Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad

Another great call by DLL. I fancied this but needed a push in the right direction. A modern take on the 1940's cops against the mobs movies. Done very well. Dark, with some great lines.

I'm coming to depend on DLL for film advice the way I used to MM for music. I do seem to need crowbaring out of the door recently. Probably age-related. Future attractions include: Die Hard 5, a must-see. I don't think I've seen any at the cinema since the first one.

The Guardian hundred top novels

I always find these interesting. They usually take a subjective approach. That ensures the lists vary according to the compiler, a good thing, I think. I managed to tick forty four of them, including:

1, Don Quixote. Elderly nutter sets of for madcap adventures, funny and wise.

3, Robinson Crusoe, a desert island and no film crew or food parcels.

4, Gulliver's Travels, funny, and biting political satire.

10, Frankenstein, letters from the barmy doctor playing god. [Suspect drug-enhanced writing].

16, David Copperfield, one of Dickens best, I think.

21, Moby Dick, see. This is what happens when the person in charge is mad, and prone to bees in the bonnet. We didn't heed Melville's warning and voted Maggie then Tony into power.

24, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, another one for the dope-testers.

32, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, before bi-polar disorder was recognised.

33, Three Men in a Boat, the Guardian says 'one of the funniest English books ever written' and I think that's spot on...although...

35, Diary of a Nobody, another hoot of a book, nothing changes in domestic problems.

39, Nostromo, love, lust, money. Light on food and music. Nasty politics.

40, The Wind in the Willows, so long ago...

41, In Search for Lost Time, almost as long as the belle epoque it records.

44, The Thirty Nine Steps, so exciting. I was about ten at the time.

45, Ulysses, one day, a small cast, a huge book.

47, A Passage to India, I say, old chep, parse the gin.

48, The Great Gatsby, jazz.

49, The Trial, I've always wondered just how hair's breath away from this we are.

53, Brave New World, progress isn't fair, either.

54, Scoop, apart from being unable to write and report, what could hold anyone back in a Fleet Street career? Oh? No need for writing and reporting ability either, it seems.

55, USA, unusual, unique way of packaging a post war history of America.

56, The Big Sleep, I was very young, and I remember a lot of loose ends and inconsistencies bothering me.

59, 1984, I've always wondered just how hair's breath away from this we are.

60, Malone Dies, didn't understand but finished it. I need to re-read this one.

61, Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, everyman. Unless you're very odd.

64, Lord of the Rings, ploughed through MM's copies, eventually, by skipping the songs.

65, Lucky Jim, it was funny in England in the 50's, and in the mind of Martin's dad.

66, Lord of the Flies, plane crash, Animal Farm with boys as the animals.

67, The Quiet American, I read a lot, nearly all Greene's novels when pretty young, and have found them un-re-readable since.

68, On the Road, no need for the blood or urine test, you get high on the fumes reading it.

72, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, I prefer The Ballad of Peckham Rye.

73, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mississippi Burning with a 12A certificate.

74, Catch 22, Milo Minderbinder wrote the modern bankers' handbook, and there's Major Major Major Major in there somewhere.

75, Hertzog, heavy themes, funny lines.

76, One Hundred Years of Solitude, 'postmodern' seldom tasted so good.

78, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, atmospheric and authentic.

87, The New York Trilogy, no fun in the maggoty big apple.

89, The Periodic Table, the joy of the test tube and Bunsen burner.

90, Money, Kingley's boy can write, too. Another very funny novel.

92, Oscar and Lucinda, the first Booker Prize winner I read.

95, LA Confidential, bad city, bad crimes, bad cops.

97, Atonement, can you right wrongs?

98, Northern Lights, see kids, the people in charge are all twisted out of shape and nasty. All of 'em.

99, American Pastoral, all is not well in 60's and 70's America.