Reader of the year

At this time of year newspapers carry surveys of public figures' choices for "books of the year", and I enjoy reading them. I'm doubtful that everyone who names Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's Mao has read it, but it's not a bad answer.

A bad answer - the worst I've ever seen - is given in The Glasgow Herald by Rev. David Lacy, Moderator of the Church of Scotland:

Read books? The year I am Moderator? I wish!

Or, to put it another way:

1. I am important.

2. I am so important that the performance of my public duties claims my every waking hour.

3. I have no time to devote to fripperies such as reading books.

4. I lack the imagination to see what this says about me.

Perhaps dimly aware of point 4, Mr Lacy demonstrates that he has not wholly neglected the life of the mind during his year of office: "over a precious holiday" (which is the type of holiday enjoyed by important people), he "started a quick scan" of a book. The book thus quickly scanned - or rather the book whose quick scan was begun - was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.