Listmania!
Seamus' list of books, films and music
Selected Poetry (Oxford World's Classics)Selected Poetry (Oxford World's Classics) by Alexander Pope
Buy used from: £1.74
A wonderful collection - if only it featured the "Essay On Man"
Freedom and Its Betrayal: Six Enemies of Human LibertyFreedom and Its Betrayal: Six Enemies of Human Liberty by Isaiah Berlin
Buy new: £8.59 / Used from: £7.00
Essay on Joseph de Maistre is especially interesting, and rather disturbingly convincing...
The Roots of RomanticismThe Roots of Romanticism by Isaiah Berlin
Buy new: £8.59 / Used from: £5.85
Very readable - imagine being at these lectures. There's a wonderful compendium of wildly contradictory "what Romanticism was" type statements in the first essay...
Futility ): A Revived Modern Classic (New Directions Paperbook, 718Futility ): A Revived Modern Classic (New Directions Paperbook, 718 by W Gerhardie
Buy used from: £3.20
Hilarious. Deserves to be as famous as Waugh.
Feet of Clay: Study of GurusFeet of Clay: Study of Gurus by Anthony Storr
Buy new: £6.98 / Used from: £3.98
Anthony Storr is definitely the most lucid psyhiatrist-writer I've read - has a great gift for explaining simple concepts clearly and for recognising the limits of his profession
The Witchdoctor of ChisaleThe Witchdoctor of Chisale by Stephen McWilliams
Buy new: £8.99 / Used from: £23.22
I know the author!
Crome YellowCrome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £0.01
Before Huxley decided to devote himself to saving the world.
Metro-Land [DVD]Metro-Land [DVD]
Buy used from: £16.48
Innocent, charming, funny, and poignant.
Real PresencesReal Presences by Steiner
Buy new: £10.50 / Used from: £8.81
An extraordinary book - quite densely argued and difficult to read but endlessly stimulating....
Ordet [1954] [DVD]Ordet [1954] [DVD] by Hanne Agesen
Buy new: £9.98
A really extraordinarily hypnotic movie. I would not recommend this to someone who has been recently bereaved however.
Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ancient Greek Philosophy But Didn't Know Who to AskMeet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ancient Greek Philosophy But Didn't Know Who to Ask by Patricia F. O'Grady
Buy new: £10.00 / Used from: £11.08
featuring my deathless prose....
In the Criminal's Cabinet: An Anthology of Poetry and FictionIn the Criminal's Cabinet: An Anthology of Poetry and Fiction by Todd Swift
Buy used from: £0.01
.. and featuring my deathless fiction....
Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op 24; Toccata Festiva, Op 24Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op 24; Toccata Festiva, Op 24
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £1.44
Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is a wonderful piece that deserves to be much better known - captures the wonder and poignancy of childhood summers
Tarik O'Regan - VOICESTarik O'Regan - VOICES
Buy new: £12.69 / Used from: £25.43
Choral music from a contemporary composer - don't let that put you off though!
Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since HippocratesBad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates by David Wootton
Buy used from: £4.99
Very thought provoking - go to www.badmedicine.co.uk to read my further thoughts on it!
The Flying DutchmanThe Flying Dutchman by Thomson Smillie
Buy new: £4.89 / Used from: £3.95
Buy this with a performance of The Flying Dutchman for an accesible introduction to Wagner's most likeable and accessible opera...
Wagner: Tristan und IsoldeWagner: Tristan und Isolde
Buy new: £26.98 / Used from: £17.00
A wonderful package, a wonderful performance - after The Flying Dutchman the next step in your Wagnerisation!
Der Ring Des Nibelungen [14cd Box]Der Ring Des Nibelungen [14cd Box] by Richard Wagner
Buy used from: £14.99
All of which leads one to the Daddy of them all. It's pretty awesome. Haven't heard this particular one but it has good reviews here...
The Night Of The Hunter [DVD] [1955]The Night Of The Hunter [DVD] [1955]
Just watch it. An amazing film. The moment when Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish are singing together (just watch it, OK?) never fails to set my hairs standing on end
The Balkan Trilogy: "Great Fortune", "Spoilt City" and "Friends and Heroes"The Balkan Trilogy: "Great Fortune", "Spoilt City" and "Friends and Heroes" by Olivia Manning
Buy new: £11.59 / Used from: £8.26
A great Anglo-Irish novelist, unjustly forgotten in Ireland. This is a wonderful evocation of the chaos of Romania and then Greece in WWII, along with an intimate portrait of a marriage
The Levant Trilogy: The Danger Tree; The Battle Lost and Won; The Sum of Things: "Danger Tree", "Battle Lost and Won" and "Sum of Things"The Levant Trilogy: The Danger Tree; The Battle Lost and Won; The Sum of Things: "Danger Tree", "Battle Lost and Won" and "Sum of Things" by Olivia Manning
Buy new: £6.97 / Used from: £2.95
Following on from The Balkan Trilogy
Troubles: (New York Review Books Classics)Troubles: (New York Review Books Classics) by J. G. Farrell
Buy new: £9.56 / Used from: £4.68
The greatest Irish novel - and it is an Irish novel - I've ever read (full disclosure: I've read half of "Ulysses")
The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) by Samuel Johnson
Buy used from: £4.31
The Great Cham himself. Probably my favourite literary figure of all time - largely because there's something very human about his emotional directness, prejudices and enthusiasms.