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I think we mentioned this before. There are different editions of Metamorphosis, unfortunately, which contain different stories along with the title story. Commonly it's packaged along with the other stories that Kafka published in his lifetime, and that's the structure of the new Penguin...

So after all the praise above (and elsewhere), did The Road live up to expectations for me? Yes and no. It's an exceptionally focused and controlled performance by McCarthy, and suffocating in its atmospheric power: each time you break from reading this tale of a post-apocalyptic landscape and...

If ever your life feels a little thin or uneventful, blame Gore Vidal. He's had enough event and diversion in his life for five or six of us, and he keeps making us feel even worse by not only telling us about them in superbly written memoirs, but looking out of the cover at us all handsome and...

How many Marx out of ten?

Beer good: To complicate matters, I've seen different collections headed by Metamorphosis. For example I somehow ended up with a Vintage Classics edition and a Penguin Classics edition (both UK) which had Metamorphosis at the start but different stories following. Traditionally, though, I...

Heteronym: as I mentioned above, Kafka wrote the last chapter but intended to write much more for the central sections of The Trial. Abecedarian: I'd go for the translations by Willa and Edwin Muir, which seem to me to have stood the test of time. I must admit I'm tempted by the new Penguin...

I would add BS Johnson, and agree that experimental means telling the story in an unusual way. Johnson wrote a book (The Unfortunates) which was presented as a set of unbound chapters, so you could rearrange them any way you like. He wrote another (House Mother Normal) where each character has...

Stewart: I refer you to jennifer's reply, which could equally apply to Tenacious D. I used to think Jack Black was intrinsically funny - sometime around High Fidelity maybe. Now he just irritates me on sight. Jennifer: you're right. I'm a damn fool... :(

Yes, I'm pretty familiar with his stuff and indeed thought Borat was a very funny character until I saw the film. Perhaps he works best in 3-minute segments. Which brings me to a related point. Ali G could be very funny too, but the central joke of him playing a white guy who acted like a...

I read this earlier this year and already can't remember much about it. I do recall being impressed with the mesmerising language to begin with, though I also remember not much happening (an incident with a horse in a hole in the ground is about all that stands out for me from here). I've kept...

You can say that again! And a wonderful last line.

Or to give it its full title (which doesn't fit into the title bar) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Now then: we headed out last night to see the multiply eulogised Pan's Labyrinth, only to find out local independent cinema with its doors...

That WARNING line reminds me of those ropey DVDs of old-fashioned stand-up comedy by Jim Davidson, Roy 'Chubby' Brown, Jethro (whoever he is) etc, which invariably say on the cover DO NOT BUY IF EASILY OFFENDED!! (Which is pretty much on the level of a thirteen-year-old putting up a sign on the...

It's not on TV here any more, mehastings, it was about 10 years ago (at a guess). I never watched it but it became hugely popular, one of the highest rated series around at the time. From my limited knowledge it was regarded as "wholesome" and "heartwarming" TV by people who like that kind of...

I welcome the clarification of the Book of the Month rules in the new sticky that Stewart and mehastings have put together. I don't know if you're taking suggestions, but... I think it would be worthwhile to consider having a rule that in any given month, each member may nominate only one...

You mean someone edits those doorsteps??

That'll be the world of the dead, then?

Precisely right, Stewart. Here are some earlier examples (don't you ever search the archives?!) Much US cover design seems to me in general much less elegant and 'clean' than UK design. Of course there are anomalies, but I can't think of many books where I've preferred the US cover design.

Well no, I don't know much about Eva Green either, though I feel myself to be on very familiar terms with her anatomy after seeing Bertolucci's The Dreamers (which was something of a teenage boyish response on my own part, I suppose). I gather though that she is cued up for the next Bond film...

I'm looking forward to seeing this: which is more than I can say for any other Bond film (er, indeed, I've only seen one other one). I've admired Daniel Craig since Our Friends in the North, so the pre-emptive internet criticism pissed me off no end (though I see the main anti-Craig website has...