Back to the top yet again. I've just watched th Big Read On BBC2 and the top five books were... 5. Harry Potter and the Crock Of Sh1te 4. Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy 3. His Dark Materials 2. Pride & Prejudice 1. Lord Of The Rings I don't know about you lot but I found this whole Big Read thing both entertaining and infuriating, and I welcome any debate on books. Of the top 100 I'd read 15 (I think) which I thought was a respectable quota but I'd never heard of some of them. Of the top five I've read the top 2 and I've got to say I was pleased that they were right up there. I read P&P in 1997 and I admit I only did so to impress a girl (it worked and I did :'> ) but I found it was a surprisingly good read and with some fantastically quotable lines. In Lizzie Bennet it also has the best female chcaracter I have ever read about. As for LOTR, where do I begin? I'd always grown up with the idea it was for geeks and to be completely avoided. When I was dragged along to the first LOTR film (slightly drunk) I felt my early prejudice was valid and it was indeed for geeks... virginal ones! "But Sidders, you're wrong!" wailed some of my friends and so me and the then Mrs Sidders rented the video to see if we could be swayed. We fell asleep before they reached Rivendell. Last Christmas I was dragged along to the cinema by younger members of the Sidders clan to watch the second film (my Christmas treat to them) and despite my best efforts to have a thoroughly miserable time, I really enjoyed it. Since then I've read the books, watched the extended versions of the films (far better than the ones released at the cinema) and I now want to watch the third film. The books are not the greatest works of fiction and most of the characters are very 2D, but the breadth of the story and rich prose make them a winner. If you haven't read them, I'd give them a nod and say they're worth the effort. As for the Big Read, well done to the BBC for promoting books and not filling the schedules with the usual Saturday menu of reality TV and shows fronted by shouty presenters. Incidentally, I've just started reading "Credo" by Melvyn Bragg and I have to say that 200 pages in I'm rather hooked. In short, it's set in Cumbria and Ireland during the Dark Ages - violence, murder, rape, God and a bit of that love stuff. Bloody marvellous.

That's nothing! I once knew two lads who who members of a fledgling band (thankfully they perished) who went by the charming name of Sound Cancer. Furthermore, I once knew a lad at university called Crispin (says it all) who fronted a band initally called Pelvic Overdrive who then changed their name in 1990(ish) to Legs Akimbo - just like the crap yoof theatre group in the League Of Gentlemen. As you might expect, they were dreadful.

You are joking, aren't you! Aren't you? Oh jeez!

You should have gone to Specsavers. Dropping Souness mid-season and while we are precariously balanced would be a certain recipe for relegation. I won't repeat what several of you have said already but the achievements made under Souness in the time he has been with us have been incredible. This whole debate reminds me of the grumblings that surfaced prior to our glorious day in Cardiff. As for the possible replacements touted by the mob, I would say the only credible one who would even consider coming to Rovers would be Mark Hughes but even he has other things on his mind. The rest, quite frankly, are laughable. Would the likes of Gary Megson and Mickey Mouse... sorry, Adams attract players other than those from crap clubs? We would have a team sheet that was reminiscent of Fettis, Ward, Peacock, Carsley, Blake et al. If Souness goes, a lot of players who signed because of him would be seriously annoyed. The first thing that would happen next summer (regardless of how we end the season) would be Brad Friedel would leave. Stop the bellyaching, get behind the team, don't bay for blood if we go one behind and show a little faith. We will not be relegated and we will turn this around.

Can't be arsed to read it but the title of this thread says it all - yet another inane post from the most inane board member. Who are you going to replace him with, oh ####-for-brains?

It doesn't surprise me that you were disapointed somewhat with Harris . I've long suspected that his friends in the newspapers have exagerated his talents . "Fatherland " was only mediocre at the best. I was in Malta recently were I re-read both Robert Graves' "I Claudius" (part 1) , and Trevor-Roper.s "The Last Days of Hitler" - both top notch works and very readable - if you're into historical stuff . Try also Tacitus' "Annals". I quite liked Fatherland at the beginning but it seemed to me that he ran out of ideas half way through. Same could be said of Archangel, but as holiday reads go it was quite good. As for Tacitus, I've read him many times and particularly liked his "Agricola", the account of Mons Graupius being particularly fine. If you like your Roman authors, you can't beat old Suetonius for dishing the dirt on the Caesars. Some of those tales would make your hair curl! By the way, I also read Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King" not so long ago and although significantly different from the wonderful film, it's still a cracking yarn. Always intended to read I, Claudius so maybe the time is nigh.

Back to the top for this one as I'd be interested to learn what anyone can recommend. While on my recent of conquest of Greece I read "Archangel" by Robert Harris and "Prey" by Michael Crichton. Archangel was well-written and a bit of a page turner but I felt a bit let down at the end. Without wishing to give the plot away too much, it's set in present-day Russia and is about a dark secret from the Stalin era that has been long-buried (literally) and is now about to shake the world. Anyway, it's worth a read and it kept me entertained on innumerate plane/ferry/bus journeys. It does a particularly good job of convincing the reader of how barking mad Stalin was - the howling dogs waltz is particularly disturbing and amusing at the same time. A concise Who's Who of the Stalin era might have helpful though for those who are unfamiliar with the likes of Malenkov, Khrushchev and Beria (shudder!), so a bit of Googling might help some. Prey was a typical Crichton book and was about technology gone mad and killing people. In this case it was micro-robots. Call me old fashioned, but these microscopic menaces were no match for a robotic Yul Brynner or a 40ft T Rex as in other Crichton works and I just couldn't escape the thought "This is just too far-fetched". Now I've always enjoyed his books before despite the fact they usually get turned into rotten films (Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain, Disclosure, Rising Sun, etc), but this one didn't grab me at all like his others have done.

I have recently read "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis de Bernieres and can heartily recommend it. Forget about the saccharine, dire film (the ending is somewhat different) and read the book instead - it's occasionally very funny and made me laugh out loud, it taught me a lot about the war in Greece (of which I knew absolutely nothing), it's occasionally brutal (the war scenes are superbly written and it's obvious that de Bernieres is a former military man) and it's also heartbreakingly sad. Not ashamed to admit I had a tear in my eye more than once. If you're off to Greece this summer, it's a must read.

I read a couple of the Flashman books as a student (one about the Crimean war with the charge of the Light Brigade, and the other about the Opium war) and both were superb. Very funny and with amazing historical detail. Currently got Flashman In The Great Game (about the Indian mutiny) on loan from a mate and will read it at some stage. Some of the earlier Flashman books are back in print again as I saw some in WH Smiths last week.

An utter disgrace indeed. He hasn't even left yet and you're already preparing a hostile reception for him. I bet he's quaking in his silver boots at the thought of a 16 year old shouting ancient forms of abuse at him. Either grow up or write something original.

After much cajoling by an elder sibling and being bought one for Christmas, I recently read a book by Bernard Cornwell (author of the Sharpe books, apparently). Not my usual cup of tea, I nevertheless pressed on with his lesser known opus "Stonehenge" which gives a speculative account of how the great monument was made and why. In short, this book is absolute @#/? and should not be touched by anyone. Since then I have commenced reading Julian's Cope memoirs of the years 1976 to 1982, "Head-on" (the punk years, the Liverpool music scene at that time and the rise and fall of The Teardrop Explodes). Absolutely mad, funny, bleak, bitchy, downright debauched, a bit scary, brutally frank, completely honest in a somewhat self-critical way and very readable. Even if you're not a fan of the mad one's music, you'd be hard pressed not to find this very entertaining.

But Tom Sharpe's best books are Riotous Assembly, Indecent Exposure, The Throwback and Vintage Stuff. Most of the others shouldn't be tampered with, especially The Great Pursuit.

Ah yes, the boy Banks always churns out a good yarn (except Song Of Stone) and ideal holiday reading material. Did you have a good time? You've not missed much while you've been away.

I can concur about The Beach - infinitely better than the awful film that was made of it. Alex Garland's follow-up "The Tessaract" is harder to get into but very absorbing and a cracking read. Holiday reads should be none too testing as there are too many distractions on holiday to get absorbed in something heavy, so I'd recommend just about anything by Michael Crichton, Thomas Harris, Nick Hornby, Irvine Welch and Iain Banks Timeline by Michael Crichton would get my vote - get past the first 50 pages and you'll be hooked. Fighting, time travel, secret tunnels, loathsome baddies, intrigue, etc. In fact, Crichton books in general are good reads despite the fact most of them get turned into crap films. The book of Jurassic Park is rather good and has a message that the film misses out. Loads more dinosaurs too and very gruesome. I wouldn't recommend Airframe for holiday reading though as you'd be too scared to get back on the plane coming home! Eagle In The Snow by Wallace Bream is one of my favourite books and gives a very different slant to the Roman world - chaos, despair, betrayal and lots of fighting. A modern classic and absolutely unputdownable. If you want something with more substance, you can't beat The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco. Forget the crap film, the book is superb and will keep you guessing. Fascinating insight into a period I knew nothing about - famine, violence, religious heresy (Penitenziagite!), murder, sex and... er... library design! DON'T succumb to the easy option and read any of that Grisham and Clancy crap. Life's too short!

33 today and I can't remember a crapper birthday - Mrs Sidders is a massive strop all weekend, missed the game yesterday because I was ill (alas, not through alcohol), spent much of this morning catching up on paperwork, Urinals were on TV again and won (close though) and tomorrow I've got a 14 hour day at work. I've got such a hard life.

I had the "good fortune" to encounter Celtic fans from as early as 10.50am yesterday when I narrowly avoided knocking one down on Railway Rd... despite my best efforts to hit him. In response to commenst made by other Rovers fans, I think it is only fair and proper to sat that although many Cletic fans were abusive, violent, loud, foul-mouthed and sectarian, the overwhelming majority just managed to be just boorish, inebriated and generally tiresome. Perhaps it was the fault of the good burghers of Blackburn for "not being prepared" but we are just a small, provincial town and as far as I am aware there has never been a zoo in the borough (apart from St John's Tavern, of course) so how could we have been ready for what hit us? Oh well, all over now and the green hordes have returned north leaving us with our resident, peaceful Scottish community... and those Caledonian apes that drink in The Swan. Can't say I'm too impressed with the suggestions that the people of Blackburn were unwelcoming or that the authorities were heavy handed. If Celtic fans want to know the true meaning of unwelcome, they ought to go to an away game in East London. And if Celtic fans had bloody well behaved themselves and some charmers in Glasgow hadn't forged tickets, there wouldn't really have been a problem. That doesn't excuse the behaviour of some of the Rovers fans who disgraced themselves but you get arseholes at every club. In fairness, it's not the first time we've had difficulties with visiting fans and I think the biggest problem this time was due to the sheer volume rather than the actual behaviour of the Celtic fans. At least they didn't climb the walls and invade the pitch like City fans and I haven't heard of anyone speaking of their cars being stolen and turning up in the frozen north like when our friends in black & white stripes have paid us a visit. Fair play to the Celts, the better team won but it's only a Mickey Mouse cup anyway

I can't pretend I was anything but gutted at the end of last night's match, but worse things have happened to us. We played well, didn't panic in the "intimidating atmosphere" of Parkhead and we passed the ball very well (on the whole) and there wasn't a bad performance from any of our lads. Celtic won the game fair and square and it was nice to see a "foreign" team who weren't writhing in agony every time one of our lads went within three yards of them. Remember the Bulgarians? Also it was a clean game and referee did rather well too. So hats off to the Celts and congratulations on your first leg victory. Only criticism is for Chris Sutton: is that the same Chris Sutton who scored hatfulls in our Championship season? Blimey! The game at Ewood will, I suspect, be very different for a number of reasons. First of all, Celtic can't be that mediocre again - surely? I think they'll give us more of a game and might not be so negative as play with three centre-halves. Secondly, I fully anticipate their fans will be noisier than the collection of Trappist monks who filled Parkhead last night. However, the biggest difference will be the scoreline. I have absolutely no doubt at all that we will be the team going through to the next round. Celtic fans have told us they were poor by their usual standards last night but they have a rather poor away record in Europe. Furthermore, our team will, God willing, be at full strength by then. Imagine how potent we will be at home with the likes of Duff, Cole and Jansen all fully fit. Celtic have a long, long way to go before they can start booking their next trip in Europe. I am confident we'll do alright. For any Celtic fans making the journey, I will wish you all a safe trip and hope you enjoy our hospitality. My advice is to eat before you get to Ewood as the pies are rubbish and massively overpriced. If you're staying overnight and don't have accommodation, may I recommend the Devonshire Hotel (near the railway station and on the route to Ewood) as you'll be fine there. I will also remind you that drinking alcohol in the street within the confines of the town's orbital route is an arrestable offence, so best to drink your Buckfast on the train. May the best team win.