- not that there isn't enough on this site!- but I've run out of books to read particularly on public transport. So suggestions please- but there are conditions, I've read so many new (and mostly wonderful) novels lately I don't think I can fit another one in for a while (like Easter eggs). Any thoughts, anybody? I will be up for non fiction, travel, biography, short story authors I've not yet read, poetry etc....

You could subscribe to Penisular Magazine from Cherrybite Publications. It's a quarterly, subscription-only mag of, mostly short stories. Mostly light but very varied.

You can get it from

http://www.cherrybite.co.uk

And one of my short stories (Leonora) is published in the current issue!

Dee.

Sorry, Anna, don't know any books on public transport...but I've just finished Don't let's go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller, which I've mentioned on WW before, but I did think it was extraordinarily good.
Beautiful, poetic writing, funny, touching...Interesting to learn, too, about white farmers in Rhodesia during the 1970s war, then trying to scratch a living in Malawi and Zambia...I expected to dislike it, and the family intensely, but I loved it.

Also have you tried David Almond's Counting Stars, short autobiographical stories which give good insight into his children's novels...
Dunno what else I could suggest that I'm not pretty certain you'd have already read...

tc

How about Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson? It's about hitchiking across Japan following the cherry blossom trail.

Touching, insightful and hilarious.

Geoff

If you haven't already you should try Paul Theroux's travel writings. He goes everywhere on public transport. Especially good are Riding the Iron Rooster - across China by train, and Dark Star Safari - overland from Cairo to Cape Town. If it's the UK your after try The Kingdom by The Sea.

Cheers

Harry

Anything by Bill Bryson. His books are so easy to read. "A Walk in the Woods" is my personal favourite.

Or go one better. If you are going to be on public transport get an MP3 player and allow the author (or an actor) to read you the story for you.

Colin M.

Anna - Cheeky reply(!!!) - you can't go wrong with a copy of an excellent book of poems called "Tidal", described by the editor of The New Writer as "a treat for sensualists everywhere" and by poet Alison Chisholm as "fascinating image-rich interpretation". The renowned author of this wonderful work? Err, me!!! Where can you rush to get hold of your copy? Via www.annebrooke.com or just email me!

Best wishes!

Anne B
))

Hi Anna,
Have a look at Tim Cahill for travel - 'Pecked to death by ducks' or 'Jaguars ate my flesh.' Off the beaten track stuff, not unlike Bill Bryson (but I think, better). For humorous Travel/bio try Tony Hawks - Round Ireland with a fridge.
Best
Sion

For short fiction stories, I'd give 'Cowboys Are My Weakness' by Pam Houston a whirl. They are beautiful, slightly erotic tales set in the American wilderness.

If you're after non-fiction, I'm enjoying 1421 - The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies. Fascinating stuff, but admittedly, it's a bit hefty for the tube and my copy has been swamping my bag for a week now!

Peter Ackroyd's biography of London is fantastic (but I can barely lift it off my bedside table, let alone take it on the train).

I was given a great collection of short stories for my birthday; London Diaspora - a book born to be read on the tube.

But if you want the perfect book to dip in and out of as you commute, then I have to return to my favourite - Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman. You've probably read it actually, but if not give it a try, it's a wonderful collection of essays about books, from reading and writing them to cataloguing them. It's funny and intelligent and a lovely glimpse of a book-crazy family.

Katie

Wow- thanks everybody, some amazing ideas there. I particularly like the sound of the David Almond shorts, and all the non fiction ideas are great. I'm just about to finish the Bookseller of Kabul (thanks to reading Katie's review on site here), and I panic if I'm coming to the end of a book and don't have another new one lined up. This is ridiculous but true- now I am armed with a whole new list to go shopping for! Big thanks.

How about Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson? It's about hitchiking across Japan following the cherry blossom trail. Touching, insightful and hilarious.

That was the first book I thought of when I read the request! I love that book, and bought it for a train journey. I think he's better than Bryson. I quite like Michael Palin too- Full Circle's always a good one, it's just warm and friendly and lovely.

Like the sound of it, having just re-read Mishima. I've just bought Molvania; A Land Untouched By Dentistry, because I couldn't resist the title, but I know I'll tire of it fairly quickly. Anything to stop me re-reading Anita Brookner, which I love but is soooo depressing, so thanks all.

I've recently finished a book by Lorna Sage called Moments of Truth: Twelve Twentieth-Century Women Writers. It's a collection of articles Sage had written through the nineties on: Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Jean Rhys, Christina Stead, Djuna Barnes, Violet Trefusis, Jane Bowles, Simone de Beauvoir, Christine Brooke-Rose, Iris Murdoch and Angela Carter. Pieces that were published as book introductions, or in places like the Times Literary Supplement. It's exceptional, and I was glued to it.

Ani

<Added>

Did I understand the question correctly, that you are interested in something to read while on public transport, or that you're looking for writing about public transport?

<Added>

Please disregard my little PS. There's really no question. :-)

Scottwil -- Better yet, Tony Hawkes' Playing the Moldovans at Tennis. (I lived there for four years, and Hawkes was in Moldova at the same time! He names people that I know!)

Ani