Dreaming of the impossible

100 Things You Will Never Do,

by Daniel Smith (Quercus, RRP $40):

I refuse to set myself a bucket list and believe the phrase should be eradicated from our language, but must admit I did enjoy this trip through what many would see as the ultimate bucket list.

Author Daniel Smith has compiled a fun and diverse list of 100 things most of us are unlikely to ever have the chance to do.

OK, so the title isn’t 100 per cent accurate, given the fact someone like Bill Gates has more money than the proverbial bull can do you-know-what with and can surely afford to buy his own island, and there’s always some numpty brave or stupid enough to have a go at base jumping from the Burj Khalifa, but for most of us, these aren’t really an option.

A look through the 100 scenarios in the book confirmed that yes, I am one of the vast majority who will never do these things: I won’t be cracking open a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite (in 1985, Christies sold one little bottle of that particular vintage for a whopping $160,000, making it the most expensive standard bottle of wine in history), I’ll probably never claim ownership of a Shakespeare first folio, charm a snake, play Russian roulette or escape from Alcatraz.

It’s also unlikely that I’ll ever have the opportunity to be invisible or establish my own nation – although, I do rather fancy the idea of being the boss of everything, queen of all I survey, with my own national anthem (AC/DC’s Thunderstruck springs to mind).

Swinging between the ridiculous and the educational, this is a fun book that will keep you entertained for hours as you imagine the possibilities of what you might never get to do.

Smith’s earlier books include The Sherlock Holmes Companion and The Lucky Bugger’s Casebook. This little gem stacks up well against his earlier offerings.

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