Shelf life - occasional updates from the reading room...

I've just finished reading an amazing book - In Siberia by Colin Thubron. I've never been a man for travel writing, to be honest - i think I always worried that it would either put me off places that I wanted to visit, or intimidate me somehow with all kinds of facts that would spoil the journey. And when travel is such a prsonal experience, how can you trust someone else's opinion?

So it was with some relief that I found I could not put this one down. He's a superb writer - really capturing the atmosphere of this amazing place, its people and customs. And it's peopled with amazing characters - any one of whom could sustain a novel or short story on their own. It's whetted my appetite for Andy White's 21st Century Troubadour, which combines music and travelling! But I have to finish the new Malcolm Gladwell yet. And I also have James Ellroy's American Tabloid waiting (signed by the man himself during his recent reading at the Waterfront - how cool is that?). So, no books for me for Christmas, by the sound of it...