Next Meeting - The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene

Meet tonight at the Priory Arms, at 7.30 for 8pm.

The Priory Arms is in Stockwell - Map here

There's not much information around on the novel, but here are a couple of reviews from Amazon:

Five stars

Three stars

Plus a review on a blog

Perhaps it's best known for the film adaptation by Fritz Lang - wikipedia entry here

Video trailer for the Freakonomics sequel

Called Superfreakonomics, naturally...




Oh - and there's a quiz here

Ten good second hand book shops

List from today's Guardian


This is the only London one - Any Amount of Books in Charing Cross Road

Are we ready for 'Vooks'?

Taron sent this link to an article in the New York Times.

Extract:

On Thursday Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Ernest Hemingway and Stephen King, is working with a multimedia partner to release four “vooks,” which intersperse videos throughout electronic text that can be read — and viewed — online or on an iPhone or iPod Touch.
And in early September Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of the television series “CSI,” released “Level 26: Dark Origins,” a novel — published on paper, as an e-book and in an audio version — in which readers are invited to log on to a Web site to watch brief videos that flesh out the plot.
Some publishers say this kind of multimedia hybrid is necessary to lure modern readers who crave something different. But reading experts question whether fiddling with the parameters of books ultimately degrades the act of reading.
“There is no question that these new media are going to be superb at engaging and interesting the reader,” said Maryanne Wolf, a professor of child development at Tufts University and author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.” But, she added, “Can you any longer read Henry James or George Eliot? Do you have the patience?”

Read on here

Next meeting - Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

Tomorrow we'll be meeting to discuss Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey, at the Eagle Bar & Diner in Rathbone Place. Map here.

Be there at 7.30pm for 8pm.

Here are some links to explore before the meeting:

The official page on James Frey's site

Including this extract, which (I think) is clearly Frey's response to the 'Oprah' furore

Irvine Welsh loves it

The LA Times hates it

As does The Onion

Read other reviews at James Frey's blog, Big Jim Industries

Plus here's Perez Hilton's site - he's one of the most easily identifiable real people in the book

See you tomorrow!

Read the first 25 pages of Neil Gaiman's Odd and the Frost Giants

This is his new book for kids.

Read inside the widget:



Or see it here

Lee Child's recommendations at Waterstones

More recommendations from Authors at Waterstones - look out for the well piled tables in your local branch.

Lee Child has a pretty good list - quite a few thrillers as you'd expect, but also some non fiction like The Road To Wigan Pier (which is great).

See the full list here