Good Afternoon. Some whippersnapper alread pre-empted this with a 'what are you reading?' which got about 10 times the number of posts this will probably get. Anyway.

Anyone been at Edinburgh this week? Who have you seen / met / ignored in the street / wish you'd been in Edinburgh to see.

I noticed Kristin Hersh was there promoting her second(!) autobiography by the looks of things. Why don't more musicians and songwriters write fiction? Apart from Nick Cave, Colin Meloy, Leonard Cohen, Louise Wener and Willy Vlautin, I can't think of any. Anyone?

Tony Parsons has become writer-in-residence at Heathrow Airport for the week. I hope a big jet crashes into his face.

James Patterson, who I think might actually be the worst author still actively writing today, is also the richest. He made £51m last year. JFC. If you're not familiar with his work, take a gander next time you're in Waterstones. He doesn't even write the things anymore: They all have about 130 chapters in about 200 pages, with writing in 24pt size and cliffhangers on every page.

Buying English books is quite tricky in Poland, so I made a trip to Krakow during the week because there's a pretty cool English language book shop, and the books are cheaper (with a far better range) than the standard bookshops in my town which have approximately 3 books in English and they're all travel guides. I bought:

William Styron: Set this House on Fire
W. Somerset Maugham - Cakes and Ale
Denis Johnson - Tree of Smoke
E M Forster - Howard's End
PG Wodehouse - The Return of Jeeves.

I finished The French Lieutenant's Woman today (not that good, not sure why it's his most famous novel. Jeremy Irons, probably) so I'm deciding which of these to read. Excited about the Wodehouse: Jeeves WITHOUT Wooster.

Go wild!