Book 24 - "The Golden Barge" by Michael Moorcock

Imperturbable, it cannot be changed; only the banks change and the things on the banks. It is the life source of the cities and towns and villages which throng the banks - and it brings death. It brings hope and it destroys dreams. On it sail Tallow and a golden barge. We see it from above, see all its countless misty miles. We float over it and see only Tallow's boat; even we cannnot see the barge at this moment.

This was the first novel that Moorcock completed, but wasn't published until 20 years later. It is the story of Jephraim Tallow's obsession with a mysterious golden barge, which he follows down-river, in the belief that when he catches up and boards it, it will contain the answers to everything that he doesn't understand about his life, such as the disappearance of his navel.

Book 25 - "The Encyclopaedia of Snow" by Sarah Emily Miano

"Tell me," you said, "why you have been like a pool of frozen water since we came here . . ." I didn't reply, or move an inch, not even when the wind sent a new drift of snow over me. "Tell me," you said. "Otherwise how can I reach you?" After a moment you looked me in the eye, briefly, and I wanted to speak to you but my thoughts and feelings were trapped in a triad of cold, silence and height.

A man's love-letter to a woman, written in the form of an encyclopaedia about snow. The entries include stories, scientific article, myths and an Inuit's description of how to make kamiks (waterproof fur boots) from caribou skin.

I picked this book up on a whim because I liked the cover, and I'm glad I did. The author's second book "Van Rijn" is out in hardback this month.