The post where I rattle on about stuff I like….

Hadn’t really fully thought out this whole blogging situation until I actually got one up and running but I’m sure others use theirs to rattle on in a semi-dictatorial fashion about stuff they like and want to recommend……. Eeeeeexcellent….. 🙂

I read a lot, actually pretty much constantly whenever 5 minutes presents itself (a nasty habit carried over from childhood) so maybe that’s as good a place to start as any. Am about to start Rex Pickett’s Sideways (yes, the one the movie was based on) as I don’t get to the movies as often as I would like to (they’re my other obsession) and missed out on it. Will let you know how I get on…

Went through a completely accidental high school massacre phase recently; in the space of a couple of weeks read DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little (brilliant, brilliant, brilliant and he’s living in Leitrim these days! True story…), Douglas Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus (plonked in my lap one evening by my mate Barry and really compelling too) and then saw Gus Van Sant’s really quite chilling Elephant in between.

You can imagine what a conversation killer that one was “Oh, I’m reading a lot of high school massacre fiction at the moment….” *tumbleweed rolls across the room*

I read a lot of non-fiction too – Jon Ronson’s The Men Who Stare At Goats was a real disappointment after “Them” a few years back but Greg Critser’s Fat Land (all about the American fast food industry) and Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (about the moments when products, epidemics, movies and whatnot move from just popular to global phenomeon) were well worth the effort.

One that never got the coverage of say No Logo or The Corporation was David Boyle’s Authenticity: Brands, Fakes, Spin And The Lust For Real Life (has a cover made up of a huge barcode). A real shame as it goes in depth into humanity’s search for the “real” in among a global landscape of reality tv, theme parks, fast food etc. Sounds like hard work but a real, real mind opener.

And then there’s the sad, slushy lover of chick lit within me too… I’ve read the last couple of Mike Gayle’s books (loved Turning Thirty) and got his most recent one His ‘N’ Hers a while back. Two stories of one couple and their meeting, dating, marrying and splitting told from both his and her perspective. If you’re a guy who likes Nick Hornby then this is definitely the starting point for you…

R