Some Books I Forgot.

Something about Life On Mars in this so don’t read if you are relying on Tapes, Discs or Sky+ etc.

I have been reading a lot recently. Best of the lot was Pies and Prejudice by that nice Stuart Maconie which is very much like Miranda Sawyer’s Park and Ride except that Maconie’s book focuses on the North – actually a narrow band between Hadrian’s wall and some of the Northern bits of Cheshire – not a problem for me really because he could write 300 pages about an alley behind the market and it would still be interesting and pithy and socially responsible – a good man. This has reminded me to look at when the third instalment of Andrew Collins Autobiography is out. The answer is the 3rd of May and it is available for Pre-Order here. This is of course much more anticipated than Harry Potter 7. I read somewhere that this book was no good and that the publishers had been discussing rewrites by other authors but this may have been in a Sunday paper from April 1st. With this in my head and the mention of The Doctor having read HP7 already in last week’s Doctor Who (Brilliant by the way) I dreamt that I had a copy and that it was short with large text and lots of pictures meaning that it could be read in less than an hour. Not sure what it means but it was not the disappointment I might have expected. I have been encouraged to try Cloud Atlas again and this seems a much more worthy book than HP7 which is of course just something that has to be got out of the way so that you know the ending before someone spoils it.

Talking of which, Life on Mars finished in the only way possible. The sense of anti-climax after the expected resolution almost shouted out the ultimate ending and still lets all the message-boarders discuss the real meaning without ever reaching a definite conclusion. Satisfying in the extreme.

I have also bean Reading Swallows and Amazons to my daughter who loved it. I have all the books but the ones I bought myself seem to be cheap and nasty and have begun to fall apart so I have started buying the wonderful hard-back versions to replace them. Swallowdale has just arrived and now the only question will be who gets to keep them when my daughter leaves home. Luvverly.