Christmas List: Good Things of 2001

• 1. Kings of the Hill, Richard and Lynne Cheney(1983/96 (2d ed), 258 pp., $9.60). A first-rate book about powerful leaders of the US House. Lots of good quotes, and exciting history.

• 2. The Abolition of Britain: From Winston Churchill to Princess Diana, by Peter Hitchens (2000, 332 pp., $13.56). A perceptive and sad account of the suicide of a culture. Mourn Middlesex, the shilling, and nobility.

• 3. The Life Nature Library: The Mammals,The Mountains, Ecology, and so forth (circa 1963; out of print now, but common in used-book stores). Full of interesting facts and extremely well-written. I know these from childhood, but then I just looked at the pictures.

• 4. Readings in Games and Information, by Eric Rasmusen (2001, 427 pp., $36.95). A collection of articles, book excerpts, and cartoons about doing research which will not diminish my reputation for eccentricity.

• 5. Father Sergius, by Leo Tolstoy (1898, 54 pp.). A moving story of a proud man fighting his pride as a monk. Suspenseful, gripping, and thought-provoking.

• 6. The Great McGinty, movie, directed by Preston Sturges (1940, $14.98). A comedy about machine politics in the days before lawyers replaced ballot boxes.

• 7. The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, by Joshua Priven and David Borgenicht (176 pp., 1999, $11.96). How to ward off a shark, how to kick down doors, and other skills occasionally useful.

• 8. The Secret Agent, by Joseph Conrad (1907, Web version ). A novel of dark humor about terrorism, only coincidentally read by me in 2001.

• 9. Nikko, Japan. I liked this little town better than Kyoto, perhaps because its temples are clustered together in mountain and forest without the distraction of a big city.

• 10. Japan Travel Bureau little paperbacks on Japan: Living Japanese Style, Eating in Japan, (191 pp., 1987) A Look into Tokyo (191 pp, 1987), Must-See in Nikko, Must-See in Kyoto, etcetera. Concise and entertaining picture books about Japan which are are easy to get there, tho harder through Amazon.

• 11. Seoul, Korea. Street markets. The Secret Garden. Alleyways. Restaurants. Nightlife. Buildings.

• 12. Mayura Draw, ($25.00, shareware). A drawing program that produces files sharper and smaller in size than graphics programs.

  Other good things: Hazelnut ice cream from that place on Mass Ave. in Cambridge. The Kelty jogging double stroller. The Harvard Law School 3rd floor reading room. Korean traditional rice wine. Sato's Restaurant in Hongo. The Kesei Skyliner to Narita. Flopsy Bunnies videos Robert Whiting: Tokyo Underworld. Japanese gardens. The U.S.S. Constitution. Games and Information, 3rd edition.

  Lists of good things from other years.