To kick things off, this made me smile earlier this week:

This week’s #fridayflash is full of some great fiction – check out the links over on the full report for 50-odd great pieces of free flash fiction, all from seriously lovely people.

Robert McCrum has provided an antidote to all the books of the decade blog posts, looking at the decade a hundred years ago and the books that made it great. I like the idea that some of the books being celebrated in a hundred years time will be the unsung gems of 2000-2009.

In my Sunday morning Google Reading the ever excellent ‘May Contain Nuts,’ had me laughing more than is right and proper on the Sabbath. Check out Michael Malone’s ‘Kidstuff’ post for chuckle. Even the picture on the post is full of awesome.

On a more serious note, Bea Ballard remembers her father, the great J. G. Ballard, in a touching post over on the Guardian.

If, like me, you’ve spent the week up and down the loft ladder retrieving baubles, tinsel and annoying novelty reindeer that play annoying novelty Christmas songs then you’ll be feeling distinctly un-festive. Last night I downloaded Sufjan Stevens’ excellent ‘Songs of Christmas’ set from iTunes. These excellent alternative versions of Christmas classics and oddball original soon-to-be Christmas classics finally got me in the Christmas mood. Now if we can only get the presents wrapped this week, we’ll be in good shape to relax once the kids are off school.

For those of you still to get the decorations up, here’s a great piece of Sufjan’s Christmas collection to kickstart your efforts, courtesy of the tube of You: