Inter-connected (?) reading: "A Possible Life" by Sebastian Faulks

Sebastian Faulks is a master of his art, no question. His range is famous; why, he recently even wrote a James Bond novel, dutifully in the style of Ian Fleming, Devil May Care. For me, he is in that select group of must-buy novelists, and he has not so far disappointed. I thought his last novel A Week in December was superb, one of the best state-of-the-nation books I have read. So when I saw A Possible Life displayed in Nottingham Waterstones, I grabbed it from the shelf.

Wow reading: "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman

The author of this rather good blog was the one who talked me into reading this book. In fact, I suspect it was part of a larger plan to convince me of the merits of the graphic novel, to which, in standard British fashion, I have been rather sniffily resistant. Neil Gaiman (British, actually) usually authors graphic novels, one of which, World's End, I was prevailed upon, by the self-same Tayebot, to read and, truth to tell, very much enjoyed (though never wrote up on this blog, you will note). American Gods is not graphic, at least not in the literal sense, but a 635-page conventional paperback novel - though "conventional" is certainly a misnomer from a content point of view. Anyway, perhaps the missionary idea behind getting me to read this was that I would thereafter ineluctably be drawn to take the graphic plunge for real. You never know, I've already been checking Amazon...