Friday Photo

I love spotting (and purchasing, ahem) Novel Racers' books in Bangkok. These are the latest:

Lucy Diamond's new book Sweet Temptation, officially published today, has been spotted in Kinokuniya and Asia Books, Bangkok's best bookshops.

Tamsyn Murray's book Stunt Bunny: Showbiz Sensation has been spotted in Kinokuniya, Bangkok.

Assignation

I had an assignation today.

With someone I’ve never met. We had been put in touch by a mutual contact. I'd offered to take a package from the UK to Bangkok, arrange a rendezvous and to deliver it. It was carefully wrapped in an innocuous WHSmiths bag. This product, I was told, wasn't available in Thailand...

I nearly left home in dark glasses and the collar on my mac turned up; then I remembered I didn’t have a mac, and even if I had got one it would be hot and sweaty in the Bangkok heat.

We arranged to meet at Starbucks on Thonglor. I pushed the parcel over the table to her.

Inside was ‘Heaven Can Wait’ by Cally Taylor.

Then we had coffee and a good old natter.

When I left her I had to go to Emporium and I can’t go to Empo without also going to Kinokuniya the big beautiful bookshop. I walked in through the door and this is what I saw:

On getting out of hand

I’ve got to confess my To Be Read (TBR) pile is teetering out of control. I’m not exaggerating when I say my life might be in danger: it would only take an arm flung carelessly while I slumber and the whole lot could come toppling down on my head.

A little while back I bought some TBR shelves (that isn’t to say you can read the shelves… rather that all my TBR books could live on the new sarcophagus shaped shelf. You can see here how they looked when the bookshelves were new.) It would make life easier, I thought; I wouldn’t have to trawl through all my books to see what I wanted to read. It doesn’t look all neat and tidy any more. It was stupid. Promise me you won’t ever do it? See, Husband has watched the pile grow, from fitting neatly onto the shelves to getting double stacked and now piling on the top and being placed on the floor in front and at the sides of the shelves. It was so much better when I could just mush them all together in with the ‘read’ books. Even more unwisely, I started keeping account on my blog of the books I am reading. Husband has been making arithmetical calculations about the speed at which I read against the speed at which I buy books. Sometimes Husband* unwisely says things out loud regarding my book habit…

Anyway this week I started to think about the next book for book club, even though I’m still reading and studying Rebecca. It’s The Little Stranger and it was okay because I’d seen it in Kinokuniya and told everyone it was available but it was a bit on the pricey side. Then I got an email from someone who couldn’t find it in Bangkok. I offered to lend her my copy before I read it.

She declined, but still I needed to think about reading it so I thought I ought to find it. I searched through all the double stacked books including the ones on the top and the double stacked pile next to my side of the bed and then I went over to my desk to make sure it wasn’t there and when I thought more about it I realised that I couldn’t remember actually buying it. *Draws breath.* I really thought I’d bought it. I think things have got a bit out of hand.

*Note to Husband: It'll still be really unwise to make any 'I told you so' noises.

Ooh ooh ohh

Look what I just found in our brilliant book shop, Kinokuniya. Fellow Novel Racer, Lucy Diamond's most recent book.

Spotted in Bangkok

Look what I found in Bangkok! In Kinokuniya.

Rowan's book, The Accidental Family. Another Novel Racer's book in Bangkok. Hurrah.

Mostly books

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who left good wishes here and over at the Novel Racers for me and mine during the difficulties we're having in Bangkok. I've had some wobbly moments and your thoughts and good wishes have really helped. Husband got a flight to Phuket from Singapore yesterday. He left Phuket in a taxi this morning: it's a 8-10 hour car journey! (Update: Arrived home 7.30pm)

With no coup, the kids and I went off to see Twilight yesterday afternoon. Daughter is 200 pages in; Son's read it and I have no intention of reading it. It's not my kind of thing at all and it did have flaws, but I really rather enjoyed it. Beautiful landscapes. I still have no desire to read it but I'll watch another film...

After the cinema we went into Kinokuniya - our wonderful, wonderful English Language bookshop (How could I survive anywhere without copious English books?) We went in to buy New Moon, Stephenie Meyer's second book in the Twilight Saga. We also found some Christmas presents, and on the New Arrivals table, I found this:


Kate's books are always available here but the hardback of The Secret Shopper's Revenge hasn't been available to buy here. It's always very exciting to find a Novel Racer's book here in Bangkok.

Books galore!

I’ve been having a saga with my Blackberry charges… I went to Emporium Mall to sort it out yesterday. Two lovely staff at AIS have been soooo helpful and now I’m nearly sorted out.

I can’t go into Emporium without stopping by Kinokuniya bookshop – even when there isn’t a specific title I want. There is never a time that I don’t want to stop by any bookshop: bookshops are my church. And what luck, they were just setting up their sale table. They have periodic sales where the fiction tends to be 100 Thai Baht (£1.70ish) and the non-fiction paperbacks are 300 Baht. So I bought this bundle of goodies for just 1000 baht (look at it in Baht and it sounds much cheaper than the £17 in sterling!)

When I got home I got my second parcel of the week! How lucky am I? It was a free copy of ‘An Old Fashioned Arrangement’ by Susie Vereker. The blurb sounds great so I’m very excited about reading it. I shall report back.

Bangkok Residents Note: There's an email originating from the US Embassy going around that PAD are demonstrating today between Siam Paragon and Emporium, via the British Embassy, so if you go to the book sale... take care or maybe go tomorrow instead.

Friday afternoon

On Friday afternoon I went of to Kinokuniya Bookshop at Siam Paragon for the ‘Meg Cabot Greeting and Book Signing party.’

I’m not entirely sure why I went. I was at least 25 years too old, but one has to grasp at any booky thing here. I’m not inundated with choice. I haven't read any of her books, but in order to enter into the spirit of the thing I bought a copy of ‘Size Doesn’t Matter’ which, as it turns out, isn’t the first one. No matter.

So did I learn anything? Possibly, should I ever need to be at my own book signing. She was funny, friendly, gorgeous (I particularly loved the print of her dress) and was quite the consummate professional. If the fans didn’t already love her, I am quite sure they will now.

She left a lovely message here for fans of the store. See if you can spot me in the audience!

Authorly trip to Thailand

Writing is a lonely business, so it's very exciting to hear that an author is coming to Bangkok for a shindig in one of our bookshops.

I've never read any Meg Cabot, though I know several of her titles.

Can anyone recommend something I might enjoy so I'm not an interloper at the event?

Now that the State of Emergency has been lifted, let's hope her PR people don't cancel. I am still, when reminded, very sad about my writing course.

The People That Changed My Life

My local English Language bookshop (Kinokuniya) is doing a promotion at the moment of books about books: titles such as So Many Books; The Book On the Book Shelf; Every Book its Reader; A Passion for Books and The Book That Changed My Life.

This last title, The Book That Changed My Life, as well as some of the memes doing the rounds on blogs has made me worry (again). The blurb tells me ‘every reader has a book that changed their life’. Inside the book successful authors list their top ten books and say what individual book had the most profound effect on their life.

So what worried me? I did only flick through it briefly, but there were an awful lot of highbrow titles and authors mentioned and I am suspicious that when someone comes to you and says ‘we’re publishing a book about authors’ top ten books’ they aren’t very likely to admit they like something trashy, are they?

The second thing that made me fret was that I don’t have a book that changed my life and I feel a bit bereft.

Books (period) have changed my life.

I can’t live without them.

When husband asked me to move to Bangkok I decided that I could only if my husband and children came with me and I had a good supply of books. They really are the only things I need (although I may get a bit grumpy without tea).

So it may not be a single book that changed my life, but I have people and events that changed my book life.

In my third year at primary school I was taught by a lovely man called Barry Place – he made me love words and made me realize that I could string them together to make people feel things. On the shelf in his class room I found a book by Lorna Hill about a girl who is orphaned and has to go to Newcastle to live with her horrible cousins, when all she really wants to do is go to the Royal Ballet School in London. It was a series of books and I fell in love for the first time.

I also fell head over heels in love with Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers, Twins at St Clare’s, the Famous Five and I tolerated the Secret Seven because otherwise I’d run out of her stories.

When I was a child we lived in a village without a butchers (bear with me) so every Saturday morning we had to drive to the next village along to buy our Sunday meat. I went every weekend with my Mum to the butchers because opposite was a little independent bookshop called ‘Goblins Bookshop’ (I’m sorry, I can’t remember if there was one goblin or many, so I’ve left out the apostrophe) run by a lovely little man called Mr White. Every single Saturday my Mum would take me into his shop and buy me books. We used to sit in his back room drinking tea, and talking about books. It was magical.

In my second year at high school Mr Caldwell introduced me to AE Housman.

At Grammar school Mrs Dordi taught me a passion for literature from 13 through to 18.

The list isn’t complete without acknowledging my parents’ generosity in buying me books. They consistently allowed me to choose my reading material without judgement, always having books in the house, and encouraging all reading and writing.

OH, HOW EXCITING

I’ve just been into Kinokuniya, an English and Japanese book shop in the Emporium Mall in Bangkok. And there on their ‘recently arrived’ shelves were TEN copies of ‘Any Way You Want Me’ by LUCY DIAMOND!

Now there are only nine copies!

And I tell you something else, they DO look absolutely brilliant on the shelves.