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Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (translated by Kenneth R. Mackenzie) So begins ‘Pan Tadeusz’, Poland’s most celebrated literary work and a story taught to all Polish school children. That Poland’s literary masterpiece begins with a eulogy to Lithuania, both enlightens and confuses, in equal...

Have to agree about 'Come and See'. It's an incredibly powerful film. In contrast to a movie made by a popcorn seller. *cough*Saving Private Ryan*cough*

Naive. Super - Erlend Loe (None available in any Waterstones store last year, today I find five in Foyles) The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett (King of the hard-boiled private eye) Poem of the End - Marina Tsvetaeva (Still can't work out if I perfer her or Akmatova) Joy in the Morning -...

The book was written in Polish. The wordplay regards the development of language, so I suspect the translator will have used some imagination in creating his English version of Lem’s basic idea. But the amount of repetition of this idea is down to Lem, and that is what’s annoying.

Stanislaw Lem – The Futurological Congress Synopsis: “Bringing his twin gifts of scientific speculation and scathing satire to bear on that hapless planet, Earth, Lem sends his unlucky cosmonaut, Ijon Tichy, to the Eighth Futurological Congress. Caught up in local revolution, Tichy is shot...

And Tony Hancock fans unite in one common thought, "Lady Don't Fall Backwards"...

And how long have the books been communicating with you?

Mostly graphic novels... Oh, good. I've just discovered Mulisch. In fact I saw that book in the rather beautiful Waterstones in Bloomsbury yesterday. I'd of bought it too, if I didn't already have 'The Discovery of Heaven' glaring down at me from my TBR shelf...

I read that a while back. An interesting writer Kavan. She poses many questions, the most pressing being "Just how heavy was her medication"...

Those covers are probably my favourite amongst contemporary publishing and Peter Owen also have one of the best catalogues. I've discovered a number of favourite authors after those distinctive covers caught my eye... In book buying news: The Futurological Congress - Stanislaw Lem

They're really not that organised, although they have improved since the old dear died, that used to run it. I doubt it, this one only hit my radar screen recently. Perhaps you're mixing it up with 'Silence' or 'Scandal' by the same author? Or perhaps I did a while back? K_S

St. Petersburg - Andrey Biely Headcrusher - Garros-Evdokimov A Hero of Our Time - Mikhail Lermontov The Samurai - Shusaku Endo Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse Gulity - Anna Kavan Plus Various Graphic Novels. All from Foyles as per...

Foyles did me again. This time: Satan in Garay by Isaac Bashevis Singer Much Obliged, Jeeves - P.G.Wodehouse The President's Last Love - Andrey Kurkov Agamemnon's Daughter - Ismail Kadare The Procedure - Harry Mulisch

Osip Mandelshtam - Selected Poems Dashiell Hammett - Red Harvest

Bleak House - Charles Dickens The Absolute at Large - Karel Capek The Home of the Gentry - Ivan Turgenyev Trans-Atlantyk - Witold Gombrowicz Love and Garbage - Ivan Klima Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert The Assault - Harry Mulisch Herman - Lars Saabye Christensen Songs of Innocence and...

One of the biggest difficulties in answering your question is working out exactly what is a 'British film', as so many people involved in the film industry here (both in front and behind the camera) go and work in Hollywood. At the same time many of the big blockbuster Hollywood films were...

Foyles rugby tackles my wallet yet again...In order of page count, and therefore order tbr... The Sound of the Mountain - Yasunari Kawabata garden, ashes - Danilo Kis The Discovery of Heaven - Harry Mulisch Pan Tadeusz - Adam Mickiewicz The Man without Qualities - Robert Musil

Do you need to empathise with a books central character to fully enjoy the story? An eternal question, and one with a personal, highly subjective response. For me the answer is no - something confirmed by reading ‘Bleak House’ a few weeks ago. ‘Bleak House’ is an incredible book - a complex...

Songs of Innocence and of Experience (illustrated) - William Blake. The Good Woman of Setzuan - Bertolt Brecht. Mmmm, Brecht.

Do you mean the Man Booker International Prize? If so, I thought the 2007 list was quite a bit more conservative and Anglo-centric than 2005. I'd of liked to see a Japanese author, Pelevin, Klima thrown in. A bit of vision, a bit of variety…