Late again with my book poll. It's posted here over on DW. If you can't comment there, and want to, do so here.

I love doing these polls as I'm always struck by the huge differences in what people read as well as by the huge volumes that some people read. Pun quite intentional!

Luck is a funny thing, often it can be a state of mind. Many people would regard me as horribly unlucky, but I prefer to see myself as incredibly lucky. It's just the way you look at it.

Where I live in Scotland there is a breast screening programme that every woman over the age of 50 is eligible for, providing a mammogram every three years until the age of 70. Screening after that point is on a request basis. I was 50 last year, and could have got called at any point up to my 53rd birthday. I was called at the beginning of April.

I know a number of women who've been called and not gone – they can't be bothered, they're too busy, they're scared at what might turn up, whatever, they didn't go. And yet breast screening saves lives.

It's saved mine.

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I know, I know, I'm really late with this one., but at least I still have the list. For some reason reading Cotillion seems to have triggered a Georgette Heyer surge in me and I read a further 6 of her regency romances, mostly back to back. I'd read them all before of course, and most of them are old friends.

61. Beyond the pale by Donal Hickey. This is a variably humorous selection of news stories from regional Irish newspapers, depicting some of the eccentricities of Irish life. It was all right.

62. Doubts and Desires by Richard Holloway. Interesting examination of one man's way of reconciling modern life and knowledge with Christianity - he's a retired episcopalian bishop FWIW. It's left to the reader to determine whether what this man believes is still Christianity.

63. Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser. This is the first in a long series, which my beloved encouraged me to read. It was enjoyable, and given that it is about the first Afghan war remarkably apposite. Not sure if it was sufficiently enjoyable for me to want to read the next one though.

64. The Coral Island by RM Ballantyne. One of the first south sea adventure stories, first published in about 1860. Too sanctimonious for my taste but makes an interesting contrast to Lord of the Flies. Treasure Island was much, much better.

65 -70. Frederica, Sylvester, The Quiet Gentleman, The Talisman Ring, Faro's Daughter, and Sprig Muslin all by Georgette Heyer. I love all of these, for different reasons - TQG and TTR are both as much detective novels as they are romances, TTR and FD are both set in the 1790s rather than the 1810s of the later books. Frederica and Sylvester and both pure comedy, and Sprig Muslin is hardly a romance at all. The same plot elements appear in many of them, and many of the characters are identifiably the same types.

71 Perfume by Patrick Suskind. It's really a historical fantasy, I suppose set in 18th century France, about a man who has an extremely sensitive sense of smell, but no personal odour of his own. I saw the movie adaptation before I read the book, but I do think I prefer the book. The film was an excellent adaptation, but for a tale about the sense of smell it was missing the extra dimension. Very disturbing all the same.

72. Scared to Death by Christopher Booker and Richard North. A marvellous debunk of just about every major scare over the last 20 years starting with Edwina Currie's Salmonella eggs and concluding with global warming.

73. A death in Tuscany by Michele Guitarri. Police procedural set in Italy. Written by a former head of Florentine police. It was OK, and the plot was suitably twisted, but I'm not sure I found the protagonist sufficiently engaging to want to meet him again.

74. The political gene by Denis Sewell. This starts off as an interesting look at the way ideas provoked by Darwin's development of the theory of natural selection were applied by the now discredited eugenics movement. The second half was less well written, being a polemic against much of modern science, and overall I didn't much care for it. However the point that eugenics was once mainstream science is a valid one, but it's not any more.

75. The book thief by Markus Zusak. In that it's a novel about the second world war for children, this is similar to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but it's a very different sort of story. It charts the life of a German orphan, being cared for by a slightly dissident family during the early years of the war. Unusually, it's narrated by Death. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it, it's too unsettling, but well written nevertheless.

76. The Sleekit Mr Tod by Roald Dahl. This is Fantastic Mr Fox translated into Scots and it's just wonderful.

"Doon in the glen there wis three ferms. The men that owned them were aboot as scunnersome and grippy an ony men ye could meet. There were cried Fermer Boggin, Fermer Boonce and Bermer Beek...On a brae above the glen steyed Mr Tod, and Mrs Tod and the fower Wee Tods. Ilka nicht, Mr Tod wid jouk doon tae yin o the ferms and help himsel tae a meal for his wife and weans."

Fabulous. And hysterical, and far,far funnier than the original.

Since I let my paid account lapse, I can no longer do polls on LJ. However, I do have a paid account on Dreamwidth, so that is where I have done the poll.

How many of these books have you read?

Mr Goddard was my next door neighbour for twenty years. In many ways, he was a strange man, single, with a very strong northern English accent, a bit prissy, and I suppose that's all most people saw of him. He had several floods from the flat above him, and was convinced, because of the colour of the water that had come through that the tenants were storing drugs under the floorboards. It was probably discoloured from the deadening under the floor. He could be very kind though - once when I locked myself out onto the stair, he let me use his phone to call my sister who had spare keys. I remember we sat in his living room sipping tea while he told me all about his passion for opera and the time he met Maria Callas. He had a turntable he had bought in 1957 for £40 (a huge amount then) which worked perfectly, to play all his records. No crappy CDs for him!

I used to see him on the stair, on in the street, but last year I hadn't seen him for a few months and began to be a little concerned. Then I saw him again about six months ago, and beyond thinking he seemed a bit frail, he seemed to be OK. I began to be a bit worried again a couple of months back. There was a horrible case over the summer where a woman was found dead in her flat, having been there for five years, with nobody missing her. I asked other people if they had seen Mr Goddard recently - my hairdresser said it had been months since he had seen him walk past the shop. Upstairs neighbours said they were concerned too. I went up to his flat and got no reply. I hummed and hawed and put off doing anything for several weeks, I kept looking up at his flat windows to see I there was a light on in the evenings but there never was. I even checked the obituaries in the local paper, to no avail.

Finally, yesterday, I called social services, to see if they knew anything. They called back. Mr Goddard died a couple of months ago. So now, I pay my belated respects.

Time for some more poetry methinks. This one, by Herbert Read is quite long so I'm only going to quote the first stanza.

Meditation of the Waking English Officer

I wake: I am alive: there is a bell
sounding with the dream's retreating surf
O catch the lacey hem dissolv'd in light
that creeps along the healing tendrils of a mind
still drugg'd with sleep. Why must my day
kill my dreams? Days of hate. But yes a bell
beats really on this air, a mad bell.
The peasants stir behind that screen.
Listen: they mutter now: they sing
in their old crackt voices, intone
a litany. There are no guns
only these voices of thanksgiving. Can it be?
Yes yes yes: it is peace, peace!
The world is very still, and I am alive!
Alive, alive, alive...
O limbs, your white radiance
no longer to stand against bloody shot
this heart secure, to live and worship
to go God's way, to grow in faith
to fight with and not against the will!
That day has come at last! Suspended life
renews its rhythmic beat. I live!
Now can I love and strive, as I have dreamt.

This is me just about up to date with these, and I'm not doing too badly overall.

51. Death of an Englishman by Magdalene Nabb. This is another contemporary crime novel set in Italy, this time in Florence, but I didn't like it nearly as much as I like the David Hewson ones I've mentioned before. This was almost a bit twee, and seemed very dated - the attitudes and characterisations seemed more appropriate for the 1940s or 50s than nowadays. I won't be reading any more in this series.

52. A Whispered Name by William Brodrick. The first novel set during WW1 that I've read for a while. I'm not sure about this one - it was well written and did have a certain tension about it that was good, but it was one of these ones that splits the action between the present and the past, and I'm never entirely convinced by those. The main character in the present was actually a monk and he was pretty convincing, but I felt some of the other characterisations were a bit off.

53. Affinity by Sarah Waters. This had been sitting on Mount TBR for nearly two years, and I can't understand why I didn't get to it sooner, because it was really good. Set in the twilight world of Victorian mediums, with a love that is never articulated never mind has its name spoken at its core. The climax totally took me by surprise ( and not in a good way, I have to say). A wonderful novel about the lengths we will go to for those we love, deception and lies.

54. The Death Maze by Ariana Franklin. This is the second novel in Franklin's engaging series about a 12th century female pathologist (and yes it does all seem perfectly plausible in context). This one takes place about a year after the first, in the middle of an appalling winter in the fens. Great stuff.

55. The stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker. Pinker is a linguist and I've read a couple of his books before such as the Language Instinct and thoroughly enjoyed them. This one, for some reason, was a bit more of a slog, and in the end, I can't say I enjoyed it much. However, if you're into psychology and linguistics give it a shot as Pinker is well thought of.

56. The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. This was a huge tome, but it made easy reading. Unlike some of Dawkins' other stuff this wasn't a polemic, although he couldn't resist every now and then :) . It's a history of life, but unlike most, which start at the beginning and work forwards, giving the almost inevitable impression that we are at the pinnacle of evolution, this starts with us and works backwards. It has the effect of putting us in our context, and showing how we are linked to all other life. Fascinating reading, give it a shot.

57. The Company of Liars by Karen Maitland. A historical novel set during the Black Death in the 1340s. A ragtag group of people struggle across central England trying to outrun the Great Pestilence. I gather that it is supposed to be based on the Canterbury Tales, but I have to say that this escaped me while reading it. It was one of those tedious novels where one after another the characters get topped off thus creating the, IMHO, false tension of 'who's next?'. I also thought the ending was appallingly badly executed and unnecessary. I can't recommend it, unfortunately.

58. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer. Yes, I know I only read this about 18 months ago, but I needed some brain candy and it was on the book case.

59. Ragtime in Simla by Barbara Cleverly. corrigan1 recommended Cleverly to me earlier in the year and I read the first of these detective novels set in the sunset of the Raj. This was the third I think, and matched up well with the first. Give them a go if you can.

60. The Credit Draper by J David Simons. A historical novel set over a period of about ten years from 1910 onwards in Glasgow, following the adolescence of a Jewish immigrant from Russia. It's well written, and the characterisations are good, illuminating a part of Glaswegian history that I know little about, but it didn't have much of a plot and the ending seemed more a means of enabling the author to stop writing than any natural conclusion.

By popular demand here is the pumpkin and parsnip cassoulet recipe I mentioned yesterday, or at least my adaptation of it.

This is what I put in it.

1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 large parsnip chopped into small chunks
2 large carrots, likewise
1/4 of a small pumpkin ditto
tin of tomatoes
2 venison sausages, sliced into half inch chunks
EV olive oil
dried mixed herbs
About half a pint of veg stock

First of all I sauteed the onion and garlic in the olive oil for a few minutes, then added the sausages and the pumpkin. After a further 5-10 mins I added the parsnip and carrots followed by the tomatoes, veg stock and herbs. Then I bunged it in the oven for about an hour, at about 150 degrees C(fan). It was perfect when I took it out, but if it was a bit runny I would add a couple of dollops of tomato puree.

I served it with stir fried cabbage and crusty bread.

1/2 a small savoy cabbage, shredded
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
spray of olive oil

Spray the bottom of a lidded sautee pan with the oil, add the onions and garlic and leave for a couple of minutes with the lid on. Add the cabbage, giving it a good stir and put the lid back on. The steam from the cabbage should be enough to cook it, but if necessary add a tablespoon of water. Takes a couple of minutes to cook.

In a surge of creativity the other day, and quite by accident I came up with a soup recipe that was so delicious I had to share it.

I got a pumpkin with my veg box this week, and found a recipe for pumpkin and parsnip cassoulet for some of it, which turned out very well. I didn't fancy the beans so replaced them with venison sausages instead which did the business. However, I still had three quarters of the pumpkin left. What to do with it? Well the obvious thing is make soup, but I'm less familiar with winter squashes that other varieties so looked up a recipe in my soup book. There were several yummy looking recipes but nothing that matched the contents of my fridge in terms of ingredients. In the end I used one of the recipes as a base but added to it, and subtracted from it to end up with something totally different.

This is what I had.

3/4 of a small pumpkin
1 large onion
garlic
2 leeks
red chillies
veg stock

I roasted the pumpkin, having scraped out the remaining seeds. It took about 45 mins at about 150 degrees C in my fan oven. I then left it to cool a bit, then scraped the flesh out from the skin and put it to one side.

Meanwhile, I chopped up the onion and sauteed it for a few mins in some EV olive oil along with a couple of cloves of garlic. I chopped up half a red chilli and added it - obviously this bit is to taste.

I washed and sliced the leeks and added them to the onions. Then I added the pumpkin flesh, stirring well. Finally I added the veg stock, probably around 3 pints. I brought it to the boil and simmered for about half an hour which is how long the leeks took to cook. I then left it to cool a bit, and then whizzed it up in a food processor or similar. If it was too thick, I would have added more water/stock.

Totally yummy.

Yet more catch up. I've been very bad at writing these up this year for some reason.

41. Revelation by CJ Sanson. As so ably reviewed by quippe the other week, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book. I do like the Matthew Shardlake series, set in the latter part of Henry VIII's reign. This one deals with heresy, and like all Sanson's novels is intricately plotted and well researched. Very good.

42. The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler. I bought this a few years back having heard it discussed on the Book Programme on Radio 4. They weren't wrong to recommend it. Many Victorian novels these days aren't particularly readable, but this one was. Not so much a poor boy made good story which is usually nauseating, but a rich boy gone bad which is much more fun.

43. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Another Spanish historical novel, this time set in post civil war Spain. This one involves a dead author whose books all seem to have disappeared, even from copyright libraries, and a young boy's attempt to solve the mystery. I did enjoy it and the translation was good.

44. Scottish Woodland History ed by TC Smout. A collection of papers discussing various aspects of woodland in Scottish history, covering all periods. Really one for this with an interest in the subject.

45. Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre. Well I have to say this is pretty much what this odiously pretentious novel induced in me. Tedious beyond belief.

46. The Triumph of the Political Class by Peter Oborne. The fabulous one lent me this, and it was a very disturbing read. It may not mean much to those on the western side of the pond but it meant a lot to me. Of course Oborne writes for the Telegraph so there is an agenda here, however he did not limit his discussion to the Labour party. Basically his thesis is that politics in Britain has been taken over by a professional political class whose only interest is power and money rather than ideology. It's easy enough to see - all these young politicians who've never had proper jobs in the real world, and it's perhaps not apocalyptic to suggest that it could be the death of our democracy. Well worth a read.

47. The Motivated Mind by Raj Persaud. Another one for the self helpers. I was reading it to see if it could help me with my weight loss. It has a bit, but most of it was devoted to other subjects.

48. The Unbelievers by Alastair Sim. Murder and mayhem in 19th century Edinburgh! With a plot revolving around a loosely disguised Duke of Sutherland and much more, a nineteenth century challenge to Inspector Rebus perchance? Time will tell.

49. Darwin's Lost World by Martin Brasier. I bought this after seeing Brasier at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August. He was a thoroughly entertaining and informative speaker, and so too is his book. He has a well researched theory as to why there are so few fossils prior to the Cambrian period that I found convincing, and it will be interesting if further research bears it out. I enjoyed it, but don't bother if you're not interested in fossils or evolution.

50. Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg. According to some extreme forms of Calvinism, the Elect can do no wrong, whatever they do. This early 19th century gothic novel takes this theme, adds some Faustian overtones and delivers an entertaining read. It may surprise you.