Holiday Highlights
By Hilary Williamson, December 2000

Millennial Monographs

Since this is a big millennial year (whether you think it's ending or about to begin) I had a look at what's available in books with Millennium in their titles. There's an amazing range of choices from longstanding predictions of doom and surveys of pagan rituals to idiot's guides on surviving millennial disasters and names for millennial babies (like Xena, poor kids!). I haven't read any of the following, but they are going on my millennial wish list.

First are my serious choices: one on ethics as an important element in looking forward; another which looks back on the history of the millennium just ending; and the third because I have re-read this more than any other book that I own and it's getting tattered.

Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for a New Millennium by the Dalai Lama

Millennium Year By Year: A Chronicle of World History from AD 1000 to the Present Day by DK Publishing

The Lord of the Rings: Millennium Edition by J.R.R. Tolkien

And because the whole thing has been taken much too seriously (after all it's just a mark on a calendar invented by man and not even used by all of us), here are some lighthearted selections:

Garfield Predicts; Fearless Forecasts for a Brave New Millennium by Andrews McMeel Publishing

Pooh and the Millennium: In Which a Bear of Very Little Brain Explores the Ancient Mysteries at the Turn of the Century by John T Williams & A A Milne, illustrated by Ernest Shepard

2000 Reasons to Hate the Millennium: A 21st Century Survival Guide edited by Josh Freed & Terry Mosher

May the new century and millennium be a very literate one for all!