What presents are you looking forward to giving or receiving this year? That’s the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. All this week we’re revealing what they told us, with link-throughs to Amazon for your shopping convenience (and ‘cos the referral fees help support LibDemVoice: so get clicking and ordering). Part I is available here, and Part II here. In part three, our third trio of bloggers – Paul Walter, Jennie Rigg, and Richard Flowers – give us the low-down on their Xmas faves…

Paul Walter

iPad 2 (or any other tablet)
It allows a quite revolutionary approach to browsing and fiddling around on the computer without having to go into one’s cold study and wait for the whole darn thing to fire up. Look! I can read the Guardian from cover-to-cover in bed before most people who have it delivered have had it delivered!

An egg poacher
The world would be a much better place if more people poached eggs!

At Home – a short history of private life by Bill Bryson
This is a quite exceptional work of history, both entertaining and extremely informative. Bryson attempts to answer questions which most of us never think to ask even ourseleves. Like: why do we have salt and pepper on our tables, rather than any of the hundreds of other spices and flavourings available?

Jennie Rigg

NCIS, DVD Seasons 1-6
NCIS is my current addiction; it has David McCallum in it, and regularly features interesting international political stuff. And Abby is AWESOME.

Despair, Inc. posters
Any of these posters, but especially Economics and Procrastination

Richard Flowers

Well, if I recommend the book An Optimist’s Tour of the Future by Mark Stevenson, and agree that you should also get Andrew Hickey’s books… then you’ll all know where all of the ideas for my novel come from. Apart from the ones inspired by the Wackypedia (proving it’s good for something, even if that something is fiction).

If you prefer something visual, that’s not too abysmal (actually that’s out on Blu-Ray too) then I said to Alex Wilcock that he ought to recommend the Complete Avengers 50th Anniversary Edition. (The proper ones, not those spandex-clad idiots from America)

And from this year’s crop of Doctor Who videos, I’d suggest the baffling Buddhist parables / rubber snake-fest that is Mara Tales (ie, ‘Kinda’ and ‘Snakedance’), and the 2000AD inspired Paradise Towers. Alex explains why here.

The highly recommended new movie of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy won’t be available until next year, but the even-more highly recommended BBC version is out now. Or you can always read the book.

Others have already mentioned the Dr Who Target novelisation reprints; let me just add they are apparently also available as audio books (eg, Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen).

Finally, I’m tempted to toss in the wild card of Batman: Arkham City on all good gaming formats. Yes, he’s a big old fascist vigilante dressed in a fetish suit – and for some that may be reason enough – but for me, any game that scores you points for smashing CCTV cameras with your batarangs raises a smile.