Best of 2008 Picks -- OR Melling

To be honest 2008 was a blur. My daughter underwent the barbarous Irish initiaton rite called the Leaving Certificate (state exams at the end of secondary school) and I was working on no less than three books and two film projects. But somewhere in there I managed to surface a few times and here's what I remember reading, viewing or listening to.

Despite many detractors, I loved Prince Caspian. Thought it was well scripted and the acting superior to that in the first film. The DLF was particularly wonderful. Also contrary to many objections, I felt the little touch of romance between Susan and Caspian was acceptable. It met the internal logic of the script and suited Susan's character as we know it (the only one to have romantic inclinations in the books). I'm looking forward to Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Not much on the telly as the Reality TV virus continues to eat up creative programming while leaving nothing but dead space and cultural waste. Thankfully the hometown-based Tudors continued to dazzle.

Read another American 'dark Faerie' writer in the style of Holly Black's Tithe series. Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely is a compulsive page-turner. This younger generation writes a meaner - in every sense of the word - fairy than me, but I like them!

Re-read Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf and was shocked to discover that the 'old man' I read about in my university days was only 49! The book is truly a classic which has survived the years. It encouraged me to read Journey to the East for the first time. Wonderful also.On the same note of reading older books I also delved into Frances McKenna's True Hallucinations. He's an amazing psychonaut (-nut?) with a true ability to write.

Frankly, I avoid reading Booker winners as they usually bore me to tears, but I did tackle Anne Enright's The Gathering as it was about a big Irish family and I am one of ten. Though not from a big family herself, she got a lot right - the misery, the madness, and the bizarre humour amongst siblings - but she left out most of the fun. Still, beautifully written and well worth the read.

Two fabulous discoveries in terms of music, both Scottish: Catriona McKay's album Starfish - you have never heard the harp played like this; and Vertical Variations, an album of remixes by an Edinburgh DJ called Dolphin Boy- you have never heard Irish and Scots Gaelic put to music like this. Nothing short of ecstatic listening.