The Slap
The ABC’s TV adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’ novel The Slap starts this Thursday, 6 October at 8:30pm. I’ll be taking a break from my West Wing marathon and tuning in. And no doubt episodes will also be available on ABC’s iView.

Read Ten Classic Books in Under a Minute
A hoot and a half.

When is a James Patterson book not a James Patterson book?
If you thought James Patterson was just an extremely prolific and hard-working writer then you need to read this article.

Which begs the question, why do readers buy a book by a successful author? For the plot? For the writing? Or for the name on the cover?

Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Last weekend I attended two talks at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas: Alexander McCall Smith (author of ‘The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series’) whose topic was Society is Broken and the second was Jon Ronson, (author of The Men Who Stare At Goats), who was discussing pyschopathy, the subject of his latest book The Psychopath Test with an informative and highly entertaining talk entitle Psychopaths Make the World Go Around.

Both men had their audiences fully engaged and in frequent fits of laughter. McCall Smith is particularly witty, very quick on his feet, and so affable; you just want to give him a hug. And Ronson can switch from poignant to rolling-on-the-floor hilarious on the head of a pin. Truly breathtaking.

I’m convinced British men are the funniest species on earth.

I’ll be getting my hands on a copy of The Psychopath Test and perhaps The Men Who Stare At Goats too. I’d love to hear from you if you’ve read either of these books.

War and Peace Hiatus
I am on official hiatus from War and Peace. Yep, I can hardly believe it myself. But, you know … the thing is … I was in seriousl need of a break. It was so slooooow. And I will come back to it (one day) but in the meantime I am enjoying other books, books with less pages, books that I finish. Like Solar by Ian McEwan, (excellent), My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, by Annabel Pitcher (good), started reading A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace and then realised all I wanted … nay, all I needed, was unputdownable fiction, a ripping yarn and so I picked up People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks which fits the bill splendidly (loving it).

The Marriage Plot
Jeffrey Eugenides’ new novel, The Marriage Plot, has been released. I’ll wait for the paperback version though I think.

Would love to hear from you. What are you reading? What do you want to read?