Be Lambic or Green

Update: Apparently the list doing the rounds is quite a bit different from the actual list on the BBC site, so at the bottom of this post I’ve done it again with the “real” list. Thank’s to Melissa for spotting that. I do slightly better with that list, 34 books read.

Shatnerian tagged me (he tagged me on Facebook, what’s that all about?). The following is a list compiled by the BBC of books we’re supposed to have read. Bold means I’ve read it, underlined means I love it and italics (red) means I started it but didn’t finish.

36 is part of 33 so I’m not sure why it’s separate. Same with 98 and 14.

I left John’s comment on #42, because he’s right, and it’s #42 too!

I’ve only read 26, I’m a very bad Brit apparently.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible (I only read the sexy parts)
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown (ok, why is this even on the list?)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kirouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Now for the “real” list:

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

The sandsculpting competition was won by an Ontario-ian, with a Quebecer taking the sculptor’s choice and people’s choice awards. Special mention goes to the Indian guy who flew all the way from India, spending his own money, to spend hours over a beautiful buddha sculpture only to have it washed away in a thunder storm.

The fireworks display was impressive, but not as impressive to Aidan as pouring sand into a croc shoe and shaking vigorously.

There are strange people in Hampton Beach.

The Target just across the border in MA is huge. We went on a spending spree.

Everyone in NH owns a Harley. None of them wear helmets.

There is a TV channel devoted to showing NH council meetings. It’s fascinating but Jen won’t let me watch it.

Aidan got ocean on him and didn’t like it. But wanted to do it again.

It snuck up on my faster than I expected this year, but the Canadian Grand Prix is in Montreal this weekend. We’ve been to the race a few times before, but this year we’ll be watching from the comfort of our living room. For those of you who are going, I thought I would offer some last minute hints and tips.

First though, a bit of history. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is strictly speaking a street circuit, although not many cars use that “street” during the rest of the year. It is built on a small island called Île Notre-Dame which is part of a small complex of islands just off the southern shore of the island of Montreal. The islands are man-made, built from the material taken out of the tunnels for the Montreal metro system, and used originally as the venue for the Montreal Expo of 1967. The Formula One Grand Prix has been held on the island since 1978, except for 1987 when it was cancelled over a sponsorship dispute. In 1993 the Montreal Casino was opened, sitting in the middle of the island surrounded by the race track.

What to take

Here are some things worth taking with you to the circuit:

• A paddock pass. OK, so it’s unlikely that you have one, but if you can get one, don’t hesitate. And if you can get one for me too, even better.
• Water – It’s supposed to feel like 40 degrees Celsius this weekend, which is hot, really really hot, so take water. Seriously. I’m not kidding.
• Ear defenders or ear plugs – Those cars are loud. Loud enough to damage your ears. If you plan on listening to the radio commentary, ear defenders are best, otherwise ear plugs will do. You can buy them at the circuit but they won’t be cheap.
• Poncho – You never know, it might rain, and a poncho is better than an umbrella as far as the people sitting behind you are concerned.
• Cushion – The seats in the grandstands are not comfortable, not even in the “Gold” stands, so take something for a bit of comfort.
• Sun-screen and a hat – Like I said, it’s gonna be hot.
• Beer – Strictly speaking I don’t think you’re supposed to bring your own beer, but I’ve never had any trouble. The beer you can get at the circuit is expensive and weak.
• Food – You can get expensive and crappy hot dogs and hamburgers at the circuit or you can pack a nice healthy picnic for the day. You probably won’t get away with setting up a bbq though.
• Cameras – Depending on where you’re sitting, you can get some really nice shots, especially if you have a decent zoom.

Getting onto the island

First of all, leave early to beat the crowds. There’s plenty of stuff happening during the morning to keep you occupied so just get up and go, take breakfast with you. There are various ways to get to the circuit. You can walk, but it’s a bit of a trek from downtown. You can drive, but you have to park in a lot on the main island and get a shuttle bus to the circuit. You can take the metro, but the line-ups can get nasty. Or you can use the secret way, which I’m about to reveal to you. Hail a cab, and tell the driver to take you to the casino. Cabs going to the casino are allowed through all the barricades straight to the centre of the island, so you’re right there with no hassle at all. It’ll cost you a bit more but it’s well worth it.

Getting off the island

Getting off the island after the race is even worse than getting onto the island. You will be stuck in crowds of people whichever way you to try to go, possibly for hours. So don’t bother. Stay on the island, go to the casino, play some slot machines, grab a meal at one of the restaurants. Three or four hours at the casino and all the crowds will be gone, leaving you to stroll to the metro station or grab a cab off the island.

Over the years I’ve tried many different ways to remember stuff. I’ve tried paper calendars and diaries, which just got forgotten and gathered dust. I’ve tried post-it notes, which just get lost. I’ve tried keeping stuff in my head, which works some of the time, but the amount of time it works decreases with age.

Of course, I’ve also tried many software solutions. I’ve tried iCal, which is great but not portable enough. I’ve tried Google Calendar, which is very cool but for some reason doesn’t work for me. I’ve tried 30Boxes, which is beautifully designed but also doesn’t quite work for me. I’ve even tried Outlook, but that has the same problem as iCal.

After realising that graphical calendar applications don’t work for me, and because of my love of the command line, I went looking for a command line application. I found remind, and so far it’s working better than anything I’ve tried before.

Remind uses text files to store reminders, so you can edit them with any text editor you like, or write scripts to add reminders, or there are front-end applications if you like that sort of thing. The contents of the files look something like this:

REM      Feb  2        MSG Ground Hog Day%
REM      Feb 14        MSG Valentine's Day%
REM      Mar 17        MSG St. Patrick's Day%
REM      Apr  1        MSG April Fool's Day%
REM      May  5        MSG Cinco de Mayo%
REM  Sun May [Week_2]  MSG Mother's Day%
REM  Mon May [Week_3]  MSG Victoria Day%
REM 06 Nov 2008 +3 AT 13:00 +120 MSG Doctor %b.%
REM 24 Nov 2008 +3 AT 08:00 +60 MSG Dentist %b.%
REM Tue 1 +3 MSG Quiz Night %b.%

REM is the keyword for reminder, which most of your entries will begin with (there are other keywords, but for simple usage REM is all you need).

After REM comes the date the reminder will happen on. There is a huge variety of possible date formats making for ultimate flexibility. You can specify a full date, like the Doctor appointment above, or just a partial date, such as the statutory holidays above or even the quiz night entry, which evaluates to the first Tuesday of every month.

After the date you can specify an optional delta, for example +3, which means remind me every day starting 3 days before the event. You can also use *n which means repeat every n days.

Next is the optional time setting, for example AT 13:00, meaning the event happens at 1pm. This can also have a delta, for example +60, meaning remind me 60 minutes before the event starts.

Finally, we tell remind what to do when it’s time to remind us. Usually we just want a message, so that’s what the MSG keyword is for, which is followed by the message itself. The message can contain substitution variables, such as the %b in the above examples. The %b evaluates to “in n days”, “tomorrow” or “today” depending on how close we are to the event.

There are many other options, and it can be a little overwhelming if you try to figure it all out, but if you stick with the basics until you find you need something more, it’s a very powerful tool. There are lots of useful resources relating to remind at Roaring Penguin.

It’s quiz night tonight, as it is on the first Tuesday of every month. Come to Hurley’s at 8pm to have your knowledge of useless trivia challenged and heckle the virgin quizmasters.