So, books that changed the world eh? 12 seems rather a conservative number to choose, frankly (even if you are patriotically limiting it to British books), but that's the way of television I suppose. If you can't make it into a list, and preferably one that fits neatly into a four-part series on ITV, then history may as well go hang. Nothing wrong with most of these bite-size chunks, obviously, very educational and well-made and all that. But my romantic side takes the view that EVERY book changes the world in some way, even if it's just through changing the inside of one's person's head by a few degrees of perception...

Anyway, Melvyn Bragg's List:
1. CHARLES DARWIN, THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, 1859
2. MARIE STOPES, MARRIED LOVE, 1918
3. WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, SPEECH TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 1789
4. MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN, 1792
5. MAGNA CARTA, 1215
6. MICHAEL FARADAY, EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN ELECTRICITY, 1855
7. PATENT SPECIFICATION FOR ARKWRIGHT'S SPINNING MACHINE, 1769
8. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, FIRST FOLIO, 1623
9. ADAM SMITH, THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, 1776
10. ISAAC NEWTON, PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA, 1687
11. THE KING JAMES BIBLE, 1611
12. THE FIRST RULE BOOK OF THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION, 1863

Well, ok. Apart from the fact that at least two of those are not really books, are they? And you'd also have to be guilty of gross hubris not to admit that the list should really be headed '12 books that changed the WESTERN world'.

The Telegraph, for one, isn't going to let Bragg have the last word on the subject. Here is its own list of 12, including the Domesday Book as a replacement for the Magna 'not a book' Carta, Pepy's diary on the grounds that anyone who writes in a diary is a follower of his, and most convincingly The Oxford English Dictionary.

Tags: books

09:53

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Dangerously attracted though I am to the blatant geekery of cataloguing my own books, I still can't quite see the point of librarything.com, or 'librarian Friendster' as Chris on ILB put it. The sharing feature is just showing off, no? Though I guess if you're mad nice enough to enjoy lending out books, your friends could request stuff from your shelves without having to come round and stand with their heads at 90 degrees in front of your bookcase. But anyway I don't have SO many books that I can't keep track of them with some good shelf organisation. One day maybe... (though I suspect that will also be the day that Matt files for divorce).

In other cataloguing news, Google announces plan to destroy all information it can't index. Ho ho.

Tags: librarything cataloguing

09:06

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As you may have noticed, I've gone a bit monochrome, mainly I must admit to match my new lady friend up there in the top corner.

Man of the week: Kanye West. Not only does he sample one of my favourite songs, 'Today Won't Come Again' by Donal Leace, on his new album, but he hates George Bush.

Tags: Kanye West

09:58

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Alas, as soon as I started reading boring books for my dissertation I started to find all grown-up books quite boring. So I've read the following in quick succession instead: three examples of children's fiction that are encouragingly unlike each other. Kids have all the fun.

Book 53: Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome
I must confess, I didn't get on all that well with Swallows and Amazons when I was the target audience. Boats just didn't hold a great appeal for me - I lived by the sea, I went on holiday by the sea, I just never felt the urge to actually be ON water. The one time I went sailing I capsized and as for canoeing - the less said about that trip the better. But having rediscovered Pigeon Post, I find that it's about camping in the fells and gold mining (well sort of) and not much about boats at all. And it's quite thrilling - I stayed up til 3am finishing it.

Book 54: Jennings Goes to School by Anthony Buckeridge
Jennings is essentially Harry Potter without the magical powers or the heavy destiny. There's amusing misunderstandings, unjust teachers, sporting highs and lows, tests of friendship, disobedient adventuring... all mixed up with absurd, inventive word play and slang that JK Rowling would kill for. I was never sure, as a child, whether Jennings was just for boys, and admittedly the only female character is the relentlessly chirpy matron. But much as I still love girls' school stories, I think I'd rather my daughters - if I have any - get to know Jennings first.

Book 55: Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen by Dyan Sheldon
Look, the library was out of Louise Rennison and it was either this or The Princess Diaries, ok? It's a totally silly tale, almost redeemed by a healthily self-absorbed, funny, confident heroine. But then at the end she doesn't even get the chance to prove her evil rival is a liar, merely triumphing in the sense of 'knowing she's in the right'. And what kind of satisfaction is that in Teenageland, where only public humiliation for the queen bitch makes life worth living again? My daughters may safely give this one a miss (although maybe the Lindsey Lohan film will have grafted on a less wishy-washy ending).

Tags: 50 Book Challenge

14:52

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