The books I have enjoyed most this year are ;

Hare with Amber eyes - Edmund de waal

C - Tom McCarthy

Freedom -Jonathan franzen

Gold boy , emerald girl - yiyan li

Letters to Monica - Philip lark in

Human chain - seams Heaney

Seeing stars - Simon armiatge

Has anyone read anything they would like to recommend ? I have already recommended the Edmund de waal to two relatives who have thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Happy new year to all , may the hangovers be slight !

Members of the massive with an interest in poetry may like to know that Philip Larkin's - The Sunday sessions has been released on Audio Cd ( available for £6.74 through waterstones website).

As an aside , i think it would be of interest to have some Poets interviewed for ' The Word '. Anybody else keen on the idea? we could start with Roger McGough , a man with a Rock and Roll background.

i may be wrong but i thought that all the music magazines printed the best of the year list at , well ,at the end of the year and issued in the mags released in january. i wonder why they have all changed policy this year and released early. ( they all seem to be out before the end of November as well )At this rate in a couple of years we will be summing things up before the summer break !

spending time on this website i have noticed these few expressions / words used a lot...

Elbow are...

Richard Thompson is...

Doft my hat...

Here goes....( usually on Randomiser)

Im sorry but....

I think you will find ...

Beards ( in general )

any others i have missed ? by the way it is a pleasure.

Due to an introduction by Jude Rogers i am on daily play of 'The Shortwave Set ' who have two long players out namely ' the Debt Collection ' and 'Replica sun Machine'. both albums are excellent and i wondered if anyone else is enjoying the music or has seen them on Tour ( they are not appearing locally for me). this has also got me back listening to 'Teenage Fanclub' and 'Belle and Sebastian ' , ( must be the pop hooks ). I think many of the massive will like them !

maybe the tour will be cancelled due to injuries sustained during attack by large pink cake?

Noah and the whale this summer ( close link to the bloke with the ark , floods etc)

that umbrella tune last summer

no wonder all we have is rain ...

bring back katrina and the waves - we had cracking weather that summer !

who else can we blame for the inclement weather ?

having just acquired and appreciating Jim white's -transnormal skiperoo album from last year i think this is one of those brilliant album titles that i enjoy . i also took great pleasure from Sufjan Stevens very very long track names . quirky and brilliant , any others out there? ( trout mask replica springs to mind ) . One for ' the words ' best/ worst ?

Some music is made for late at night played quietly or loudly in the Dark , other music is made to be played on sunny summer days. following this train of thought i note that the beach boys , the magic numbers , gnarls barkley, the concretes were all on my summer playlist for last summer. i certainly think there are records that i play more during the winter and others during the summer. whilst im here any ideas for this year as summer hols are nearly here !