Books: Last Orders, by Graham Swift (there are places you'll stop and read a sentence a second and third time because, well, he writes so well)

Movie: Local Hero (why Scotland is the center of the Universe)

Band: Chris Rea (because he and Keith Richards are the best guitarists on the planet, and he once beat Nigel Mansell in a BTCC race (to be fair, Nigel stuffed his Mondeo into a wall, but, then, Chris didn't))

So there....