I was happy to find The DaVinci Code in a Charity shop but couldn't get past page 3. However, on our recent homeswap holiday my husband couldn't put it down and a woman on the Eurostar gave an enthusiastic cry of 'Good book!' as she passed by. In Paris we saw a trailer of the film by the same name that's to be released in May, so I am off the hook. It looks promising. Parisians must be a very patient breed, to have films trailed so far ahead.

There's always something to read on the host bookshelves and this time I made a real discovery - Paul Austel, whose name I'd only heard of in connection with the screenplay for 'Smoke', a film I didn't like the look of. I read the first story of his New York Trilogy, which was a kind of cross between Kafka and Hermann Hess with a touch of Pirandello thrown, thoroughly engrossing - about a writer between novels pretending to be a detective and gradually losing his mind, wandering about in New York. My husband said he's once tried to read it and found it 'cold'. That figures - his favourite is Dickens

I'm sorry to hear Delillo is not readable, because he seems to have been a good friend of Austel's - I looked up some essays on the Internet after we got back yesterday. I was sad to find that Charing Cross library doesn't have a single Austel on the shelves - I may be forced to buy one. On the up side, they had a new book about the projected Bird-flu pandemic, which I read all the way back on the train. It's by the Health Editor of the Observer, Jo Revill. Maybe that's how she got it published so quickly.It's one you wish you had put down sooner.


Sheila

That video sounds a bit like The Ring.

JB

Cornelia,
I'm a huge fan of Paul Auster...you're in for a treat if you've just discovered him. I'm quite envious!

Yes, I'm quite excited, too. I'm glad to say there were book vouchers among the Christmas presents, and I think the shops are open again today.One of my New Year Resolutions is to watch less and read more.

Sheila

Emma,
pick up Broke Back Mountain ASAP. It's out in Penquin I think. I read it over Christmas between nursing babies and escaping from relatives. It's heartbreaking, I'm not even sure I want to see the movie incase it changes things for me, but I know I will.
Becca.

That's my New Year's Resolution sorted out, then!

Emma