Random literary cribbage

[sawyl]

I was pleased to learn from yesterday's Guardian Review that Philip Reeve won the Guardian children's fiction prize having been beguiled by Mortal Engines when the Beeb broadcast it back in April. I also thought Michael Frayn's book on humanity's place in the cosmos sounded good, but then I'm an absolute sucker for anything that combines philosophy, physics and Big Questions.

Nick Hornby's short piece on the books people read in public was good — it was reassuring to find that I'm not the only person in the world fascinated by the sorts of books other people pick to read in snatched moments. I remember being impressed by someone I once saw on the train reading Cervantes, but not nearly as impressed as a I was a few months later when I saw the same person reading Watchmen. Talk about impressive range.

Comments

[gleet.livejournal.com]

i must admit that I do choose semi-carefully what I read on the train. When i read the Da Vinci Code (okay, I was intrigued) I waited until I was seconded to a cruise ship for a couple of weeks with a bunch of pensioners I would never see again before reading it. In fact, I started and finished it on the coach on the way to the ship and managed to fob it off on another passenger before even getting to the boat.

[sawyl.livejournal.com]

You stuck some other poor fool with your copy of the Da Vinci Code? That's so cool. That way, if the guy gets stopped in customs, he's the one who gets a hard time from the security guy:

"Nine times out of ten, when we see a book like this on the X-ray, it's a Rushdie or an Amis, but every once in a while, it's a Dan Brown. Of course it's company policy never to imply ownership in the event of a Brown. Always use the indefinite article: a Dan Brown novel, never your Dan Brown novel..."

Ok, I admit it. I'm an intellectual snob.