May 2009 Archives

Hands up if you like feeling mildly uncomfortable.

How about guilty? Happy feeling guilty?

Nope, me neither ... I get that twisting feeling that I should do more to change the world. Then I inevitably reach for another kit kat ... and another book.

Still, perhaps we all do more than we realise - boycotting the Daily Mail maybe or spoiling that perfectly friendly dinner party by arguing with the I'm-not-a-bigot bigot in the corner.

I think you should read this book.

Congratulations to two Merseyside book clubs who have been shortlisted for a national prize.

The Eliot Reading Group and Ruskin Reading Group have reached the finals of this year's Penguin Orange readers' group prize.

But unlike most other book clubs - which exist purely for the laughs, food and chance to debate with other like-minded folk - these clubs are proving their medicinal worth.

Both are based at Ashworth Hospital, the high security psychiatric hospital in Maghull...

I never thought... the two of them...

One's a controversial yet hugely watchable chat show host with one too many flamboyant suits ... the other is, well, my mother, who volunteers at the local animal sanctuary.

Who would have expected it?

I'd spent five hours travelling from Liverpool all the way to my family home last weekend only to be greeted by something of a surprise... 

Okay, well it had probably already started - I just didn't expect it to appear in my home.

There I was, determined to get into Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes when the boyfriend appeared clutching his mobile phone.

"Look at my new book," he said.

"That's a phone dear," I replied patiently.

"Nope," he replied, grinning and throwing the phone in my direction.

And there it was...

I guess it was inevitable but now even our most brilliant literary works are falling under the influence of Twitter.

You've heard of new social network site Twitter right?

The one that allows you 140 characters a time to update your followers - or friends - on your movements.

Now some bright sparks have been tweeting the plots of famous novels in 140 character summaries and I've gathered the best of them together for a test...

Everyone's got those books. You know, the ones you thumb through in the bookshop and think about buying - you're so familiar with the cover and sypnosis - but you never quite get around to it?

I was like that with British author Kazuo Ishiguro - which is probably why it took me so long to read his 2005 Booker Prize shortlisted Never Let Me Go.

If you haven't done so, I urge you to read it. It's fabulous, stretches the mind and makes you feel faintly chilled...and you might want to read it before the film comes out.

Apparently Keira Knightley started shooting last month.

But more importantly...

I love battered old books.

I wanted to get my hands on the first edition of Ian Fleming's James Bond book Octopussy ... which The Apprentice contestants just about managed to sell in a recent episide of the BBC show.

But I'm happy to settle for my 100-year-old copy of William Shakepeare (I'll never read it all, I'll never act any of it ... but I love it) and the similarly aged copy of Jonathan Swift's works the boyfriend found in a charity shop...