Every Christmas we like nothing better than to curl up on the sofa with a good book and a mince pie.

Just in case you feel the same way, we've put together some recommendations.

For books, obviously. Mince pies are much of a muchness.

60. The Greatest Sci-fi Movies Never Made
by David Hughes

Written when movies such as I Am Legend,  Watchmen and Avatar were still locked in development hell this has, with hindsight, turned from a book about films that were never made to a compelling account of how Hollywood never really gives up on its dreams.

With examinations of lost properties that still haven’t been filmed (including The Stars My Destination and David Lynch’s Ronnie Rocket), buy this and find out what you’ll probably be watching next decade...

Killer Quote: “They offered me $50,000 for twenty-five drawings.  They didn’t say twenty-five approved drawings, or twenty-five drawings in colour, or even twenty-five drawings in pen and ink – I could’ve done twenty-five  drawings on napkins!”

59. The Parade’s Gone By
by Kevin Brownlow

With this single book Kevin Brownlow, occasional film-maker (It Happened Here) and movie-buff extraordinaire, rescued the canon of silent film from contempt and oblivion. 

Written with loving expertise, packed with rare illustrations, at its heart are the riveting interviews Brownlow secured with aged veterans of the period.

Killer Quote: “The silent era was the richest in the cinema’s history.”

58. The Genius of the System
by Thomas Schatz

The old Hollywood studio system crushed and stifled talent – right? Not so simple, says Schatz.

For all the insensitive philistines and overweening egos, the system actually spawned a remarkably high ratio of masterpieces to turkeys. 

With a wealth of research and detail, Schatz shows how.

Killer Quote: “Studio filmmaking was less a process of collaboration than of negotiation and struggle – occasionally approaching armed conflict.”

57. Hitchcock
by François Truffaut

In August 1962, François Truffaut, filmmaker, critic and passionate Hitchcockian, sat down with the Master of Suspense in a room at Universal Studios – and over several days recorded 50 hours of conversation covering Hitch’s whole career to date. 

The outcome was the finest-ever book-length interview with a director.

Hitch is expansive, teasing, urbane, frothing with anecdotes and clearly relishing the attention;  Truffaut is respectful but probing, bringing his own directorial knowhow to bear. 

A treasure-trove of material for every Hitchcock study written since.

Killer Quote: “If one accepts the premise that cinema is an art form, on a par with literature, I suggest that Hitchcock belongs among such artists of anxiety as Kafka, Dostoyevsky and Poe.”

56. Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood
by Todd McCarthy

Cool, effortlessly patrician and no slave to the studio system, Howard Hawks made masterpieces in genres ranging from screwball comedy to westerns – and lived a high-life of beautiful women and fast cars.

McCarthy’s biog treats his subject with a well gauged mix of admiration and irony.

Killer Quote: “Hawks had always found that he could do most things better than most other people, so he rightly reasoned that it would be that way with movies as well.”

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