Book 'im Danno!

I left work early last night in a very grumpy mood as my body has developed yet more niggling injuries.

I went back to Hapkido in the morning but had managed to rip muscles in my chest the previous night so I couldn’t train properly, then it was a press day – which is never a good thing when you are the last line of defence between your magazine and embarrassing mistakes or potential libel suits.

So I decided to cheer myself up and buy some holiday reading and spent a very pleasurable hour wandering around Waterstones. The sort of hour of indulgence you sometimes really need, whether it’s for books or clothes or whatever floats your boat.

Now I utterly adore bookshops but I am increasingly realising there are so many great books I will never read. This is outweighed by the amount of good books I will read, though, so a recent discovery via a friend like Rupert Thompson, who wrote a fascinating novel called The Book Of Revelation, is a major boon.

And I think I am quite taken with a Japanese writer called Banana Yoshimoto who I will start to read soonish. And Michael Chabon and Joe R Lansdale both have new books due too.

Then, of course, away from the fiction is the history and politics section which is always worth a browse. And the biography section too. And the crime and horror sections. And the drama sections…

In fact an hour wasn’t long enough really but I am now furnished with holiday reading aplenty so Portugal here I come! Reading, swimming, eating – and a bit of writing thrown in too.

And the missus and the boy as well. Bloody lovely…