I suppose when I say 'modern' I mean anything from the mid 20th century to the present day.

At some point in years to come, certain books will stand the test of time and continue to be commonly read, held above other novels as the best this century had to offer. What makes a book a classic? My guess would be the impact it has had and the overall quality of its writing. But it's probably quite subjective!

One book that springs to mind is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. It's just unlike anything else I've read, with some beautiful visions of the American landscape contrasted with brutal depictions of the worst humanity has to offer.

There's a small coffee shop in my city that puts a lot of love into their drinks. They have a couple of seats at the bay window by the entrance, which I always find a relaxing spot to read whilst I'm savouring my coffee. And the best part - the café has a really cute dog that'll occasionally come up to you for some pets :) Just sitting there, with relaxing music playing and the sound of people chatting in the background... I find that to be a charming place to read.

I also have fond memories of sitting by a pool when I was younger whilst on holiday with my parents. I'd devour the latest Alex Rider or Lemony Snicket novel sitting in the shade. Has been a while since I've last had that experience, but it's a sunny day here today, so perhaps I'll sit outside on my lunch under a tree.

Do you have any particular places where you like to read?

Nowadays I don't really have any authors or book series like this. As I kid I used to get really excited for a new Series of Unfortunate Events or Alex Rider book. For a while I kept my eye on Adrian Tchaikovsky, but lately I've found some of his novels to be hit or miss.

The only book release I'm currently looking forward to is Brigands & Breadknives in the Legends & Lattes series by Travis Baldree. The other two books have been cosy and wholesome, and it's become a little tradition of mine to read these books around Christmas.

I've always found the concept of wabi-sabi quite fascinating and I'd love to find out a bit more. Are there any books that explore this concept? Something quite approachable would be good.

Do dogs sometimes recall a time a few years back where they failed to catch a frisbee?

Gift vouchers can be nice presents, but if you think about it, you're paying for the opportunity to lock in your money forcing the recipient to shop at that particular company. And more often than not, the recipient will then spent a little more than the value of the voucher in order to use it all. If you'd given them money instead, the outcome would have been the same, but this way the company gets your cash in advance. I have to hand it to whoever came up with the idea, it's a capitalist's wet dream!

And pre-orders (I'm specifically thinking of videogames here), this did make sense once upon a time when you were buying a physical copy that may have had limited stocks. But nowadays for digital pre-orders... what's the point? You're putting your trust in the company that the game will be polished from the start. At least with something like a Kickstarter, you're helping to fund development of the game. But here what exactly do you get out of it? Maybe some additional pre-order cosmetics that'll you use once? The concept is bizarre to me.

Initially I was thinking 'ah this is a bit pretentious', but I soon found it quite charming, and the production quality/shot compositions really impressed me!