Elsewhere in the fertile field of morbid Conservativism, there's good rumination to be had in the shady corner that is Book III of the Alan Clark Diaries. Despite being likeable and witty, the man's an aristocratic snob, a bigot, a serial womanizer - and his miserable end, retold explicitly, renders him palpably futile. The last chapter is written by his observant wife, as he lies wrapped in sheets gurgling and voiceless.

I pose it as if I enjoyed it, but I didn't - it was a terrifying read. Makes you wonder, you know, what to do with your own life (which is to plug the gap with a platitude). Maybe Alan Clark would have been saved if he'd regularly procrastinated on Hacker News? Fingers crossed.