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In this hectic world in which we live in, there’s certainly something to be said for that rare quiet time in which nothing exists other than you and a good book. There’s something almost soul-cleansing about reading a book, exiting reality, washing away the digital grime we collect on a daily basis. The feel and smell of a paperback in your hands, it’s just a very ‘personal’ experience, one that you can easily lose yourself in once you turn that first page. Many of these have been turned into films and you’ve probably seen them so why read the book? Forget the movies, they can never truly put across what the author had in mind, for the full picture rather than a few brushstrokes you have to read the story as it was meant to be read. Although this is by no means a definitive list, here’s 25 you should really make that trip to Waterstones for…

Shogun - James Clavell
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Watership Down - Richard Adams
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Orlando - Virgina Woolf
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K Dick
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Robbie - Emil Pacholek
Trainspotting - Irvine Walsh
1984 - George Orwell
Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift
One Thousand and One Nights - Anon
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Danny the Champion of the World - Roald Dahl
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Alex Haley
The Lord Of The Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

So do you have any recommendations? Let us know how our list compares to yours and what we should be reading!

Some fantastic Ad’s for the decade! A huge amount of creativity, time and patience…….. Take a look…..

Ad’s of the Decade

Following on from our dip into 80s TV last month we bring you the cream of the crop from this side of the pond. Albeit a crop that suffered from drought and pestilence. Having reflected back at a golden era of TV we can safely say that the Americans know how to do entertainment.

The Professionals

Metal Mickey

Dempsey and Makepeace

Terrahawks

Family Ness

SuperTed

‘Allo ‘Allo

Bananaman

Jossy’s Giants

Red Dwarf

Dangermouse

Minder

Count Duckula

Press Gang

Supergran

We’ve been harking back to the good old days when TV was truly great and the theme tunes were even better. The A-Team, Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazzard… the list is almost endless. Here’s a snazzy collection of intros from our Transatlantic cousins for you to peruse and get all dewy-eyed over. Our personal fave is Street Hawk, you just can’t beat a good old spoken intro, and the enunciation is awesooooome!

Love Boat
Street Hawk
Manimal
Airwolf
Fall Guy
MacGyver
TJHooker
The Equalizer
Cover Up
CHiPS
Littlest Hobbo
Degrassie Junior High
ALF
The Cosby Show
Jake and the Fatman
Hardcastle and McCormack

We’re doing a British edition next month so if you have any personal 80s faves you’d like to share with us then drop us an email with your memories and we’ll feature it in the next all-singing, all-dancing episode of 39steps: A True Story.

When I was 10 I’m ashamed to admit that my best friend Brian had a poster of one of these above his bed. Most kids back then had a Ferrari Testarossa adorning their wall, but Brian had been to the Scottish Motor Show with his dad and he could think of nothing he wanted more than for his dad to buy one of these crude, tacky, junk heaps. Thank God his father had more sense.

It’s looks like the result of the unholy union of a Range Rover with an FSO Polonez, then it’s had a quality expert from the Kazakhstani government go over it to remove anything that might resemble metal, plastic or paint and replace it with hardened gruel. It’s most likely entirely held together by the snazzy 4×4 decals.

As long as you can get it to last long enough to reach the countryside, it could well be a solution for the fresh air worshipper who wants mainly to drive through cow pats this summer.

Best colour choice: Vomit