could well find bookstores a gift-buying haven. In the UK fiction department, there was The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle and Michael Collins' evocation of modern Irish life in The Feminists Go Swimming . Also to be considered are Philip Roth's Sabbath's Theater , Martin Amis' The Information and William Golding's The Double Tongue . Those looking for slightly lighter Christmas read could certainly do worse than Ben Elton's Popcorn . If films are your bag, David Weddle's introduction to the life and work of Sam Peckinpah, If They Move...Kill 'Em , and veteran director Don Siegel's autobiography, A Siegel Film , should keep the serious movie buff well occupied. Taking a more humorous -- if not downright acidic -- attitude to the mysteries of movie-making is Joe Queenan's The Unkindest Cut as he describes his attempts to make a film on a budget of $7,000. Just as vicious is P.J.

O'Rourke's 25-year collection of writings, Age and Guile . The Picador Book of Sportswriting offers imaginative contributions from Martin Amis and Thomas Hauser. Better still is Geoffrey Beattie's study of boxing, a comedy of male manners, On The Ropes . Nick Hornby, impressed fiction fans with his highly-rated debut novel, High Fidelity . Telling the painfully accurate tale of a thirty-something male fumbling with love, lists and record collections, the paperback edition should make the perfect edition to any like-minded thirty-something's Christmas stocking. Taking us further afield, Karen Connelly's Touch The Dragon recalls the author's harsh but rewarding experiences in Thailand. The major obstabcle to any Christmas shopper this year is surely trying to avoid cheap tie-ins with The X-Files . Luckily, Timothy Good's revised Beyond Top Secret makes a comprehensive, even-handed and often disturbing insight into the realities of UFO research. Fans of Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro are promised a merry Christmas. Ishiguro's The Unconsoled and Atwood's superb Alias Grace proved to be some of the most beguiling and intelligent works from their illustrious careers. It seems churlish to talk about the year's books without mentioning Trainspotting's Irvine Welsh. Let's just say that his collection of stories, Ecstasy betrays his inability to write convincingly on subjects other than sex, drugs and Scotland, and yet still contains some of the year's most powerful and energetic prose. Special mention has to go to Salman Rushdie's brilliant family saga, The Moor's Last Sigh , now available in paperback. Equally recommended is Tom Holland's bizarre, intelligent and endlessly inventive Supping With Panthers . Packed with cheeky references to real historical figures, Holland weaves a daring and haunting tale of seduction and death as vampires mix with characters from Victorian London. For those of you interested in more home-based offerings: Sidney the Sailboat by Mark Booth The National Trust's Bermuda's Architectural Heritage Bermudian Cookery , by the Bermuda Junior Service League Ann Smith Gordon's Lure of Bermuda The Bermuda Aquarium Colouring Book put out by the Bermuda Zoological Society The New Resident's Guide to Bermuda 1996-1997 What's Cooking in Bermuda by Betsy Ross Bermuda's Marine Life , by Wolfgang Sterrer Bermuda Isles in Full Colour , by Hans Hannau Nothin' But A Pond Dog by Llewellyn Emery Bermuda , by Vanessa Fox Bermuda Virus by Bob O'Quinn Bermuda Shorts by Timothy Sobey Images of Bermuda Dining out in Bermuda by Vicky Hampshire Your Bermuda by George Rushe Ian Macdonald Smith's Bermuda Gardens and Houses Bermuda's Story , by Terry Tucker Ascape to Bermuda by Ian Macdonald Smith All books are available at, or may be ordered through The BookMart on Reid Street.

Irvine Welsh's Esctasy