't think either of those would be one that I would choose.

Anyway, on to Family and Self.

Read
Louisa May Alcott - Little Women
Kate Atkinson - Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Iain Banks - The Crow Road
Lynne Reid Banks - The L-Shaped Room
Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex
Graham Greene - The Power and the Glory
John Irving - A Prayer For Owen Meany
Bernard Malamud - The Assistant
Sue Townsend - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4
Alan Warner - Morven Callar
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Albert Camus - The Outsider
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
JD Salinger - The Catcher In The Rye



Still On Shelves
William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
Laurie Lee - Cider With Rosie

Books I Am Supposed To Have Read
Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things

So, that is 15 read, bringing my total to 56. This particular category actually includes my favourite book of all time, The Outsider, so that goes on my on essential list. Others? Well, probably Middlesex, the Power and the Glory and The Crow Road.

I wonder if I am going to make 100...

He looks so dreamy, I'm in love from afar When I'm picking up a fallen star

Number six of an occasional series.

At the beginning of the 1990s, I discovered an album called Bellybutton by a band called Jellyfish, and a love affair was born. Most of the bands they were influenced by I didn't like particularly (although, whisper it, I've come to appreciate them since), but there was something about them which just enthralled me. Was it the fact that they had a stand up drummer who also sang (that's like doing 3 things at once), or was it their luscious harmonies? Was it their fabulously clever lyrics or their love of bright colours? Who knows, but love them I did, and still do (in fact, their 4 CD box set of rarities called Fan Club was the first thing I was ever brave enough to buy online, all the way from the USA, no less).

There are so many of their songs that I could choose, and the chances of another appearing in this series is pretty high. But, I'll kick off with Joining A Fan Club, which is on their second album Spilt Milk. It's unashamed power rock/pop, about the perils of falling in love with pop stars. And it's just fabulous. I think the reason I love it is perhaps because I can relate to the lyrics, particularly the one that is the title of the post...

If you've never checked them out, I urge you to. Sadly missed.

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

We got snow today! Quite a lot of it. In fact, London seemed to grind to a halt. My friend took a picture of her garden furniture. Her table looked like a wedding cake.

However, it is also Groundhog Day today, and this was very relevant. My friend Phil and I sat down to do a DVD interactive quiz (cos that's how we roll on a Monday night). There are 10 possible categories of rounds (including subjects such as Pop Music, Film, The Arts, Science, Geography) and you get any 5 of those for your quiz. What did we get? 5 History rounds, with some of the same questions repeated.

I am beginning to understand how Bill Murray felt.

I've seen it in your eyes And I've read it in books

OK, round three, and this could and should be a biggie. Crime. I read a lot of crime fiction. Tons in fact. Although not all of it would probably be construed as literary. So, maybe I won't do as well as I think.

Anyway, here goes.

Read
John Buchan - The Thirty Nine Steps
Patricia Cornwell - Postmortem
Brett Easton Ellis - American Psycho
Ian Fleming - Casino Royale
Ian Fleming - Goldfinger
Ian Fleming - You Only Live Twice
Graham Greene - Brighton Rock
Stephen King - Misery
Johnathan Lethem - Motherless Brooklyn
Walter Mosely - Devil In A Blue Dress
Sara Paretksy - Toxic Shock
Sara Paretksy - Blacklist
John Steinbeck - Of Mice And Men
Donna Tartt - The Secret History
Jim Thompson - The Getaway
Agatha Christie - And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie - The Mysterious Affair At Styles
Agatha Christie - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha Christie - The Secret Adversary
Agatha Christie - The Murder At The Vicarage
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Study In Scarlet
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles
Michael Dibdin - Ratking
Michael Dibdin - Vendetta
Michael Dibdin - Dirty Tricks
James Ellroy - LA Confidential
James Ellroy - The Big Nowhere

Still On Shelves
Wilkie Collins - The Woman In White
Wilkie Collins - Moonstone
Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
Frederick Forsyth - The Day of the Jackal
Dashiell Hammet - The Glass Key
Partricia Highsmith - Strangers on a Train
Graham Greene - The Ministry of Fear
Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird

Books I Started And Got Most Of The Way Through But Just Could Not Get To The End
Peter Hoeg - Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow

So quite a lot read in crime then. However, there are still some oddities. I am a huge Christie fan, but cannot fathom why they chose The Secret Adversary. And why on earth was The Black Dahlia not on there (I agree with the other two Ellroys, but it seems an odd omission). And to only choose one Jim Thompson is just criminal. There are so many to choose from and the man is a genius. Still, I am glad to see that Sara Paretsky made the list. She is probably the only contemporary writer today in the genre whose new books I genuinely look forward to reading.

27 crime novels in total, taking me up to 41.