Necessary Fictions

The list of necessary fiction for British Council almost complete. Spent an hour or two checking the database to spot the gaps in the current collection and found them aplenty. Hope to have them plugged soon. Then by next week the buying can begin in earnest.

Went over to Kinokuniya with a couple of the 30% off vouchers in my hand (the rest I'd collected donated to British Council). The good news is that even without the voucher, there's a 20% off deal on the whole Booker longlist. The bad news is that only a few titles are still in stock - but the others can be ordered.

I snapped up the last copy of Arthur and George by Julian Barnes. It would have been RM119.98 full price (quick currency conversion, 30 bowls of fishball noodle soup) but ... well you can do the maths.

Don't know how I could have resisted this book though - just physically such a beauty with an old-fashioned cloth cover.

Also bought John Banville's The Sea.

Went to Bangsar to meet up with friends and had an hour to kill so spent it in Silverfish trying to prise gossip out of Raman and Phek Chin.

Actually the best bit of gossip was the little volume on the racks just as I walked into the shop. The Wedgwood Ladies Football Club and Other Stories with a picture of honeydew melon and the name TRR Raman on the front.

Yep. I'm afraid it's true. The man himself has published his own collection, no doubt frustrated by the dearth of good stuff coming in from other quarters.

Will the book stand up to scrutiny? Watch this space.

I bought that and also picked up the copy of An Unquiet Mind by Kay Jamison I'd gifted to a friend who needed it more.

Bewailing the price of maintaining my incurable book addiction, Raman said "Looks like today you've been mainlining 'em."