Mr Favourite Books

I was asked the other day for some book recommendations to pass on for use as Christmas presents. Naturally this made me think of books I have read and enjoyed over the years. Now being the type of person that I am, I rather like lists so I thought I would compile a list of my 10 favourite books. Although this list will appear as a numbered list, it does not particularly reflect the ranking of the book within the list. As the title of the blog suggests, it's more of a stream of consciousness and the titles are noted down as they occur to me. So without further ado:

1. Casino Royale - Ian Fleming. Bond has been a life long passion for me. I love just about everything about it and this book was the starting point. Ian Fleming sat down to write the best spy story ever written and this is the result. Whether it is the best Bond book or not is a subject for discussion another day but as the start of something wonderful it deserves a place.

2. Looking for Trouble - General Sir Peter De La Billiere. I am a huge fan of the military autobiography genre and there are many books that have a good case to be on this list. I picked this particular for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because it is so incredible. The truth really does beat fiction in some cases and this is one. If some of the feats achieved in this book were shown in the cinema, audiences would scoff at how utterly impossible they were. Secondly, the narrative throughout the book is fantastic. Not only is the author an excellent storyteller, recounting events from his own life, he expertly puts them in a wider social and military context.

3. Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. Again I love the genre of crime fiction and I had to be quite strict with my self to stop myself picking more than one "whodunit". Sherlock Holmes was picked because, in my opinion, he was one of the best and no doubt has subtle influences on contemporary crime fiction. Most lifeguards will secretly (or drunkenly) admit that Baywatch played a part in them becoming a lifeguard and likewise I'll bet most crime novelists will give Conan-Doyle some of the credit.

4. Chart Throb - Ben Elton. I think this is a fantastic comic novel (but from the man who wrote Blackadder do you expect much less?) For those of you who haven't read it, it's an amusing satire on Britain's got Talent/X-factor style programmes. Elton has written a lot of satirical novels in the past where current affairs of the day are only thinly disguised by the characters however I think this one is one of the best.

5. Schott's Whisky Miscellany. As you may have guessed I love lists, trivia and wondering off on interesting little tangents. This book provides all three in buckets and combines them with a vast amount of fascinating information about whisky... something about which I'm passionate. There is the perfect balance between basic knowledge, detailed technical stuff, funny asides and misty heather-strewn hillsides.

6. Whisky Kitchen. Continuing the whisky theme, this book is my favourite cook book. Even if the recipes didn't contain whisky, the food suggested is incredible, easy to prepare but still challenging if even one feels like pushing one's boundaries. Having learned a lot of basic techniques from this book I have gained confidence to start experimenting.

7. Vander's Human Physiology. My degree was in Human Biology and I still remain fascinated by the subject. This is one of the text books that I used throughout my degree and for that alone I view it with a great deal of fondness. But even stripping away the nostalgia I think it's a great book. It's clear, well laid out and explains most complex concepts now.

8. The Witches - Roald Dahl. When I was younger I absolutely adored pretty much anything which emerged from Dahl's pen. The Witches was one of my favourites (although trying to pick an out and out favourite from his work is like trying to pick the most adorable puppy in a litter). This one was chosen also because it was a personal milestone for me. When I was younger I had this as a talking book. My young self was terrified by the spooky theme music until one day I decided to face my fears and listen to the rest of the tape. Naturally I found out that the rest of the story was rather good and for a long time afterwards I felt rather proud of myself for daring to listen.

9. Five go to Billycock Hill - Enid Blyton. Enid Blyton was another favourite childhood author and contributed greatly to my love of books. She is probably also directly responsible for my love of crime fiction. This particular tome was chosen for no other reason that I can remember the title and vaguely remember the plot.

10. My 10th book I really struggled with; not because of my lack of inspiration but because there are so many I would love to put in this post. I will settly for Billy by Pamela Stephenson. A book about a comedian was always going to be funny but this is a book about a comedian by his wife who is also a comedian. As you can imagine, it's hilarious; even the bits that aren't meant to be. An example of this was when I was on the bus reading about the child abuse he suffered when he was younger... with tears of laughter running down my face. There are times when his wife puts on her psychiatrist's hat too giving one a fascinating insight into Billy's consciousness.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my ramble through what I would consider as some great books. If you have read/are thinking of reading any of them, let me know what you think of them.

JR

English

As you may or may not have guessed I love the English language. I think it's wonderfully diverse, elegant and musical. I genuinely believe it's the most wonderful way of expressing oneself and communicating (albeit that my usage is often somewhat clumsy!)

Given my previous post about bookshops it's also no great shocker to say that I love reading and encountering new forms of the language. Another way of interaction that I enjoyed, especially when I was younger, was talking books. They were a great way of interacting with literature that was more advanced than my reading age. By my early teens I had gotten to grips with Bram Stoker and several of Dickens' best works this way. Listening to Sir John Gielguid and Sir Ralph Richardson acting out the Sherlock Holmes stories was another highlight and even now, years later, I still remember them well.

It therefore shames me to admit that there's one British writer who reliably leaves me at best cold and at worst in a cold sweat. This writer is William Shakespeare. Ever since I first encountered his work at school I have had a visceral dislike of it. It would be easy to blame this dislike on a bad experience at school and this, to an extent, is true. Reading a play out round a class in dull, dispassionate monotones is hardly a baseline to inspire awe and passion; especially when nobody really had a clue what the bloody hell was going on. I didn't just quit there though; I persevered through the remainder of school via different teachers with a usually unparalleled ability to capture the interest of pupils but still I could not engage with the material. Still every time the Shakespeare came out I was overcome with the desire to chew my arm off while injecting cyanide into my eyeballs.

Now I understand that the majority of Shakespeare's best work is in the form of plays (said works were read out in class after all) and the only way to interact with a play is to see it performed. So off to the theatre I went, suitably primed with a rough idea of what was about to happen. And still I was left cold, bored and irritated at how much of my life I had wasted. At this point I will point out I did go into all of the plays I saw with a consciously open mind. I wanted to like it but I just couldn't. In fact, about the only form of Shakespeare's work I actually enjoyed was the film version of Romeo and Juliet from the '60s. This was not down to the story it was down to the fact that a) I am a huge fan of Franco Zephereli as a director and b) I was massively attracted to Olivia Hussey who played Juliet (until I found out that she was at school with my dad).

Another form of English that I cannot seem to interact with or engage with is poetry. Now here I will admit I haven't encountered all that much and poetry is probably like whisky; nobody genuinely doesn't like it, they just haven't encountered the right example. At school we studied almost exclusively Scottish poetry (fair enough given we've produced our fair share of good poets). The only problem was, in my school, we were lumbered with some turgid crap that was forced upon us seemingly exclusively because the poet lived just down the road. Genuinely as far as I can tell, it was entirely devoid of artistic merit. I have since tried to engage with the poetry, particularly Burns, but unfortunately - because I spent school poetry lessons in my mental happy place as a form of self-preservation - I am really unsure and lacking confidence in how to interact with the material.

Again, I'm not particularly proud of this trait. I don't really enjoy being a bit of a philistine but at the moment, I'm not really sure how to go about changing it. I don't know if there is an 'Idiot's guide to poetry' on the market. If there is, let me know.

JR